I still haven’t heard anything from Walt Harris himself yet (and to protect Pitt’s nationally recognized recruiting class, Walt needs to say something soon). However, I’m hearing more and more people dismiss Harris as a legitimate candidate for the vacant Nebraska head coaching job. Yesterday morning on WBNS (ESPN Radio) Columbus (the flagship station of the Ohio State Buckeyes Radio Network), “Spielman on Sports” host and former OSU linebacker great Chris Spielman said that he thought Walt Harris would go to Nebraska because he had taken Pitt about as high as it could go. However, Spielman had completely changed his stance by this morning. He said that the behind-the-scenes whispers at ESPN (where Spielman calls college games) is that Harris will not be seriously considered. No word yet on whether Spielman has changed his stance on how much higher Pitt can go.

(Incidentally, it surprises many Pitt fans to learn that many Buckeyes are interested in Pitt football because Walt Harris was so popular when he served as quarterbacks coach under John Cooper in the 1990s. That’s why Ohio State briefly looked at Harris before they hired Jim Tressel in 2001. Along those lines, I think that it would be funny if Pitt denied Nebraska AD Steve Pederson permission to even talk to Walt Harris. Pederson certainly deserves that.)

Also, note Cornhusker great Trev Alberts opinion on Harris as expressed in an ESPN chat session yesterday.

Colson – Pittsburgh, PA: Any chance Nebraska will take Walt Harris away from Pittsburgh?

Trev Alberts: I don’t think that will happen. I know you can make the connection and he is a great coach.. but I don’t envision him being our next coach.

I would have to assume that Alberts would have some knowledge of what’s going through his friend Pederson’s mind. On a side note, Scott landed the shot of the day on the Ohio State-loathing Alberts.

Scott (Leawood, KS): Trev, being a Cornhusker, how does it feel to have a couple of Buckeyes running the football program in Lincoln?

Go Bo Pelini, go. Of course, PSB favorite Matt Hayes still has a story up reporting that Harris is the top candidate in Lincoln. Whatever. I won’t get too worried unless people start turning Nebraska down. As the Cornhuskers work their way down their list, Walt’s name will inevitably come up.

Hey, Chas put together a must-read post yesterday about what needs to fixed with Pitt football that I almost entirely agree with (I would at least consider going the extra step and firing Rhoads, but I do have to give Rhoads some credit for his successes last year). All I would add is that Harris also needs to spend some more time recruiting the less glamorous line positions. Yes our lines are poorly coached. But they aren’t always all that talented to begin with.

And I recognized the Josh Crockett rip off right away. I had read his blog right away Monday morning to get his reaction to that tough loss to UVA. Oh well. At least Virginia Tech beat the crap out of Miami. That’s a lot more than we could manage.

Finally, does anybody out there really think that TCU turned down the GMAC bowl because it conflicted with final exams? Right. We’re not exactly talking about the Harvard of Texas here (we aren’t talking about the Harvard of the Upper Monongahela either, John). I’ve never seen such sour grapes over losing the opportunity for a BCS bowl bid.

Hail to Blogger actually adding the word “blog” to its spellchecker dictionary. I mean seriously, shouldn’t you really recognize that word?