Something that must be done eventually must be done immediately

Heather Lyke and the Pitt administration must make a decision immediately on their football head coach. The contract of the incumbent, Pat Narduzzi, expires in 2024. If the Pitt powers have decided to move on from Narduzzi, and such a decision would find some basis in his body of work, then they should pay the buyout now and immediately hire his replacement. If, as I am sure is the case (they had contract extension discussions in December), they have decided to keep Narduzzi beyond 2024, and there is more support for that in Narduzzi's tenure at Pitt, then it follows that that also must be done immediately. 

The reason for immediacy is recruiting. Now, these are times with unprecedented student-athlete movement. Transferring is uninhibited--as it should be. An 18-year old can sign on the dotted line that he is going to play at ol' U and then change his mind and go somewhere else at any time in the ensuing four, or more commonly these days five, years. I suppose it is imaginable that the reason for the inaction on Narduzzi's status is that recruiting isn't that important. Narduzzi has had one top-twenty five recruiting class at Pitt. Why should we commit to a coach for four-five more years who recruits in the 30's and 40's? I hope that stating the proposition baldly serves as answer to how appalling it would be as reason. You want to get the best prospects...don't you?

 At the time that a recruit commits to a school he is as sure as an 18-year old can be that he is going to be there through graduation. He can become unsure, to be sure. A coach though should be able to point to the duration of his contract to give a recruit as much assurance as can be given that he will be the recruit's head coach for the duration of his college years. When the decision is postponed, as it already has been in Narduzzi's case, other coaches can use it against him on the recruiting trail. The 2022 recruiting class came and went with Narduzzi only able to "guarantee" recruits that he would be at Pitt through their junior years. Not good. Ideally, and this I propose for Narduzzi, the head coach should be tied up with a rolling contract five years (to include the omnipresent redshirt year) beyond the next recruiting year, in this case to 2027. At a minimum the rolling contract should be made four years into the future.

This is only sensible and recent contracts indicate that it is also below the market price. James Franklin, with less justification than Narduzzi, recently got a 10-year extension. Kirk Ferentz, 66-years old and head coach at Iowa for the past twenty-three years was this week also extended ten years--when he will be seventy-six years old!

Do it Heather, Pitt; one way or the other just do it.