Harris won’t call the season successful yet

After upsetting the Hokies on Saturday, Virginia Tech became the highest ranked football team… After upsetting the Hokies on Saturday, Virginia Tech became the highest ranked football team Pitt head coach Walt Harris has beaten since he arrived at Pitt in 1997. Some might consider this season a successful one, but not Harris.

While considering the win Saturday the most exciting game he has been a part of at Pitt, Harris won’t comment yet on the success of this season.

“This was one game, one night and every game is different,” Harris said. “We’re not done with the season yet. I’ll comment at the end of the year on what we have accomplished.”

This is Harris’ sixth season as the leader of the Panthers. With Saturday’s win, Harris has now accumulated more wins in his tenure at Pitt than losses (34-33). When Harris first arrived in Pittsburgh, the program was reeling after its fifth consecutive season of seven or more losses. Now, six years later, Pitt is 4-0 for the first time ever in Big East Conference play and 7-2 for the first time since 1983.

“Since 1997 we have been trying to put this program back together,” Harris said. “Some thought it should have been sooner, but it takes a lot of people and luck. It’s also a challenge because we play in a better league then people think.”

On Sunday, Pitt was ranked for the first time in 11 years. The Associated Press ranked Pitt No. 22 and ESPN/USA Today put the Panthers at No. 23. This weekend, the Panthers take on Temple. Most coaches might be concerned about a letdown after such a big win and finally cracking the top 25, but not Harris.

“We finally got ranked – great, but it’s not enough,” Harris said. “Temple is very scary. The staff knows how good Temple is and how they always get up for us. I have no doubt we will get ourselves prepared.”

Even if Harris isn’t looking past Temple, in two weeks Pitt will get a crack at the defending national champion Miami Hurricanes. This week, Miami plays Tennessee, and Harris will be rooting hard to see Miami win and be undefeated come game time against Pitt.

With the emergence of Pitt into the national rankings, the Big East Conference now has three ranked teams and had two of their teams, Pitt and Boston College, knock off previous undefeated teams last weekend. When Harris looks at the Big East, he sees a rising conference that gets less respect than it deserves.

“Our conference mirrors Pitt with its climb to respectability,” Harris said. “It’s up to the conference to get respect. We have to win. It helps recruits when the conference is well respected. We’ve lost recruits because of this. We haven’t arrived yet.”

The quest continues Saturday when the Panthers take on Temple at noon in Heinz Field.