Pitt Announces AD Fired as Coach Leaves for Wisconsin

Well, if Pitt was looking to troll Wisconsin for hiring its now former head coach Paul Chryst they may have succeeded.

As the Badgers were announcing the return of native son Chryst, the Panthers announced his boss, now former AD Steve Pederson was fired.

The report--originally reported by Brett McMurphy of ESPN, doesn't give a reason for Pederson's departure and several other reports state he'd been interviewing potential coaching candidates as recently as Tuesday night.

Several rumors have circulated that former Rutgers and Tampa Bay Buccaneers head coach Greg Schiano had interest in the coaching job and several others have said he's the leading candidate. Pederson's departure may accelerate the move.

Pitt has already named an interim replacement for Pederson. Dr. Randy Juhl, Vice President of Compliance will oversee the athletic department until a replacement is named.

As for the football team, offensive coordinator Joe Rudolph will handle the team through the Armed Forces Bowl on January 2nd. 

Black Monday: Add Schiano And Domenik In Tampa... And Schwartz In Detroit...

Not surprising anyone here either, really...

But word had been that former Tampa Bay Buccaneers coach Greg Schiano had lost the locker room a long time ago and things hadn't gotten any better with the jettisoning of Josh Freeman in order to let Mike Glennon attempt to evolve as as an NFL quarterback...

Even garnering this honor from KO...
((HT: ESPN and Keith Olbermann))


GM Mark Domenik is also gone, according to the Bucs:

“The results over the past two years have not lived up to our standards and we believe the time has come to find a new direction. Mark has been a valued member of our organization for two decades and we respect the passion he showed for the Buccaneers during his time here. We thank Greg for his hard work and effort the past two seasons, but we feel these moves are necessary in order to achieve our goals,” said Buccaneers Co-Chairman Bryan Glazer.

1200 UPDATE: According to Adam Schefter, Jim Schwartz is also gone in Detroit...

The HQ thinks this moment from a few weeks ago didn't sit well with the front office, either, to seal his fate...
((HT: NFL on FOX))


More when we know more...

LeGrand Gets Jimmy V Award

((HT: ESPN))

In addition to Pat Summitt getting the Arthur Ashe Award last night at the four-letter's own awards night, the HQ admits they went two-for-two...

Current Tampa Bay Buc Eric LeGrand received the Jimmy V Award for Perseverance for his fight to walk again after becoming paralyzed playing for Rutgers and his head coach Greg Schiano. Schiano made a point to draft LeGrand in this year's draft...

Here's the LeGrand presentation...


The HQ believes in LeGrand as should you... check out what's going on in the right-hand margin...

LeGrand Signs With Bucs

In a classy move by his old college coach, Tampa Bay Bucs head coach Greg Schiano signed former defensive end Eric LeGrand to a free agent contract...

LeGrand had a simple message on his Twitter page this morning...

We ready!!!

Followed with a helmet of his new team...

If you want to keep track of Eric and his efforts, click on the picture in the right-hand margin...

"It's a symbolic gesture. They can't give me any money with the salary cap and all that kind of stuff," LeGrand said in a conference call. "It's symbolic, something coach wanted to do and I appreciate that. It just shows the man that he is."

The HQ couldn't be more proud...
More when we know more...

Report: Greg Schiano to the Tampa Bay Bucs

((ht: espn/schefter))

Well, it looks like the Tampa Bay Buccaneers may finally have found a coach that isn't going to spurn them.

ESPN's Adam Schefter reports that they plan on hiring Rutgers Greg Schiano to be their next head coach.

Yeah, we're scratching our heads over this one too.

More details as the become available.

Rick Stroud of the Tampa Bay Times gives us a little insight on Schiano and the process Tampa has gone through.

You can read his article RIGHT HERE

Hope many of these pundits who like Schiano are right. He had some early success at Rutgers, but the last 3-years haven't been pretty in Piscataway.

We'll keep an eye out about an announcement.