Ending the season with a win in a bowl game — regardless of the level of the bowl — provides a certain level of positive energy. Heck, just finishing with a big win even without a bowl helps (13-9 being the ultimate proof).

Next season may be 9 months away. Training camp, 8 months from now. Spring practices aren’t until March. Signing day is about six weeks out.

But right now, it is a good feeling. Finishing the year 7-6 feels a lot better than 6-7. A 3-5 record in the ACC has more positives than a 3-4 record from the final year of the Big East. They aren’t huge steps forward, but there is some sense that there is improvement.

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You can have the best facilities. A world-class training staff. Everything you need or could possibly want. And injuries will still happen. Just ask Florida this year. Or just go back to the 2011 season.

Pitt had a couple early bye weeks in the first half of the season and has now played six straight games. It can’t be terribly surprising that injuries are starting to happen with what seems increasing frequency.

Cornerbacks Trenton Coles and Titus Howard were the latest to join that group this week, as Pitt has suffered through a rash of injuries over the past few weeks, costing them a number of starters and key contributors.

In addition to the two cornerbacks, starting left guard Cory King (hamstring) and left tackle Adam Bisnowaty (back) also missed a 34-27 loss Saturday against North Carolina. Backup tight end Scott Orndoff has missed the past two games and appeared on the field for warm-ups Saturday with a sizable brace on his left leg. Defensive end Ejuan Price has missed the past four games with a back injury.

Add in (hopefully) a minor ankle to Devin Street and knee injury to Tom Savage and everyone begins to wonder.

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Sorry. Not a lot of time today, so I kind of have to keep it shallow.

Paul Chryst gets effusive about UNC’s tight end, Eric Ebron.

“You love watching him on tape, and then all of a sudden you’re like, ‘Shoot, we’ve got to play him,’” Chryst said. “He’s good, and I love a good tight end.”

That would have 12-year-old me 16-year-old me 22-year-old me Oh, hell it still has me snickering.

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This is apparently what Paul Chryst’s victory dance looks like. Post to twitter with the hashtag #ChrystDance. Enjoy the .gif after the jump.

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Coach Paul Chryst has the press conference for Pitt-FSU today. It’s at noon and being streamed live. I may be watching and commenting. [Editor Note: Correction, it appears to be a premium feature so no live watching unless it’s being aired on ROOT.]

Okay, the game notes for Pitt-FSU are out (PDF). On page three you can find the first 2-deep.

I’m not going to try and reprint the whole thing, because fixing the formatting would take too long.

So let’s just hit the surprises/highlights/etc.

Artie Rowell is listed as the starting Center. There is no OR. Considering Roberts still struggled in training camp with the snap exchange, this can’t be a total shocker.

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Okay, the news came out of Todd Thomas officially returning to Pitt football. Justin and I were both out and not able to do a real post at the time. Now, with 24 hours to digest, it’s time to review.

Starting by looking back since there is controversy over the whole thing. It started with Thomas being “demoted” to second unit on the first day of practice. An admitted motivational tactic taken by Coach Paul Chryst. Clearly unhappy with it, Thomas nonetheless said all the right things about needing it and using it.

Then came the news that he left the team abruptly.

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I joked yesterday in the comments section of the thread about Thomas quitting that Thomas must hate me because the news came out right after I posted my column on the offensive line. Well, lo and behold right as I put the finishing touches on the column below, it’s announced he’s coming back.

The column still has some use so I edited it just to go over the players who have left since the spring and why. Sure, the Thomas situation spurred it, but it’s still good to look at all of it. I obviously know that it’s purely coincidence, but it’s fun to joke about. We Pitt fans need to laugh a little at times.

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One last thing on Friday.

A pretty good interview with Paul Chryst on the David Glenn Show (down in ACC country). About 7 minutes long. Chryst comes off less, um, taciturn.

On the other hand, there is this Tumblr that amuses… well, me.

Enjoy the weekend.

I won’t kid you. Chryst didn’t exactly reveal much. If you watched his public appearances, he is still maintaining that the QB position is still wide open and that both Savage and Voytik will get equal opportunities. He said that in the spring as well, but it was readily apparent who was getting most of the first team snaps. During smaller interviews there was still nothing. He was quoted as saying: “I’m pretty comfortable with anyone between 5’9″ and 6’6″”

On the ESPNU interview he was asked about the Rushel Shell departure and then the attempt to return to the program late. To no one’s surprise Chryst completely avoided answering that question. About the most he said is that people make decisions and everyone needs to move on.

During his ACC presser, as Chryst drained the energy from the reporters the moderator tried to keep it going for the allotted 15 minutes by asking him to talk about the running back depth chart. His exact words were, “talk about what’s left.” There’s your motivation, Isaac Bennett. You are what’s left.

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The Pitt football beat writers all swear that Coach Paul Chryst is a nice, engaging guy. Very smart. That he has a dry, wry sense of humor. And that he is friendly enough individually. They also acknowledge that he absolutely does not show any of that in press conferences.

And man, did that show up in his ACC and then ESPNU interviews.

At 2pm the ACC streamed his press conference, after which Chryst moved to the ESPN truck for his interview on ESPNU.

Paul Chryst’s ESPNU interview 7/22

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Among the roughly 70 programs in the 5.5 major conferences only a handful of programs have just two recruits: Nebraska, Colorado and West Virginia. At one solitary recruit: Oregon State, UCLA, Indiana and Pitt.

Yes, Pitt is in the mix for many key players. In their top-3, -4, -5, -8. So far that hasn’t done much good. Pitt struck out twice over the weekend with two important targets. They weren’t 5-star elite talent, but they were good players in areas of need from Pennsylvania. They were players that it had at least appeared Pitt had placed something of a priority on securing their commitments.

Is there reason to panic? Absolutely not. There’s an entire summer. There are the camps. Most of Pitt’s biggest targets have not made a choice. Not to mention, unlike last year, Pitt can’t give out 25+ scholarships. There are only 18 seniors on this roster. This is not going to be a particularly high volume class.

But is there reasons to be concerned? Oh, hell yes.

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I suggested to my wife that for our anniversary, we take off work early, pull the kids from school and take a romantic drive to Bethel Park for the Pitt Spring Game. That went about as well as you would expect. It did, however, make her more amenable to me watching the livefeed on ESPN3 at 7 pm.

The big thing is that Spring Practices are nearly done, and it feels like not a lot has been learned. Yes, there was the drama of Rushel Shell deciding to transfer, but that was more distraction. Not on-the-field, except to give Isaac Bennett and Malcolm Crockett a lot more first team snaps.

Pitt ran its practices almost entirely under cover of the NCAA Tournament. For Paul Chryst that may not have been the plan, but it was definitely a perk.

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Over the weekend while rumors percolated that House was looking more and more likely to be promoted to the DC postion; I noted on twitter that it seemed to be the sort of move that feeds the perception that Coach Paul Chryst only wanted to hire/work with other coaches that he knew on a personal level.

That assumption was challenged. Actually, it was disputed with the claim that “several Pitt coaches” never worked with Chryst. So, I wanted to be fair. Maybe it was merely my own mistaken perception. Maybe the whole Wisconsin in Pittsburgh meme got carried too far and created a false reality. I figured it was time to review the coaching staff and find see what reality says.

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You’re doing it wrong, Pitt. You release bad news — or at least controversial news — on a Friday sometime around 5pm Eastern. Especially on a holiday weekend. You don’t do it on that Monday. And certainly not when there is a big basketball game slated for national TV and rather than have the Pitt fans fired up for the game, they are debating the long-awaited hire of a new defensive coordinator.

By now, almost everyone is aware, Pitt has promoted Matt House from secondary coach to the defensive coordinator position.

House, who will narrow his positional focus to the safeties this season, joined Chryst’s staff last year after working with the NFL’s St. Louis Rams (2009-11) and Carolina Panthers (2008). He previously held collegiate coaching posts at Michigan State, North Carolina, Gardner-Webb and Buffalo.

“I was very impressed by Matt’s work last year in the secondary,” Chryst said. “He has been a great fit for our program as a coach, recruiter and teacher of the game. His experiences and work ethic have more than prepared him for this opportunity to be a coordinator.”

It was a move that had been rumored for the past month in some form or another. House is not yet 35 and what makes this move subject to many questions is his paucity of experience. He started out at his alma mater, Michigan St., as a grad assistant for two years. Then it was two years as a “defensive assistant” at UNC. A year at Gardner-Webb. Then two years at Buffalo. Never beyond a position coach.

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I have to be honest. I haven’t thought or worried too much about the vacant defensive coordinator position. It isn’t that I don’t want to get it resolved. And obviously I want Coach Chryst to hire someone who is very good at his job (not to mention above average as a recruiter).

It is just that I really didn’t expect a new DC to be hired until after signing day. Most rumors and reports suggested/hinted/implied that Coach Chryst was going to be waiting until after this week to really move on the hire. So it seemed silly to wonder, angst and provide calorie-free updates when there really was no information or expectations.

Well, now we are reaching the point where a hire is going to be made and must be made. Coach Chryst has acknowledged as much during his signing day presser.

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