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A growing trend has surfaced throughout college football this offseason, particularly in the Big East -- newly hired assistant coaches have turned to different jobs in the span of just a few weeks.

Rutgers is the latest school to take a hit. A little more than two weeks after announcing his first staff, new coach Kyle Flood has lost three assistants -- special teams coordinator Phil Galiano is leaving for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers; running backs coach Ben Sirmans is heading to coach the same position with the St. Louis Rams, and graduate assistant Andrew Janocko will become the Bucs' offensive quality control coach.

The school confirmed the moves, first reported by footballscoop.com and The Star-Ledger.

Galiano and Janocko reunite with former Rutgers coach Greg Schiano, now the Bucs' head coach. Schiano has now taken six Rutgers assistants with him. That includes former receivers coach P.J. Fleck, who left Rutgers to become Northern Illinois' offensive coordinator. But Fleck changed his mind after one day to join Schiano in Tampa.

Pitt also had an assistant coach leave shortly after his hiring was announced, when running backs coach Eddie Faulkner departed for Wisconsin. Rival West Virginia also had newly hired assistant Mike Smith decide he wanted his old job back with the Jets. Newly hired defensive assistant Keith Patterson was lured away from Arkansas State, where he has served a stint that lasted a little over a month.

SOUTH BEND, Ind. -- Quick halftime review from Notre Dame Stadium, where Notre Dame leads Pittsburgh 17-3:

Turning point: Pittsburgh's inability to get points in the red zone is the reason why Notre Dame has a two-touchdown lead. Twice, the Panthers marched to the Irish 10-yard line. They came away with three points and one missed field goal. At the end of the half, Pitt marched to the red zone again but botched a field goal try when holder Andrew Janocko fumbled the snap. Pittsburgh never punted but has only three points.

Stat of the half: Pitt has 10 more total yards and only one fewer first down but has 14 fewer points.

Best player in the half: Irish quarterback Dayne Crist is running the spread offense with efficiency and expertise, delivering the ball quickly and utilizing short route to neutralize the Pitt pass rush. Crist completed 12 straight passes at one point and hit six different receivers.

Best call: One play after Notre Dame's Harrison Smith intercepted Tino Sunseri -- thanks in large part to receiver Mike Shanahan falling down on his route -- the Irish went deep. T.J. Jones made a brilliant diving catch to set up Notre Dame at the Pittsburgh 8. The Irish wound up with a field goal.

It was just a couple of years ago when people wondered if Dave Wannstedt was the right guy to lead Pittsburgh back to prominence. You don't hear that much anymore now that Wannstedt guided Pitt to 19 wins in the past two years, including the school's first 10-win season in more than a quarter century in 2009. Wannstedt and his staff have turned recruiting into a well-oiled machine and could be favored to win the Big East in 2010.

That doesn't mean the team doesn't have question marks going into spring. I addressed some of these with Wannstedt late last week. Here is the first part of my conversation with the sixth-year coach. Check back Tuesday for Part II.

Before we get to looking ahead, let's look back for a second. What are your reflections on the 2009 season, when you won 10 games and came up just short of a Big East title?

Dave Wannstedt: We were [11] points away from being unbeaten and four points and 30 seconds or whatever it was away from being undefeated in the Big East. I think that our guys had a little bit of a meltdown at NC State, but for the rest of the season, our players and coaches did a great job of maintaining their focus and being ready to play each week. Even the two conference games we lost, West Virginia down there and obviously Cincinnati, we were in position to win both games.

Obviously, we've taken our expectations from a talk standpoint to another level. Our players now expect to win and expect to compete for the Big East championship. Three years ago, maybe four years ago as a head coach, you're standing up there trying to convince them of that. Now I don't think anybody needs to be convinced. They understand and they want it. We obviously accomplished a few things last year that we haven't done in a while, but we still have a long way to go and a lot of things to accomplish.

How big of a boost was it when Greg Romeus decided to come back for his senior year?

DW: Greg's a great player, and he and I had a lot of discussions. We did our homework, no different than we did with LeSean McCoy and Darrelle Revis. We went through the NFL evaluation process. I probably called 10 NFL head coaches and general managers and friends of mine around the league. And I think, after getting all the evaluations in and talking with Greg and his parents, he really believes -- and I agree -- that he can better his position. That he's going to have a great senior year, he's going to graduate, receive more recognition on a national level, and I think it's going to help his draft status a year from now.

Let's talk about the quarterback situation, which is always a big deal. Where does that stand going into the spring?

DW: We're better off than we've been in the past for a couple reasons. From a depth standpoint, we have Pat Bostick coming back, and I think the redshirt year has done wonders for him knowledge-wise, from a physical and mental standpoint. And the interesting thing with Tino Sunseri is, if you go back to last spring we opened up the competition between Billy Stull, Pat Bostick and Tino. So all three quarterbacks got equal reps throughout the spring. Then we got to training camp and made the decision to redshirt Pat. And Tino was alternating between first group/second group all through camp with Billy.

So, really we came out of camp where Billy was a little bit ahead of him, but Tino had gotten so much work with the first group on offense, as I look back on it, it was one of the better things we did to help his development. So he's ready to play now. He's a redshirt sophomore. He understands the offense and we've got a good feel for his abilities and what he can do. So we'll see what he can do. It's going to be a competition.

Then we have two really good freshmen coming in, and obviously you're not counting on them. But we like Anthony Gonzalez from Liberty (Penn.) and Mark Myers from (Cleveland) St. Ignatius. Here's kind of an interesting tidbit: They were both picked to play in the Big 33 game; one will be playing for Ohio and one for Pennsylvania. So at some point in the game, both quarterbacks in the Big 33 game could both be going to Pitt. That's probably never happened before.

Will you keep Gonzalez at quarterback? He's a versatile all-around athlete.

DW: We'll see. That's the plan right now and we'll just have to see how it unfolds.

So going into spring, is Sunseri No. 1 on the depth chart, or is it officially even between him and Bostick?

DW: We have a walk-on kid, Andrew Janocko, who's been here three years. All three of them will get work. We'll split the work early with Tino and Bostick, but I think they'll both have to go and show what they can do, and we'll give them each a chance to go out and prove themselves.

Do you anticipate the competition going into fall camp like last year?

DW: I don't think so. I think it will be cleared up pretty good this spring. But you never know. I'm anticipating that it will.

You don't have a ton of question marks heading into 2010, but one of them appears to be cornerback. How is that position shaping up?

DW: We signed a kid out of junior college named Saheed Imoru. He was a qualifier out of high school from Houston and he had an appointment to the Air Force Academy, but he wanted to get an opportunity to play Division I football at a little bit higher level. So he went to junior college and he's been here now since January. I watched him play -- his team went to the national championship game -- and I think this kid has a chance to really be a good player.

We have Ricky Gary coming back from last year. Antwuan Reed is a junior who played as a freshman a little bit and is from the same high school as LaRod Stephens-Howling. He's got a lot of ability. Then we moved Aundre Wright from receiver to corner. Jarred Holley was recruited here to play corner, and we moved him to safety when Andrew Taglianetti got hurt. He ended up being really good at safety. We'll keep him at safety to start off, but we could move him to corner if we had to.

Will Taglianetti be ready for spring?

DW: He'll be back for spring, but he'll be limited. We've got Taglianetti, a redshirt freshman named Jason Hendricks from New Jersey who we really like. Kolby Gray has moved from quarterback to safety. Then we've got Dom DeCicco back, too.

I had a chance to talk to Pitt coach Dave Wannstedt this afternoon as he battled through another snowstorm in the Northeast.

Look for the full conversation with Wannstedt next week in the blog. But to tide you over for the weekend, here's a little of what Wannstedt had to say about probably the most intriguing question facing the 2010 Panthers: Who'll play quarterback?

Wannstedt said it will be a competition this spring between Pat Bostick and Tino Sunseri. Bostick redshirted a year ago, and Wannstedt said he really learned a lot and showed great improvement in practice. Wannstedt also had high praise for Sunseri, the redshirt sophomore who was Bill Stull's backup a year ago.

"He's ready to play now," Wannstedt said. "It's his time. He understands the offense, and we've got a good feel for his abilities and what he can do."

This spring, Wannstedt said, Bostick and Sunseri will split the reps evenly early on in practice, with Andrew Janocko serving as the third-stringer. But unlike last year, Wannstedt doesn't expect the competition to linger into fall camp.

"I think it will be cleared up pretty good this spring," he said. "You never know, but I'm anticipating that it will."

Wannstedt also mentioned Pitt's two highly-regarded quarterback recruits, Anthony Gonzalez and Mark Myers, will get a look this fall. But he said, "obviously, you're not counting on them this year."

In other interesting tidbits, Wannstedt said receiver Aundre Wright has been moved to cornerback to help shore up that position. And as expected, former quarterback recruit Kolby Gray is making the switch to safety this spring.

• The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette's Ron Cook has an excellent story on Andrew Janocko, the Pitt holder who botched the snap on the Panthers' missed extra point.

"I have no excuses. I just didn't get my job done," Janocko said, firmly. "A lot of people have told me it was just one play in the game. I know that. But at the same time, I have to take responsibility for my crucial error."

• Despite the loss, Pitt took another step forward this year, Paul Zeise writes in the Post-Gazette.
• Louisville football needs a man with a plan, and Charlie Strong appears to be that guy, Eric Crawford writes in The Courier-Journal.
• The St. Petersburg Bowl has a new title sponsor, and it might make you hungry for chicken wings, Greg Auman reports in the St. Petersburg Times.
• Former Syracuse coach Dick McPherson was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame on Tuesday, Donnie Webb reports in the Syracuse Post-Standard.
• West Virginia's Major Harris went into the Hall, too, Bob Hertzel writes in the Times West Virginia.

PITTSBURGH -- The body language from Jabaal Sheard and Greg Romeus told the story.

After Cincinnati scored with 33 seconds left to take a 45-44 lead, Pittsburgh's two star defensive ends wore a look of utter shock as they made a slow trudge off the field. Perhaps it hit them then how coming so close had sent them so far away from their goals.

Instead of winning the Big East and the league's BCS bid, the Panthers (9-3, 5-2 Big East) now are likely headed to the Papajohns.com Bowl in Birmingham. Just two weeks ago, they were 9-1 and in the Top 10. But they finished with two straight, last-minute defeats and now sport the same record as last year's team.

"I thought this year was an improvement, but we just came up short in the end," defensive tackle Mick Williams said. "Sorry to the city and the fans."

Head coach Dave Wannstedt tried to look on the positive side and the big picture.

"We're close," he said. "We're a lot closer than we were a year ago. We're light years from where we were four years ago. It's important to keep recruiting and keep building."

But this was a great opportunity wasted. Pitt is, in many people's opinion, the most purely talented team in the league. Their veteran offensive and defensive lines can stack up with anybody. They led Cincinnati 31-10 in the first at home. They were also up 38-24 in the fourth quarter and scored to take the lead again with 1:36 left.

Perhaps the cruelest part is that a missed extra point made a huge difference in the end. Holder Andrew Janocko appeared to bobble the snap, which prevented a kick try. Given the crack in the door, Cincinnati busted through with a 63-second scoring drive and winning extra point.

"I told [Janocko] after the game that it wasn't one play," Wannstedt said. "Everybody in that room could have done something during the course of the game to make it different. He's been outstanding for us for two years."

Many parts of the game will be debated around Pittsburgh for a long time to come, like why the team kept kicking to Mardy Gilyard, why the offense went away from the running game in the third quarter and why some costly personal fouls were committed (and called). Pitt fans will wonder when this program will ever win a championship under Wannstedt.

That talk shouldn't overshadow the incredible performance by freshman running back Dion Lewis. He broke a school record with 47 carries, gaining 194 yards and three touchdowns.

"Dion is the best," Wannstedt said. "It's amazing for a freshman, 12 weeks into the season, to show up like he did today and perform at that level."

Unfortunately for the Panthers, they came up just short of matching Cincinnati's level. And a long fall down from what they aspired was the end result.