This is for Lee, who is asking for more info on Sal Sunseri, a finalist(?) for the head coach job at Pitt.
A lot of this I’m lifting verbatim from the 1994 Pitt Football Media Guide:
Sal Sunseri, a four year letterman from nearby Central Catholic High School, became an All-American in 1981. He was an enthusiastic leader and the heart and soul of the Pitt Defense. He was like another coach on the field and was known for his bone- crushing tackles. In his (final) three years Pitt, the Panthers were 33-3 with three bowl victories while the defense allowed an average of only 11 points per game. In 1981, he played in the East-West Shrine game and the Senior Bowl. He was drafted by the Pittsburgh Steelers in 1982 and suffered a training camp injury which ended his career. Sunseri returned to Pitt where he spent eight years as an assistant coach, including the 1992 season as assistant head coach.

He also was head coach in the final game of the season in 1992, as Hackett was fired with one game remaining (we lost to Hawaii).

Sunseri is from a Pittsburgh family – his relatives operate a popular Italian food wholesale/retail outfit on Penn Avenue in the Strip. His son, currently a senior at Central Catholic, is a division 1 prospect at TE and is considering Pitt.

Now a little history, also compiled with help from the old media guide, as well as my memory:
The 1980 Pitt team, with Sunseri at middle linebacker, boasted this lineup: Hugh Green and Ricky Jackson at DE, Jerry Boyarsky, Greg Meisner and Bill Neill interior line (all started in the NFL in the 1980’s), Caeser Aldisert at LB, Carlton Williamson (of 49er fame) at Safety, joined by Lynn Thomas.
The next season (of the 48-14 fame), Dave Puzzoli, JC Pelusi and future All-American Bill Maas started on the defensive line. Still in the pipeline: Corners Tim Lewis (remember him?) and Troy Hill, Safety Tom Flynn, DE Al Wenglikowski.

On the offensive side, of course Marino at QB (he had to beat out future pro Rick Trocano initially), Randy McMillan and Bryan Thomas at RB, Julius Dawkins and Dwight Collins at WR, Benjie Pryor and John Brown at TE (remember the 1982 Sugar Bowl?), the O-line included All-American Jimbo Covert, Outland Trophy winner Mark May, Emil Boures, Rob Fada, Ron Sams, Paul Dunn, center Russ Grimm – all went on to the NFL. Waiting for a shot: Jim Sweeney and Bill Fralic.

Now, that is what I call recruiting! And player development. Some may remember these names from their play on Sundays, but I was a Pitt fanatic as a kid back in those days, and followed the team closely.

Sunseri may be a sentimental favorite to return Pitt to the glory days – those are some of the fondest Pitt memories any of us have. In his four years, Pitt was 41-7, with his three years as a starter 33-3. He is a Pitt guy, and a Pittsburgh guy, with deep roots in this area.

B.B. asks in a comment:

…do you think Pitt impressed Coppin St. the other night? We moved up from 10 to 7 in the coaches poll after defeating Coppin St. Kentucky only moved up one spot (11 to 10) after beating Louisville. We passed Syracuse, who beat Drexel by 20 points last week in their only game. The difference? Coppin St.’s coach has a vote in the coaches poll. I’m guessing that he had Pitt pretty high.

Indeed, I was surprised we moved at all. Pitt didn’t move at all in the AP Writers’ Poll. Georgia Tech tumbled to #9 from #3 after losing on the road to Gonzaga. While my biases say the ACC is a bit overrated, that seemed fair.

Meanwhile the ESPN/USA Today Coaches Poll pushed Pitt up to #7. Kentucky winning a tough rivalry game in Louisville, a top-20 team, only got a one spot bump to #10. Yes, the Coppin St. head coach is a voter this year, but so is Dave Odom of South Carolina. Guess who Pitt plays next week? I’m guessing Odom also pushed Pitt a bit higher in his polls so that win or lose it can only help his team in the RPI. Not that we can prove it since coaches don’t release how they voted. Must protect the sanctity of their poll system.

Roughly, though, that would probably explain the jump for Pitt. Last week, Pitt had 479 vote points in the Coaches Poll. This week, they increased that to 545. A whopping 66 point increase. Kentucky had a 46 point increase. Pitt’s point total was only 2 ahead of #8 Syracuse and 9 ahead of #9 GT.

It simply points out one of the terrible problems/hypocrisy with the polls in both college and football where the coaches demand transparency from all except themselves and their program.

After taking some time for finals and for Coach Walt Harris to get acclimated to Stanford, everyone is back together for a couple days of practice in Pittsburgh. The players talked about Coach Harris leaving, and hoping that Rhoads gets the job.

Harris called this season, “probably the most memorable season I’ve had.” He did duck and weave about whether he wanted to stay, continually pointing back to the players themselves. Interesting by its absence was any actual endorsement for Paul Rhoads to get the head coaching job.

Pittsburgh City Council issued two resolutions declaring Monday was “University of Pittsburgh Panthers Day” and “Walt Harris Day.” The players and coach were downtown to receive the honor. More player reactions seem to suggest they at least believe it was a clash between AD Long and Coach Harris that led to the change.

Pitt will practice again today and tomorrow before breaking for Christmas. The team is supposed to arrive in Tempe on Sunday and will be practicing down there for the week.

Last Monday, AD Jeff Long said the search would take “weeks, not days.” Now all the stories are that Pitt could announce the next head football coach tomorrow. Maybe it’s just semantics but when the search and interview process goes less than a week-and-a-half, that would be days in my book.

Showing how little I know about reading into things regarding this coach search, it looks like Matt Cavanaugh could be considered the leading candidate now, by virtue of being the only one to get a second interview.

He is the first of the known candidates to receive a second interview and he may be the last. Cavanaugh impressed Long during their first interview Saturday in Indianapolis, so much so that Long told him he likely would meet with him again. According to a source close to the situation, Long said, “if I come to Baltimore to talk with you, it means we’re very serious about you.”

The source also said that Cavanaugh likely will accept the job, if offered.

Guess we’ll learn how good this source actually is.

Paul Rhoads is getting calls made on his behalf from area high school coaches. You know, the same ones supposedly alienated by Pitt and Walt Harris. It could just be me, and my attempts to find the negatives to Rhoads because I don’t want him to get the job, but I’m having a hard time with this. Rhoads is somehow loved by the local coaches, but not Harris. Looking at Pitt’s roster (PDF), it is not like the Defense has that much more in local kids than the Offense. I guess Rhoads was just better at blowing smoke up their… That or any time Pitt did piss off a coach or not pursue hard enough, they just blamed it on Harris.

Sal Sunseri’s interview also went well, and he might get a second interview. It appears that Tim Lewis is not much of a candidate at this point.

Bo Pelini seems to be losing steam, as the interview previously thought to have gone well has been downgraded. I think he is still in the picture at this point.

Let’s get back to Cavanaugh since he is the hot choice for today, at least. This from the Baltimore Sun.

Cavanaugh has been the Ravens’ offensive coordinator the past six seasons, when the positives – which include a Super Bowl win in the 2000 season, producing the NFL’s leading rusher last year and the development of Pro Bowl tight end Todd Heap and quarterback Kyle Boller – are often overshadowed by the negatives.

The Ravens have struggled to put together a consistent passing game during much of Cavanaugh’s tenure and are 31st in the league in passing offense this year.

“Matt has been a huge part of the success we’ve had through a number of circumstances,” Billick said. “I’ve had the good fortune of being around a lot of first-time head coaches from my days in Minnesota with Tony Dungy, Ty Willingham, Mike Tice and here with Marvin Lewis and Jack Del Rio. Those are outstanding coaches. But I’ve never been around a coach more ready to be a head coach than Matt Cavanaugh.”

I would also suggest that the offensive line has been impressive during his time. Both for the running game and pass protection.

Anthony Wright, Dave Ragone, Trent Dilfer. Those are some of the QBs Cavanaugh has had to use. The Ravens had a dominate defense and the offense was to play conservative and not give games away.

Then there is a site dedicated to getting rid of Matt Cavanaugh. The creator makes much of the issue of passer ratings on the QBs under Cavanaugh at other places. He gives snapshots of the player’s performance without context as to the record of the team or much else.

These teams where not devoid of talent either 1997 Bears Roster 1998 Bears Roster Players like:

• Qb Erik Kramer, Wr’s Curtis Conway, Marcus Robinson, & Bobby Engram

• 1997 Qb Erik Kramer finished with 14 Td’s and 14 Int’s & a Qb rating of 74.0. Proof Cavanaugh is a Goof

• 1998 Qb Erik Kramer finished with 9 Td’s and 7 Int’s & a Qb rating of 83.0. More Proof

Um, Erik Kramer is talent? Kramer only played 8 games in ’98. He played in 6 in 1999 and hasn’t been heard from again. In ’97 Kramer was 9th in the league in completions and 10th in pass attempts. The Bears were 4-12 in both years. Dave Wanndstedt was the head coach.

More proof he cites is Cavanaugh as the QB Coach for the Arizona Cardinals in 1994. Yeah, that’s a job where there are no excuses for the talent. Who were the QBs? Steve Beurlein in his, uh, prime for one year. Then Dave Kreig at the end of his career. The Cardinals went 8-8 and 4-12 in those two years. Buddy Ryan was the head coach. And everyone knows how much Buddy Ryan loved offense.

His apparently most damning part is his one year stint as QB Coach for the SF 49ers in 1996 (from Cardinals QB coach to 49er QB coach to Bears offensive coordinator — must simply be a case of failing upwards):

In 1996 Cavanaugh was the Qb coach for The San Francisco 49ers where he had access to Jerry Rice and Steve Young. The 49ers finished 3rd in points scored as Mr. Billick would point out but:

• Steve Young had is lowest Qb rating as a 49er (97.2) compared to an eye popping 104.7 the year AFTER Cavanaugh had left! Exhibit A Exhibit B

As near as I can tell from the actual stats, the difference can primarily be attributed to throwing only 14 TDs to 6 INT in 12 games in ’96, versus 19 – 6 in ’97. The rest of the numbers pro-rate out to about the same in both years.

I’m not saying there isn’t plenty to criticize Cavanaugh, but this is a less than solid effort.