PITTSBURGH - 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.

Funny world, isn't it, Walt Harris?

"He was the right man for the job here at the University of Pittsburgh," Harris said. "He came in and did the things that needed to be done to give us a chance to have a chance. So I will be forever indebted to him."

What some in Nebraska are debating is whether Pederson is the right man there.

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.

That Callahan worked under assistant coach Walt Harris as a graduate assistant at Illinois nearly a quarter-century ago isn't a coincidence.

"I was trained under coach Harris and I have tremendous respect for his ability," Callahan said.

Even if 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."

What Palko doesn't have are receivers that begin to resemble Larry Fitzgerald, last year's Heisman Trophy runner-up who is now with the Arizona Cardinals. Pitt's top receiver, Greg Lee, had only two catches.

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.

"When you generate the numbers we did on the offensive side, I really don't think the confidence is rattled or shaken, I really don't," Callahan said.

Even if rattling and shaking is what Steve Pederson does best.

Harris has yet to go 9-3 at Pitt, the record that led to Solich's firing. Harris was asked if he thinks Pitt would employ him today if Pederson had stayed on the job.

"We haven't done very bad here," Harris said. "I don't worry about all those things that are hocus-pocus and make believe."