The Pitt News sports blog had a fine liveblog of Dave Wannstedt’s press conference to announce “The Decision.” Er, no, that’s been done.

Here are some of the highlights:

“I am a Pitt guy. I am a Pittsburgh guy. I always have been and I always will be,” he said, his voice rising. “There have been a lot of coaches before me and there will be a lot of coaches here after me, but I can assure you . . .none of them will love Pitt as much as I have.”

I believe that, but it sure looks like his own personal pride came before Pitt in the past couple weeks.

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Not that anyone seems to have remembered or cared, but Pitt still has a bowl game in less than a week.

We will find out officially sometime around noon, but it now appears that Dave Wannstedt won’t coach a final game.

Pitt defensive coordinator Phil Bennett will be named interim head coach for the Panthers and coach them in the BBVA Compass Bowl in Birmingham, Ala., against the University of Kentucky, according to a source.

Former Pitt head coach Dave Wannstedt informed his staff this morning that he will not coach in the game, the source said. Wannstedt was forced to resign from his job Dec. 7, but remained with the university as an assistant to Athletic Director Steve Pederson.

Wannstedt scheduled a noon news conference today to discuss the coaching situation. The souce said Wannstedt has not informed Pederson or Chancellor Mark Nordenberg of his intentions as of this morning.

And by “coaching situation,” he means his own and who is coaching on the 8th. Not the programs.  He is not planning to answer any questions about the mess that is finding his replacement.

Let’s get some things cleared up, that seem to be taken as truth.

Pitt hired a search agency called Parker Executive Search Firm. Somehow, the fee paid to this firm has been claimed to be $300,000. This is false. $300K was what Mike Haywood earned at Miami. Having followed enough of these coaching searches, the fee is usually between $25,000 and $75,000. Still costly but not nearly as absurd as some have stated.

A search firm like Parker does not actually help in picking the candidates. They are well compensated middlemen. The guys who act as go between to gauge interest between coaches and schools. It allows all parties to maintain plausible deniability about whether the two sides talked. Here’s a good story that has Vandy’s Vice Chancellor David Williams talk about using a search firm.

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This didn’t take long. Lots more to come, to be sure.

Chancellor Nordenberg has announced that Mike Haywood has been fired.

Pitt chancellor: “After careful consideration of recent events, Pitt has dismissed Michael Haywood as football coach, effective immediately:

This has been repeated from several news sources on Twitter including Brian Bennett at ESPN.com, Stuart Mandel at SI.com and Pete Thamel at the NYTimes. As well as Chris Peak at PantherLair.

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Contrary to earlier reports that had Mike Haywood staying in a St. Joseph County, Indiana jail until Monday, Haywood was allowed to post bond and be released today. That’s about the only good news for Haywood at this point.

Mr. Haywood originally was not going to be released until after his arraignment Monday at 1:30 p.m., a jail official said this morning. However, that changed when the St. Joseph County Prosecutor increased the charge from a misdemeanor to a felony, according to the jail, allowing Mr. Haywood to be released earlier.

Under Indiana state law, domestic battery is a Class A misdemeanor, which carries a penalty of up to one year in jail and a maximum $5,000 fine. If the alleged battery occurred in the physical presence of a child who is younger than 16, it can be charged as a Class D felony.

According to the jail, the St. Joseph County Prosecutor increased the charge to a felony because the alleged battery took place in the presence of Mr. Haywood’s 21-month-old son. A Class D felony conviction could mean a jail term between six months and three years, with an advisory sentence of one and one-half years, and a maximum $10,000 fine.

When the alleged battery was classified as a misdemeanor, according to a jail official, Mr. Haywood’s bond could not be posted until a no-contact order was filed and he was arraigned. When the prosecutor’s office increased the charge to a felony, it issued an arrest warrant, which according to the jail established a bond and court date and allowed Mr. Haywood ‘s bond to be posted.

Now to be fair, and lord knows we saw a bit of that this past year with Pitt players — what you are charged with does not mean much other than giving the prosecution more leverage in plea negotiations.

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In so many ways across so many lines.

I don’t care if you thought this hire was a mistake or not. Or if you thought this would end poorly for Pitt, this was never expected. And no one should think that this will be good for Pitt in the short or even medium-term. So any triumphalism should be tempered by the complete FUBAR-edness of the matter.

The history of replacing a coach so quickly after a firing and hiring in college football is a small sample size. George O’Leary at ND and Mike Price at Alabama are the only ones to come to mind in recent years. In both cases, the next guy hired (Tyrone Willingham and Mike Shula, respectively) ended up lasting four years or less,  and not working out well.

The knee jerk reaction is that Haywood and AD Pederson need to go immediately. I admit that I can’t really argue against it based on the present situation, and what we know.

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