Syracuse Coaching Search Turning Into Pitt-y Party

Hey, when you dream of getting invited to the Meineke Car Care Bowl, you could do worse than to raid coaches from the team that actually did go there.

At least that's the hot rumor.  One of the many offensive coaching positions that Syracuse needs to fill (OC, QB, RB, WR) may just go to a current Pitt assistant who fits the "Doug Marrone Hiring Rulebook" guidelines to a T.  That would be Pitt's RB coach David Walker.

Walker is a former Syracuse RB (check), having played RB for the Orange between '89 and '92.  He's SU's sixth all-time leading rusher.  Walker then became a longtime SU coach (check check) as he coached the RBs for Syracuse between '95 and '04.  And he's a strong recruiter in the New York area (check check check).  He oversaw the careers of runners like Rob Konrad, James Mungro, Water Reyes and Damien Rhodes before leaving when Coach P was fired.  He immediately jumped to Pitt where he's coached ever since, tutoring folks like LaSean McCoy and most recently Dion Lewis.

There's another Pitt-related coach in the mix for an assistant job as well, though he's not currently on the staff there.  Walt Harris, who was the head coach for the Panthers between '97 and '04, may just be up for one of the other offensive positions (could be QB coach, could be OC, could be both). 

Harris left Pitt for the chance to coach his hometown Stanford Cardinal, a job that ended with his firing after just two seasons.  Since then, he's slowly but surely tried to work his way back up the depth chart.  Last season he was the QB coach for Akron, whom you might remember was having some QB difficulties before they visited the Dome.

Harris does come with a couple red flags.  No. 1, he's got a reputation for being difficult (which isn't a big deal except for all of the "look at a player the wrong way and get fired" stories recently).  No. 2, he's part of the University of the Pacific coaching family tree.  You know who else is a part of the family?

AHHH.  MINE EYES BEWITCH ME!!!

H/T: Knick620