I was finally able to catch up with former Pitt running back Ray Graham yesterday as he prepares for the NFL Combine this week in Indianapolis. Here's a link to today's P-G story about Graham and other local players who are getting ready to show off their skills to scouts and general managers this weekend.

I also, though, spoke to Graham about the conclusion of his Pitt career, which ended in disappointing fashion as a hamstring injury forced him to watch from the sidelines during the Panthers' BBVA Compass Bowl loss. Here's what Graham had to say...

On missing the bowl game (Graham injured his hamstring during bowl practices in late December): "I didn't want to end my last game not playing. All the hard work from the last two games that we put in to get into a bowl game, then not being able to play. It's disappointing on my behalf. I did everything I could to go out there and play, I really wanted to play, but I didn't want to make things worse for my future ... I try to avoid as many injuries as I can. That little tweaked hamstring came about and there's nothing I could do about it."

On his four years at Pitt: "I feel it was a great experience. We've been through a lot, gone through a lot. I feel like being at Pitt has only made me a stronger person, a better football player. I learned a lot."

On whether he thought he proved everything he wanted to coming off the ACL injury that ended his junior year: "I felt I could've had a better senior year. I got off to a slow start the first couple of games. I came along at the end of the season. I felt like I definitely could've done better. Me, I'm never a satisfied person. I just feel like I always could get better somewhere."

Graham will also be participating at Pitt's pro day, which should be during the first week in March. I think Graham's a guy who could significantly boost his draft stock between now and April. If you factor in that he was basically working his way back into form during most of the first half of the year, he really only hit 100 percent about midway through the season (and you could tell when he did). If he shows scouts and GMs that he's totally healthy and ready to go at the Combine and pro day, no reason he can't creep up into maybe the third round or so.

Some of this stuff is covered in my story in today’s paper, but let’s go into a little more depth as to exactly how Matt House was hired as Pitt’s new defensive coordinator yesterday, and just what the Panthers’ defense could look like going forward under House.

Over the past day, Pitt and Paul Chryst have received plenty of criticism from within the fan base for how long this hire took, ending in just a promotion from within the staff.

The first issue at play was the unusually late date of Pitt’s bowl game (though playing on that date is certainly not unusual for Pitt). It’s understandable that Chryst would want to wait until after the bowl game to start the formal interview process for a new defensive coordinator. Had the Panthers been in a mid- to late-December bowl game, the normal timeframe for bowl games, they would’ve had an extra two weeks to get the interview and hiring process going.

On top of that, I do believe Chryst when he said House set the bar very high in the interview process. I think that after interviewing House, he went about the rest of the process knowing he could be very selective because he felt House would make a great coordinator, and he was already on the staff.

One thing I have heard from several sources is that money was not an issue for why Chryst chose not to make an outside hire. If it had worked with the right guy, he would’ve been able to make the hire.

Chryst did have contact with Teryl Austin and Jim Tomsula, both guys who were coaching in the Super Bowl, but it’s my understanding that neither of those talks advanced as far as a formal interview.

It sounds like Chryst made the final decision on promoting House either just before or just after signing day, Feb. 6. After that, it was mostly dotting i’s and crossing t’s on the hiring of John Palermo and Hank Poteat, so Chryst could announce all the hirings in one fell swoop. And that’s where we are today.

One of the biggest reasons I tend to believe Chryst when he says he honestly things Chryst is the best person for the job is that he knows that his reputation and job security are tied to House’s. If House struggles as a young coordinator, that’s just as much on Chryst for putting him in that position. Chryst knows that, and I think he trusts that House will grow into the role quickly.

Now, let’s take a look at what to expect from a House-led defense for Pitt in 2013. Under Dave Huxtable in 2012, Pitt’s defense was almost exclusively a 4-3 base with man-to-man coverage on the outside. House said he anticipates mixing that up more next year.

You could already see the start of that in the BBVA Compass Bowl, when the Panthers started working some zone coverages into their schemes.

Especially with the proliferation of spread offenses, being able to play good zone can help a team a lot, and Pitt will see plenty of spread offenses in the ACC next year.

“We’re going to be multiple,” House said. “There’ll be some parts of both [3-4 and 4-3]. I hate to streamline and say, 'We’re going to be this, we’re going to be that.' Realistically, that’s not really what we are. I’d like to say we’re going to be multiple and go from there.”

Barring a repeat of 2012 where it seemed like every linebacker on the roster got injured, Pitt will have plenty of linebackers to work with in 2013 when they do decide to go with a 3-4 look. That would also allow them to move Aaron Donald around the line a little bit, creating good matchups for Pitt’s best defensive player.

House admitted that, when you’ve got a player like Donald up front, it doesn’t necessarily make sense to get too blitz-happy, since Donald is so good at creating pressure by himself.

“We’re going to be aggressive, there’s no question about it, but we’re going to be aggressive manipulating matchups and taking advantage of Pitt’s personnel,” House said.

The biggest thing House stressed when he spoke to reporters yesterday was improving the fundamentals of Pitt’s defense. You hear it from most defensive coordinators, to an extent, but it’s very true. Solid tackling and disciplined positioning will make up for a lot of deficiencies on any defense.

“If we just become a better tackling team and get more hats to the football, we’ll improve tremendously. I think when you come out to practice, that’s what you’re going to observe,” House said.

“We’ve got to be simple enough that kids play fast and can execute those baseline fundamentals, but appear complex enough that we put some stress on the offense, too.”

House will continue to coach the safeties next year, and Poteat will be the primary coach for the cornerbacks. The other staff additions shouldn’t change too much. Palermo will bounce between working with Inoke Breckterfield on the defensive line and Chris Haering with the linebackers (Haering split linebackers with Huxtable last year, so no change there).

As for how House will handle the increased responsibilities of a coordinator, he said organization was his biggest strength, and that the admitted “learning curve” he’ll face on Saturdays can be made up for with work leading up to the season and during the week.

“We’ll see going forward, but to me, Monday is as important as Saturday. Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, it’s a buildup to Saturday,” he said. “And slimming the gameplan down by the time you get to Thursday and Friday makes it easier on Saturday.”

So now, it’s on to spring practice. Pitt’s first session is two weeks from today, so it won’t be too long before we get to see exactly how the Panther defense looks different with House at the reigns.

Well, it took 64 days, but Pitt finally has a defensive coordinator. With spring ball just about two weeks away, Paul Chryst announced Monday morning that he was promoting secondary coach Matt House to the defensive coordinator position.

House joined the Panthers' staff last year after four years in the NFL. Prior to that, he was the defensive backs coach and recruiting coordinator for two season at Buffalo. The Pitt job will be House' first stint as a defensive coordinator.

Last year, Pitt's secondary was one of the best in the Big East, and even the country ranking in the low- to mid-20s in pretty much every pass defense category.

"I was very impressed by Matt's work last year in the secondary," Chryst said. "He has been a great fit for our program as a coach, recruiter and teacher of the game. His experiences and work ethic have more than prepared him for this opportunity to be a coordinator."

Chryst also announced the addition of coach veteran John Palermo to the staff to coach defensive ends and linebackers. Palermo coached at Wisconsin from 1991-2005, and should provide a strong veteran presence for a young staff.

Former Pitt cornerback Hank Poteat will also join the staff as a graduate assistant. He'll work with the cornerbacks.

Obviously, there's a lot to look at in these moves, not the least of which is why it took two months to hire a guy who was on the staff the whole time. I'll have plenty more up later this afternoon, including reaction from Chryst and House.

With the ink still fresh on yesterday's national letters of intent, we're already moving on to the next bit of news: What exactly Pitt's 2013 ACC schedule will look like. We already know who and where the Panthers will be playing, the only question left is when.

The Orlando Sentinel is reporting that Pitt and Florida State are exploring the possibility of opening the 2013 season with a Monday-night Labor Day game in Pittsburgh.

Seminoles coach Jimbo Fisher dropped that bit of news at a booster event Wednesday night. Pitt would not officially confirm that those talks were taking place, but the game is definitely a real possibility.

On Pitt's end of things, the only scheduling logisitics would be moving around the game scheduled against Villanova Aug. 31. If the game does happen, there's a good possibility the Panthers would have a bye the next week (to avoid a short Monday-Saturday week), followed by the scheduled game against New Mexico Sept. 14. In that case, the Villanova game would be moved to later in the season.

Villanova has not yet released its 2013 football schedule, which would seem to indicate that moving some things around is at least a possibility.

There are plenty of benefits to starting the season with a game like this. Obviously, bringing in a national brand like Florida State — which won the ACC and Orange Bowl last year, and will likely start 2013 in the AP Top 15 — for a primetime game would garner tremendous exposure to Pitt football in the area. It would be a big-time, nationally relevant game to announce the Panthers' arrival to the ACC.

Of course, the Panthers will be breaking in a new quarterback next year, so it might be safer to start the season a little easier. Paul Chryst, though, is not a guy to shy away from a challenge like this. There are a lot of moving parts involved, but the sense I got from people at Pitt was that they very much wanted to make this game a reality.

An ACC spokesperson said last month that the conference schedule would be released in "early February," though last year the slate wasn't announced until Feb. 27, 2012.

UPDATE: An ACC spokesperson has confirmed that this game is "one of the options being discussed" for the league's Monday night Labor Day spot. Here's a link to my quick P-G story. We'll know more over the next few weeks as the ACC schedule comes out.