By Matt Popchock

(mpopchock@kdka.com)

Todd Graham’s WPIAL football recruits apparently met in private a while back and agreed to stick it out with new Pitt head coach Paul Chryst. Now Chryst has dipped back into the WPIAL to help round out his coaching staff.

Mount Lebanon head football coach Chris Haering has resigned after 17 seasons at the helm to work under Chryst, according to the Post-Gazette’s Mike White.

Haering came to that school after a brief stint at Hampton, and Mount Lebanon was one of the more competitive programs in Quad-A under his watch. His teams combined for over 100 wins, and his Blue Devils defeated Woodland Hills in 2000 for the program’s most recent WPIAL championship–the last high school football game ever played at Three Rivers Stadium.

Pitt is getting in Haering someone with a history of excellence as a player and a coach, and a rich background in the game. A quarter-century ago, while Chryst served as a grad assistant at WVU, Haering was on his way to becoming one of the premier linebackers in Mountaineer history.

He remains one of the program’s top ten in all-time tackles, and after starring on the 1988 squad that earned a national championship berth, he registered 185 tackles as a senior in 1989, the second-most by any West Virginia player in a single season. Chris’ uncle, Joe Haering, coached the Pittsburgh Gladiators, one of the Arena Football League’s seminal franchises, during that time, and currently serves as linebackers coach under June Jones at SMU.

The Mustangs will oppose Pitt in Saturday’s BBVA Compass Bowl in Birmingham, Alabama.

(Follow me on Twitter: twitter.com/mpopchock)