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Paul Chryst had yet another opportunity to shed light on the Wisconsin situation during the Armed Forces Bowl press conference. Instead, his vague answers only confirmed what we all know:
That he wants the Wisconsin job.
Earlier talk from recruit Darrin Hall seemed to indicate that Chryst was potentially working out a deal to remain as the Pitt head coach. I was skeptical of that at the time and, as we saw/heard on Monday, with good reason.
Instead of talking about potentially staying at Pitt, Chryst was relegated to the uncomfortable situation of essentially saying he's waiting to find out if he will be Wisconsin's choice as their next head coach:
"I was told nothing will happen before then," Chryst said. "I don't know and I don't know what they're thinking specifically. It probably depends on the search."
...
"The truth of it is, I talked to them and then once I was done talking, it's all about getting back and getting our team ready for this bowl game and recruiting," Chryst said. "That's really where it's at right now."
That's really as cut and dry as it gets, boys and girls.
Chryst wants out. By his own admission, he's essentially applied for the job and is now waiting to see if he's deemed good enough (or, more likely, he's allowing the mandatory process to play out where Wisconsin has to wait before announcing him as the new coach). Regardless of what Hall said, Chryst simply doesn't have the appearance of a coach who is going to be stuck making a difficult decision. If he gets the call, he's going.
I don't find fault with Chryst here - he is in a difficult situation and, as I wrote when all of this was going down, the fact that the team is preparing for a bowl game isn't helping his case to bury himself in a hole and not talk publicly about this.
We'll see what ultimately happens, but Chryst to Wisconsin still seems like a done deal.
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