Of Rob Petitti being the only drafted Pitt player from last season’s squad suggests that the Pitt team should be better as the they didn’t lose a lot of talent to graduation. It also points out the yin and yang of former Coach Walt Harris. He definitely didn’t do a good job at recruiting, but he did do a good job in coaching up what talent was there.

Naturally, a Jersey kid is happy to go play for Bill Parcells.

As for why he dropped.

“Coach Parcells called and asked if I was a hard worker,” Petitti said. “I told him I was, and he said they’d draft me. I was so ecstatic when he called again. I talked to him and Jerry Jones, and they said I could win the starting right tackle job if I came in here and worked hard. So, I’m ready to go to work.”

Petitti was a four-year starter at left tackle for the University of Pittsburgh, playing in 49 of 50 career games, and he was a second-team All-America selection in several publications after last season. He likely dropped to the sixth round due to offseason weight gain, a poor game against Utah in the Fiesta Bowl and a foot injury prior to the Senior Bowl.

The injury also contributed to a poor performance at the scouting combine.

But let’s put the fact that Pitt had only one player drafted in some perspective.

That means Division II IUP had one more player drafted than Penn State, which had one of the longest streaks of producing draft choices. The Nittany Lions had at least one player drafted every year since 1960. They were the only team from the Big Ten Conference not to have a player drafted.

I think it was a sad day for nepotism everywhere when Penn State moved Jay Paterno out of the position of recruiting coordinator.