Pittsburgh Athletic Director Silent About Fazio’s Contract

Edward Bozik, University of Pittsburgh athletic director, has refused to say whether the status of Coach Foge Fazio will be reviewed after the season.

“I said before the season started I would not answer those questions,” Bozik said. “We evaluate our programs all the time. We have three games remaining . . . we hope and expect to win the three games.”

Pitt endured its first losing football record in 12 years, 3-7-1, under Fazio last year and currently is 4-3-1. Fazio, in his fourth season as coach, has three more full seasons remaining on a contract extension signed in January, 1984.

Last year, although Fazio was in only the first year of the five-year extension, Bozik refused to give him a vote of confidence until the week of the season-ending game against Penn State.

Bozik said he has no plans to sit down and formally evaluate the Panthers’ program with Fazio when the season ends.

“Foge and I evaluate all the time . . . (basketball coach) Roy Chipman and I evaluate all the time,” Bozik said.

Bozik was asked whether he is pleased with the progress of Pitt’s program. If Pitt does not play in a bowl game, it will mark the first time in 13 seasons the Panthers will have endured consecutive seasons without a postseason invitation.

“That’s what we’re trying to do, progress in our programs,” Bozik said. “But anymore, you can’t make a quantitative leap, not with the parity you have in college football. The days of (former Pitt Coach) Johnny Majors riding in on his white horse and recruiting 75 players and turning a program around overnight are gone.”

Fazio’s four-year record is 24-16-3, including a 9-3 record in 1982 and an 8-3-1 mark in 1983. His predecessor, Jackie Sherrill, was 50-9-1 in five seasons.