Back in September Pitt received a commit from undersized tailback Jerimiah Bryson out of Tennessee. Why? Apparently because you can never have too many of these type of players. Well, the 2-  to 3-star tailback has issued his ultimatum on the coaching change at Pitt.

“If [Bernard Clark] doesn’t have a job, I’ll likely decommit,” Bryson said.

If he means it I think we can say, buh-bye to Bryson. Good luck at Cinci, UNC or MTSU.

So who wants to claim that this is part of the post-hiring recruiting disaster?

I think back to the summer. To puff pieces about how Dave Wannstedt cared about the players beyond football. That was not a lie. It was clear throughout Wannstedt’s tenure that the academics and the development of the players as well-rounded individuals were more than mere lip-service.

The issue of players off-the-field activities has come into play following Mike Haywood’s hire, because of a press conference that was long on character, discipline, accountability and leadership buzzwords. And short on the on-the-field issue of winning games. As I said at the time, I thought the lack of talk of winning was by design.

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Trying to get back to focusing on basketball a bit more. You know, because they are actually playing games. Plenty of random things as well.

Pitt had little trouble with Maryland Eastern Shore on Saturday night. This surprised no one. Seeing Gilbert Brown go off, though, was something of a sight. It earned him Big East player of the week honors. Coach Dixon knows what is coming, though, in media questions when Brown plays well for a game.

“Every time he doesn’t follow up one (game) with another one, a lot of people jump on him or focus on being negative,” Pitt coach Jamie Dixon said. “It’s hard to have big numbers every single game … but I like where he’s coming from, and I like where he’s going.”

Er, maybe because we haven’t seen consecutive good games from Brown since…? It’s not big numbers each game. It’s good shooting percentages. It’s just playing well.

I’d say, offensively with Brown, the most disappointing thing — and I saw it even in this past game — is that he no longer attacks the basket. He is way too eager to take a jumper. He has shown little inclination to drive to the hoop, and he has seemed timid when he actually gets there with any traffic around him. So, I think that has led to even more of his inconsistency with scoring. He will have nights like Saturday, where he was so on with his shot; but then it will streak (or clang) the other way.

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Yes, I’ve noticed that Ralph Friedgen is apparently out at Maryland. Seems to be a trend this year. We all see the similarities. Whether it was pushing out Stewart at WVU. Pitt and Wannstedt. Even Syracuse fans see it akin to the tossing of Pasqualoni. What becomes apparent is that the money matters — and not the money for the coach.

Maryland has been unable to sell out all the suites at the remodeled Tyser Tower, part of Byrd Stadium.

Asked about the unsold suites in October, Anderson adopted a grim tone and said that leasing them needed to be a top priority.
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Friedgen has had mixed support among Maryland boosters. Some alumni have applauded his loyalty to his alma mater and his coaching record, while others have said the school needs a splashy hire such as Leach to sell suites and more tickets.

The Terrapins, despite a significant turnaround and having a chance late in the season to win their division in the ACC, could not get a sellout (even on paper) for any of their games this season.

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I am guessing the students disagree, but I am very grateful for Finals week at Pitt. It’s meant a week with no basketball games. Given the Pitt football saga of the week, that has been a good thing.

So the game is on FoxSports-Pittsburgh, MASN, ESPN3.com and ESPN FullCourt package starting at 7pm.

New Pitt football HC Mike Haywood will be there before the game doing the meet-and-greet. I expect that he will stop by the broadcast booth since that is standard PR.

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It seems that Pitt under HC Mike Haywood will have no hold-overs from the Wannstedt regime. I’m not totally surprised by this. Personally I would have liked to see Greg Gattuso and David Walker have remained on staff. I think Gattuso is an excellent coach and would have been a very vital bridge to the hyper-sensitive, good-old-boys network of Western PA high school coaches. That strikes me as risky. Walker is simply one of the best running backs coaches out there. Period.

Losing Jeff Hafley to Rutgers hurts from a recruiting perspective, but it can only help the secondary. Heck, even Rutgers fans are a little unsure about the cost of bringing Hafley aboard with that risk. Of course, Rutgers HC Greg Schiano hasn’t actually said where Hafley will coach. I would recommend Rutgers make him the Defensive Coordinator. Yeah. That’s what they need. That would be the best place for him.

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What? You haven’t joined the Pitt Blather Bowl Challenge yet? The bowl games start tomorrow at 2 pm.

Need your incentive other than the joy of competing by predicting the outcome of all the bowl games?

Okay, time to announce the prize for the winner.

You will have a choice. I have one pair of the customized Pitt Nike Zoom Huarache training sneaker, courtesy of Nike. Here are some more pics from the Pro Combat day. I would have kept the pair for myself, because I did get to try a pair and they fit nicely. Unfortunately the pair they sent me is not my size. So if you win and want the sneaker option we will find out if you have the right sized foot for this.

(Odd aside, of the ten programs to get the Pro Combat treatment this fall, four of them — Pitt, Florida, Miami and WVU — have coaching turnover.)

Now the other prize option is a schwag/regifting collection. All of the items are new/unused. I’ve ended up with them, and it’s time to dump them share.

Among the items in this are:

— 8 GB jump drive in the form of Nike branded military dog tags

— Padded black Nike drawstring bag

— Jim Beam branded flask

— Brewzkey bottle opener

— Flying Dog branded pint glass

And I’m adding this t-shirt in size Large

There may be some other items added, but I have to look what is accumulated.

How can you not be fired up to play now? Register, here.

During the press conference, twitter among Big East and Pitt fans had a nice surge and it was interesting to follow reactions there and of course in the comments on the blog. In terms of initial impact this was not Will Muschamp at Florida firing things up. Nor is it the emotional moment of Charlie Strong being introduced at Louisville. The general reaction, though, seemed positive.

I thought, though, that it was a solid performance. Nothing earth-shaking or even particularly revealing. He’s not a publicly firey guy. If you expected or wanted that, then you were disappointed. And man does he have an icy-stare when talking to the media.

I think that stare was part of why the Q&A with the media was so brief. He sort of intimidated them. He struck me as having a bit of Saban-esque contempt in his eyes when dealing with the media.

He’s definitely not Wannstedt in that respect.  Not going to be easily warm and cuddly with the media. Going to be an adjustment.

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What do the hirings of Jamie Dixon, Dave Wannstedt and Mike Haywood have in common?

It obviously isn’t the success rate.

Believe it or not, it isn’t the AD, as each was hired with a different AD ostensibly in charge.

It’s not even the money.

It’s that in all of the moves to make the hire, there was a clear #1 target and then only a cheap fallback.

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Pitt will be holding an press conference at 4 pm today to announce the hiring of Mike Haywood as Pitt’s next head coach in football.

I have said before that I am actually intrigued by the hire. I think Mike Haywood may turn out a lot better than the reactions from many.

I am not, however, enamored with how the process went. That has been an incredible turn-off. The actions have only reinforced the perception (or reality) that Pitt is not willing to spend the money to compete in 1-A football beyond a certain level of mediocrity (more on that later in a longer, more rambling post that I am trying to finish).

Just to get this straight.

Miami fired Randy Shannon back on November 28, following their loss to South Florida and began their coaching search.

Pitt fired Dave Wannstedt on December 7.

According to reports after the fact, Pitt zeroes in on Al Golden within a few days. Miami however, after nearly two weeks of interviews and searching finally had zeroed in on Golden and made an offer culminating in him taking the job there.

Pitt presumably moved to Dana Holgorsen as the next target. It turned out, however, that WVU’s AD had already been seeking out Holgorsen. Trying to meet and interview with the guy back in the beginning of  December, and started working out a deal with Holgorsen last week. That resulted in the whole one year as OC before becoming the headcoach.

In both cases there are two things in common. The obvious is the timeline. Miami and WVU got at least a week head start on Pitt in their searches or pursuit of the coaches they wanted. So it would does make sense that they would make the moves before Pitt could.

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I don’t know what to think about anything regarding the coaching search at the moment. I know even less about the whole deal with Dana Holgorsen, WVU, Oliver Luck and Bill Stewart.

Was Pitt looking at and trying to get Dana Holgorsen? Yeah. I do think that. At the very least, there was strong interest in him and Pitt had discussed things with him. That’s about as far as I’m willing to go with it. I don’t think contract was even close to being worked out, and I’m not even sure the job was actually offered to him. But I’m reasonably sure they talked.

On the West Virginia side of things, there was plenty of dissatisfaction with Bill Stewart that rivaled the Pitt fans dissatisfaction with Wannstedt. Remember that before the Backyard Brawl, there was less than a tongue-in-cheek suggestion that the losing coach could find himself out of a job. Heck, even after winning, a “rumor” suddenly was circulating that Stewart would retire after this season.

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Time for some media and navel-gazing while trying to put things in a little perspective.

If I was obsessed with numbers and hit counts, then I would want this coaching search to drag out for a while. People have been hitting this site hard. Commenting, refreshing, just trying to get any new scrap of info they can get.

But I’m not. I’d rather have this search over soon. If for no other reason than to let everyone take a breath and (over)reacting to every report, rumor, scrap and even when there is no information.

I get it. This is very tense. The next head coach will do one of three things. Push Pitt football forward and move it past where it is now to something greater. Neutral results that have Pitt still around the same place it has been for most of the past decade. Backwards where the program regresses and is just a general disaster. Or in terms of recent Big East coaches: Kelly, Wannstedt or Kragthorpe.

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News to upset some of the fans.

Interesting developments in the carosel of coaching…….According to a very good source – and believe me, sources are always very sketchy but this one has never steered me wrong — Dana Holgorsen will not be the next head coach of Pitt.

That’s all I can write about it now, I’ll have more later and I can say it with confidence – Holgorsen is not going to be the head coach at Pitt, pass it on to all who care.

But that doesn’t mean he might not still end up in the Big East…

The rumormill in the twitterverse indicated that WVU jumped in lately to offer Holgorsen the OC position and would then make him HC when Stewart retired in a year.

It’s all very strange.

UPDATE: Colin Dunlap, the PG’s WVU beat writer confirms the intrigue.

Sources confirmed today that a high-ranking official from West Virginia’s athletic department has been in contact with Oklahoma State offensive coordinator Dana Holgorsen about the head coaching position at West Virginia, even as there is no vacancy.

That job would only come open if West Virginia athletic director Oliver Luck fired Mountaineers coach Bill Stewart either before, or after, West Virginia plays in the Champs Sports Bowl on Dec. 28 against North Carolina State. Luck declined to comment.

A source confirmed it is probable Stewart will be fired if West Virginia does not win that bowl game, and could happen regardless of the outcome.

Can you say bidding war? There’s also speculation about the “coach-in-waiting” thing, but that Stewart is ready to resign if it comes to that. Neatly solving WVU’s Stewart problem regardless

Sorry. Family visiting. Things I couldn’t get out of, and I was not coming back to post until I had a chance to watch the Tenn-Pitt game (damn) until Sunday night (more on that later).

So Al Golden did turn out to be something of a serious candidate, but Miami wanted him as well. This actually is par for the course with Miami coaching choices since Dennis Erickson departed. Picking fairly conservative, disciplinarian, clean, guys. The ‘Canes tried to hire Jim Tressel before Butch Davis — who before the UNC scandal had cleaned-up and rebuilt Miami. Shannon was more of the same. Larry Coker was lacked the disciplinarian part, but was conservative in his game.

Florida surprised many by hiring Texas DC Will Muschamp. Gus Malzahn is unofficially out of contention for Pitt with Vandy offering him up to $3 million./year.

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