COLLEGE FOOTBALL After athletic overhaul at Pitt, Pederson shakes up Nebraska

The former Pitt AD has wasted no time changing things in his new home.
PITTSBURGH (AP) -- No matter which team wins the first Nebraska-Pitt football game since 1958 on Saturday, Steve Pederson will have played a major role in the outcome.
Pederson, Nebraska's athletic director, left Pittsburgh nearly two years ago following the most ambitious and aggressive athletic department overhaul ever undertaken there.
Pederson alienated some alumni and former players while tearing into -- and, at least in the case of Pitt Stadium, tearing down -- years of tradition.
Pederson hired football coach Walt Harris and former basketball coach Ben Howland, now at UCLA, and built one of college basketball's best arenas on the former football stadium site.
At Nebraska, Pederson again has shown no reluctance to toss out the old and build anew. He fired former coach Frank Solich after a 9-3 season, brought in former Oakland Raiders coach Bill Callahan and, yes, scheduled a football series with Pitt.
What's interesting is that Nebraska (1-1) resembles the program Pederson left behind in Pittsburgh, and Pitt (1-0) looks like a Nebraska team of the past.
Saturday's game kicks off at noon (33, 5, 4, WLLF-FM 96.7).
Controversial moves
Solich's firing was not widely applauded among Cornhuskers fans, nor was Callahan's hiring. Callahan's 2003 season in Oakland, unlike Solich's in Lincoln, was a dismal failure, with some Raiders players accusing him of losing the team during a 4-12 season.
Upon arriving at Nebraska, Callahan scrapped the running offense indigenous to the school since the single-wing days and installed a West Coast offense, one similar to the passing-dominated Pitt offense.
Callahan probably didn't recognize the Pitt offense he saw in a season-opening 24-3 victory Saturday over Ohio. It was easily Pitt's worst passing game in Harris' eight seasons there as sophomore Tyler Palko completed only 6-of-19 passes for 49 yards.
"We just have to get everyone else better around him, and he has to improve his game. And he will," Harris said. "The guy has talent."
Midway across the country, Nebraska outgained Southern Mississippi 476-239 only to lose 21-17 as Joe Dailey threw three interceptions despite completing 22-of-42 passes for 202 yards. The performance resembled some recent-vintage Pitt games under Harris, with lots of yards and long drives but relatively few points.
Nebraska's overhauled offense averages 528.5 yards per game -- 5-foot-7 running back Cory Ross has 294 yards rushing and three touchdowns -- but also has 11 turnovers in two games. Not long ago, that would nearly equal a season's total at Nebraska.