It’s official. Press release from Pitt:

More than three decades after captaining the Panthers’ 1973 Fiesta Bowl team, Wannstedt was named the new head football coach at the University of Pittsburgh today by Athletic Director Jeff Long.

A rugged offensive tackle for the Panthers from 1970-73, Wannstedt returns to his alma mater with 30 years of coaching experience on the collegiate level and in the National Football League. His career has produced three championship rings, including a Super Bowl title and two national collegiate championships.

“The first time I met Dave Wannstedt, I was immediately struck by his pride and passion for the University of Pittsburgh,” Long said. “Although Dave’s long and successful coaching career has taken him many different places, his love for Pitt has remained. He not only understands our tradition but has also helped build it.”

“This opportunity is something I have dreamed about since my early coaching days at Pitt,” said Wannstedt, who is a native of Baldwin, Pa. “I am excited about rejoining the Pitt family and making a positive contribution and difference with the football team, the University and community.”

Wannstedt is the 34th head football coach in Pittsburgh history and becomes the ninth graduate of Pitt to lead the Panthers’ football program.

Read the rest for a narrative of his resume. You should click it, just to see a photo of him from 1973. Here’s the AP wire story.

I’m telling you, Wannstedt has to show up at the b-ball game tonight. Too good an opportunity to miss. You would think a coach reviled in Miami and Chicago wouldn’t miss an opportunity to bask in some pure love. Especially one that would be nationally televised.

Whoo-Hoo!!!

Hat tip to Rob. Dave Wannstedt has accepted the job as the next head coach of Pitt!

The coach told ESPN’s Chris Mortenson that he had reconsidered after originially withdrawing his name from consideration last week and would return to his alma mater. A news conference is expected at 3 p.m.

“Yeah, I’m going to do it,” Wannstedt said. “The more I thought about it and talked it over with Jan [his wife], I realized that this was the right job for me at this stage of my career. Jan said, ‘Who are you fooling about doing TV? You’re a coach. Let’s go home.’ “

Naturally Pitt has nothing on its website yet. Relief and happiness right now. I still may have questions about Wanny, but the fact is that he got the school to pony up the money to show how serious they were — for him and almost as important, the assistant coaches. And of course, Paul Rhoads will not be the next head coach.

Hail to Pitt! And Hail to Lee and I keeping our season tickets!

7 PM on ESPN2, and barely on the radar it seems. The Pitt Athletic Department has just put out the game notes (PDF). The ESPN2 broadcasting crew will be Bob Picozzi and Len Elmore.

Richmond has been unpredictable. Wins against Seton Hall, USF and UAB and losses to Wake and Virginia Commonwealth. Last year Richmond upset Kansas, Xavier and Stanford — all on the road.

Freshman Keith Benjamin, is talking about making this game his “coming-out party” (not that there’s anything wrong with that).

Carl Krauser appeared on I, Max recently. You can see video from this page (you will need to use IE 5.0 or higher and Windows Media Player). This might be a direct link to the video. His explaination for picking Beyonce over Jenny from the Bronx is excellent.

Idle thought while waiting to hear if Dave Wannstedt will be announced as the next head football coach for Pitt today. Assuming it goes down today, can you imagine the reaction he would get at the Pete, if introduced during the Richmond-Pitt game tonight. On ESPN2? Could Pitt possibly blow that kind of opportunity and national exposure? It would be perfect. He’d probably sit in with the play-callers for the game for a few minutes to talk. You want to talk about the chance for helping to raise the profile of the program in one day?

Details are still sketchy. Reports are vague. Paul Rhoads has reportedly strangled the family cat (okay, I made that last one up).

Not that it appears to matter now, but here, you can read Brian Billick trying to pimp Matt Cavanaugh during a conference call with Steeler beat writers.

If Dave Wannstedt is actually named head coach (hey, he could change his mind again) tomorrow, he immediately succeeds in one area. Forcing Pitt to start paying like it is actually serious about being a real player in contending for a national championship. And I’m not just talking about the head coaching salary.

One of the other sticking points last week according to a source was that the university was reluctant to meet Wannstedt’s demands for salaries for his assistant coaches. He reportedly had asked for no assistant to be paid less than $100,000, and he wanted between $250,000-$300,000 for his coordinators.

The majority of the current staff makes less than $100,000 — with a low of about $65,000 — with the exception of defensive coordinator Paul Rhoads, who got a significant raise following the 2002 season because he nearly took a similar job at Auburn. He makes approximately $250,000 a year.

Over the years, retaining staff has been an issue because the university has not paid the assistant coaches the equivalent of many other Bowl Championship Series conference schools.

University officials, however, reportedly upped the ante in order to remain competitive within the Big East. Louisville signed its head coach, Bobby Petrino, to a $1 million-per-year contract this week and Memphis coach Tommy West just got an extension worth $800,000 a year. Wannstedt reportedly had asked for about $800,000 per year, which is a slight increase from Harris’s package, which is about $650,000.

Wow. I knew Pitt assistants were underpaid but that’s ridiculous. Even the fiercest Walt Harris hater has to admit that Pitt was getting more than what it paid for with respect to how the team managed to recruit and coach.

It’s been the dirty story, that comes up on the Pitt message boards and the beat writers have alluded to it, but I’ve never actually seen the numbers until now. That’s pathetic. No wonder Harris wore all the hats on offense. Who could he afford to hire who could actually implement and run the offense he likes?

Hail to Pitt signing Wanny!