He was a man of action but not a bull in a china shop. He was a people person, a nice man, who deftly maneuvered icon Johnny Majors out; he dismantled the corrupt Golden Panthers. He boldly saw that old Pitt Stadium was a crumbling relic and had it demolished. And he hired well. Walt Harris, the quarterbacks coach at Ohio State, and Ben Howland from that basketball factory Northern Arizona.
He came, he saw, he conquered, and then he went back. Back to his roots and his alma mater, Nebraska. As would be said of a football coach a dozen years later he was the "ideal" hire. A no-brainer. Can't miss. You can go home again.
The "Cornhuskers" were not as decrepit as the "Panthers" had been when he took over. Incumbent professor of pigskin Frank Solich was in the midst of a 58-19 record but there were signs of rot: 16-12 in the last 28 games, a 1-8 record against ranked teams. A 38-9 home humiliation to conference doormat Kansas State was the final look for Pederson. He had seen enough and decided that he would fire Solich. The story leaked eight days later (over Pederson'a attempts to quash it) and Steve Pederson found himself at the center of a firestorm of criticism that he did not think possible in this middle-est Midwest state. Six days after that, following a win over Colorado, he fired Solich. The meeting lasted five minutes.
Then began Steve Pederson's 40 days in the wilderness. Pederson would never be the same after it ended. He has never spoken about his time at Nebraska, which ended with his firing and return to Pittsburgh, but those 40 days had broken Steve Pederson. Starting with Solich's firing Pederson never got a firing or hiring right again. Neither at Nebraska or at Pitt.
History repeats itself and to this Pitt alumnus and lifelong supporter watching Pederson's press conference, which I had never seen before, the day after he fired Solich was eerie, like watching Groundhog Day, for the same shambolic, tone deaf, misreading of the room and of the situation was to play itself out seven years later in Pittsburgh. And like Pederson's search at Nebraska after Solich's firing the results were catastrophic, for Nebraska and Pitt of course, but even more so for Pederson.
On November 30, 2003 Pederson held his press conference in Lincoln. For some reason players were permitted to be present, one of whom challenged the A.D., all of whom were pissed, then and after.
Did he not learn? No. No, he didn't. What possessed him to have a joint press conference with Dave Wannstedt in early December 2010 with Pitt players present? On that occasion Wannstedt walked out, calling "Team meeting!" to the assembled players.
Pederson had a list! Former Florida A.D. Jeremy Foley said he always kept a list of 3-4 coaching replacements in his pocket so that he never got caught short. Foley first revealed that he had a list to a reporter asking him what he made of Pederson's 40 days at Nebraska, the implication being that Pederson had no list. He did. At the top of that list, as revealed for the first time by The Athletic in 2021, was indeed a bombshell hire: Mike Sherman, then coach of the NFL Green Bay "Packers". Indeed, Pederson had spoken with Sherman several times before he fired Solich.
Pederson has never spoken about the Nebraska search but The Athletic got then Nebraska chancellor Harvey Perlman and Sherman to confirm that Sherman was the first, principal target. To Perlman in retrospect Pederson was too "positive" that Sherman would accept. Sherman years later did not evince the same level of interest but Sherman's mistake was that he did not say no when Pederson first broached the subject. "You mean there's a chance." Sherman acknowledged that the Nebraska job was an attractive one to him, even from his position as head coach of one of the NFL's iconic franchises. So Sherman didn't rule out eventually accepting the Nebraska job but needed to finish the season in Green bay and he kept taking Pederson's calls and kept not saying no. Shrewder people than Steve Pederson have mistaken "not no" for "a great likelihood", which was the read Pederson gave Perlman. In the event Sherman's time in Green Bay did not end with a December firing or even at the end of the 16-game regular season. The "Packers" rallied after a Thanksgiving Day loss to always-woeful Detroit, won out its last four games, made the playoffs and won their first game. Their season did not end until January 11, 2004. Pederson introduced Bill Callahan as Nebraska's new coach on Jan. 9.
Pederson had flown, literally, solo in the Nebraska search. He learned not to do that again. In his second stint at Pitt Pederson hired a search firm to assist him. The results were Michael Haywood, who lasted fifteen days, and was arrested for domestic battery, and Todd Graham, who lasted one whole season before stiffing Pederson and texting in his resignation on the plane to Tucson where he was named head coach of the Arizona State "Sun Devils."
I feel for Steve Pederson. The 40 Days changed his personality and his life dramatically. Reading the observations of people who worked closely with Pederson at Nebraska, it is not hard to see something close to a breakdown. From a gregarious, nice man who wowed the press and people in Pittsburgh I Pederson became autocratic, secretive, suspicious, paranoid and intolerant in the athletic departments at both Nebraska and Pittsburgh II. He burned bridges, cut ties with people. Those in Pittsburgh and Lincoln who knew him at his worst have nothing good to say about him. He is reviled in both places. People who knew him before and after describe the difference. Perlman: "I think this episode and the reaction to it took a real toll on him...there was just quite a remarkable change in how he managed the athletic department after that period.” It was the new, worse Pederson that led Perlman to fire him. Pederson and Marc Boehm, Pederson's right hand man for ten years, haven't spoken since 2007. “I’m really sad about it. I won’t go into details, but Steve changed a little bit. It was really just sad.”