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With news of Paul Chryst heading to Wisconsin to take the Badgers' job, we're quickly going to be moving into the land of coaching candidates for Pitt.
First up? Greg Schiano, apparently:
#Pitt has had contact with Greg Schiano regarding its soon-to-be-vacant head coaching job, source tells the Post-Gazette.
— Sam Werner (@SWernerPG) December 17, 2014
I don't fully know where I stand on this, but there are certainly worse candidates. I remember being thoroughly impressed with Schiano at Rutgers, and then came the NFL stint. Still, if you look at his body of work in college, there are a lot of things to like. Schiano, unlike Chryst, is a dynamic recruiter with a strong personality. Players like Chryst, but the sense I get from Schiano is that they could love him.
The on-field record is impressive, too. He took a laughingstock of a Rutgers program and averaged an unheard of nine wins a year there from 2005-2008.
One thing to keep in mind is that success didn't come instantly for him. Schiano had four straight losing seasons at Rutgers before getting over the hump. But he also wouldn't be starting from rock bottom at Pitt as he did at Rutgers, so success could conceivably come sooner.
Schiano also offered some stability at Rutgers, staying there for 11 seasons. And with the coaching carousel since Dave Wannstedt left, if he'd be committed to the program for the long haul, that would be a benefit.
A final plus is Schiano's age. He's 48 and that's another check in the 'pro' category.
We'll see where this leads but if Schiano is a candidate, I mean, I don't think I hate that. As long as the search doesn't begin and end with only him, I'm cool with this.
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