Football Preview: Chryst latest to lead Pitt football program

In the storied 122-year history of the Pitt football program, he is the first head coach to not…

Paul Chryst seemed to enjoy himself at practice during his first training camp as the new Pitt football head coach.

Luv Purohit, Assistant Visual Editor

In the storied 122-year history of the Pitt football program, he is the first head coach to not have a vowel in his last name.

But that’s where the fun facts end when it comes to Paul Chryst, the latest leader of Pitt football after the program’s second consecutive offseason of coaching turmoil.

It didn’t take long for the new head football coach to impress Pitt fans. Chryst’s comments at his introductory press conference made it clear that, unlike his predecessor Todd Graham, Chryst is a man who firmly believes in the cliché, “actions speak louder than words.”

“You don’t announce anything today,” said Chryst, who plans on restoring a balanced offensive system geared toward his player’s strengths. “It’s really shallow if you announce what you’re going to do — your actions have to prove it.”

With no declarations of “high-octane football” and with a straightforward demeanor, Chryst’s personality seems to be the polar opposite of Graham’s — the man who hopped on a plane after texting the Pitt players to say that he was leaving for Arizona State last December. The former Pitt football coach cited family reasons and claimed that coaching at ASU was his dream job.

Just eight days after Graham’s shocking departure, Pitt announced Chryst’s newly acquired position at the University with a press conference at the team’s South Side facility.

Pitt athletic director Steve Pederson stated that the main attribute the football head coach search committee looked for was leadership.

“We believed it was important to find a leader who gets the very best from his players while also developing the kind of culture that fits the University of Pittsburgh,” Pederson said. “Paul Chryst is that leader.”

Chryst, 46, grew up watching his father coach high school football in his hometown of Madison, Wis., but he moved to nearby Platteville, Wis., after his dad took over the University of Wisconsin-Platteville football program.

After starring at Platteville High School, Chryst decided to return to his hometown to play quarterback for the Wisconsin Badgers. He lettered three times at Wisconsin before graduating in 1988 with a degree in political science.

Aspiring to follow in his now-late father’s footsteps by beginning a football coaching career, Chryst enrolled at West Virginia and became a graduate assistant for the Mountaineers’ football team.

For much of the next decade, Chryst built his resumé by working as an offensive assistant with Canadian Football League teams and small colleges. In 1997, he finally earned his first major collegiate coaching job as offensive coordinator at Oregon State.

In 1999, Chryst delved into the National Football League scene for the first time by coaching the San Diego Chargers’ tight ends for three years. Brief stints coaching Wisconsin’s tight ends and a return to Oregon State followed before Chryst accepted the Badgers’ offensive coordinator position in 2005.

“I’ve had a lot of great mentors,” Chryst said of the numerous coaches he’s worked for. “I’ve been fortunate.”

Although he has coached in a lot of places, Chryst wants Pitt fans to know they don’t have to worry — he doesn’t have family scattered across the country and other dream jobs like the departed Graham claimed to have.

“This is a destination job to me,” Chryst said. “If you can’t live in the moment, then you’re cheating yourself, and you’re cheating your players.”

“This is a pretty good gig,” he added.

During their first training camp under the new regime, some of Chryst’s players expressed their support for the new head coach.

Star senior running back Ray Graham believes the team’s new offensive attack will excite Pitt fans who haven’t had much to cheer for in recent years.

“With [Chryst] being an offensive guy, he likes to see excitement and offense,” Graham said.

Offensive lineman Chris Jacobson, a sixth-year senior who has been at Pitt through all of the recent coaching changes, said that despite everything the team has gone through the past few years, the current Panthers have had no problem believing in Chryst and his coaching staff.

“Coach Chryst comes out here, and he works us,” Jacobson said after a practice. “Everyone is buying into what Coach is saying.”

Chryst explained that getting his players to rally around him begins with showing each and every one of them just how much he cares about their football careers, their schoolwork and their lives.

“Players don’t care how much you know until they see how much you care,” he said.