Not a lot of concrete information.

Here are the basics:

— We know Michigan State DC Pat Narduzzi has been in for an interview. He has also interviewed with Colorado State (who has been without an AD since firing him back in August). Folks up in East Lansing think he only leaves for Pitt.

— Doc Holliday, Marshall’s head caoch, has probably/possibly been interviewed. Amusingly here’s a story where the columnist tries to rationalize why Holliday wouldn’t want the Pitt job.

— The players have been supportive of Paul Chryst going to Wisconsin. Amazing how being mostly up front with people and not feeding lies to their face can make a difference. The players have made their case to the powers that be in favor of the still OC Joe Rudolph becoming the next head coach.

Thanks in no small part to such cluelessness fueld on local sports talk radio, Pitt was actually felt the need to come out and confirm that the hiring of the head coach will come before they even begin to look for a new Athletic Director.

The search will be conducted by a four-person committee, led by executive vice chancellor Jerry Cochran. The other three members will be Gallagher, Juhl and longtime athletics administrator Donna Sanft. Cochran and Sanft have been involved in previous football coaching searches.

Juhl said Gallagher, who took over as chancellor in August, has taken a personal interest in this search.

“He thought it would make it go faster if he heard the information as it was generated as opposed to us having to transpose and send it to him,” Juhl said. “He also thought it was important that the person we hire know that they have the commitment of the university, directly from the chancellor.”

Here’s a story that provides a little information on interim athletic director Randy Juhl. Good bio, but definitely not going to be the guy getting the interim tag removed.

The hiring is not likely to be made by Christmas. Cochran won’t rule it out, but the only way it happens is if one guy blows them away. Oh, and Chancellor Gallagher is not going to be waiting for the vetting process to be complete to meet candidates.

“Could it be done by Christmas? I guess that’s possible,” Cochran said via conference call Saturday afternoon. “Could it take until New Year’s? I guess that’s possible, too. But we want to get it done as quickly as we can.

“There are important things to think about, like our recruiting class. There are important things to think about, like reassurance to our continuing ballplayers, our guys coming back next year, about how good things are going to be for them. So as fast as we can get this thing done is how fast we want to get it done.”

…

Perhaps more significantly, this search will be marked by the presence of Gallagher, who has taken a particular interest in athletics and will be more active early in the process than his predecessor, Mark Nordenberg. Rather than wait until a candidate has met with the search committee before commencing discussions – which was Nordenberg’s approach – Gallagher will be involved from the start with each candidate that is considered to be of high interest.

Getting the chancellor involved early should help accelerate the timeframe, but Cochran said there are other benefits as well.

“He is participating in the initial discussions with everybody we’re talking to, and I think that’s important,” he said. “It’s important for a number of reasons – from a timeframe standpoint but also…because it sends the message to a potential head coach what our chancellor’s position is on a number of matters to see whether or not they’re in tune with each other.”

Plus, the involvement of Gallagher gives the candidate an extra benefit.

“He can assure them that, whatever needs they have, they will have an opportunity to come to him, if necessary, and more importantly, they will have an opportunity to play a significant role through input in our search for a new athletic director.”

This is the trade-off. If you want to make a hire extremely quickly you are forced to limit the pool of candidates to conduct interviews and reach at top pick. Then see what happens in negotiations. A larger pool means it takes more time. Especially if Pitt does go after a bigger name coach presently with a job.

Other parts of information or rumors.

— This guy, has no chance.

— Matt Campbell, the Toledo head coach, has surfaced as  a person Pitt would want to interview. He’s young and many consider him an up-and-coming coach. He was expected to get at least a look, so it is not surprising.

— FootballScoop.com did their radio show last night, during the broadcast they offered no specifics on the Pitt coaching search but intimated that some “big names” have approached Pitt. My cynicism says that this is not BS, but it is not real either. This comes off as agents seeing an opportunity to use Pitt as some additional leverage for their clients. Whether it’s to get a raise or get other things for their program. Especially since no names have surfaced related to it.