(Or, should I drink it now, or wait ’til it goes down.)

I don’t have a lot of my 21 year old Glenfiddich left. I’ve been saving it for either a really good day or a really bad day. Right now, I’m tempted to hit it tonight. An article like this will have that effect:

Defensive coordinator Paul Rhoads is emerging as a front-runner for the head coaching job at Pittsburgh, according to newspaper reports.

I’m trying not to panic. Rhoads has been the only guy actually interviewed so far. Wannstedt and Hoke have withdrawn from consideration. So technically Rhoads would be the frontrunner when he was the only guy interviewed.

I am just getting a bad feeling. Paul Zeise seems to think it will be either Rhoads or Pelini. While it was supposed to be his Q&A, it was really an extra column. He runs down some of the candidates, and wonders why Pitt doesn’t seem interested.

As for Matt Cavanaugh, I’m still trying to gauge if he is a legitimate candidate or if this was another situation of “let’s appease some of the influential alumni by asking for and getting rejected by another Pitt guy.” My guess is that it is the case, but we’ll soon know.

Sal Sunseri would be a great choice but he doesn’t seem to be high on the list. He would take the job in a minute but I’m not sure he’d get the offer for a lot of reasons.

Pitt is missing the boat by not at least seriously looking at Penn State defensive coordinator Tom Bradley. He’s a recruiting machine, he has Western Pennsylvania locked up and he is also an excellent coach. Defense is not the problem at Penn State. The only sticking point with Bradley is that he’s never been anywhere else, but that may not be a bad thing. I think if he got this job, he’d be here for life because this is home.

Pitt has not asked for permission from the Buffalo Bills about Tom Clements, so I am going to assume his candidacy has not yet gotten off the ground.

I’d be fine with Pelini. I don’t understand why Novak (Northern Illinois) and Amstutz (Toledo) aren’t even being brought up in the conversations, Bradley and Sunseri I think could work. I don’t know about Clements.

Rhoads. I repeat, cancel my season tickets.

It would tear me up. I love the trips into Pittsburgh for the games. I don’t have the words to convey how great a time I have, and how much these games mean to me. Even when I don’t get to stay over for the night — which has become more common — it is just good. The guys here at PSB are guys I know I can count on and trust. Outside of the games, we rarely get a chance to gather as a group. How do you put a price on that?

That said, hiring Rhoads tells me that getting rid of Harris was about 1) going cheaper and 2) personality conflicts. That it was never about questioning whether Harris could take the team any higher. How can you hire his assistant if you didn’t believe Harris could do the job?

I won’t support that.

Crap. Now I’m depressed.