The change in the Athletic Department and the football coaching search has all the oxygen. Pitt basketball has won three straight. They may not be rolling, but they are improving. Yet, I haven’t even had a chance to recap a single game.

Today it is a 4pm game that gets wide RSN distribution and ESPN3.com. Root, NESN, YES, multiple FoxSports directionals and states (hey, FS Wisconsin is on the list). You should be able to catch this game if you want to. God knows you should be doing everything you can to avoid going to a store this weekend.

(more…)

When I saw the FootballScoop.com story, I cringed. Not because I didn’t want Pitt to aim high. Not because I don’t think they couldn’t get a really good coach.

Simply because a story like that sets up disappointment and ridicule. Because when you look around the college football landscape, there aren’t that many realistic “go big” options for a head coach.

The landscape has changed. Fewer coaches are just chasing a big paycheck. The money gets absurd at the higher levels, but to some degree it flattens out. Coaches are looking as much at sustainability and the long-term.

The Dan Mullen thing has gone nowhere. Well, not quite nowhere. It seems to have just gone away. And after that?

That creates the question of what it means to “go big.” The story suggested a big name coach, and reasonably, most people seeing that phrase would think the same.

Yet outside of Dan Mullen, who is there that could fit the bill and is someone Pitt could legitimately hire away? I mean without going the route of the rumored “Godfather” offer from Michigan to Jim Harbaugh. Florida, which had once gone out and grabbed Urban Meyer, this time had to take Jim McElwain from Colorado State as the best option available in 2014.

(more…)