There is one good thing to come from the serious road block they threw in front of him on his way to becoming the next great head coach at East Carolina or Utah State or Pitt or even Nebraska, Paul Rhoads was saying the other day at Pitt football headquarters.

"At least they can't say I'm too young for a job anymore."

Lordy, Lordy, look who's turning forty!

Groundhog Day will be the big day for Rhoads, Pitt's defensive coordinator. By then, it's nice to think he'll be a head coach somewhere. For that to happen, though, his defense has to show a pulse this season, starting tonight in the opener against Virginia at Heinz Field. The defense was generally awful the past three seasons, which explains why Rhoads is still at Pitt, starting his seventh season, working under his second head coach, Dave Wannstedt.

You could have made a little money betting against that in 2002. At the time, Rhoads had the look of the next hot coaching sensation. No less than Steve Pederson -- Pitt's redoubtable former athletic director, now at Nebraska -- predicted he would be a coaching star. It didn't matter that Rhoads lost out on the East Carolina job after the '02 season in part, probably, because of that youth thing. It would only be a matter of time until some smart athletic director went fishing for Rhoads and landed himself a big winner.

But suddenly, it was as if Rhoads took stupid pills. Sure, there were extenuating circumstances. Aren't there always? Pitt lost a lot of senior leadership from the '02 team. It lost four of the top eight tacklers from the '03 team. It lost what little strength it had on the defensive line from the '04 team.

Legitimate circumstances or not, Rhoads felt the fallout from the defense's failures. He interviewed for the Utah State and Pitt head coaching jobs after the 2004 season, but it's tough for an AD to sell his president and alumni on a coach whose defense had been getting torched fairly regularly.

"I understand the perception that's out there, and I know that's part of the business," Rhoads said. "But the only way I can change that perception is by continuing to do my job."

Wannstedt appears to have provided a little help. His predecessor, Walt Harris, had a hard time recruiting big guys, especially defensive linemen. Wannstedt has brought in a bunch, but they're young and might be a year or two away from being a dominant group. Until then, Pitt will try to get by with its defensive quickness. Wannstedt and Rhoads say it has improved significantly since Thanksgiving night when Pitt got drilled at West Virginia, giving up 451 rushing yards because it couldn't keep up with quarterback Pat White and running back Steve Slaton.

"Our trio of linebackers" -- H.B. Blades, Clint Session and Tommie Campbell -- "should be as fast as any group around," Rhoads said. "Now, they're not as physical as any group around. But if you can't get to 'em, you can't block 'em ...

"Our guys up front have made tremendous improvement, but they know if there were rules that we had to line up toe-to-toe with our opponents, we wouldn't fare very well. But those rules aren't in our game. We'll be able to do some things with pressure and movement that will make it harder for it to be a physical game."

It's obvious Rhoads likes his defense.

Really obvious, actually.

"I was just telling my wife in bed the other night about [cornerback] Darrelle Revis. He's first in line to lead every individual drill. Nobody challenges him. That's the kind of respect he commands."

Hey, Vickie Rhoads is a coach's wife.

She understands.

"It's not just Revis," Rhoads said. "I can go to every one of our position rooms and see team leaders. That's powerful."

Strong enough to stop Virginia?

"That's what we're going to find out," Wannstedt said.

It says something admirable about Wannstedt and Rhoads that the two are working together even after Wannstedt beat out Rhoads for the Pitt job. A lesser man than Wannstedt would have been too insecure to keep Rhoads on his staff. A lesser man than Rhoads, after feeling scorned, would have left, especially because he wasn't going to have total say over the defense the way he did under Harris. Rhoads had a chance to go to Illinois, Arizona State and UCLA as defensive coordinator and to at least one NFL team as defensive backs coach.

"I didn't want to leave," Rhoads said. "I like this city. I like this university. I like these kids."

That commitment to Pitt and to his players is what drives Rhoads, not the thought that his defense's success might lead to a head job.

Of course, he'd certainly take it if one came along.

"Absolutely, I still want to be a head coach," Rhoads said. "I still believe my time will come."

Maybe even before he hits the big 4-0.