Sorry. Family visiting. Things I couldn’t get out of, and I was not coming back to post until I had a chance to watch the Tenn-Pitt game (damn) until Sunday night (more on that later).

So Al Golden did turn out to be something of a serious candidate, but Miami wanted him as well. This actually is par for the course with Miami coaching choices since Dennis Erickson departed. Picking fairly conservative, disciplinarian, clean, guys. The ‘Canes tried to hire Jim Tressel before Butch Davis — who before the UNC scandal had cleaned-up and rebuilt Miami. Shannon was more of the same. Larry Coker was lacked the disciplinarian part, but was conservative in his game.

Florida surprised many by hiring Texas DC Will Muschamp. Gus Malzahn is unofficially out of contention for Pitt with Vandy offering him up to $3 million./year.

Oklahoma State OC Dana Holgorsen still is/returns to being the frontrunner for the Pitt job. A lot of the other initial candidates seem to be either out of the running or never particularly likely.

Pederson also has spoken with San Diego State coach Brady Hoke about the Panthers’ coaching job and Iowa State coach and former Pitt assistant Paul Rhoads. Rhoads is not considered to be a candidate at this point.

Hoke, who has said publicly his dream job is with Michigan, recently signed a two-year extension with San Diego State but he has been a candidate for several other jobs, most recently Minnesota.

He is in his second year at San Diego State. This season he led the Aztecs to an 8-4 record and their first bowl berth since 1998. They will play Navy Dec. 23 in the Poinsettia Bowl. Prior to San Diego State, Hoke led Ball State to bowl games in 2007 and ’08 and in ’08 his team won the MAC West Division and finished 12-1.

Former Pitt player Teryl Austin, who is currently the defensive coordinator at Florida and, according to some reports, is a candidate for a similar position at Texas, also might receive an interview, according to sources.

And current Pitt offensive coordinator Frank Cignetti, who has expressed interest in the job, is also expected to be interviewed. Penn State defensive coordinator Tom Bradley has expressed interest in the job and has had several people contact Pederson on his behalf.

Paul Zeise has a lot of stuff on the various candidates. I need to break it down a little closer.

One person who is not likely to get a legitmate look – but certainly has a lot of the right people on his side pushing for him is Penn State defensive coordinator Tom Bradley. Again, from what I’m told the Penn State-Pitt thing is going to be too much for him to overcome but a number of people of influence have at least picked up the phone and called Pitt on his behalf.

I don’t quite get this. Why would the Pitt-PSU thing be a problem for Bradley but not Golden? Especially since Golden has become the name PSU people have bandied about with greater frequency to be the next head coach. Not Bradley. To say nothing of the past rumors/reports that Golden is still dreaming of being the next coach at Penn State. Now if the argument was because Bradley has made himself a career assistant and been in just one place, while Golden went to other places and has success as a head coach I would understand. And I would have a harder time fighting against that argument.

A couple of names which have been given to me by at least one source as, well, we will call them, “coaches of interest” are St. Louis Rams offensive coordinator Pat Shurmur, Oklahoma assistant offensive coordinator Jay Norvell and Wisconsin offensive coordinator Paul Chryst. Now, I put them in this category because I have not talked to anyone credible who has told me there has been some – even just at the feeler stage — legitimate contact between Pitt and them but all of them are somewhere on the radar if things don’t get done with Holgorsen or Golden (obviously they won’t get done with him now).

About right. Not going to think too much about them right now.

And while we’re on this list, here is an interesting name — Connecticut coach Randy Edsall, who was one of the finalists for the Miami job — who, I’m told by a number of people, has let it be known that he’d have some interest in at least talking to Pitt about the job. Again, these four names are all what I would call ‘file in the back of your head’ kind of names because as I’ve said, there is no evidence any has yet been contacted by Pitt or even reached out directly to Pitt to put their hat in the ring.

And Pitt fans complain about Wannstedt’s ability to develop/find quarterbacks? I have trouble taking it too seriously since they would have to pay Edsall close to $2 million, and his own fanbase is suggesting that kinda, sorta, maybe Edsall should jump somewhere else. Still, Edsall is from Pennsylvania (Glen Rock — York County) Thow in the idea that UConn would have two ex-coaches facing them just within the conference each year. Coupled with Edsall’s past ‘Cuse ties to annoy the Orange do add a bit of extra fun and strangeness to the whole thing to make it more intriguing than it should.

Another person who has had some degree of contact with Pederson (again, I’ve gotten conflicting reports as to whether it was an interview or not and may never know the truth) is Miami (Ohio) coach Mike Haywood, who spent time at Notre Dame, Texas and LSU among other places. He is obviously another hot name out there because, in just his second season with Miami, he led the RedHawks to a 9-4 record and the MAC championship (something Al Golden never did, by the way). He turned them around, though, as they were 1-11 in his first season. That being said, he’s only been a head coach for two seasons. Again, there has definitely been some contact between Pitt and Haywood but how much and whether or not it was an actual interview is not know.

I have to admit, the more I read on Haywood and look into his coaching background, the more I like his candidacy. He’s climbed the coaching ladder and worked under guys like Nick Saban and Mack Brown. He was the OC for several years at ND under Weis — which hopefully taught him a lot about the annoyance and dangers of the head coach meddling too much on one side. The year before taking the Miami (OH) job he was a finalist at Houston. He seems to have his star rising, but the question becomes whether it is too soon to judge this.

And then the one “Pitt” guy who may still get an interview depending on what happens is Florida defensive coordinator Teryl Austin, though it doesn’t sound like it is definitely going to happen and apparently he’s involved to some degree in the search for Texas’s next defensive coordinator. Austin, like Cignetti and Bradley, seems to have a lot of people of varying degree of influence backing him but I’m not sure if that is going to be enough to get him a sitdown with Pederson.

I don’t know. Is it fair or even honest to Austin to do an interview just because of his Pitt ties if he isn’t a serious candidate? Will it be taken seriously? On the other hand, even if he doesn’t get a legitimate shot, an interview could be seen as raising his profile and giving him a shot at another head coaching job.

Now back to Holgorsen, since he seems to be the primary candidate at this point. In Oklahoma, they are watching with some trepidation what Pitt will do. To say nothing of offers to be the OC at schools like Florida, Miami, and perhaps even Texas.

This is a legit possibility that gets bigger every day. Holgorsen’s name began popping up immediately as a potential target for Pittsburgh athletic director Steve Pederson after Dave Wannstedt resigned early last week. It wouldn’t be a huge surprise if Holgorsen is offered the job at Pitt, and it would be the type of opportunity that would be tough to turn down.

Holgorsen has confidence in his coaching ability. Pittsburgh would be a solid job in the Big East, a BCS conference that does not include the same potential roadblocks that inhabit the Big 12, SEC or Pac 10. He could make an immediate impact on the Big East.

To be fair, Mike Gundy has done a great job in replacing coordinators who leave for other jobs. Not to mention the fact that Gundy is an offensive-minded coach. Still, Holgorsen’s offenses have improved even more after the first year.

Holgorsen installed his system during the first few spring practices and refined it after that. In his previous stops, the offense’s second year was better than its first.

In 2001, Holgorsen (then an inside receivers coach) and head coach Mike Leach entered their second season together at Texas Tech.

Scoring jumped 9.8 points per game from the previous year. Total yards by increased 56.6 per game, and the passing average leaped by 41.1 yards per game.

In 2009, Holgorsen entered his second season as offensive coordinator at Houston. The results: 571 more yards of total offense, 851 more passing yards and 1.6 more points per game.

The argument would be that if he stays another year in OSU, and the offense does take another leap, he becomes an even more attractive candidate to programs that will pay more.