At a press conference before Tuesday’s spring practice, Pitt athletic director Steve… At a press conference before Tuesday’s spring practice, Pitt athletic director Steve Pederson announced that head football coach Dave Wannstedt received a contract extension through at least January 2015, adding two years to his current deal.

“When you think about Dave and what he’s done with this program, it’s been an exciting opportunity for all of us to watch him build Pitt football into something really special again,” Pederson said.

Wannstedt is going into his sixth season as head coach of the Panthers and is coming off a 10-3 record last season and a No. 15 national ranking at the end of the season, the school’s highest final ranking since 1982.

He has a 35-26 career record at Pitt, including two straight seasons with at least nine wins.

“I greatly appreciate the confidence that Chancellor Nordenberg, Steve Pederson and our entire administration have in what we are building and accomplishing with our football program at the University of Pittsburgh,” Wannstedt said in a press release yesterday.

He said that since his first day of coaching at Pitt, he has had the same three goals.

“My motives have not changed from the day I took this job, but it truly is to graduate every football player that comes to this university, to try to develop their athletic skills to give every player that comes here an opportunity to go onto the next level, and thirdly is to make these young men better citizens when they leave the University of Pittsburgh than when they showed up,” Wannstedt said at the press conference.