Chris Bono Turns Down Pitt Head Coaching Position

Chris Bono Turns Down Pitt Head Coaching Position

Chris Bono turned down the head coaching position at Pitt and will be staying at SDSU

Apr 13, 2017 by Wrestling Nomad
Chris Bono Turns Down Pitt Head Coaching Position
Chris Bono will not be the next head coach at the University of Pittsburgh. A source close to the situation confirmed to FloWrestling that Bono will be staying at South Dakota State.

A 1996 NCAA champ for Iowa State, Bono was named the Big 12 coach of the year for the 2016-17 season. The three-time world team member had SDSU as high as 15th in Flo's dual rankings this year and finished 16th at NCAAs. Bono has been head coach of the Jackrabbits since April 17th, 2012.

Pitt has been without a head coach since January 19th, when Jason Peters was dismissed. Matt Kocher and Drew Headlee have been acting co-head coaches since then. It has also been reported that Tim Flynn and Pat Santoro received interviews, though both will be staying at their current schools.

The team that was third in the ACC this season and returns three of their four NCAA qualifiers remains without a head coach. Dom Forys is a three-time qualifier who won the ACC tournament, entered NCAAs as the 6th seed and finished No. 11 in the final rankings.

Another ACC champ was redshirt freshman Taleb Rahmani, who finished ranked 19th. Ryan Solomon is also a three-time NCAA qualifier who closed out the year ranked 16th. However, they are losing Te'Shan Campbell, who will be transferring to Ohio State.

The Panthers had the No. 11 recruiting class last year and are bringing in Nino Bonaccorsi, the third ranked 182 in the country, as well as KJ Fenstermacher, who was third at FloNationals.