Nice that Cliff Stoudt has given a verbal to Pitt. Looks like there will be some increased depth at the QB spot in the future.

The euphoria over the final game of the season is reasonable, but it also guarantees little change to the coaching staff despite a crying need.

I’d like to believe that Paul Rhoads has finally learned the value of aggreassive, attacking defenses and that things will be different. The problem for me — beyond a rather calcified and hardened position/bias on this issue — is seeing one-half of a season of that hardly erases the previous 7 1/2. I’d also note that aside from Scott McKillop completely exploding on the scene this season, there was not a whole lot from the linebacker position Rhoads was coaching. Little development and growth there.

In my ideal dream scenario, Rhoads bolts for another DC job or a minor head coaching gig while ostensibly hot. Greg Gattuso gets promoted to DC and still works with the defensive line. Gattuso has really impressed me since coming to Pitt from Duquesne. The D-line has been the strength of the team this season, his development of Romeus and keeping the line strong even after Mustakas went down was impressive.

Paul Dunn still needs to go as O-line coach. It was nice to see the Pitt offensive line really blow the Mountaineers off the line last week, but again, one game does not change the ineptitude and poor play from the rest of the season and prior seasons.

Special teams. Ugh. That’s Charlie Partridge, who is a good recruiter but hasn’t exactly distinguished himself with his coaching. Oh, and he also works with the linebackers.

I’m probably in the minority, but even before the final game, I was and still am fine with Matt Cavanaugh coming back next season as OC. Just too many key injuries and a bad O-line performance to put all the blame on him. I also thought he showed the previous season that he could get more out of the offense. I do think he needs to add more elements of the spread into the offense, and stop trying to instill a completely pure West Coast Offense. He would benefit from visiting some other schools and coaches to pick some brains — Florida, Tulsa, Cal and Arizona State would be on my short list of places to visit.

Here’s something very interesting, via Troy Nunes IAAM, a basic breakdown of recruiting ranking versus performance for college football. Pitt was second biggest underachiever in the Big East behind only Syracuse. This is a blunt instrument, not a fine tool. Nonetheless, it is still instructive and interesting.