Rossi: Change is costly, but Pitt must spend

The Narduzzis sure looked as though Pitt was it for them Friday afternoon. Donna nervously held the hand of her youngest daughter, Isabella. Her three other children, Arianna, Christina and Patrick, occasionally looked around a crowded room as their father, Pat, wiped sweat from his upper lip while talking passionately about football, a university and the region that binds them.

The new first family of Pitt football seems a safe bet to win over everybody with first impressions.

And had the scene not looked so familiar, Friday would have felt like a bigger day for Pitt. But there have been too many days like Friday, and that has damaged the brand of this football program no matter what university officials said about stability brought by former coach Paul Chryst.

Narduzzi is the fourth football coach in as many years. That's a lot of news conferences. That's a lot of baggage. That's a lot to overcome.

Nothing Narduzzi could have said Friday would have quelled concerns from bewildered Pitt supporters who have had short coaching tenures forced upon them. No matter what they have done or will do, Michael Haywood, Todd Graham and Chryst will be remembered around here as coaches who didn't stick.

Even on the day he was introduced as Pitt's 39th coach, a fair question was whether Pat Narduzzi viewed this as a destination job.

“I'm not sure why they hired me,” Narduzzi said. “But I would maybe think one of the reasons is that I'm a loyal guy.”

Most people are until something better comes along.

A native of nearby Youngstown, Ohio, Narduzzi also spoke of Pittsburgh as though it were his personal metropolis. He cited trips into the big, bustling city to take in Steelers games with his late father.

Nothing against Chryst, who was a good coach, but Narduzzi is possibly a good head coach. There is a difference, and it showed in how Narduzzi came across Friday.

He was excitedly nervous, appropriately funny and unapologetically sincere when discussing his families — the one he is connected to by blood and the one that spanned football fields at five universities. He looked and sounded like a guy who could sell Pittsburghers on the university's team.

Best of all, Narduzzi did not offer one word he might regret if any of the Big Ten's “States” (Michigan, Ohio or Penn) come calling.

“I wouldn't call it a destination job,” Narduzzi said of Pitt. “But this is a place I want to be for a long time, if they let me.”

So let him, Pitt.

The most encouraging words actually came from executive vice chancellor Jerry Cochran, and they were about the most pressing need for Pitt football: competitive wages for assistant coaches.

Cochran said Pitt's assistants should be “within the top half of the ACC.”

USA Today reported Clemson tops the 14-team ACC with an assistant coach payroll of about $4.45 million. North Carolina placed seventh at about $2.05 million.

Pitt doesn't make its coaches salaries public, but it also just hired to run its football program the former highest-paid assistant in the Big Ten.

It sure sounded like Narduzzi sought assurances he would have the money necessary to hire what he was at Michigan State: one of college football's brightest coordinators.

Narduzzi said the issue was “very, very important.” He added he has a working list of preferable assistants, and it seems as though he's going after a coordinator who basically will be the head coach of the offense.

Whoever that offensive coordinator is, he won't come cheap.

Pitt officials appeared to get that message.

“I can't give you the details, but that was a topic that was discussed,” acting Pitt athletic director Randy Juhl said. “We looked at competitive places, other teams in the ACC, and we're competitive. To the satisfaction of the coach. Not me.

“We knew we needed to address that.”

Pitt better.

I don't want Narduzzi's friends to have the same complaints that Graham's and Chryst's did, specifically that Pitt wasn't financially committed to winning.

Even if that was the case, I'm guessing it isn't anymore. Pitt is eating $2.4 million on former athletic director Steve Pederson's five-year contract. A renovation of the weight room, completed last spring, cost hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Keeping a coach never will be easy for Pitt, but spending at least a couple million dollars for Narduzzi's staff isn't going to crack the walls of the Cathedral of Learning.

Money changes everything.

More than loyalty, opportunity, proximity to home or reverence for a region, money truly can change Pitt football for the better.

There is only one way to stop the coaching carousel. Load it with coaches weighed down by fatter wallets.

Rob Rossi is a staff writer for Trib Total Media. Reach him at rrossi@tribweb.com or via Twitter @RobRossi_Trib.