As Rob Petitti prepared to make his final decision of which college to attend, he thought about Pittsburgh’s great past football teams.

‘What happened to those teams?’ the senior offensive lineman remembers thinking.

To him, the mediocre .500 and below seasons that the Panthers were accustomed to were no longer acceptable. Not at the school where the legendary Pop Warner coached and brought championships to in 1915, 1916 and 1918. Not at the school that had produced Dan Marino.

Pittsburgh administration also apparently had enough of the Panthers’ losing ways and in 1997 they brought in Walt Harris to coach the team. Pitt went 13-21 in Harris’ first three seasons. But over the last two seasons, Harris has proven his rebuilding techniques do indeed work.

‘We’ve had a hardworking staff,’ Harris said. ‘We hit on the guys who no one else recruited. No one else recruited Gerald Hayes and Antonio Bryant.’

For Pittsburgh, improved recruiting and, most importantly, new facilities have brought renewed success.

It doesn’t hurt recruiting when your team plays in a 65,000-seat NFL stadium. The chance to play at Heinz Stadium influenced Petitti’s decision. The new Peterson Events Center is also very attractive to recruits.

‘You could just tell they cared about the program,’ Petitti said. ‘I wanted to be a part of the turnaround.’

Pitt has now reached a bowl game four straight years and in five of seven seasons under Harris.

While Pitt has taken advantage of its new facilities, Syracuse struggles with its old ones. Attendance has been a major problem at the Carrier Dome and at the end of last season, Director of Athletics Jake Crouthamel declared the existing football training facility needed to be updated.

Published on September 1, 2004 at 12:00 pm