A Quiet Sunday - Some Brief News and Notes

Today we had two rumors hit the fan ---

1.) FootballScoop.Com said that Mario Cristobal was offered the job,

2.) Some around the program said that Todd Graham was expected to return to campus tomorrow, had received permission to address the team and try to make things right.

The first one was quickly shot down by Pitt as the athletic department put out the obligatory "no, no, no that's false, nobody's been offered the job, it is just an internet rumor, everyone is lying we've offered it to nobody blah, blah, blah........."

The second one was quickly dismissed as well.

Here is the bottom line - Todd Graham has still not talked to Steve Pederson since last Tuesday night when Pederson told him he didn't have permission to talk to Arizona State. So I'm quite sure he isn't going to show up and frankly, that stuff about him "coming back to Pittsburgh to address them" was just utter nonsense.

So those were the two big rumors of the day and both were shot out of the sky, but......

It seems like we are moving closer to a resolution to this thing and Cristobal appears to be the leader in this (even though he still has his people trying to get his name out of it....) so we will have to continue to watch what happens. I've had several people tell me things seem to be leaning his way but I don't think it is a "done deal" or anything close to that. The strange thing about this all is he apparently is also still on the list at Penn State, so he obviously has a lot of thinking to do in the next two days or so.

And in case you missed it - Luke Fickell did talk to the media in Columbus today, which seems strange given that these guys are sworn to secrecy, but here is the link. He basically said he interviewed Thursday (which we already knew), he hasn't been offered the job and he hasn't been told a timetable for it.

Also, Paul Chryst offered a "no comment" to the Journal-Sentinel but sources apparently told the newspaper what a lot of us have been hearing -- that Cristobal seems to be the favorite in this.

Again, a lot to go between now and press conference so I wouldn't get too excited yet, but it does seem to be winding down and getting close to decision time.