PITTSBURGH - Pittsburgh quarterback Tyler Palko made an impassioned plea Monday on behalf of coach Walt Harris, whose job status beyond this season has not been clarified despite the Panthers' late-season improvement.

Harris has two seasons remaining on his contract but, in a sport where coaches routinely sign long-term contracts of up to 10 years, the Pitt administration has been uncommonly silent about an extension or pay raise.

That bothers Palko, who said the uncertainty is not a distraction going into Thursday's rivalry game against West Virginia but may be adversely affecting Pitt's recruiting.

"I know he's taken a lot of heat for stuff, but I think the city needs to know this team is 100 percent behind him," Palko said. "I am his biggest supporter, and I really wish the questions about his job security would be over and done with. We're going to win with him and I know we have a bright future with him as well. ... He's not going anywhere."

Last year, Pitt chancellor Mark A. Nordenberg said the basketball players' strong support for assistant coach Jamie Dixon partly led to his promotion to head coach. Palko hopes the administration now listens to the football players.

"I'm not going to stand outside the guy's office with a picket sign, "Palko said. "If he hears it, he hears it, if not, he has to do his job. But I feel very comfortable with him (Harris)."

Harris, a former NFL and major college assistant, inherited one of the East's worst major college teams in 1997 and has built Pitt into a perennial Top 25 challenger. Pitt is 23-12 since 2002, its best three-year record since coach Jackie Sherrill's teams went 33-3 from 1979-81.

But Harris has drawn considerable criticism for going only 8-5 last season with a veteran team led by Heisman Trophy runnerup Larry Fitzgerald and for a long series of questionable in-game coaching decisions.

Pitt got off to a terrible start this season by playing poorly in an opening game win over Ohio and a home-field loss to mediocre Nebraska and for needing furious rallies to overcome double-digit deficits against Division I-AA Furman and Big East weakling Temple.

But the Panthers (6-3, 3-2 in Big East) have won four of five, losing only to Syracuse on the road in double overtime, and still could land in a BCS bowl if they beat West Virginia (8-2, 4-1) for the first time in three years and Boston College (8-2, 4-1) is upset by Syracuse (5-5, 3-2).

Palko, a sophomore, has shown excellent progress in his first season as a starter, and 10 days ago became the first quarterback to throw five touchdown passes against Notre Dame in a 41-38 victory at South Bend. He credits Harris for much of his rapid improvement.

"He's brought this team to where it's at ... I'm extremely excited about my future with coach as a quarterback," Palko said. "I wish the city and media would spend more time praising our football team and cheering on our football team, that's the only way we're going get back to our goal (a national championship)."

Harris, who spoke to reporters before Palko did, said he hasn't allowed himself to think about his job situation.

"I don't think this season, quite honestly, has been about me," said Harris, who is 50-43 in eight Pitt seasons despite a 2-9 record in 1998. "I've not thought about myself, and I'm not trying to be Mr. Humanitarian. I have a responsibility to these football players to try to teach them how to play the game. I feel like they've responded to our coaches and have tried hard to get better. That's tremendously exciting to me regardless of what anyone else says. ... What matters to me is being a good coach."

AP-ES-11-23-04 0011EST