Exactly one week after officially losing its head coach to Wisconsin, Pittsburgh is set to officially introduce his replacement.
While the school has not yet confirmed it, ESPN.com‘s Joe Schad reported earlier Wednesday that Pitt and Pat Narduzzi have finalized a deal that would make the Michigan State defensive coordinator the Panthers’ new head coach. The school did announce a short time ago that it will conduct a 3:30 p.m. ET press conference Friday to “address its head football coaching vacancy.”
It was reported Tuesday that Narduzzi had emerged as Pitt’s top target to replace Paul Chryst.
Narduzzi has spent the past 11 seasons on Mark Dantonio-led coaching staffs, three coming at Cincinnati (2004-06) and eight at Michigan State (2007-present). This will be Narduzzi’s first head-coaching job at the FBS level.
Additionally, Narduzzi would become the first current defensive coordinator to land a head-coaching job during the current spinning of the coaching carousel.
Of the 12 coaching hires made at the FBS level in 2014, five have been current FBS coordinators while a wide receivers coach (David Beaty, Kansas) landed a sixth. Four others were current FBS head coaches, and the other two were head coaches at Div. III (Lance Leipold, Buffalo) and high school programs (Tony Sanchez, UNLV).
Once Pittsburgh makes Narduzzi’s hiring official, Michigan will be the lone remaining FBS program without a head coach.
