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When defensive coordinator Dave Huxtable left Pitt for the greener pastures of North Carolina State, one name that was floated around as a potential replacement was Sal Sunseri. It's looking like you can take his name off the list as multiple reports had him expected to take an assistant job at Florida State as of last night.
The rap sheet on Sunseri is as follows: He played linebacker at Pitt from 1978-81, coached at the school from 1985 - 1992, and has had a bunch of jobs since then. Other than a one-game stint as an interim head coach at Pitt following Paul Hackett's departure, he's never had a top job. But he's been a position coach at many big-time programs including Michigan State, LSU, and Alabama. Most recently, he was the defensive coordinator at Tennessee and a few years ago, also coached for several seasons for the Carolina Panthers.
In a nutshell, he's had a ton of credentials. And yeah - in case you were wondering, he's Tino's dad.
Sunseri's name always comes up for Pitt jobs, mostly by default. You'd be hard pressed to find many credible sources of him coming close to landing big jobs for the football program anytime recently. Sunseri just hasn't impressed Pitt enough. Here's the thing - if he were a realistic candidate for the head coaching or coordinator job, it probably would have happened by now.
After Dave Wannstedt, the school went outside of the program with Mike Haywood. And after, well, that didn't work out, they went to Todd Graham. And after that didn't work out, they went to Paul Chryst. The school has never seemed all that interested in bringing him back recently so thoughts of him coming as a DC were probably a bit off.
The defensive coordinator search continues.
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