Billy Donovan is a graduate of Providence and a legend there. Of course, even if Providence could somehow match the money he makes as coach at Florida, he’s not taking their vacant coaching job.

Just as Ohio State coach Thad Matta left his alma mater, Butler for the Xavier job, alumni ties only matter when the gig is better than the one you have. If the jobs are equal, then then money has to be better.

I mention this because the TCU job is now open. It’s not a particularly good job to take. It’s in the Mountain West. It’s behind everyone in the Big 12 and the school doesn’t put a lot into the program.

That doesn’t stop the silly talk.

He needs to go June Jones on Pitt coach Jamie Dixon.

Full-court press him. Money-whip him. Beg him. Make him an offer he finds himself unable to refuse because he has never seen that big of a number in front of that many zeroes. You know and I know you can afford it, Danny.

Of course, you are probably thinking: Why would Dixon leave Pitt, currently a No. 4 seed in the NCAA Tournament, for TCU, even with a truckload of cash for an incentive?

He is an alum, for starters. And he’s a beloved alum at that, responsible for “The Shot Heard Around The Southwest Conference.”

Dixon also wanted this job back when former AD Eric Hyman hired Dougherty. Oops. Yes, even from South Carolina, Hyman has to want a mulligan on what ultimately has to be chalked up as a monumental screw up.

The other thing is there is something a bit fishy about the whole Pitt situation because word always seems to be leaking about how unhappy this coach or that coach is there.

This is not to say Dixon is unhappy or eagerly awaiting a call from his former school. To get him to listen, to get him to consider jumping from a Big East power into an obvious rebuilding situation is going to take a lot of selling. And a lot of money.

I always love that. The presumption that a program that hasn’t really cared in quite some time, and has never spent the money will just change it’s mind and it happens.

Beyond that silliness is a simple reality of contingency planning from Dixon’s side of things. As the columnist points out, Dixon is a “beloved alum.” Dixon has also established himself as a top coach. To go completely cynical, if things were to suddenly go completely wrong and downhill over the next several years and Dixon found himself unemployed. Don’t you think TCU would still be happy to get him? A proven coach with a trackrecord of success and an alum from one of their best teams in the past 30 years?
Even if TCU found themselves with a successful coach in the intervening years, the nature of the business means that one would be moving on anyways. TCU is merely vital fallback/insurance for Dixon.

So anyways, family was in town over the weekend to keep me away from the computer.

Pitt has a new Linebackers Coach and I’m guessing the guy who will be doing recruiting in Florida: Joe Tumpkin.

Tumpkin also coached the linebackers while with the Mustangs (2005-07), serving under then-SMU head coach Phil Bennett, who is now Pitt’s defensive coordinator.

“The addition of Joe to our coaching staff fills three important needs for us,” Wannstedt said. “Number one, Joe is a seasoned linebacker coach. Secondly, he has worked extensively with special teams. Finally, as a Miami native, he is very familiar with the state of Florida and has recruited there the last several years. We’re excited about him joining us.”

Tumpkin, like the now departed, Aubrey Hill, also received a minority NFL fellowship. Tumpkin spent his last summer with the Tampa Bay Bucs.

Apparently Rivals.com — despite putting Pitt at #28 in the national recruiting rankings, which is actually a place higher than right after signing day — likes Pitt’s recruiters. Greg Gattuso was named Big East recruiter of the year and Matt Cavanaugh made the list of top Big East recruiters.

Rivals.com highlighted an assistant coach for their recruiting prowess from seven conferences, including each of the six BCS leagues. Gattuso was lauded by the website for “(pulling) off a huge upset when he reeled in cousins Cameron Saddler and Shayne Hale from Gateway.”

Gattuso “was a huge part of Pitt’s success in Western Pennsylvania,” Rivals added, also mentioning his role in helping to recruit quarterback Tino Sunseri (Central Catholic), linebacker Manny Williams (Clairton), defensive back Antwuan Reed (Greater Johnstown) and tight end Mike Cruz (Bishop McCort).

…

Rivals also lauded Pitt offensive coordinator Matt Cavanaugh on its Big East Top 10 Recruiters list, crediting him with helping the Panthers attract standout wide receivers Jonathan Baldwin (Aliquippa) and Mike Shanahan (Norwin) as well as running back Chris Burns (Wilmington Area).

Rivals.com also produced a Big East signing day dream team (only HS players). Pitt had the most players on the roster with 5: Jared Holley, Shayne Hale, Lucas Nix, Jonathan Baldwin and Cameron Saddler. Louisville and ‘Cuse placed 4 each, WVU and Rutgers with 3 a piece, Cinci and UConn 2 each and USF with 1.

Marcel Pestano — who it was already known that he was leaving Pitt — and Greg Webster have transferred to D-II California (PA) University.

Phil Bennett made SI.com’s Stuart Mandel’s list of impact coordinators hired.

The recently deposed SMU coach made a name for himself under Bill Snyder at Kansas State, where his defenses ranked in the top five nationally all three seasons (1999-2001). At Pittsburgh, he inherits another that ranked fifth in the country last season, trailing only Ohio State, USC, LSU and Virginia Tech.

Led by star LB Scott McKillop, the Panthers return 18 of 22 players on the defensive two-deep that bottled up West Virginia in their memorable season-ending upset. That defense is a major reason many prognosticators (myself included) expect Pitt to make the leap from 5-7 to top-25 contender next season, but it will require a successful transition from Paul Rhoads (now at Auburn) to Bennett.

He, who I would rather not mention, was not on the list.

It was officially announced that Bryan Bossard was hired as the WR coach.

Bossard coached the Terps receivers for the past three seasons and prior to that he coached receivers at Delaware from 2002-04. He has previously worked under Wannstedt — as a summer intern with the Chicago Bears in 1996 and 1997 — and he was a standout defensive back at Delaware from 1985-88.

This had been known for a while, but was just made official. Bossard was fired from his gig at Maryland shortly after losing the Emerald Bowl. In the game, several passes were dropped by receivers.

“Surprised? Probably not,” Bossard said yesterday.

“It’s part of the business. Whenever things don’t go as planned, someone’s always got to take the fall. I think we made plays, too. I would hope it’s not just off of one game. But again, who knows? You’re asking the wrong person why this happened.”

Bossard said Friedgen started scrutinizing the wide receiving corps during a three-game slide during this season.

Meantime, injuries took their toll. Danny Oquendo and LaQuan Williams suffered injuries that knocked them out of action toward the end of the season, forcing the team to use younger players such as redshirt freshman Emani Lee-Odai.

No strong feelings one way or the other on this. He’s a Delaware grad and I’m amused that his two sons are named Xen and Xyon. The hope is that he will help with inroads into Maryland and Virginia for recruiting.

There was also the hiring of a couple graduate assistants.

Wannstedt also announced the additional of graduate assistants Scott Turner and Greg Williams. Turner, the son of San Diego Chargers coach Norv Turnrer, will focus on the offense, while Williams works with the defense.

The bigger news is that Pitt had yet another assistant leave for a new job.

Pitt special teams coordinator Charlie Partridge has resigned to become the defensive line coach and will work with specialists at Wisconsin. Partridge has been with the Panthers since the 2003 season in various capacities.

“Charlie is an excellent young coach and I am very appreciative of the contributions he made to our program,” Pitt coach Dave Wannstedt said. “We certainly wish him and his family the very best in his new opportunity.”

He is the fifth Pitt assistant to leave Wannstedt’s staff since the end of the season.

You would think Pitt had played in a BCS bowl the way the staff has been picked apart this off-season.

Partridge was offered the job a couple years ago when Bret Bielema took over as head coach at Wisconsin.

Partridge came to Pitt under Walt Harris in 2003 and was retained when Wannstedt took over before the 2005 season. That’s why Partridge didn’t feel comfortable leaving a year later to join Bielema’s first staff.

“Essentially, I was out of a job,” Partridge said after Harris left for Stanford. “Coach Wannstedt came in, to make a long story short, he had the trust and faith to keep me on staff. I built a good relationship with him, but I couldn’t leave Pitt after one year, do that to him.”

Partridge’s wife’s family lives only a couple hours from Madison and Partridge was a college roommate of Wisconsin’s Defensive Coordinator, Dave Doeren. It is expected that Partridge will take over a lot of Florida recruiting from Doerento allow him to focus more on coordinator duties.

As for who Pitt will hire to take the job, there are a couple of internal possibilities. Sam Clancy is being mentioned — he came back to Pittsburgh a couple years ago to finish his degree and help as a volunteer assistant coach with the D-line. Bob Junko might be brought out of administrative duties to handle special teams. Gattuso might move to coach linebackers from the D-line.

I have to believe Pitt has to hire someone, though. The loss of Partridge and Hill means there are no assistant coaches with ties or connections to Florida. Pitt may not have focused too hard on Florida this past recruiting season, but it is too vital a state with too much talent to ignore.

As for the loss of Partridge, well, you hate to lose a top recruiter. That was his best quality as a coach. He was considered one of Pitt’s best recruiters on the staff.

The coaching acumen, I’m not exactly sure Pitt is losing too much. Pitt’s special teams haven’t been too impressive (think about the USF fake punts), and Pitt actually uses some starters on special teams. D-lien wasn’t exactly a strength when he was working with them. The linebacking corp that he and the departed Rhoads worked, didn’t exactly develop beyond MLB Scott McKillop.

The papers are reporting the hiring of former Southern Methodist head coach Phil Bennett to fill the defensive coordinator position that was vacated Paul Rhoads. Bennett and Dave Wannstedt have known each other for years but the hiring comes as a bit of a surprise. It seemed the leading candidate had to be Greg Gattuso.

The past experience (Post-Gazette):

Bennett was the head coach of the Mustangs from 2001 until this past season, when he was fired after a 1-11 season. Prior to that he was the defensive coordinator for three seasons at Kansas State and had stops as an assistant at Oklahoma (secondary, 1999), TCU (defensive coordinator, 1998) and Texas A&M (defensive coordinator, 1996-98).

He was fired from SMU and they (somehow) managed to upgrade to ex-Hawaii coach June Jones.

Wannstedt says:

“In Phil Bennett we are getting an immensely knowledgeable and talented coach. Phil is not only going to be a major asset for us defensively, but his tremendous experience will benefit our entire program.”

A friend who lives in Dallas and has seen a fair share of SMU games tells me his schemes are aggressive and utilize the blitz very well. That should fit well with what it seems Wannstedt wants to do with the defense — which I believe is everything we saw starting with the Cincinnati game and culminating with the great performance against WVU. That is, different blitzing packages and schemes and less of the “read and react” garbage. If DW and Bennett mesh well together, Bennett could end up be a very good addition to the staff.

Mr. Bennett, at this point the shoes you are filling are not very big. I find it hard for you to do much worse than Rhoads did. Again, thanks to Auburn for taking him.

Tony Wise, now a former New York Jets employee, was the favorite and front-runner to get the offensive line coaching job. He’s coached with Dave Wannstedt in the past, and today he was hired.

“Tony Wise brings to Pitt an outstanding record of teaching offensive line play at the highest level,” Wannstedt said. “We started our coaching careers at Pitt together, and I was always continually impressed by both his coaching style and teaching ability. I know he is going to be an immediate asset for our players on and off the field.”

Obviously as a coach, he knows what to do to get players to be successful in the NFL. He coached for so long in the pros that he knows what the good players have and can teach it to his linemen at Pitt. Not only is it good for current players but it should help attract new recruits in the future.

He’s saying all the right things and appears to be enthusiastic about returning to Pitt and the college game. I’m already expecting better results than those of Paul Dunn.

Pitt now has 3 coaching vacancies — O-line, WR and Defensive coordinator. Jeff Hafley was promoted to secondary coach. Tony Wise is expected to be hired at some point as the offensive line coach.

So really, there are only two openings. Greg Gattuso is the in-house candidate. I would be fine — thrilled even — with him being promoted to DC. Beyond his recruiting for Pitt which has been outstanding, he has plenty of experience as a head coach and game planner at Duquesne. His work as a position coach — tight ends for the first two seasons and D-line this year — has shown him to be a very good teacher.

There is a long list of possibilities. Zeise has a good list, but I’d eliminate Partridge and Jerry Olsavsky. Neither has enough experience to be the DC at this point. Foge Fazio is going to be 70 this year. I really don’t see him wanting to go through that grind.

Tom Bradley would be a highly hysterical hire. I’m not saying he would be a bad hire, but I can’t even take that seriously. (Especially with the renewed rumors that PSU’s administration might actually build up the stones to ask Paterno to at least considers some sort of succession plan and eventually call it a career.) Funny to think about, though.

There’s always the question of money and how much Pitt is willing to pay for an assistant. Something that may stop Pitt from considering Tim Lewis (Carolina Panthers secondary coach), Sal Sunseri (Carolina Panthers D-line coach) and Teryl Austin (Arizona Cardinals defensive backs coach).

AD Steve Pederson says the money shouldn’t be a problem.

“We’ll hire good coaches. I don’t think we’ve ever been in a position where we said we couldn’t afford to hire a coach,” Pederson said. “You find the right coach. So far, we’ve been able to hire them and get them in here.

“Sometimes, a school comes along and offers a coach more money than you feel you can justify paying at the time. We’re going to be fair, but we won’t get into bidding wars for assistant coaches.”

That Rhoads got a reported $400K from Auburn. Wow. No. I’m not going to bother. He’s gone, that’s all that matters. OK, maybe this highlight from his press conference at Auburn.

“We are going to be fundamentally sound. Before I even talk scheme, we are going to be very fundamentally sound. We are going to back-pedal well, we are going to take great steps as linebackers, we are going to get off and use our hands well. We are going to do all the things a great football team does fundamentally. We are going to be sound schematically. We are going to have people in the gaps they are supposed to be in. We are going to have people deep and keep offensive players in front of us.

“We are going to do those things, regardless of scheme. We are going to tackle extremely well. It is obvious that the better athletes you are playing with, the better tacklers you are going to have. I believe wholeheartedly that you can teach average athletes to be great tacklers and great athletes to be even better tacklers. And we are going to run to the football. Those things I can guarantee you.”

[Emphasis added.] Fundamentally bend-but-don’t-break folks. I will skip the part about tackling.
Coach Wannstedt doesn’t see any harm to the recruiting class from the coaching turnover, and he does say that recruiting accumen is vitally important to being hired. Not to mention, being a FOW (Friend of Wannstedt).

“None of these jobs will have any bearing on recruiting,” Wannstedt said. “We’re out there and still working hard, so we’re not under a lot of pressure to try and get them filled. We want the right mix of guys and want to make good decisions.”

…

“Usually, I have found that hiring people I am familiar with or I know has produced the best results, and this is no different. Obviously, I have a lot of people whose opinions I trust who I will look to.”

One thing that is clear. Anyone who wants to be considered for a job on Wannstedt’s staff needs to be an excellent recruiter and like that part of the job.

“Like I said at my first press conference, you need to have two excellent coordinators and the other seven coaches on your staff need to be recruiters,” Wannstedt said. “That’s always been my philosophy and that’s how successful programs do things as well.”

Waiting and watching.