I’m doing my best to stay open-minded and level-headed about the coaching search. Outright condemnations don’t work for most of the candidates. Especially since Paul Rhoads isn’t in the mix (which is good, since my 2004 vow to cancel my season tickets if he becomes HC is still in place).

But no doubt there is plenty of hand-wringing over the latest coaching carousel tidbit.

One other candidate has emerged and it is a surprise in some ways — Alabama assistant head coach Sal Sunseri has already talked with Pitt about the job earlier this week as well. Sunseri is a former Pitt player and is popular among donors and alumni and he is also a guy who could certainly turn the recruiting around in a hurry. Sunseri is a guy who has wanted the job for a long time but has been turned down for a variety of reasons and I think the fact that he’s being interviewed this time speaks volumes about the way the events of past month have changed the administration and its view of the football program.

I’m not prepared to panic — yet.

I saw Joe Schad mention Sunseri as a possibility earlier, and dismissed it without much of a thought. Mainly because the list looked like the typical list.

I really have a hard time believing Sunseri is a serious candidate. Not with his son here. That would run the risk of creating even more divisions in the locker room and among the fans.

My impulse (hope) is that this is more damage control and clean-up work by Chancellor Nordenberg. Smooth over ruffled feathers regarding last month’s  coach search debacle Pederson created.

You can’t be a one-man search committee and have it blow-up in your face this badly without losing a lot of power over things.

More interestingly, Zeise’s update also informs that Tom Bradley is having his first real and true interview with Pitt today. We will see how that goes.