Spitballing a bit here, so bear with the incoherence.

As posted by Reed, SF 49ers defensive line coach and Ron Jeremy non-stunt double, Jim Tomsula appears to be poised to join Paul Chryst’s new staff at Pitt. The initial thought was that he would be the defensive coordinator. He is loved by 49er fans. I am not sure, though, about him becoming the defensive coordinator. Why?

There are reports that Wisconsin Linebacker coach Dave Huxtable will be coming to Pitt.

Pitt: We have learned that Wisconsin linebackers coach Dave Huxtable (2011 Linebackers Coach of the Year) will be joining Paul Chryst’s staff at Pitt. Huxtable coached the linebackers at Wisconsin this season and served as the defensive coordinator at Central Florida prior to that.

Huxtable coming to the Badgers last year, was something of a coup for Wisconsin. Obviously it paid off for both, but if he’s coming to Pitt it would not be to remain the linebacker coach. The guy has been a DC at UCF, UNC and GT. The extra plus side, is in recruiting since he has spent the last 20 years in North Carolina, Georgia and Flordia berfore last year in Madison. Considering the desire to recruit in Florida, plus Pitt heading to the ACC, a coach like Huxtable would be a very good hire. Whether it is real or not, remains to be seen.

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I just got word from a very reliable source, who learned first hand,  that Jim Tomsula, the Defensive Line coach for the San Francisco 49ers,  will be joining Paul Chryst as an assistant coach at PITT.  I would think that would be as a DC but I’m not sure on that count at all.

Thomsula has a pretty extensive coaching back ground in both football and carpet sales. ..

” Part of his coaching career was spent at his alma mater, Catawba College in North Carolina. He began there as a volunteer defensive line coach in 1997. He also worked part-time as a carpeting salesman and lived out of his car for part of the time while coaching at Catawba.’

Man, you have to just love that after all we’ve been through the last 12 months.

After reading this please understand that this is the first time I’ve every cited a ‘source’ on here and will probably be my last, but this info is too trustworthy not to share with The Blather folks.  If the guy who told me this is wrong I’ll kill him.

The general media response to the Chryst hiring has been positive.

“It sounds like he’s a good man for Pitt,” Dorsett said. “We’ve got to wait and see. I’m not trying to be any way but cautious. The last couple of hires at Pitt, you know how they turned out. … I’m just hoping and praying he can come to Pitt and do some of the wonderful things he’s done in the past.”

National college football analyst Dennis Dodd of CBSSports.com gave Pitt “total thumbs up” for hiring Chryst, calling him a “huge upgrade” after it “whiffed” on its past two hires. Sports Illustrated’s Stewart Mandel called Chryst’s hire “encouraging,” especially after what Pitt has endured.

“Obviously, the last 13 months were a mess for everyone involved, but I do feel they got this one right,” Mandel said. “Paul Chryst is very respected in the profession. He’s the opposite of Todd Graham. He’s not going to jump job to job, putting his name out there. … His coaching style will be a better fit than Todd Graham’s was.”

Not a terrible surprise. Only a small number of hirings are ever truly panned. Fraud Graham was considered a good hire at the time.

It’s not that the introductory press conference was spectacular or inspiring. It really was rather standard. Little hints of personality, but otherwise nothing seems overwhelmingly memorable to me nearly a week later. After last year, not standing out at the presser seemed to actually “win the press conference” for people with regards to Chryst.

Chryst also comes across as genuine, no small issue given Pederson’s brutal hires of Mike Haywood and Todd Graham. The son of a high school football coach and father of three, he spoke with a soft but serious tone and sounded anything but self-absorbed.

…

Among Graham’s many missteps at his introductory news conference was that he boasted about the greatness of his system even more than he boasted about grandiose goals.

This was refreshing.

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