As can now be safely read from a free source, Pitt recruit Kevin Collier has reaffirmed that Pitt is his choice.

The highly recruited running back from Churchville-Chili opened the door for speculation after taking an official visit to Syracuse University on Nov. 12, but he said Tuesday night that he plans to honor his initial verbal commitment, made in August, to the University of Pittsburgh.

Collier reaffirmed his desire to play for coach Dave Wannstedt’s Panthers after his official visit last weekend.

“It’s a done deal. I’m going to Pitt,” said Collier, who has been offered scholarships by 14 schools. “But I know (colleges) are not going to stop calling until I sign the papers.”

He can’t sign a binding letter of intent until early February. Recruiters from South Florida, SU and Connecticut are expected to watch him play basketball this week, Collier said, then try to woo him. The 5-foot-11, 190-pound senior had 19 touchdowns and 1,942 yards rushing last fall and became Section V’s all-time leading ground gainer (5,402 yards).

“I told (Pitt) I (visited) Syracuse because I wanted to make sure I was making the right decision,” said Collier, who watched the Orange lose that day, or in his words, “get destroyed,” by South Florida, 27-0. “After going to Pitt, I know.”
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“It would drive any coach crazy if a guy had committed and was visiting other places,” said Collier, who also has offers from programs such as Boston College, Michigan State, Wisconsin, Maryland and Georgia Tech. “It’s almost like cheating, being unfaithful.”

He said that he doesn’t plan to change his mind, but he isn’t ruling out other official visits (NCAA rules allow five). He’s in it for the experience, he said.

“This is a once-in-a-lifetime thing. I might go just to go. I’ll call Wannstedt and tell him I’m going just to go,” Collier said, laughing. “But as far as where I’ll be playing, it’s Pitt.”

I don’t blame him for taking the visits. Just glad he’s still coming.

While on the subject of NY and Pitt players, Mark May was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame last night.

Not sure why there was no mention of this in the Pittsburgh papers. Unsurprisingly, the West Virginia papers had coverage of former WVU Coach Don Nehlan being inducted. They even had an article on May talking about playing Nehlan and the Mountaineers.

“We beat them four out of four times [three under Nehlen] and the difficulty was that they were always going to give their best effort from the first play to the last play.”

May recalled playing at the old Mountaineer Field in 1979, when the National Guard was called out for a chaotic situation that started with a soccer game, that the fans were in “a state of dementia” by the time the football game started.

Speaking of WVU. The coach of a school in one backwater state had to apologize to another for leaving the Hoopies off of his ballot.

Arkansas football coach Houston Nutt says he has apologized to West Virginia coach Rich Rodriguez for leaving the Mountaineers off his ballot in the coaches’ Top 25 football poll.

Nutt said he had voted for West Virginia in previous weeks but that, while shuffling teams listed in the USA Today poll, he inadvertently left the Mountaineers off the ballot. He said he would have listed West Virginia No. 13.

Nutt said Rodriguez understood that a mistake happened and “was very gracious about it.”

“I’ve also gotten some e-mails from West Virginia fans. They’re upset about it, and I understand their feelings,” Nutt said.

West Virginia finished the regular season No. 11 in The Associated Press and the coaches’ polls. The 13 points West Virginia would have received from a properly cast Nutt ballot would not have been enough to move the team into the coaches’ top 10.

Oh, well.