Football: Where is Steve Pederson?

It seems like everyone is talking about Michael Haywood. Well, almost everyone.

Steve… It seems like everyone is talking about Michael Haywood. Well, almost everyone.

Steve Pederson, in the fourth year of his second stint as Pitt’s athletic director, was conspicuously absent over the weekend, as Pitt’s coaching circus reared its head on Monday with a press conference.

Pederson hired Haywood to replace Dave Wannstedt as head coach of the Pitt football team three weeks ago. On New Year’s Eve, Haywood was arrested for domestic battery and was relieved of his newly acquired coaching duties on New Year’s Day.

The statement announcing Haywood’s firing came from Chancellor Mark Nordenberg, not Pederson. And Pederson was also absent from a press conference Monday featuring Wannstedt, who discussed his role with the University.

According to the Post-Gazette’s Pitt football beat reporter Paul Zeise, Pederson did not attend the team’s practice on Sunday, which is unusual. Instead, Nordenberg addressed the players about the current situation as they prepared to head to Birmingham, Ala., for their Saturday bowl game.

When asked about Pederson’s plans for the bowl game, E.J. Borghetti, a spokesman for the athletic department, declined to comment about the athletic director’s travel plans.

Throughout the entire ordeal, Pederson spoke to the media only once, in a one-paragraph release Monday afternoon. Pederson discussed Wannstedt’s decision not to coach the Panthers in the BBVA Compass Bowl on Saturday and the fact that defensive coordinator Phil Bennett will serve as interim head coach.

Even so, Pederson received a vote of confidence from Nordenberg.

“Steve Pederson has played a key role in elevating Pitt’s athletics programs, remains an important member of the University’s senior leadership team and continues to enjoy the full support of the chancellor,” Pitt spokesman E.J. Borghetti said in a statement.

Pederson served as Pitt’s athletic director from 1996 to 2002 before he left to serve as Nebraska’s athletic director, where he was highly criticized for his coaching decisions.

After a 9-3 season for the Cornhuskers’ football team, Pederson — in just his second year at Nebraska — fired six-year head coach Frank Solich before the team’s bowl game.

Pederson was fired three years later, then returning to Pitt.