Inside The Panthers

Former Pitt HC Dave Wannstedt Turns Down Northwestern Job

The former head coach of the Pitt Panthers was not interested in taking over at Northwestern.

Stephen Thompson

Former Pitt HC Dave Wannstedt Turns Down Northwestern Job
Former Pitt HC Dave Wannstedt Turns Down Northwestern Job /
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PITTSBURGH -- Northwestern is scrambling. After having to fire head coach Pat Fitzgerald this month, the Wildcats are left to find someone new to lead their program with just under six weeks left until the start of the 2023 season and one of their top targets was a former Pitt Panthers head coach. 

Northwestern reached out to Pitt alum and former coach Dave Wannstedt, but he rejected the offer for consideration, according to a report from the Mully and Hugh Show, a radio program on 670 The Score in Chicago. 

Wannstedt, a native of Pittsburgh, played offensive line for Pitt from 1972 to 1975 and blocked for Tony Dorsett during his Heisman Trophy-winning season. He then took a graduate assistant coaching job under Johnny Majors in 1975 and helped the Panthers win a national championship in 1976. 

He coached defensive line at Oklahoma State under Jimmy Johnson and made a stop at USC before reuniting with Johnson at Miami in 1986. Wannstedt won a second national championship as an assistant coach in 1987 with the Hurricanes before leaving for the NFL. 

Wannstedt spent the next 15 years as a defensive coordinator with the Dallas Cowboys, Miami Dolphins and Chicago Bears and took over as head coach . He then took the vacant head coaching job at Pitt in 2005 after Walt Harris was forced to resign. 

He ended his tenure with the Panthers owning a 42-31 record that included two bowl appearances and a No. 15 finish in the AP poll in 2009. 

Wannstedt returned to the NFL after he was fired in 2010, coaching for the Buffalo Bills and Tampa Bay Buccaneers before retiring and taking a job as a studio analyst with FOX College Football. 

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Stephen Thompson
STEPHEN THOMPSON

Stephen Thompson graduated with a bachelor's degree in communications and political science from Pitt in April 2022 after spending four years as a sports writer and editor at The Pitt News, the University of Pittsburgh's independent, student-run newspaper.  He primarily worked the Pitt men's basketball beat, and filled in on coverage of football, volleyball, softball, gymnastics and lacrosse, in addition to other sports as needed. His work at The Pitt News has won awards from the Pennsylvania News Media Association and Associated College Press.  During the spring and summer of 2021, Stephen interned for Pittsburgh Sports Now, covering baseball in western Pennsylvania. Hailing from Washington D.C., family ties have cultivated a love of Boston's professional teams and Pitt athletics, and a fascination with sports in general.  You can reach Stephen by email at stephenethompson00@gmail.com and follow him on Twitter. Read his latest work:

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