In The Illiad, Homer wrote, “The fates have given mankind a patient soul.” He clearly didn’t know footballfankind.

Steve Kragthorpe’s farewell press conference in Louisville was, by all accounts, very classy. He insisted he had no bitterness, he expressed regret at not having won more than the 15 games he did and he refused to lob any parting shots at the fans, the ones who booed him in his very first game in 2007, when Louisville led 70-10 and he called for 11 straight runs. He did sort of say he wished he’d gotten to at least fulfill his contract (a standard five years), but he wouldn’t even call the three years he got unreasonable, pragmatically saying, “patience doesn’t exist anymore.”

Well, let me say it then. Three years is absurd. 

A coach’s own recruits aren’t even seniors in three years. Greg Schiano went 3-20 in his first two years and then got a contract extension.  He won five games the next year and yes, it took a while for the wins to take hold and yes, taking over a completely-irrelevant and talent-barren Rutgers was different than taking over an Orange Bowl-fresh Louisville squad. But if that’s an issue, then look at Pitt.

Dave Wannstedt took over a tradition-rich Pitt program that had just gone to the Fiesta Bowl. He went 5-6, 6-6 and then was 4-7 with a game to go in his third season. He was a Pitt alum, the choice of Pitt alumni and yet, after pulling in some highly-touted recruiting classes, there was some restlessness with that win total. Pitt chancellor Mark Nordenberg called Wannstedt in for a meeting and the way Wannstedt told the story on the Big East conference call a couple weeks ago, he asked the coach what it would take to win.

Wannstedt walked out with a contract extension. A couple days later Pitt upset a would’ve-been-title-game-bound West Virginia and the Panthers are 18-6 since. And playing for the conference title and a BCS berth Saturday. And you better believe Wannstedt ties the two together.

“(Nordenberg) stood up and made a commitment and extended my contract and basically came out and said, ‘That’s the coach,’” he said on our conference call. “We’ve had an unbelievable run since then.”

Wannstedt credited a lot of this year’s success to that patience, saying, “The kids that are seniors this year, (tight end Dorin)Dickerson and these guys, were the first recruiting class that I brought in and we (have had time) to get these kids to mature and come along.”

Kragthorpe, of course, didn’t have that time – or that hysteria-quenching support. Schiano did, because of a stubborn athletic director and perhaps because Rutgers fans didn’t feel they had the right to expect better after so many years of ineptitude. While Wannstedt’s fans did expect more, he had the cooler (re: more patient) city.

“I think it might be the city of Pittsburgh,” Wannstedt said. ”I remember being at the Dolphins and to be quite honest with you, we spent four years down there and I think we won 10.5 games a year and people were ready to run me out of town because we weren’t winning Super Bowls. And I remember the Steelers, they won 6, 7, I think 9 with Bill Cowher (and) they give him a contract extension. And two yeas later, he wins the Super Bowl.”

There’s a reason patience is a virtue, right? I don’t know – unless there’s mass discipline issues or a total denigration of the program and an institution’s academic and character standards, shouldn’t a coach get at least five years? You tell me.