Pitt Football announces more changes to Paul Chryst's coaching staff

Pitt announced a slew of changes to the football coaching staff last week and at the tail end, they had a few more.

Quarterbacks coach Brooks Bollinger left the program and apparently won't be in coaching (the official release says that he will pursue non-coaching opportunities). Paul Chryst will take over and fill the void as the quarterbacks coach in his absence.

That opened up a spot and Pitt used it to bring in a running backs coach, John Settle. Settle comes in with a pretty impressive background. He played in the NFL for a few seasons and even went to a Pro Bowl in 1988, when he racked up nearly 1,600 yards from scrimmage with over 1,000 rushing yards. More importantly than that, though - Settle has a pretty strong coaching history, with three years of coaching running backs in the NFL for the Carolina Panthers and Cleveland Browns. He also held that post for a few years at Wisconsin and was an offensive assistant for a few more years in the NFL with the Browns and Baltimore Ravens.

The thing I like about the hire is that not only have he and Chryst worked together at Wisconsin, but he has experience in both the NFL and in college. He'll know what the job entails and can also tell recruits and players what it takes to get to the NFL.

I'm a little less enthusiastic about Chryst taking on the role of quarterbacks coach. Rarely do I think a head coach should be handling another responsibility and that's true in this case, too. Just too many things to do. Chryst has enough responsibilities and with another coaching spot still open, I'd have brought in another person to manage the quarterbacks. Chryst has handled quarterbacks before but not as a head coach. I'm just not sure he needs the responsibility of doing that right now.

That said, I'm leaving it up to him to know what he can and can't handle. I'm not saying he can't do it effectively, but as a head coach, I wonder if he'd be better served with less on his plate.

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