Pitt has hired a new running backs coach. Wayne Moses, a Pac-10 guy.

Moses spent the past two seasons in the same capacity at Stanford and has also coached at other Pacific-10 schools UCLA, California, Washington and Southern Cal.

I don’t know anything about him. The article reveals nothing. It would be nice to know whether he developed any pro RBs (was he at UCLA coaching DeShaun Foster, for example). There is nothing at the Pitt Athletics site, at this time.

A more interesting note. When Brookhart — the WR and partial offensive coordinator — left for the Akron head coaching gig, Harris indicated he would just hire a WR coach and take the offense himself. Of course, I didn’t like this decision.

So this report is interesting.

Tulane offensive coordinator Frank Scelfo could become the third Green Wave assistant in five weeks to pack his bags for greener pastures.

Scelfo, brother of Wave head coach Chris Scelfo, has been offered the offensive coordinator’s position at Pittsburgh, according to reports in the Pittsburgh media. Frank Scelfo, who was in Pittsburgh on Thursday visiting with Panthers coach Walt Harris, could not be reached for comment.
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According to reports out of Pittsburgh, Scelfo also would coach the receivers if he accepts the offer. At Tulane, Scelfo doubled as the quarterbacks coach.
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With Scelfo as offensive coordinator, the Wave enjoyed three of the four best offensive years in school history. During the past three seasons, quarterbacks Patrick Ramsey and J.P. Losman had nine 300-yard passing games, and the Wave had four 500-yard total offense games.

Very interesting. A guy who has actually developed pro QBs as opposed to just being an “offensive genius.” I would almost call this promising. If the reports are true, you would have to believe that Harris had to promise him some actual play calling duties to be lured away.

Dare I say a promising coaching move?

Today the Post-Gazette follows the Tribune-Review‘s lead and does their article on Page’s offensive problems this year. I have to say, and this is probably a perception/subjective thing more than actual proof, that the Trib has been superior in their coverage, analysis and columns on Pitt sports. Both tend to use similar themes, but the Trib publishes the stories faster. The P-G is slower, giving less priority.

The Trib does a story on Notre Dame’s own star player with shooting problems. Point guard Chris Thomas, who last time torched Pitt for 29 points. Right now he’s in a major slump going a combined 8-36 in their last two games, 2-15 from 3-point land. Not surprisingly, ND lost those two games. As the Chicago Sun-Times points out, his poor play has been the reason that ND has fallen far short of pre-season expectations and why they are fighting for their tournament life.

Of course, Chris Quinn has really stepped up this year for Notre Dame — another Quinn bailing out an ND team.

The struggles of Thomas, though point out the risk/reward of relying or being carried by one player. It’s why Pitt has only lost once this season. No one player is the only option at crunch time. With this team, the ball could easily be in Krauser, Troutman, Taft, Page or Brown’s hands and you would like the chances.

Of course the reward is when that one key guy is on, he’s unstoppable (see, Wade, Dwayne, Marquette 2002-2003; also, Nelson, Jameer, St. Joe’s 2003-2004), and he can carry the entire team on his back. The thought of Pitt running into a team like Marquette with their best player on fire in the tournament again, gives me cold sweats.