All indications this morning are Wisconsin has found their replacement for Oregon State-bound Gary Andersen. The Badgers appear ready to welcome home one of their own, Paul Chryst. Chryst, of course, has coached the last three seasons in western Pennsylvania as the head coach at Pittsburgh. The Panthers now are about to enter yet another coaching search, their fourth such search since 2010.
For Wisconsin, Chryst appears to be a pretty logical solution. Chryst is without a shadow of doubt a Wisconsin guy. He was born in Madison. He played quarterback for the Badgers. His first offensive coordinator job came at the University of Wisconsin-Plattville, a division three school with an enrollment just over 8,000 students and a place where Wisconsin’s men’s basketball coach Bo Ryan saw great success as well. In 2002, Chryst joined the coaching staff under Barry Alvarez as a tight ends coach. After one season with the Badgers, Chryst took an offensive coordinator job at (ironically) Oregon State for a couple of years before returning to be a part of Bret Bielema’s coaching staff. Now, with three years of head coaching experience under his belt, he returns home to continue Wisconsin’s stable identity under the Alvarez mold. Wisconsin should continue to be good and a top contender in the Big Ten West for years to come, but Chryst has gone just 19-19 in his three years at Pitt. What exactly will the ceiling be in Madison?
This has to be unsettling for Pittsburgh, of course. Going through one coaching search can be stressful enough for an athletics director. This will be Pitt AD Steve Pederson’s fourth since coming to the school from Nebraska. With all of the talk about how Wisconsin may have an issue with Alvarez in charge of the athletics department, what about Pederson at Pitt, who can’t keep a coach in town? He cut ties with two coaches on his own (Dave Wannstedt and Mike Haywood, who never coached a game for the Panthers and was fired following an arrest for charges of domestic violence), but Todd Graham bolted for Arizona State and now Chryst appears to be leaving as well. I personally don’t think Pederson is to blame really, although his next coaching hire will come under some legitimate scrutiny as Pittsburgh attempts to find some stability with the program.
Any time another program within the state suffers any chance of instability, that can be an important piece of recruiting momentum for everybody else. It would be easy to sit here and suggest Pitt’s instability can be a benefit to Penn State. Perhaps it will be, as Penn State appears to becoming a more stable program with James Franklin and his staff in place. Despite some this offseason suggesting a guy like Herb Hand or Bob Shoop would make for a quality coaching option at some programs during this year’s coaching carousel, it looks as though Franklin’s staff will mostly stay together for 2015. Franklin is loyal to his staff, so this should come as no surprise, but he also will not be likely to stand in the way of one of his guys exploring and perhaps accepting a new challenge if one comes along. That said, it would be highly unlikely for Pittsburgh to even flirt with the idea of taking a Penn State coach.
Pittsburgh could have had former Penn State defensive coordinator any number of times in recent years. If they have not taken Bradley yet, then there is no chance they would sniff any coach at Penn State today.
But maybe, just maybe, Bradley could be an option for Pittsburgh now. I believe Pittsburgh will once again go a different route when the decision is made, but do not be surprised for one second to see Bradley’s name thrown around one more time. Bradley joined West Virginia’s coaching staff this season, his first coaching job since leaving Penn State at the end of the 2011 season. His impact seemed to be pretty noticeable with the improvement of West Virginia’s defensive numbers, going from ninth in the 10-team Big 12 with an average of 454.3 yards allowed per game in 2013 to allowing 388.6 yards per game and finishing sixth in the Big 12 in total defense. That is quite a turnaround for the Mountaineers, and adding Bradley to the staff surely cannot be that much of a coincidence.
Bradley still holds many connections in western Pennsylvania and still has a ton of respect throughout Pennsylvania. There is little doubt in my mind that he would help bring some stability to Pittsburgh if they did hire him to be the next head coach, and that would make for some very interesting recruiting battles in the years to come between Penn State and Pittsburgh.
Whoever becomes the next head coach at Pittsburgh will have some work cut out for them. The Panthers have some work to do to start contending for an ACC championship. There is still plenty of talent in and around western Pennsylvania, and there is also a ton of heavy competition for it between Pittsburgh and Big Ten programs like Penn State and Ohio State, not to mention West Virginia. Will the next coach bring back the wall mentality around the Steel City region? We will just have to wait and see.
There are a number of fine candidates out there for Pittsburgh to explore, and many will probably get a look before Bradley’s name even comes up. Virginia Tech defensive coordinator Bud Foster is a name that could make some sense, but will Foster be the eventual replacement for Frank Beamer in Blacksburg? If so, going to Pittsburgh now might be a close equivalent to Will Muschamp leaving Texas for Florida. Ohio State quarterbacks coach Tom Herman certainly has made a name for himself this season and has become a trendy name as well. You can throw in Michigan State defensive coordinator Pat Narduzzi’s name if you wish, although I think he stays put in East Lansing.
Penn State and Pittsburgh open a four-year home-and-home(-and-home-and-home) series in 2016. By then, will Pittsburgh be welcoming in another new coach?
Oh, and in case you forgot, Michigan is still without a head coach in place.
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
