Unlike the Fraud I don’t want to be overly malicious to the late-not-really-lamented-so-much-as-wanted-to-see-one-Pitt-football-coach-still-be-on-the-job-when-at-the-very-least-his-first-recruiting-class-graduated, Paul Chryst. Hell, I would have taken being a little more laid back on him than I have been to Dave Wannstedt.

And yet…

I’ve seen some Big Ten media gripes and quips about how dull as dirt Chryst’s media sessions are. Nothing shocking there, and that’s just the man himself. Mildly amusing that others have to put up with it, but that’s about it.

One of the issues with Chryst the head coach has been his “hands off” approach to recruiting. As much as Walt Harris was accused of having a distaste for recruiting, Chryst took it to a different place. Not only evincing a desire to not get in the muck, but at times not making it clear if a player was offered and/or maybe not being available to talk to him when he wanted to talk or visit the campus.

It was enough at times to make you think he was treating Pitt like a trial run. Learning on the job. Maybe not really caring enough.

So, I guess in that respect, it is good to know it is just the man himself. As these two tidbits from Wisconsin message boards suggest.

A 3-star linebacker from Ohio (via Florida) came up for a visit and was already to commit. That is until he never got to meet with Chryst in Madison. Somehow there was a “mix-up” and Chryst was helping with his family’s move. A failure to communicate with a recruit, so the kid didn’t commit and is now keeping his options open.

Per this other part of the Wisconsin message board, part of the miscommunication stems from discord between Chryst and his defensive coordinator Dave Aranda.

Aranda was retained from the previous staff — at the insistence of Wisconsin AD Barry Alvarez. The job Aranda had been doing with the Badger defense was very respected, and he was liked as a coach and recruiter. Chryst still wanted to bring in his own guy (Matt House), but got shot down. It may be a short-term relationship.

Aranda was recruiting this particular kid and got him for a visit, only to have Chryst kneecap him.

Go figure, Chryst finds that a guy he doesn’t have enough of a tie to, and basically doesn’t try to make an effort to connect. It creates a bit of tension and a further wedge between them. Chryst sees a guy not on the same page as his entire staff and this only reinforces his belief that staff coherence is vitally important over all else.

Of course this is all message board stuff, so the truthiness of it can be fuzzy. It’s just that so much of it is very familiar to be written off easily.

Not Pitt’s problem anymore.