He earned an athletic scholarship to the University of Pittsburgh playing offensive tackle and blocking for future Heisman Trophy winner Tony Dorsett.

[2] He was on the staff when the Panthers won the 1976 NCAA Division I-A national football championship with a victory over the Georgia Bulldogs in the 1977 Sugar Bowl.

In 1986, Wannstedt became defensive coordinator for the Miami Hurricanes under friend and mentor Jimmy Johnson, where they won a national championship in 1987.

When Chuck Noll retired as head coach of the Pittsburgh Steelers, in 1992, Wannstedt was one of the finalists for the job, but was ultimately edged out by fellow Pittsburgh-area native Bill Cowher.

Wannstedt earned a great deal of praise for guiding the Dolphins through the first few seasons after the retirement of Dan Marino, but his in-game coaching became increasingly unpopular with Dolphins fans, not least in 2002 when the team stopped giving the ball to Ricky Williams and inexplicably gave the New England Patriots several chances to come back and tie the game and then win it in overtime, starting a six-season playoff drought.

[needs citation]Boldin was an immediate star, winning NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year in 2003, was a three-time Pro Bowler, and was a stand-out receiver in his 13-year career.

Along with another late-season collapse in 2003 and no playoff appearance that year, Wannstedt became the face of a rapidly declining franchise who most fans and many players no longer believed in.

When University of Pittsburgh head coach Walt Harris elected to take the position at Stanford prior to the 2005 Fiesta Bowl, Wannstedt, with NFL experience and a proven college recruiting record, immediately became a candidate to replace him.

As a Pittsburgh area native and former player (offensive tackle from 1971 to 1973) and previous graduate assistant coach at the university under Johnny Majors and Jackie Sherrill (having earned a B.S.

Harris had been roundly criticized during his tenure for not recruiting top high school talent, especially in the crucial and talent-laden Western Pennsylvania area.

In his first season, Wannstedt inherited a Pittsburgh team that won a share of the Big East Championship and played in the Fiesta Bowl the previous year under Harris and was ranked 21st in the first AP Poll of 2005.

However, defeats by Notre Dame and Ohio and a last second loss (by a score of 7–6) to Nebraska kicked off a disappointing 5–6 season that also saw Pittsburgh get humiliated 45–13 by archrival West Virginia.

The class included blue-chip players such as RB LeSean McCoy, QB Pat Bostick, and OG Chris Jacobson.

The 13–9 upset win in the annual Backyard Brawl denied the Mountaineers a chance to play in the BCS National Championship Game and was the start of a turnaround that subsequently lifted Coach Wannstedt and the Panthers to a 9–4 season in 2008.

On Thursday, October 2, 2008, the Panthers scored an upset win over the then-ranked and undefeated #10 South Florida in a game nationally televised by ESPN.

However, Coach Wannstedt stayed upbeat, and worked with defensive coordinator Phil Bennett to devise a gameplan to defeat West Virginia for the 2nd time in four years in the annual Backyard Brawl.

[5] On December 7, 2010, Wannstedt resigned as head coach, reportedly under pressure following a disappointing 7–5 regular season and having failed to advance to a BCS bowl during his tenure.