It was officially announced that Bryan Bossard was hired as the WR coach.

Bossard coached the Terps receivers for the past three seasons and prior to that he coached receivers at Delaware from 2002-04. He has previously worked under Wannstedt — as a summer intern with the Chicago Bears in 1996 and 1997 — and he was a standout defensive back at Delaware from 1985-88.

This had been known for a while, but was just made official. Bossard was fired from his gig at Maryland shortly after losing the Emerald Bowl. In the game, several passes were dropped by receivers.

“Surprised? Probably not,” Bossard said yesterday.

“It’s part of the business. Whenever things don’t go as planned, someone’s always got to take the fall. I think we made plays, too. I would hope it’s not just off of one game. But again, who knows? You’re asking the wrong person why this happened.”

Bossard said Friedgen started scrutinizing the wide receiving corps during a three-game slide during this season.

Meantime, injuries took their toll. Danny Oquendo and LaQuan Williams suffered injuries that knocked them out of action toward the end of the season, forcing the team to use younger players such as redshirt freshman Emani Lee-Odai.

No strong feelings one way or the other on this. He’s a Delaware grad and I’m amused that his two sons are named Xen and Xyon. The hope is that he will help with inroads into Maryland and Virginia for recruiting.

There was also the hiring of a couple graduate assistants.

Wannstedt also announced the additional of graduate assistants Scott Turner and Greg Williams. Turner, the son of San Diego Chargers coach Norv Turnrer, will focus on the offense, while Williams works with the defense.

The bigger news is that Pitt had yet another assistant leave for a new job.

Pitt special teams coordinator Charlie Partridge has resigned to become the defensive line coach and will work with specialists at Wisconsin. Partridge has been with the Panthers since the 2003 season in various capacities.

“Charlie is an excellent young coach and I am very appreciative of the contributions he made to our program,” Pitt coach Dave Wannstedt said. “We certainly wish him and his family the very best in his new opportunity.”

He is the fifth Pitt assistant to leave Wannstedt’s staff since the end of the season.

You would think Pitt had played in a BCS bowl the way the staff has been picked apart this off-season.

Partridge was offered the job a couple years ago when Bret Bielema took over as head coach at Wisconsin.

Partridge came to Pitt under Walt Harris in 2003 and was retained when Wannstedt took over before the 2005 season. That’s why Partridge didn’t feel comfortable leaving a year later to join Bielema’s first staff.

“Essentially, I was out of a job,” Partridge said after Harris left for Stanford. “Coach Wannstedt came in, to make a long story short, he had the trust and faith to keep me on staff. I built a good relationship with him, but I couldn’t leave Pitt after one year, do that to him.”

Partridge’s wife’s family lives only a couple hours from Madison and Partridge was a college roommate of Wisconsin’s Defensive Coordinator, Dave Doeren. It is expected that Partridge will take over a lot of Florida recruiting from Doerento allow him to focus more on coordinator duties.

As for who Pitt will hire to take the job, there are a couple of internal possibilities. Sam Clancy is being mentioned — he came back to Pittsburgh a couple years ago to finish his degree and help as a volunteer assistant coach with the D-line. Bob Junko might be brought out of administrative duties to handle special teams. Gattuso might move to coach linebackers from the D-line.

I have to believe Pitt has to hire someone, though. The loss of Partridge and Hill means there are no assistant coaches with ties or connections to Florida. Pitt may not have focused too hard on Florida this past recruiting season, but it is too vital a state with too much talent to ignore.

As for the loss of Partridge, well, you hate to lose a top recruiter. That was his best quality as a coach. He was considered one of Pitt’s best recruiters on the staff.

The coaching acumen, I’m not exactly sure Pitt is losing too much. Pitt’s special teams haven’t been too impressive (think about the USF fake punts), and Pitt actually uses some starters on special teams. D-lien wasn’t exactly a strength when he was working with them. The linebacking corp that he and the departed Rhoads worked, didn’t exactly develop beyond MLB Scott McKillop.

Pitt has announced its new ticket prices for season and single game tickets. The result, lower ticket prices and more access to parking passes.

Reduced prices: Season tickets, which go on sale today, are less expensive. Student tickets are $25 (down from $49); Upper end zone seats are $72 (down from $99); Lower level end zone seats and some seats in the upper deck are $99 (down from $199); The lower level sideline and upper level sidelines between the 20-yard lines are $144 (down from $199); and Club seats are $270. The club seats and some of the sideline seats will again require a donation to the Panther Club.

“If you look, 33 percent of our season tickets cost less than $100,” Pitt ticket manager Reed Patterson said. “That’s a tremendous value.”

Parking: For the first time since the Panthers moved to Heinz Field, every season ticket holder will have the opportunity to buy a season parking pass for $60, which breaks down to $10 per game.

“We’re selling the spaces at the same cost we pay for them,” Pederson said. “But we needed to make sure that if you buy season tickets you can buy a parking pass.”

The mandatory donations start at $50.

Other things in the works include lots more pregame festivities and activities. They also listened to the complaints about the stating time and if there is no TV coverage, the games will be starting at 3:30 or later.

As for the later start time, that will probably only apply to a couple non-con games. Given the expectations for Pitt this coming season, even if not on ESPN or ABC, you can expect that the Big East will be showing a few more of the Pitt games on the ESPN Regional.

Ramon’s game winning 3 has apparently been logged in as one of the best gamewinners in Pitt’s history. So they turned to Larry Harris to find out what he thought.

While watching the Pitt-West Virginia basketball game, Larry Harris spilled his soda and popcorn when Ronald Ramon swished a 3-pointer from the left corner as time expired to give the Panthers a 55-54 victory.

“I had a little flash of Cincinnati,” Harris said. “It was exciting.”

Harris made one of the most memorable shots in Pitt history when he sank a 15-foot jumper from the right corner at the buzzer for a 65-64 victory over the No. 12 Bearcats on Feb. 2, 1977, at Fitzgerald Field House.

…

“They always talk about that one,” said Harris, now an assistant coach at North Carolina State. “Somewhere along the line, if the conversation is long enough, that always comes up. It’s one of those things you always remember.

“For us, our school and our fans, that was a special moment for us. I wish it was against West Virginia, though.”

Harris is an assistant coach for Sidney Lowe at NC State. What sticks out for me is that he was watching Pitt. At the same time, there was a Clemson-Virginia game being played. The Wolfpack have a game with Clemson in a week, yet he was still watching his alma mater play.

That’s the great thing about the college game. You never forget your school. Even if you are wearing other colors in the employ of another, you think of your school as “us.”

Bradley Wanamaker has taken a lot of criticism in his limited minutes. I suppose it’s because there were more expectations for him.

Q: I have been very disappointed in the play of Brad Wanamaker thus far. I thought he was a heralded point guard. I find his play to be quite sloppy and his shooting to be atrocious, especially at the foul line. He has shown minimal improvement. For next year, how do the incoming guards look to back up Levance, and who would be the shooting guard?

FITTIPALDO: Wanamaker was a shooting guard in high school. Pitt coach Jamie Dixon tried to make him into a point guard in the early part of the season, but Wanamaker struggled and that experiment was aborted.

If Wanamaker finds a niche at Pitt, it will be at shooting guard. Wanamaker and incoming freshman Nasir Robinson (Chester, Pa.) will likely battle for the starting job at shooting guard next season. Another incoming freshman, Travon Woodall (St. Anthony’s, N.J.), is likely the backup point guard.

Sometimes, the light goes on later rather than sooner for players. Wanamaker has struggled this season, but he came to Pitt as a top 100 player. I’m sure the coaching staff is hoping that his freshman year is an aberration because the Panthers have a big hole to fill at shooting guard next season with the departure of Keith Benjamin and Ronald Ramon.

First impressions last. I’ve mentioned the Antonio Graves comparisons. Not in terms of talent. I’m talking about development and I might as well throw in perception. Some never forgot Graves as a raw, nervous freshman forced to play because of no depth at the guard spots. Wanamaker will be up against that as well.

I did expect more from him, but I also see flashes and hints of what could be. It’s just not going to be this year.

Of course, he is going to face competition from Nasir Robinson who gets the usual positive reviews that include “tough” and/or “gritty” every time he competes in something. This from the “Primetime Shootout” in Philly.

Nasir Robinson is headed to Pittsburgh next year to play for Jamie Dixon. Nasir has a motor that never stops. He plays hard every time he hits the floor and is an undersized combo forward. Nasir brings that Philly toughness to the floor every night. He dominates on the inside grabbing up everything around the rim. Nasir has a nice feel for the game not only does he play strong on the inside, he sees the floor and makes the big play when needed.

Eric Hall at the Beaver County Times hits a rare daily double with two pieces in a week that state the obvious, even if the answer isn’t: Pitt needs to make free throws and shoot better. Throw in Ron Cook’s piece about Pitt needing to score more points, along with the shooting slump story. The problem is, that there isn’t a good answer. I’m reasonably certain that the coaches and players are aware of the issue, and would like to provide a solution.

Think Pitt and Coach Dixon will get to escape silly coaching carousel speculation this year? Think again.

No more John Brady at LSU means LSU needs a new coach, and the first place the school will look is Southern California’s Tim Floyd. It’s no secret LSU has always been Floyd’s dream job because he’s from the area. But living in Los Angeles — and coaching in the new Galen Center — is kinda dreamy too, and the early word out of Baton Rouge is the school might not be willing to pay the type of money it would take to lure Floyd from the sweet situation he’s enjoying.

If LSU won’t pay, Floyd probably won’t move — in which case some obvious targets are Virginia Commonwealth’s Anthony Grant, Ole Miss’ Andy Kennedy and Washington State’s Tony Bennett. But for the sake of argument, let’s pretend Floyd does move to LSU because that’s when things could get really silly.

Would Pittsburgh’s Jamie Dixon then take the Southern California job?

(Perhaps. But I’m not sure he’d want to battle UCLA’s Ben Howland).

Would Xavier’s Sean Miller then move to Pittsburgh?

(Definitely. He would move to Pitt in like 1.2 seconds)

So yeah, the speculation is endless and head-spinning and tiresome.

Sigh.