Pitt’s search for a new offensive coordinator continues - obviously - and like everybody else, we’re all trying to figure out who Pat Narduzzi is talking to and who is on his radar. Here are a few things we’ve picked up in the last couple days and a couple thoughts on the situation.
- It’s not a surprise that this has been a quiet search. Quite frankly, that’s Pat Narduzzi’s preference and it’s how things have largely played out over the last two years. We produced Jim Chaney’s name a couple days before he was announced but Matt Canada came out of nowhere; I don’t think his name popped up locally or nationally until right before he was announced.
Because Narduzzi does such a good job of keeping things quiet, you often see names or leaks come out of other places - maybe someone at the school where a candidate is currently employed talks to a national writer or a local writer in that market, and the news builds from there. But Narduzzi has run a pretty tight ship at Pitt, from coaching searches to injuries to everything in between.
- So as we’ve dug around on some names that have come up, that digging has led to reaching out to people around other schools. This week, that meant looking into two names that have been discussed: Oklahoma State’s Mike Yurcich and Youngstown State’s Shane Montgomery.
Both guys are intriguing: both have roots in the Midwest and both have been pretty successful (and it seems like, at various points this season, both have had the fan bases calling for their heads). What’s also interesting is that there is talk around both guys that they could be on the move this offseason - not necessarily getting fired, but looking at other positions and opportunities.
Now, I couldn’t confirm that Pitt has been in contact with either guy, but they at least appear to be on the market.
- Interestingly, I reached out to Jim Comparoni at SpartanMag.com for some thoughts and he opined that, when he was defensive coordinator at Michigan State, Narduzzi always spoke very highly of Kevin Wilson and the offense he ran at Indiana. There seemed to be so much admiration from Narduzzi that Comparoni would be surprised if Narduzzi didn’t reach out to Wilson at some point in this process.
Wilson is reportedly going to become the offensive coordinator at Ohio State and I’m still not sure if Pitt would have brought in the former Indiana head coach given his baggage, but I thought that notion from Comparoni was interesting.
- On the matter of compensation, everything we said during the Canada/LSU situation still applies to the next hire. Pitt was prepared to make Canada the highest-paid offensive coordinator in the ACC; LSU was still able to trump that offer, but Pitt wasn’t cheap in that situation and they will not have to be cheap in making the next hire. From what I’ve gathered in talking to a couple different people, Narduzzi felt like he had good support in the Canada process and understood that, sometimes you go against a school that outbids you, and that’s what happened.
Most importantly, Narduzzi feels like Pitt did everything it could to keep Canada. That’s the key in this whole thing: Narduzzi needed to come out of it feeling like Pitt was behind him. And from what I’ve heard in the last two weeks, that’s how he felt.
Now that support and those resources can be put toward the next hire. They might need to be or they might not need to be, but they are there if they are needed.
- One thing I’ve mentioned in this search is that Narduzzi doesn’t necessarily need to hire an offensive coordinator with experience coaching quarterbacks - which Canada and Chaney did - since the NCAA is expected to approve a rule change that allows a coaching staff to have 10 assistant coaches (as opposed to the current nine).
That opens up some options for Narduzzi in case he wanted to hire someone whose background is on the offensive line or with receivers, etc. My initial thought was that Narduzzi could hire whoever he wants, and if that coach doesn’t have a background with quarterbacks, Tim Salem - who coached quarterbacks at Purdue, Ohio State, Eastern Michigan and UCF - could handle the position during spring camp and then a new quarterbacks coach (or a new tight ends coach, if need be) could be hired in April once the rule change happened.
But then Kenny Pickett mentioned to me that he was looking forward to working with Wesley Beschorner, who was an offensive quality control assistant this year, and that raised an eyebrow. On top of that, I’ve heard that offensive graduate assistant Dave Bucar is going to join Canada at LSU in a quality control or other such position. I thought that was interesting since Beschorner had worked closely with Canada in game-planning and with the quarterbacks - yet he didn’t go with Canada to Baton Rouge.
Now I’m looking at the situation and thinking that things could be setting up in this fashion: Narduzzi can make his offensive coordinator hire, regardless of that coach’s position expertise, while Beschorner works with the quarterbacks in spring camp and possibly gets promoted to a full-time assistant (becoming the 10th coach on staff).
This makes a lot of sense. Beschorner is an impressive guy, with a good deal of experience as offensive coordinator, associate head coach and even interim head coach at South Dakota. He wanted to be the head coach at South Dakota last year, but when he was passed over, he decided to try another path - which led him to Pitt.
Everyone I’ve talked to has been really impressed with Beschorner: they say he has a great mind for football and a lot of energy, and it sounds like the players really respond to him well. I suspect Narduzzi is going for an offensive coordinator with Division I experience, but if that scenario I suggested above actually plays out, perhaps Beschorner could be in line for the coordinator spot a few years down the road.
- We’ll see what plays out in this current search. The AFCA convention starts Sunday and runs through Wednesday; it may take that long for Narduzzi to make his hire, but I don’t expect it to last much longer than that. The coaches go on the road Thursday, and while there’s no senior quarterback for the new offensive coordinator to build a relationship with, there are juniors to see and, more importantly, be seen by.
- It’s not a surprise that this has been a quiet search. Quite frankly, that’s Pat Narduzzi’s preference and it’s how things have largely played out over the last two years. We produced Jim Chaney’s name a couple days before he was announced but Matt Canada came out of nowhere; I don’t think his name popped up locally or nationally until right before he was announced.
Because Narduzzi does such a good job of keeping things quiet, you often see names or leaks come out of other places - maybe someone at the school where a candidate is currently employed talks to a national writer or a local writer in that market, and the news builds from there. But Narduzzi has run a pretty tight ship at Pitt, from coaching searches to injuries to everything in between.
- So as we’ve dug around on some names that have come up, that digging has led to reaching out to people around other schools. This week, that meant looking into two names that have been discussed: Oklahoma State’s Mike Yurcich and Youngstown State’s Shane Montgomery.
Both guys are intriguing: both have roots in the Midwest and both have been pretty successful (and it seems like, at various points this season, both have had the fan bases calling for their heads). What’s also interesting is that there is talk around both guys that they could be on the move this offseason - not necessarily getting fired, but looking at other positions and opportunities.
Now, I couldn’t confirm that Pitt has been in contact with either guy, but they at least appear to be on the market.
- Interestingly, I reached out to Jim Comparoni at SpartanMag.com for some thoughts and he opined that, when he was defensive coordinator at Michigan State, Narduzzi always spoke very highly of Kevin Wilson and the offense he ran at Indiana. There seemed to be so much admiration from Narduzzi that Comparoni would be surprised if Narduzzi didn’t reach out to Wilson at some point in this process.
Wilson is reportedly going to become the offensive coordinator at Ohio State and I’m still not sure if Pitt would have brought in the former Indiana head coach given his baggage, but I thought that notion from Comparoni was interesting.
- On the matter of compensation, everything we said during the Canada/LSU situation still applies to the next hire. Pitt was prepared to make Canada the highest-paid offensive coordinator in the ACC; LSU was still able to trump that offer, but Pitt wasn’t cheap in that situation and they will not have to be cheap in making the next hire. From what I’ve gathered in talking to a couple different people, Narduzzi felt like he had good support in the Canada process and understood that, sometimes you go against a school that outbids you, and that’s what happened.
Most importantly, Narduzzi feels like Pitt did everything it could to keep Canada. That’s the key in this whole thing: Narduzzi needed to come out of it feeling like Pitt was behind him. And from what I’ve heard in the last two weeks, that’s how he felt.
Now that support and those resources can be put toward the next hire. They might need to be or they might not need to be, but they are there if they are needed.
- One thing I’ve mentioned in this search is that Narduzzi doesn’t necessarily need to hire an offensive coordinator with experience coaching quarterbacks - which Canada and Chaney did - since the NCAA is expected to approve a rule change that allows a coaching staff to have 10 assistant coaches (as opposed to the current nine).
That opens up some options for Narduzzi in case he wanted to hire someone whose background is on the offensive line or with receivers, etc. My initial thought was that Narduzzi could hire whoever he wants, and if that coach doesn’t have a background with quarterbacks, Tim Salem - who coached quarterbacks at Purdue, Ohio State, Eastern Michigan and UCF - could handle the position during spring camp and then a new quarterbacks coach (or a new tight ends coach, if need be) could be hired in April once the rule change happened.
But then Kenny Pickett mentioned to me that he was looking forward to working with Wesley Beschorner, who was an offensive quality control assistant this year, and that raised an eyebrow. On top of that, I’ve heard that offensive graduate assistant Dave Bucar is going to join Canada at LSU in a quality control or other such position. I thought that was interesting since Beschorner had worked closely with Canada in game-planning and with the quarterbacks - yet he didn’t go with Canada to Baton Rouge.
Now I’m looking at the situation and thinking that things could be setting up in this fashion: Narduzzi can make his offensive coordinator hire, regardless of that coach’s position expertise, while Beschorner works with the quarterbacks in spring camp and possibly gets promoted to a full-time assistant (becoming the 10th coach on staff).
This makes a lot of sense. Beschorner is an impressive guy, with a good deal of experience as offensive coordinator, associate head coach and even interim head coach at South Dakota. He wanted to be the head coach at South Dakota last year, but when he was passed over, he decided to try another path - which led him to Pitt.
Everyone I’ve talked to has been really impressed with Beschorner: they say he has a great mind for football and a lot of energy, and it sounds like the players really respond to him well. I suspect Narduzzi is going for an offensive coordinator with Division I experience, but if that scenario I suggested above actually plays out, perhaps Beschorner could be in line for the coordinator spot a few years down the road.
- We’ll see what plays out in this current search. The AFCA convention starts Sunday and runs through Wednesday; it may take that long for Narduzzi to make his hire, but I don’t expect it to last much longer than that. The coaches go on the road Thursday, and while there’s no senior quarterback for the new offensive coordinator to build a relationship with, there are juniors to see and, more importantly, be seen by.
