Now this is the kind of news you expect in a quiet offseason.

University of Pittsburgh head football coach Todd Graham announced a change regarding the coaching staff’s positional assignments for this year.

Tony Gibson, whose previous positional focus was on the cornerbacks, will now coach the entire secondary and serve as pass defense coordinator.

Randall McCray, who was initially assigned the safeties, will now coach the outside linebackers. McCray will continue to coordinate special teams.

Additionally, tight ends coach Tony Dews will add the role of recruiting coordinator.

“We always want to ensure our staff is operating at the highest levels of efficiency and effectiveness,” Graham said. “Based on our experience this spring, we felt these changes would significantly enhance our teaching and coaching on the defensive side of the ball.”

I have to admit, the distaste that Michigan and WVU fans have expressed for Tony Gibson’s coaching acumen has me a touch nervous. It is along the lines of the way Pitt fans felt about Jeff Hafley’s ability to coach the secondary the previous couple of years. And now he goes from just handling the cornerbacks to the entire secondary and scheming the pass defense? Erp.

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Reports are that former 5-star linebacker from Gateway, Dorian Bell, might be looking to transfer to Pitt from Ohio State (hat tip to DeVanzo and others who have shot me msgs about this). Given all that is swirling around Ohio State’s program and Jim Tressel, this might be considered a situation where a player just wants out of what could be a really messed up program.

That’s not necessarily the case with Dorian Bell, who was suspended for the entire upcoming season for the always nebulous “violation of team rules.” This was his third violation of the unnamed rule. It cost him the Sugar Bowl this past season. Yes that’s right, Pryor and all the other tattoo boys made it to the Sugar Bowl but not Bell and his rules violation.

Obviously this is not a  player that has shown good judgment to this point. The talent is mostly undeniable, but the decision making has been poor. I’m not sure about this one, from a character standpoint. His talent suggests taking the risk, but with three failures at Ohio State it isn’t so clear-cut.

Bell would have been a redshirt sophomore this season. Sitting out if he transfers would still give him two years of eligibility.

This year, didn’t even rise to a level of “will he at least listen?” status. NC State, Mizzou, and now Maryland didn’t even make it past the wish list stage. There never was a moment this entire spring when it even seemed plausible that Coach Dixon was going anywhere. This despite being on all of those fanbases wishlists.

Part of what made filling the Maryland job so much harder was the timing of Gary Williams’ retirement. Convincing any coach like Sean Miller (who now swears he’s not going anywhere), Jamie Dixon, Jay Wright, et cetera to up and leave in May does not happen without being a top-5 job and big, big money in play.

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