I know the drill. It’s one we probably all know. We’ve seen it at Pitt. We’ve seen it at other schools. New coach comes in. He’s not just a promising coach. He’s a special guy. He gets “it.”

This AP story by Will Graves is decent enough. Doesn’t go over the top about Chryst. Plays up the humble, doesn’t like to talk about himself aspect.

When asked what a “Paul Chryst Team” is going to look like, the man tasked with providing a meandering program with stability just lets out a small sigh.

“Number one, it’s not my team,” he said. “I’m not the only coach, but our staff believes and I really respect and enjoy the game and playing it the right way. To me that’s the thing you’re shooting for, you know, all the clichés.”

It’s not that Chryst is intentionally trying to sound boring. It’s just that he’s not a big talker or self-promoter. Maybe that’s why the 46-year-old had to wait so long to get his first head coaching gig despite being considered one of the top offensive minds in college football for a decade.

Chryst hardly cares. He’s here now, trying to provide a sense of calmness to a program that’s spent two seasons in transition, from coach to coach to coach and conference to conference.

The whole anti-Graham theme is strong in any story about Chryst. To be fair it is hard not to draw a very huge distinction between the two.

At the same time we built up the same crap with Graham last year. The inspiring back story of being raised by a single mom. Playing at a small D-III school. Working his way up. He was positively portrayed as energetic and revitalizing. That arrogance was portrayed as a bravado and cockiness. Even drawing comparisons to Oklahoma native, Jackie Sherrill — before the season started. We all know how that turned out.

This is not saying that Chryst is the same as Graham once the the basics are stripped away. This is about making the coach into something more than he is. I mean, there was a statue just removed at another school for going so far down that path for too long.

So, I don’t want to be negative, but this comes so close to going over the top.

But the fact that Chryst is quiet, humble, genuine and extremely down to earth only masks the fact that a competitive fire burns in him and that he is committed to building a winning program, one loaded with players who will make fans proud on and off the field.

“Paul isn’t a guy like the last guy Pitt had who is going to sit there and blow smoke about what he is going to do and how great he is,” said Wisconsin athletic director Barry Alvarez, a former Badgers coach who had Chryst on his staff.

…

And that’s why Alvarez, from Burgettstown, Washington County, said Chryst is the perfect fit for Pitt because he is an old-school “faith, family and football” guy whose work ethic and values are similar to people in Western Pennsylvania.

“He is not one of those ‘on the phone’ guys, he isn’t always searching for the next best thing,” Alvarez said. “He is working hard, and he doesn’t waste time because he is a great family man, a great husband and father. There isn’t much time for much else beyond football and family when you are a coach but he has that balance. I know the people in Western Pennsylvania and what they value, I am a Western Pennsylvania guy, and Paul is a great fit there.”

Yes these are his friends and mentors talking Chryst up, but let’s actually keep the same perspective on Chryst that he says he has.

“At the end of the day the thing that matters most is your family,” Chryst said, “and I think that you do have to find that balance between work and family, but I don’t think football coaches are unique in that department — I’m not different than the guys punching a clock and working, we’re all looking for balance. I think you can do your job well and take care of your family.

“The key for me is, I try to keep things simple, I don’t think you need to make it more complicated than it is and I try not to worry about things I can’t control. It is just how I’ve always done things. I want to be the best at everything I do, but I do believe that a coach’s most important job is to help players become the best they can be, and that’s really where my focus is.”

And that on-the-field performance will ultimately define how we, as fans, define Chryst.