Somewhere, Bo Schembechler must feel like heaving his breakfast.

It goes back to 1989, to a few days before the NCAA basketball tournament. Michigan coach Bill Frieder announced he would be leaving after the season to take the Arizona State job but would like to finish coaching the Wolverines in the tournament. Schembechler, then the Michigan athletic director, told Frieder to get lost, firing him immediately and promoting long-time assistant Steve Fisher. "I don't want someone from Arizona State coaching the Michigan team," Schembechler growled, famously. "A Michigan man is going to coach Michigan."

Now Schembechler has to turn on the Fiesta Bowl on New Year's Day night and watch Stanford-bound Walt Harris coach Pitt against a Utah team coached by Florida-bound Urban Meyer?

I feel like hurling, too.

It's an absolute joke that Meyer is being allowed to coach in the Fiesta Bowl. Here's a guy who bailed out on his Utah contract after only two seasons to take a $2 million-a-year job with Florida and is the same guy who bailed out on Bowling Green after just two seasons to go to Utah. Why should he be rewarded by Utah? Why should he get to coach in the big game? Don't tell me that Utah owes it to him for making the Utes such a big winner. Where was his loyalty to Utah?

But there's more. Utah already has promoted defensive coordinator Kyle Whittingham as Meyer's replacement. He shouldn't have to wait until next season to take over. His heart is with the Utah team. He won't be falling in love with the Florida players at the same time he's trying to coach the Utes. He, not Meyer, should coach in the Fiesta Bowl.

It's just as ridiculous that Harris is being allowed to coach Pitt. I'm convinced, despite published reports, that he had no interest in staying at Pitt beyond this season. That was clear in June when he was publicly critical of his own football camps, which have become an important recruiting tool for all major-college programs. It sounded a lot like an excuse. If the camps aren't attracting enough of the blue-chip kids, whose fault is that? But that wasn't the worst of it. It became clear beyond a doubt in October that Harris wanted out and was looking for a buyout when his agent, Bob LaMonte, blasted Pitt's administration, Pitt fans and the Pittsburgh media for unrealistic expectations, belittling the Pitt program in the process.

"I was very disappointed and upset when those comments came from Coach Harris' representative and then very disappointed and upset when Coach Harris didn't refute them," Pitt athletic director Jeff Long said last night.

I'm also convinced Pitt would have obliged Harris by firing him if the Stanford job hadn't come along. Long wouldn't confirm that but did say, "I believe we should have nothing but the highest expectations here. ... We're seeking a coach who believes the University of Pittsburgh can be and will be one of the premiere football programs in the country. I think you have to believe you can achieve that before you eventually will."

Read that again closely.

That screams volumes about what the Pitt administration thought of Harris and his shortcomings.

Harris saved Pitt from firing him by moving on to Stanford. Now that he's gone, his situation is no different than Meyer's. Pitt owes him nothing but his final paycheck. It certainly doesn't owe him the chance to coach in the Fiesta Bowl.

"I owe it to the players, to the student-athletes," Long said. "I believe that will give our team the best opportunity to win that game."

I'm not so sure.

Harris will be dividing his attention between two jobs. If I'm at Stanford, I'm really ticked about that after a making a long-term commitment to him. It should have insisted that he start immediately and made it a deal-breaker. But Pitt also could get short-changed. I'm thinking the Panthers would be better off with defensive coordinator Paul Rhoads in charge at the Fiesta Bowl. At least they would get his full attention in the days leading up to the game.

"I'm not concerned about that at all," Long said. "I'm convinced that Coach Harris will prepare for this game more than he's ever prepared for any game. This is the biggest game of his coaching career. It's his chance to coach in a BCS game and win a BCS game."

That's a good point.

It's probably going to be Harris' one and only shot. He has taken a lesser job at Stanford. He would have had more chances of getting back in the BCS mix at Pitt, no matter what he and his agent might think.

I'll finish with a couple of addenda to the Schembechler story.

Michigan won six consecutive NCAA tournament games under Fisher to win the 1989 national championship.

Where's Schembechler when you need him?

And that final addendum:

Long was an assistant to Schembechler and served as Michigan's compliance coordinator in 1989.

I just wish he had been paying a little more attention the day Schembechler did the right thing and fired Frieder.