Pitt athletic director Jeff Long has found his man -- again.

According to two sources close to the situation, former Miami Dolphins head coach Dave Wannstedt was offered the job as Pitt's next football coach yesterday and is expected to be named today provided there are no last-minute snags in the financial negotiations. Wannstedt spoke at length with Long last night, and the two sides reportedly were close to finalizing a deal.

Wannstedt was the front-runner for the job when it became open 11 days ago after Walt Harris resigned to take a similar position at Stanford University. He spoke with Long several times via telephone early last week and agreed to set up an interview.

But a week ago, he withdrew from consideration, saying the timing was wrong and he wasn't ready to make a big commitment.

Long and the university were on a tight time schedule because they wanted to hire a coach by Christmas. Long then interviewed five other candidates and had narrowed the field to Baltimore Ravens offensive coordinator Matt Cavanaugh, a former Panthers quarterback, and Pitt defensive coordinator Paul Rhoads. Oklahoma co-defensive coordinator Bo Pelini, Carolina Panthers defensive line coach Sal Sunseri and New York Giants defensive coordinator Tim Lewis also were interviewed by Long.

But Wannstedt called Long Sunday to see how the search was going and, according to a source, Long asked him if he would reconsider his decision if the university sweetened its offer. Wannstedt did and the two resumed talks last night.

Calls to Wannstedt were not returned, but one source close to the situation said early last night that "the job is his if he wants it."

One of the other sticking points last week according to a source was that the university was reluctant to meet Wannstedt's demands for salaries for his assistant coaches. He reportedly had asked for no assistant to be paid less than $100,000, and he wanted between $250,000-$300,000 for his coordinators.

The majority of the current staff makes less than $100,000 -- with a low of about $65,000 -- with the exception of defensive coordinator Paul Rhoads, who got a significant raise after the 2002 season because he nearly took a similar job at Auburn. He makes approximately $250,000 a year.

Over the years, retaining staff has been an issue because the university has not paid the assistant coaches the equivalent of many other major-conference schools.

University officials, however, reportedly upped the ante in order to remain competitive within the Big East. Louisville signed its head coach, Bobby Petrino, to a $1 million-per-year contract this week and Memphis, which is a Conference USA school considered a step below the Big East, just gave its coach, Tommy West, an extension worth $800,000 a year. Wannstedt reportedly had asked for about $800,000 per year last week, which is a slight increase from Harris' package, which is about $650,000.

Wannstedt is a Baldwin native, a former Pitt player and assistant. He has been an NFL head coach with the Chicago Bears and Dolphins. He was the defensive coordinator with the Dallas Cowboys in 1992 and won a Super Bowl ring under Jimmy Johnson.

He has a career record of 82-87 as a head coach, but he led three teams to the playoffs. His demeanor, personality and organizational skills are often are compared to Southern California coach Pete Carroll, who was a mediocre head coach in the NFL, but built the Trojans into a top-five program.

Wannstedt was also known as a top recruiter when he was an assistant coach at Pitt, Oklahoma State and Miami.

Before Wannstedt's re-emergence, the job appeared to be headed to either Cavanaugh, who was on Wannstedt's staff when he was the head coach of the Bears, or Rhoads, although sources close to Pelini believed he, not Rhoads, was a finalist along with Cavanaugh. But Wannstedt has been the administration's top choice since Day 1 and, when he re-entered the picture, he instantly vaulted the other finalists.