In a previous life - before Nick Saban, Cam Cameron, Ted Ginn, Jr., Daunte Culpepper, Joey Harrington and so many others - I was a stalwart, devoted Dolphin fan.  I'm not sure I can emphasize to you how much crap I took for that living in the heart of Steeler country, where people worshipped at the altar of Bill Cowher's chin, but I persevered through elementary and high school wearing aqua and orange on Black and Gold Days (yes, Western PA schools have Black and Gold Days in the fall, and no, there's no sense of irony involved with them).  Sunday afternoons, friends and family would all gather around the NFL Sunday Ticket, ready to take in the action of the day, the channel where the Phins played almost always the focus. 

In 2002, the Dolphins were led by Real American Hero Jay Fiedler most of the season, but a thumb injury following a very exciting Sunday night win in Denver started the Ray Lucas Era, a slide that will not soon be forgotten by Miami fans.  Still, improbably, the Dolphins just had to win the season finale in New England to clinch the division crown.  This would potentially set up a date with the number-one seeded Oakland Raiders in the playoffs, a team the Dolphins had beaten earlier in the month of December due to Sam Madison and Patrick Surtain's ability to totally dominate Tim Brown and Jerry Rice.

Things were going swimmingly in the just-opened Gillette Stadium, as the Dolphins led 21-10 at halftime.  Yet an eleven point lead with five minutes to go wasn't enough, as the Dolphins gave up a quick touchdown due to Jamar Fletcher being the worst f'ing cornerback ever, then on the ensuing possession, up 24-21 with 2:59 to go, they turned to the air.  On a day where Ricky Williams ran for 185 yards and Jay Fielder was 11-for-25 for 110, Diamond Dave Wannstedt chose to throw the ball - all of them incomplete - on three consecutive plays, running no time off the clock and allowing the Patriots to easily kick the tying field goal before winning in overtime.  He didn't throw on first or second as a change of pace, or just on third to try and convert; no, he threw on every down.  It cost the Dolphins the game, the division, and even after going 10-6 in 2003, they still haven't been back to the playoffs.

And that's my favorite Dave Wannstedt moment.  Every fan who has backed a Wannstache team knows what they're going to get: total and complete inconsistency, mind-boggling decisions and seeming ineptitude at the most inopportune times.  When I wrote a preview of LeSean McCoy this summer, a lot of Pitt messageboards linked to it and said "That's a flattering view on Shady, but he's awful hard on Wannstedt."  Well, one man can only break your heart so many times before it calcifies, and that's what happened with Dave.   

But despite all these negative feelings towards him as a coach, I don't hate Dave Wannstedt.  It's not even close to hate, really.  He was always trying, but he was also continuously in over his head.  He's just not a good coach, and while he can bluff his way through a game or two with that stark reality hidden behind smoke and mirrors, sometimes it pops out in the most depressing way possible.

Like when you let Mike Teel throw for six touchdowns because you thought Rutgers - the same Rutgers team that has no Ray Rice and whose two best players happen to be wide receivers - was going to try and run the ball at you forty times.  I've already posted this in a previous post, but it bears repeating just how confused Dave was throughout Saturday:

"I really thought that coming into this game, that this would be a 17-10 type of game one way or the other," Pitt coach Dave Wannstedt said. "This is the most disappointing defensive performance since I have been here. And the only thing they did different than we thought - we expected them to come out running the ball and they came out throwing it. We didn't get much pressure on them, and they ran right by us, just right by us." 

To be fair, this happens to a lot of people.  You go to a bar with every intention of ordering a Budweiser, but when you do, you're informed they don't have any.  While some people would just adjust and ask for something else to drink, Dave Wannstedt just keeps ordering the Budweiser and wondering why he's still thirsty and sober.  Even though it became quite obvious Greg Schiano's offense was going to revolve around Kenny Britt, Tim Brown (not that Tim Brown) and Blair Underwood, Pitt kept defending a non-existent running game until Mike Teel - Mike Teel - had thrown for five touchdowns in the first half.  This is remarkable.  Coming into this game, Teel had thrown for three touchdowns and seven interceptions.  The Panther defense single handedly flipped his TD:INT ratio to a slightly positive one, all because Dave was pretty sure they'd be running the ball a lot.  In his defense, they did run the ball a lot the last couple years when they had Ray Rice, and it would probably behoove someone on the coaching staff to tell Dave that Rice is now a Raven, not a Scarlet Knight. 

It appears that Wannstedt's goal might be to drive Pittsburgh Post-Gazette writer Paul Zeise insane, and after Saturday's loss, he's well on his way to achieving at least one objective this season:

The secondary had one of the worst days a Pitt unit has had since I have covered the team --- and that's saying a lot because I've seen it all -- 500-yard days by journeymen quarterbacks, 200-yard days by good, not great, running backs, Division I-AA teams scoring 38 and forcing overtime. But I have never seen a secondary look so lost and so powerless to do anything about it, as I did Saturday when Mike Teel -- yeah, Mike, well,  you know the drill -- threw for six touchdown passes against them. Clearly something needs to change back there -- whether it is personnel, scheme or something else -- but this isn't the first time they've given up big plays in the passing game ( Do you think Charlie Weis is chomping at the bit this week?) because this unit has been very disappointing and from what I see, likely won't get much better. And I don't think it is all on the players, because there is no reason Teel, you know, Mike --- well, you know -- should have been able to throw his third touchdown pass because,  after Pitt got torched for the second long one,  the plan should have changed. It didn't and he was allowed to throw three, four and then five before half-time. Simply amazing.

The fake field debacle may have been the most head-scratching, decision -- worse than the slide play by a lot  - - I've seen since I've covered college football.  And the explanation -- that they thought it was going to be a low-scoring defensive game and wanted to try and score some points because they thought points would be at a premium ---makes it even more head-scratching. If you truly believed it was going to be a 17-10 type of game -- wouldn't the smart play have been to send your 86-percent field goal kicker onto the field to attempt a 34-yarder and give you a 10-7 lead? And if you are going to go for it against a good team -- wouldn't you rather have the ball in the hands of Bill Stull or LeSean McCoy than a walk-on fifth-string quarterback who has never thrown a pass in a game? People often second-guess coaches and play Monday morning quarterback -- I understand it and really try not to do it because there is often a lot more to a play call or decision than meets the eye -- but this is not a second guess by any stretch . This is just using some common sense and simple logic. At that point in the game, at that point on the field, you had about three or four legitimate options and for some reason chose something that should have been about option No. 6.

There's also this:

We're talking about a college team with a great running back and a slow-footed back-up quarterback in the game, so I can't imagine that play would ever be drawn up to be used in a critical situation given the personnel, strengths and weaknesses of the team??????. I have no idea, none at all. I know offensive coordinators like to be tricky but when you have LeSean McCoy in your backfield and he is by far your best player on the field, it probably isn't ever going to be a bad thing to just hand it to him and tell him "get us a yard" Pat Bostick is what he is, he can be effective but he has limitations -- it is up to the coaching staff to coach around his limitations and put him in position to succeed. They did this well last year. Let's hope that Saturday's debacle was a reminder as to why they had to do that last year???..

So incase you're not familiar with how Dave Wannstedt works, this is what he'll do to those that follow his teams.  Still, that doesn't mean I'm overly confident about Saturday's game.  The Rutgers loss is the sort of thing that jars Dave into simplifying things to an excruciating degree.  In this case, it'll be just running LeSean McCoy every play, which was probably his best strategy coming into the season only it took him until the Syracuse game to figure that out.  McCoy has eclipsed the 142-yard and 5 yards-per-carry mark in each of his last four games, and popped off for four touchdowns against Rutgers.  Hopefully the Pitt secondary is as bad as advertised and Clausen can just shred them to get a lead big enough Shady isn't an option on offense.

The first time Weis went against Wannstedt, in their respective debuts in 2005, it was a decisive knockout for the Notre Dame sideline.  If Weis wants to improve his team to 6-2, he's going to need a solid effort tackling from the front seven and for Dave to just be Dave, a very reasonable request.

Bonus Dave Wannstedt Moments From His Time With The Bears:

In February 1997, Dave Wannstedt made the decision that most knew his career would hinge on. Concerned about the health of QB Erik Kramer, Wannstedt traded the Bears' eleventh pick in the first round to Seattle for beleaguered QB Rick Mirer, along with Seattle's fourth round pick that the Bears used to draft Northwestern RB Darnell Autry. After this moment, many began to question Wannstedt's judgement on personnel matters. In the 1997 draft, Wannstedt traded up to pick USC tight end John Allred with the Bears first pick, then took Washington guard Bob Sapp in the third. Sapp wound up being cut in training camp, along with his ineffective second-round pick in 1994, tackle Marcus Spears. After the '97 draft, Michael McCaskey announced that he was "restructuring" the personnel department, and released head personnel man Rod Graves. In his place, McCaskey created the position of "Vice President of Player Personnel", and gave the job to Kansas City personnel director Mark Hatley. Why the move was made just after the '97 draft is curious.