Well, now that Bo Pelini has been interviewed, he has been anointed the frontrunner for the Pitt job. Pelini says he wouldn’t take over any job until after the Orange Bowl. Wonder if that means he wouldn’t assemble a staff and get them out to the recruits while he stays in Norman, or just that he won’t do anything. Kind of important. In some reports, Pelini may be getting an offer as early as Tuesday.
There are still other interviews. Matt Cavanaugh was interviewed last night or will be interviewed today (reports have conflicted). Sal Sunseri is supposed to be interviewed on Monday, and even has put together his coaching staff.
Back to Pelini, who in the previous article received plenty of positive praise from Oklahoma head coach (and his present boss) Bob Stoops. Here’s a story from last year when Pelini was interim head coach at Nebraska — if he ends up with the job, he will be drawing comparisons to Steeler Coach Cowher for sideline behavior.
Tim Lewis already seems to have been forgotten. Looks like that was just to appease the NCAA for minority interviews. A shame, Lewis struck me as an interesting candidate. Wrong to do that sort of token interviewing and even worse when the person you are doing that to is an alumni of the school. Just not right.
The lifeblood of a football program, of course, is recruiting. Chuck Finder writes a sure-to-infuriate-the-locals piece arguing that Western PA isn’t what it used to be in terms of quantity of top recruits. He points out the demographics have been shrinking in the region. (Something I think Lee has pointed out before). He’s not arguing that the well is dry. He is just saying that the talent level, locally is not what it was in the ’70s and early ’80s. It’s a fair point, but one I’m sure many people in Pittsburgh will not want to hear.
The Trib’s recruiting guy, Kevin Gorman, though argues that the next Pitt coach has to focus very, very hard on the WPIAL kids. He points to the kids that have been flowing to the Big 11. I agree that Pitt really, really needs to improve the local recruiting. Gorman, though, seems a little too close to the subject. He covers the recruiting in the region, he knows all the kids and the coaches. So, it seems he is overstating the overall talent level. In some points, he seems to suggest recruiting a couple kids, just to win points with their high school coaches for the future. Maybe a decent strategy, in what could be a bit of a lost recruiting year, but it’s also admitting the kid isn’t really that good.
Final note, a story on new Indiana head coach, Terry Hoeppner had this one thing that caught my eye:
Woodlan football coach Leland Etzler made a phone call to Terry Hoeppner a couple of weeks ago to gather information for an effort to get Hoeppner inducted in the Indiana Football Hall of Fame.
Etzler couldn’t help but ask about the rumors going around that Hoeppner might leave Miami of Ohio to become head coach at Pitt or Indiana.
[Emphasis added.]
You know, I never saw his name on any lists outside of this blog. You don’t suppose…
