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Message: [QUOTE="CuseLegacy, post: 1240128, member: 469"] [url]http://triblive.com/sports/robrossi/7450508-74/pitt-narduzzi-coach#axzz3N6fddDzT[/url] "The most encouraging words actually came from executive vice chancellor Jerry Cochran, and they were about the most pressing need for Pitt football: competitive wages for assistant coaches. Cochran said Pitt's assistants should be “within the top half of the ACC.” USA Today reported Clemson tops the 14-team ACC with an assistant coach payroll of about $4.45 million. North Carolina placed seventh at about $2.05 million. Pitt doesn't make its coaches salaries public, but it also just hired to run its football program the former highest-paid assistant in the Big Ten. It sure sounded like Narduzzi sought assurances he would have the money necessary to hire what he was at Michigan State: one of college football's brightest coordinators. Narduzzi said the issue was “very, very important.” He added he has a working list of preferable assistants, and it seems as though he's going after a coordinator who basically will be the head coach of the offense. Whoever that offensive coordinator is, he won't come cheap. Pitt officials appeared to get that message. “I can't give you the details, but that was a topic that was discussed,” acting Pitt athletic director Randy Juhl said. “We looked at competitive places, other teams in the ACC, and we're competitive. To the satisfaction of the coach. Not me. “We knew we needed to address that.” Pitt better. I don't want Narduzzi's friends to have the same complaints that Graham's and Chryst's did, specifically that Pitt wasn't financially committed to winning. Even if that was the case, I'm guessing it isn't anymore. Pitt is eating $2.4 million on former athletic director Steve Pederson's five-year contract. A renovation of the weight room, completed last spring, cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. Keeping a coach never will be easy for Pitt, but spending at least a couple million dollars for Narduzzi's staff isn't going to crack the walls of the Cathedral of Learning. Money changes everything. More than loyalty, opportunity, proximity to home or reverence for a region, money truly can change Pitt football for the better. There is only one way to stop the coaching carousel. Load it with coaches weighed down by fatter wallets. " [/QUOTE]

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