The first of two parts: His return to Western Pennsylvania might create a lot of warm 'n' fuzzies, but Pitt's new offensive coordinator knows 'this is a performance business' and every fan will know when he doesn't.

Frank Cignetti Jr. had one major important task to take care of on this particular day -- purchase a puppy to bring home and surprise his three young daughters who, along with his wife, Ellen, were returning from a couple dayscouple of days at the Jersey shore.

"Can you hold on for a minute -- I absolutely have to take this call," he said.

He then proceeded to hammer down the details of the purchase of a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel, who would eventually become a part of the Cignetti household, named Gracie, and earn Cignetti a whole lot of "father-of-the-year" points -- at least in the eyes of his daughters, Alyssa, 9, Gabrielle, 7, and Ella, 4.

"You can't put a price on that," he said of the size of the smiles on both his wife and daughter's faces.

Of course, Cignetti probably locked up that father-of-the-year honor up in their eyes in February when he accepted the position as Pitt's offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach. He and his family got to move from California and be closer to all of their friends and family.

"Once you are away from family and friends, you realize how it important it is to be around family and friends," he said. "I can't tell you how positive of an experience it has been for my daughters to be able to walk up the street to play with their cousins, and for their grandparents to be so close and be able to see them and be involved with them."

Cignetti, 43, is from New Kensington and played college football at Indiana University of Pennsylvania. He got his coaching start as a graduate assistant at Pitt in 1989, then as an assistant at IUP (1990-98).

He also comes from a family of coaches with deep ties in Western Pennsylvania. His father, Frank Cignetti Sr., was an assistant coach at Pitt in the 1960's and the head coach at both West Virginia (1976-79) and IUP (1986-2005). And his brother Curt, who is an assistant at Alabama, was an assistant at Pitt from 1993 to 1999.

Cignetti now lives in Treesdale, about 15 houses from one sister and a few minutes from another sister.

"When I first came here and was asked if I took a pay cut to come here [from California], if you just look at money, yes I did. But there are so many things in life you can't put a price tag on, and those are things that to me, are far more important."

Cignetti's return to Pitt has been well received for a lot of reasons and many of them have nothing to do with the fact that his name is well known in these parts -- although that's a big part of it.

But there is also a fan base which has grown restless the past few years about a Panthers offense which has been neither imaginative nor productive at times.

And fairly or not, the brunt of the criticism was heaped on former offensive coordinator Matt Cavanaugh, who left to become the quarterbacks coach of the New York Jets.

Cignetti's father, Frank Sr., said that when he heard his son was coming home to coach at Pitt, he was extremely excited. But he also knows how hard it can be to coach in your hometown.

"We were all very, very excited when the opportunity presented itself because it has always been his dream to get back to the East Coast and be back close to home," Cignetti Sr. said. "And then to not only get back East, but to get here, to Pitt, it was almost too good to be true. Of course, now I'm sure there will be a lot of people who will have suggestions for him about how to go about his job.

"That can get uncomfortable at times. But he's an experienced coach now and he's been around good coaches so he'll handle himself extremely well."

Cignetti's hiring signaled the dawn of a new era for the Pitt offense. But he laughs at the notion that he is some sort of savior. He understands that few coordinators in the country will be under more scrutiny than him, especially given the lofty expectations for the Panthers this season.

"Matt is a great football coach and, don't forget, he is one of the greatest quarterbacks in this school's history," Cignetti said of Cavanaugh. "So if people were tough on an icon like him, I know that the expectations are very high here.

"I understand that and, believe me, nobody is going to expect or demand more from our offense than me."

Cignetti has always admired the university, the athletic department and especially head coach, Dave Wannstedt. He said the opportunity to work for people for whom he has deep admiration -- Wannstedt, Chancellor Mark Nordenberg and athletic director Steve Pederson -- made the job too good to pass up -- even if he did, as he said, have to take a slight pay cut from the $350,000 he made at the University of California.

The pieces are in place, he said, for the Panthers to become an elite program again, sooner rather than later.

"Dave Wannstedt has built the foundation for a championship," Cignetti said. "And if you ask me, championship starts with a great defense. You need a great defense and great special teams and an offense which will protect the football, score points and win the field position battle.

"I didn't take this job just because it was close to home; things had to be right. First and foremost, this is a great academic institution in the greatest football city in America, but beyond that, coach Wannstedt and I, our philosophy and approach is very similar."

Cignetti's first item of business has been to try and coach up the Panthers quarterbacks: Senior Bill Stull, junior Pat Bostick, redshirt freshman Tino Sunseri and freshman Kolby Gray. The group has not performed particularly well in the past few seasons, but in Stull and Bostick he has two players with a combined 22 career starts.

"Whether it is Billy Stull, Pat Bostick or Tino Sunseri, we have high expectations," Cignetti said. "We expect them to compete with each other, we expect them to be successful. And I believe we have the players here in this [quarterback] room to do just that, and frankly, I'm not going to except anything less than their best.

"We've set the bar high for them."

The bar has certainly been set high for Cignetti, but he wouldn't have it any other way.

"I don't feel any more pressure than any other time in my career," he said. "This is a performance business, a bottom-line business and every place I have been, the expectations are extremely high. You don't get into this profession if you don't understand that."