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February 8th, 2004
05:49 pm - Tulane
If you ask for it, it shall come. How bout this for service Dylon.
ยป More From The Times-Picayune
Tulane Football News
Frank Scelfo decides to stay
Tulane coordinator turns down Pitt
Sunday February 08, 2004
By Fred Robinson
Staff writer
New Orleans might be the city that care forgot, but it isn't the one Tulane offensive coordinator Frank Scelfo is ready to say good-bye to.
Scelfo, citing strong emotional ties to Tulane and the city, said Saturday that he turned down an offer to become the offensive coordinator at the University of Pittsburgh.
"This was a great experience for me. Pittsburgh is a great place with a great facility, and (Coach) Walt Harris is a first-class guy, but I had to follow my heart," Scelfo said. "Tulane University and the city of New Orleans are pretty special for me. I saw a lot of passion in a lot that happened last spring, and I couldn't see myself leaving. It's hard to walk away from all the things this city has done for me and my family. That's what it boiled down to."
Scelfo has been with Tulane for eight seasons and has served as the Green Wave's recruiting coordinator and assistant head coach, directing the team's wide receivers, tight ends and quarterbacks. He's the only coach on the staff that was an assistant on the 1998 undefeated team.
Scelfo, whose brother Chris is the Wave's head coach, said he understood that taking the Pittsburgh job would have given him more visibility as an offensive coordinator and could have moved him closer to his goal of being a head coach.
Scelfo would have replaced J.D. Brookhart, who left Pittsburgh to become the head coach at Akron. He had been on Harris' staff at Pittsburgh for seven seasons.
"You've got to take chances in life, but this one wasn't the time," Scelfo said. "When you say Big East and BCS, wow, that's big time. But I think we're big time, too. Why not us? Maybe I'm just looking at it in a different way, but why leave this place?"
The Pittsburgh salary, he said, "would have been a pretty good bump, but it wouldn't have been life-altering."
But more pay and coaching in a high-profile conference wasn't enough to convince Scelfo to take the job. He said his wife, Holly, and two sons were ready to make to the move to Pittsburgh if it was what he wanted. And his brother couldn't have been more encouraging, he said.
"Chris was very supportive. In fact, I had great support from everyone," Scelfo said. "That's what made the decision so hard, and in the end, that's what made it so easy."
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Comments:
| From: (Anonymous) |
Date: February 9th, 2004 - 06:09 pm |
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It would be hard to leave a life that you love, when transferring to an unknown, especially with a team that is suspect at this point. Losing recruits and the change of conferences has left Pitt in a difficult situation. It has proved costly in signing both coaches and recruits this offseason.
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