… as if to catch its breath.

A little too much?

Okay. Embattled AD Steve Pederson in a rare display of openness had a limited media conference call to talk about the coaching search among other things.

The university’s search process this time is different than the way they conducted the first search, which led the university to hire former Miami (Ohio) coach Michael Haywood — who was fired on Jan. 1st, a day after being arrested on charges of domestic battery.

“We have created a small team who will assist in the initial interview process,” Pederson said. “We are meeting potential candidates in a first round, then we will identify a smaller number of candidates from that poll who will brought to campus to participate in further interviews with a group that includes the chancellor [Mark Nordenberg].

“We want to move swiftly, but we have no timeline for completion of the process and we want to make sure we find the right person to lead this program but do so in a timely manner.”

The small group conducting the initial interviews includes Pederson, Executive Associate Athletic Director Donna Sanft and Executive Vice Chancellor Jerry Cochran.

Pederson said the fact that there will be a second round of interviews means that no candidate will be hired — or even offered the job — until the group of finalists are identified and have all had a chance to meet with and interview with Nordenberg.

(more…)

Last night was crazy with the Bradley to Pitt reports, retractions, repeat sequences. If you follow me on twitter, you know it was even more absurd with Chris Gates, Bryan of Pitt Script, Chris Peak of PantherLair and assorted others.

Not sure if it will bet that bad tonight, but it sure is shaping up that way.

Hearing Todd Graham talks with Pitt are heating up dramatically. If he gets the job, Steve Kragthorpe could be candidate to return to Tulsa.

That’s from Austin American-Statesman sports columnist Kirk Bohls.

And as to why Tom Bradley seems to have fallen back to the pack.

Word is Pitt and Bradley fell off over money for assistants. Wouldn’t be surprised to see talks pick back up though.

Which seems somewhat odd since Graham’s price tag is supposedly higher, that there would be yet another instance of Pitt nickel-and-diming on assistants.

(more…)

I know it’s my own fault. It’s my own obsession and fandom that is to blame. I know if I say this out-loud in my own home, my wife would likely beat me with the media guides lying within arms reach.

I just want Pitt to hire a football coach.

Yes, Pitt needs to get this right. They need to be a hell of a lot more thorough than the last time. Interview more people. Do better diligence. Still…

I’m sick of obsessively refreshing my news tabs. I’m sick of scanning and rescanning the comments. Of practically flinching everytime Tweet Deck updates my Twitter feeds. I’m tired of being afraid of being away from my computer or phone for too long, because I might miss some tiny morsel of rumored information.

It’s worn me down, and distracted me from everything else.

(more…)

Last night was a little weird. Leaks out the wazzou from Penn State players and recruits — swiftly retracted. Denials from Pitt.

At present, there is a sense that it will happen. Just a matter of when.

Sources, it seems are highly conflicted. At present everyone seems to be backing away from declaring it done, to making it Bradley versus the field.

(more…)

Nate Stupar has claimed that he was relayed the information from Jason Aversano

Which really makes me wonder if he is just going off of what other people are saying. I mean come on, a telecom major at Penn State is not going to be getting this information any better than we are.

As for the removal of the post, I can’t really see any way he had no inside information on this. The original report from WTAE mentioned no text messages sent at all, meaning that he would have had to made those up completely out of the blue for the post to be just a follow up of WTAE. I don’t think somebody who has been covering Penn State sports for 20 years is going to go off on his own and make up text messages.

In other news, Pitt’s 79 points given up to Providence is the most Pitt has given up in Regulation since an 89-76 loss to Notre Dame on January 30th of 2002.