Report: Pitt Won’t Interview Greg Schiano For Coaching Vacancy

Greg Schiano is familiar with the Pitt football program after battling them for 11 years worth of Big East battles when he was at Rutgers. But he’s apparently not on Pitt’s list.

There were reports that Pitt was interested in talking to Greg Schiano, formerly the head coach at Rutgers before a failed stint with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the NFL.

One problem—Pitt is not expected to interview him.

There was a report that Pitt wanted to reach out to Schiano, who spent 11 years in the Big East with Rutgers—playing the Panthers every year.

But those reports died down after the school fired athletic director Steve Pederson almost immediately after coach Paul Chryst left the program to take the head coaching position at his alma mater, Wisconsin.

Look, Schiano was lousy in Tampa Bay—that can’t be argued. In two seasons, the Bucs were 11-21 and seemingly half the team came down with MERSA.

Not a particularly good tenure, that.

But in 11 seasons at Rutgers, Schiano was 68-67. Over the last six seasons, that record was 49-28.

Going 49-28 in six seasons at Rutgers is just about equivalent to going 69-8 with a real football program.

Under Schiano, the Scarlet Knights went to six bowl games. Prior to that, the program had gone to one … since 1869.

Schiano is 48, so it’s not like there is an age issue.

That might be why the school isn’t planning to talk to West Virginia associate head coach Tom Bradley, who spent 33 years at Penn State—the last few games as interim head coach in the wake of the Joe Paterno firing/fiasco of 2011.

The two candidates in the lead appear to be Michigan State defensive coordinator Pat Narduzzi, 48, and Marshall head coach Doc Holliday, 57, who is 39-25 in five seasons with the Thundering Herd, including a 12-1 campaign this year.

Of course, the school is asking for problems by going ahead with a coaching search before getting an athletic director in place, because that dynamic seems to end well about one time in 1,000.