Hard to Follow the Bouncing Coaching Ball

By Robyn Norwood

Dec. 31, 2004 12 AM PT

Times Staff Writer

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. —

To watch the Fiesta Bowl properly Saturday, what you’ll really need is a depth chart of the coaches.

Picture the scene at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport on Sunday, when Utah Coach Urban Meyer spoke briefly after the team arrived.

“I would also like to introduce the next head football coach at the University of Utah after January 2, and that’s Kyle Whittingham,” Meyer said.

The Utes, you see, are two deep at head coach.

That’s because Meyer, the new Florida coach, is on the sideline for one final game before Whittingham, now Utah’s defensive coordinator, takes over.

Pittsburgh has only one head coach, Walt Harris. But he has two jobs -- the other is at Stanford, where he’ll replace Buddy Teevens. Some Cardinal players who live in the Phoenix area even showed up in Stanford gear at a Pitt practice to meet Harris.

And don’t even start on the assistants.

Utah quarterback coach Dan Mullen will be offensive coordinator for the game, calling the plays from the sideline because former offensive coordinator Mike Sanford already left to be the new coach at Nevada Las Vegas.

After the game, Mullen is headed to Florida with Meyer, as the staff scatters -- some following Meyer to Florida, some staying at Utah, some already off to Vegas with Sanford.

The new coach at Pitt is Dave Wannstedt, the former Miami Dolphin coach.

In what almost feels to be a relief, he won’t be on the field at the Fiesta Bowl but has been burning up the phone lines from his home in Florida as he begins recruiting and assembling a staff.

It’s unusual, though not unprecedented, for a coach to stay on for the bowl game after taking another job or even being fired.

But this situation -- two lame-duck head coaches in a New Year’s Day game -- is believed to be a first.

Upheaval on a coaching staff before a bowl game hasn’t always worked out for the best, as game-planning duties compete with responsibilities for hiring a staff or calling recruits.

Mark Richt stayed on as offensive coordinator for Florida State in the bowl championship series title game against Oklahoma in the 2001 Orange Bowl after being hired as coach at Georgia.

Florida State lost, 13-2.

“I did the best I could. I wouldn’t recommend it to anybody,” Richt said after the game. “It’s an awful lot to try to get accomplished for one person.”

Mike Price coached Washington State in the 2003 Rose Bowl even though he already had accepted the Alabama job, and Oklahoma blasted Washington State, 34-14. (The Alabama job proved a disaster as well when Price was fired before ever coaching a game because of an episode that included a visit to a strip club.)

It doesn’t always turn out badly.

The previous year, Jeff Tedford stayed on as the offensive coordinator at Oregon for the 2002 Fiesta Bowl after being hired as coach at California. The Ducks crushed Colorado, 38-16.

Meyer and Harris insist they’re focused on the game at hand.

Meyer already has spent six or seven days recruiting for Florida, but said the Gators were on hold now.

“I’ve had minimal contact with the team down there,” he said. “I talked to them for 15 minutes, wished them luck in their game and told them, ‘I’ll see you January 4, 7 a.m.,’ ” he said.

To have guided Utah to an undefeated regular season and become the first team outside a power conference to play in a BCS game and then not be there, he said, would have been “excruciating.”

“You live life every day with them. You’re there with them at 6 a.m.,” he said. “Then to walk away and not be able to see that, that would be very hard.”

Harris said he made sure Stanford would agree to allow him to coach Pitt in his talks about the job.

“I’m here because I’ve always talked to the players about finishing,” he said. “Finishing a relationship, finishing homework, finishing a sprint, finishing a play. That’s one of my philosophies, and there was no question that was what I was going to do.

“Stanford is a low priority right now -- not that it isn’t important, but I’m committed to being here.”

If your head is spinning, consider the players -- though most of them contend they’re comfortable with the situation.

“It would have been extremely hard,” Utah quarterback Alex Smith said when asked what it would be like if Meyer weren’t with the Utes.

“He’s so unique in how he does things, and so much of football is about routine and being comfortable with what you’re doing, as far as preparing for a game. It’s how he talks to us, how he conducts himself, the decisions he makes.”

Whittingham, the coach in waiting, agreed.

“I think it would have been a mistake [if Utah hadn’t agreed Meyer should coach the team],” he said. “Players are creatures of habit. They expect things to be done a certain way, a certain routine. I have no problem with it. It’s worked for 11 weeks.”

For Pitt, with Harris calling the plays as usual, there is considerably less upheaval than for Utah.

Still, Smith said he was comfortable working with Mullen on the sideline. Because the Utah offense is heavily scripted and because Meyer plays a big role in the offense, the coaches don’t believe the situation will be disruptive.

Harris, the Pitt coach, said Smith’s good decision-making would probably minimize the effect of such a change.

“I know if somebody else was calling the plays for us, it probably would be something of a factor,” said Harris, who serves as his own offensive coordinator with the help of an assistant who handles the running game.

In all the talk about the job-shuffling of the guys who draw up the Xs and O’s, Harris said to remember one thing.

“Football is about the players,” Harris said. “It’s not about the coaches.”

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

UTAH (11-0)

LEADERS

* Passing: Alex Smith, 2,624 yards, 28 tds, 174.9 rating

* Rushing: Marty Johnson, 782 yards, 5.0 avg., 14 tds

* Receiving: Steve Savoy, 60 receptions, 891 yards, 11 tds; Paris Warren, 65 receptions, 878 yards, 10 tds

TEAM LOG

Texas A&M; W, 41-21

at Arizona W, 23-6

at Utah State W, 48-6