After having all but fired the fourth-winningest coach in what it considers to be a rich football history, you would think Pitt at least would be in a slight panic mode in its search for a new coach. After all, it's not as if the new guy won't be surrounded by high expectations. Walt Harris, a man who understandably was encouraged to look elsewhere, has won 25 games over the past three seasons and has his team preparing for a prestigious and lucrative Bowl Championship Series game against Utah (11-0) on New Year's Day.

Harris, so often criticized for not being able to get Pitt to the next level, has done exactly that.

Which means it might be expected that athletic director Jeff Long would be scouring the nation to find the best man available to succeed Harris.

Not a chance!

As near as can be determined, Long is scouring little more than the files of Pitt's alumni office. What kind of search is it when there's an asterisk beside the job description:

Only Pitt men need apply.

Sure, there was a token outsider, Bo Pelini, but, other than that, it's Pitt men and more Pitt men.

Not that there's anything wrong with Pitt men. But how can a legitimate search be so confined?

The candidates, other than Pelini, whose once buoyant candidacy seems to be collapsing, are:

Matt Cavanaugh, a Baltimore Ravens' offensive coordinator who was the quarterback on Pitt's 1976 national championship team.

Tim Lewis, a New York Giants' defensive coordinator who was a cornerback for Pitt in the Jackie Sherrill-era and a first-round NFL draft choice in 1983.

Sal Sunseri, a Carolina Panthers' defensive line coach who was an All-American linebacker at Pitt in 1981.

Paul Rhoads, who is the defensive coordinator on the current Pitt staff.

It's entirely possible that any of those four might prove to be an excellent choice. But here's two questions to be asked about them:

How many of them would be candidates for this job if it were not for their Pitt ties?

How many of them would be candidates for an opening in another top-25 program?

Sad to say, but Pitt is not looking for the best man available. It's looking for a best man who fits a tight job description.

It is curious, to say the least, that Pitt is not in the market for a successful head coach who would consider Pitt an upward move. Wouldn't a proven commodity be a more safe choice than the men being considered, none of whom have head-coaching experience?

And it's astonishing, to say the least, that Long, who has worked in and around college football at places such as Michigan, Oklahoma and Virginia Tech for some 20 years, would come up with such a Pitt-oriented list after being at Pitt less than two years.

Indiana, which is a considerable step down from Pitt, had a broader vision for its coaching search. It was able to lure Terry Hoeppner to head its downtrodden program. Hoeppner brings a 48-23 record in six years on the Division I-A level, a top-10 finish in 2003 and the reputation of helping to develop a pretty fair quarterback named Ben Roethlisberger at Miami (Ohio).

If Indiana can reel in a coach with such qualifications, why can't Pitt at least be considering men with those credentials?

It might have to do something with the money. It might have something to do with how Pitt views itself.

By going after candidates who not only have Pitt ties but who are not at the top -- or even on -- other school's lists, Pitt looks to be bargain hunting.

To raid another school means having to pay something approaching the going rate for top-of-the line coaches, which is about $1 million a year. It also means getting involved with possibly having to buy out the coach's existing contract.

Those appear to be financial areas where Pitt does not want to go.

Another reason for looking at Pitt men almost exclusively is that it lessens the chance of the new coach using Pitt as a stepping-stone for another job.

That was probably a major attraction of Dave Wannstedt, Long's first choice. There would have been a good chance that Pitt would have been the last stop for Wannstedt, who is in his early 50s and not just a Pitt man but a native of the Pittsburgh area.

Here's what's erroneous with that type of thinking.

There's nothing wrong with the job being a stepping-stone. If the coach does a good enough job to move on, it only means the job will be that much more attractive and lure even better candidates.

As stated, Cavanaugh, Lewis, Rhoads and Sunseri might be just the right man for Pitt.

But, by conducting a search of such narrow proportions, Pitt is doing a considerable disservice to its football program.