Will no BCS Bowls and losing recruits kill Harris?

After the loss of two western Pennsylvania top recruits to Penn State and Miami on Wednesday,… After the loss of two western Pennsylvania top recruits to Penn State and Miami on Wednesday, the question remains: Who’s to blame for letting a star running back and quarterback slip through the cracks?

This has been a difficult year for the Pitt football program, starting the year at No. 11, and finishing with an 8-5 record and a loss in the not-so-hot Continental Tire Bowl.

But no matter the sport, whether it’s pro or college, a team’s failures fall squarely on the shoulders of its head coach – in this case, Walt Harris.

Harris has had a rough couple of months. He saw his team fail to meet very high expectations while watching his conference completely fall apart. He saw his first much-touted recruit, Rod Rutherford, graduate without a conference title or BCS Bowl game. And now he just lost out in what is believed to be his best attribute, recruiting.

It’s a tough process to build a college football program. It takes time, commitment and, eventually, winning. When Harris took the job as Pitt football head coach in 1997, he took over a program that had just lost the previous season to Ohio State, 72-0, West Virginia, 34-0, and Miami, 45-0. To say the least, just putting out a competitive team in 1997 would have been enough.

But Harris completely turned around Pitt’s program. With no expectations, Harris could slowly build a team around his style of play. And as the seasons rolled on and Pitt got better and better, expectations started to creep up on Harris.

At the beginning of 2003, Pitt was expected to compete with Miami for a Big East Conference Title. That never happened. It seems like Harris had an easy time when no one cared or expected Pitt football to do well, but once the national spotlight began to shine, Harris became overwhelmed.

A rather quiet, soft-spoken person, Harris has become more outgoing lately, answering critics who have said that maybe it’s time for him to leave Pitt. But on Wednesday, instead of answering questions about whom he got on signing day, he defended his job and his loss of top-notch recruits.

One of the recruits Pitt had a verbal commitment from and lost was Penn Hills quarterback Anthony Morelli. In a press conference Wednesday morning, Morelli stated his reason for going to Penn State: He believes Joe Paterno, Penn State’s head coach, will be with his team longer then Harris will be with his.

Questions arose during the 2003 season as to Harris’ play calling. Heisman Trophy runner-up Larry Fitzgerald didn’t see the ball more than a combined 10 times in Pitt’s final two games of the season. Pitt lost big games to West Virginia and Miami where a win would have clinched a New Year’s Day Bowl.

Many thought Harris would be fired after the Tire Bowl debacle against Virginia. Others believed that Pitt would lose too many recruits if Harris left.

Well, Harris stayed. He is still the same coach who made some unpopular play calls, and on top of that, he didn’t get the recruits. He lost in his own game to two rivals, Penn State and Miami. Recruiting got Harris his praise in Pittsburgh, and now it might be his demise.

Harris has now taken Pitt to four straight bowl games, but none of those four are well-known games, and none fall in the month of January.

It takes a lot to build a football program, but it takes even more to put a good program over the top. Right now, the job of rebuilding Pitt’s football program is only half done. No longer are the losses 72-0, but there still are no Conference Championships or New Year’s Day bowl games.

Should Harris be the coach of Pitt next year? Well, if you live in the past, then yes, he should. But if you live in the present and look forward to the future, then maybe Pitt should reconsider who it wants to coach its football team.

Brian Goldman is a staff writer for The Pitt News and urges Pitt to use former Pitt Athletics Director Steve Pederson’s message at Nebraska, “We will not accept mediocrity at this institution.”