It’s a staple of the media with the coaching carousel. Once the ride stops, snap evaluations are offered for the hires. We all do it. Randy Edsall to Maryland — meh. Will Muschamp to Florida — boom.

I’m sure many remember plenty of raves about Dave Wannstedt when he was hired. How his positive, rah-rah attitude would be perfect in college. How much like Pete Carroll his approach would be (back when everyone was looking to failed NFL coaches to be the next Pete Carroll). How his quick scoring with recruits after being hired showed that he was going to have Pitt humming along. Anyways…

Well, if you think the way Wannstedt was let go, the botching of the first search and fire, and everything else has affected the way Pitt fans are watching the program and athletic department, then you should at least understand how it has colored the perception of hiring Graham.

Paul Myerberg of the NY Times Pre-Snap Read gives the hire a “B” while openly assessing the penalty points.

Pittsburgh loses points for firing Wannstedt in the first place, though that’s not necessarily fair to hold against Graham. Further points are deducted because of the ineptitude with which Pederson addressed the original vacancy — again, not a judgement against Graham. When looking merely at the coach, the only factor that precludes this from being a great hire is the fact that the last Tulsa coach to move to the B.C.S. conference ranks failed so miserably. Graham’s his own coach, but the jury remains out whether it was the coach or the system in place that led to such success with the Golden Hurricane.

I think we can agree, if Graham fails like Kragthorpe did, it will be a long, long time before anyone tries to hire away a Tulsa head coach.

The harshest grade came from Stuart Mandel at SI.com. While not directly saying that the need for a do-over after Mike Haywood played a role in the grade it seemed implied in explaining a “C.”

Forced to scramble after having to fire original choice Mike Haywood, Pitt didn’t have a lot of attractive options. Graham may well have made the biggest possible splash what with his high-powered offenses and three 10-win seasons at Tulsa. But the first two of those came with Gus Malzahn as his coordinator, the latter with Malzahn disciple Chad Morris. Without either, the Hurricane went 5-7 in 2009.

Rebuttal points being that Graham was an original top-choice for Pitt, but money was the issue. The other being, that Graham hired some better than average guys to run the offense this time in Jay Norvell and Calvin Magee, so he won’t be meddling. Bonus reasons to be dismissive of Mandel’s grades. He gave the Hoke hiring at Michigan an A- and Pasqualoni to UConn a B-.

Now the best scoring on the hire, comes from Dennis Dodd at CBS Sports. No letter grades, he just puts it as the 2d best hire in the coaching carousel behind Muschamp at Florida.

Within hours of being introduced, the former Tulsa coach had talked to top coaches in the WPIAL — the fabled western Pennsylvania high school league. Within days Graham had coaxed unofficial visits out of a bunch of that league’s top players. At a Pittsburgh basketball game, he unzipped his jacket to reveal an “Oakland Zoo” (student section) T-shirt. Dave Wannstedt’s forced resignation was a mess. Mike Haywood’s firing was messier. In a week, Graham has brought some desperately needed positive energy to the Panthers. Expect a high-flying offense, one that was once coordinated by Gus Malzahn under Graham at Tulsa. Also expect tight ends and fullbacks, Pittsburgh. At first this seemed like an odd hire — a Texas native by way of Oklahoma in Steel Town. Then it made sense after a do-over search almost blown by AD Steve Pederson. Pittsburgh needed something different. It also needed a gulp of Five Hour Energy. Graham brought both.

So to this point, the grading seems to be roughly a B or so. All of which means absolutely nothing but filling space in the off-season.