You don’t mind if I put off any post on the game from last night do you? You don’t? Good.

So when last we left the Expansiopocolypse (and for the record, I can’t tell you how disappointed I am that this word has not caught on with anyone), there were reports of a settlement looming between West Virginia and the Big East. The issue was that the numbers being leaked by each side seemed quite wide.

On the Big East side, the settlement would be in the $20 million range. By contrast the WVU side was leaking a figure of $11 million. That seems like quite a wide gap for an imminent settlement.

However, a parsing of what was actually written based on leaks from both sides suggests that both numbers could be correct. Bear with me, there is some math involved, parsing words and abject speculation. In other words, par for the course when it comes to everything else in the process.

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It’s been a month since Paul Chryst has been hired by PITT to be the Head Coach of the football program and the dust from that decision has pretty much settled.  His hiring came after a tumulus 13 month period in which we saw a six year HC fired, his replacement arrested and fired after a few weeks on the job and a third and divisive HC hired just to do a disappearing act after 10 months.

After Haywood imploded his career and Graham thumbed his nose at us what PITT needed in its next HC was a stabilizing and more conservative man to get the football program back on an even keel. I think we found that in Chryst. Just as with any head coaching search the fans weighed in with their favorites and inevitably some were disappointed with PITT’s choice and others were made very happy.

Now, after his first month, it appears that there is a contingent of fans who just feel the need to criticize everything Chryst did or is rumored to have done.  There is a laundry list of negative issues that these fans hold onto, mostly with no firm facts to support them.  Here are a few of the complaints about Chryst and staff from before he was hired to the present.

1.  Chryst had no head coaching experience.  Neither did Jackie Sherrill and we seem pretty satisfied with his work at PITT, don’t we?  This was a valid concern as inexperience in being the Top Dog can come back and bite the program sometimes.  But Chryst had been an OC with a Pac-10 and then a Big Ten school and had done well at that.  Leadership is a quality one develops in many ways and everyone who assumes the prime position has had to gather those qualities along his professional path. Chryst was heartily endorsed for the position by his AD Barry Alvarez who is well familiar with PITT and WPA football.  This is a ‘wait and see’ issue but there is no foundation to think he’ll not be able to assume the mantle and succeed.

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