One candidate off the board?

According to ESPN.com - Al Golden has been hired.......................by Miami.

Golden, of course, is the Temple coach who was one of the known candidates for the Pitt job but now - at least according to ESPN he is off the board now.

Well, actually, to be more accurate -- though, accuracy in these coach search stories is always sketchy because you are relying on so many different sources and work so hard to try and sift through the BS to find the truth -- Golden isn't off the board yet, but he has been offered and is expected to accept the job and here is a paraphrase of the key "cover my own behind" phrase we journalists must always couch it with "barring any last minute snags or a change of heart...."

In other words - a source has said that Golden has been offered the job and he will take it but the contract isn't done, the details aren't done and he hasn't officially signed on the dotted line.

So, if true, and there is very little reason to believe it isn't, that is one of Pitt's main candidates off the board, which is an interesting development given where the search has been.

At any rate, the search is still focused heavily on Oklahoma State offensive coordinator Dana Holgorsen, who, we have confirmed, has indeed interviewed for the job and multiple people have told me is still Steve Pederson's top choice and could ultimately be offered the job down the road here pretty soon if things continue to go down the path they have seemingly been on for the past two days.

The next step, however, will be for Pitt to do the due diligence in terms of a background check and all of the other vetting that needs to go on to satisfy any questions the chancellor and trustees may have before Holgorsen can be formally offered the job.

Again, please don't get this mixed up, I want to be clear - he hasn't been offered the job. He's just right now the leading candidate and while that means he could be headed for an offer soon, we've seen how quickly these things change.

I wrote it the other day and I'll write it again -- the last time we went through this at one point it looked like Bo Pelini was the guy but his interview didn't go as well as Jeff Long would have liked and they turned their attention to Matt Cavanugh.

Stay tuned for more later as I will reveal two other candidates who I've been told by some good sources have been interviewed/talked to/contacted/whatevertheheckyouwanttocallit and a third who appears to be getting an interview.