Tamarcus Porter’s private ceremony.

After talking with his parents last night and this morning, Porter decided to sign the papers and fax them the Pitt coaches, including former Miami Dolphins coach Dave Wannstedt, before going to school this morning. Porter joins Pahokee teammate Ricky Gary at Pitt.

Porter’s mother, Tammy Bussey, said her son was overwhelmed by the recruiting process, and decided he wasn’t ready to sign at Pahokee’s ceremony yesterday. He preferred instead to sign in the privacy of his home, with just his parents and brother Randl present.

Technically — at least as far as the NCAA is concerned — this recruiting class is only 24 members.

Porter is Pitt’s 26th recruit. The maximum number of recruits in a year is 25, but two of Pitt’s recruits — defensive back Jovanni Chappel and offensive lineman Kevin Hughes — are enrolled at the university and go on last year’s class.

That means Pitt can have one player in 2007 enroll early if he wants.

Personally, the last thing I want to do is start talking about the 2007 recruiting class. I, however, appear to be in the minority. So here are some of the WPIAL names we can expect to hear about.

Pitt coach Dave Wannstedt was talking about top seniors in the WPIAL the other day when he also mentioned how next year’s crop of offensive linemen looks good.

Here are some WPIAL offensive linemen who are attracting Division I attention as underclassmen and figure to be among the top prospects next year: Mt. Lebanon’s Andrew Devlin (6-5, 250), Keystone Oaks’ Chris Jacobson (6-3, 290) and Myles Caragein (6-3, 263), Woodland Hills’ Mike Dykes (6-4, 265), Center’s Evan Blankenship (6-4, 310), Seton-LaSalle’s Gino Gradkowski (6-4, 275) and New Brighton’s Zac Kasparek (6-6, 300).

Also for next year, Pitt is planning on being more aggressive throughout the rest of the state.

Assistant coach Curtis Bray spent a lot of time driving the turnpike between here and Harrisburg, working on Berry.

“It’s hard,” Bray said. “It’s Penn State country. We haven’t gotten a lot of players out of there. You just try to get in there and work it — just keep working, keep plugging away.”

Bray is elated that the work paid off.

“You feel like you’ve burst the bubble,” he said. “It’s like there was a shield or something, and now you got in and got a kid out of there.”

Wannstedt also made several trips out east last spring, warming up to high school coaches who had rarely dealt with anyone from Pitt. Some of the coaches complained that former coach Walt Harris never bothered to visit or establish ties.

Prep coaches in Harrisburg, Lancaster, Philadelphia, Wilkes-Barre, Allentown and State College can expect to see a lot of recruiting coordinator Greg Gattuso in the coming months. Gattuso gave up his recruiting areas in Ohio and Maryland and will concentrate on the eastern portion of this state.

“We’re really focusing our efforts in Pennsylvania, and it will pay off,” Gattuso said. “Those guys (Tkach and Berry) will lead the way for us.”
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Two players Pitt has targeted for next year are quarterbacks Alex Atiyeh of Bethlehem Catholic and Pat Bostic of Manheim Township.

Bostic will be one of the most sought-after quarterbacks in the country next year. He already has a written offer from Wannstedt and will attend Pitt’s Junior Day on Feb. 25.

Atiyeh’s father, Dennis, played at Pitt in the 1980s and his brother, Adam, recently joined the team as a walk-on fullback.

Other players on Pitt’s radar are receivers Chris Lorditch (Archbishop Wood), Ty Bynum (Conestoga Valley) and Shamaar Coates (Williamsport), tight end Matt Balasavage (Lancaster Catholic), quarterback D.J. Lenehan (Wilson Area), running back Henry Hynoski Jr. (Southern Columbia), lineman Josh Marks (Southern Columbia) and linebackers Xzavier Hunter (Harrisburg) and Nathan Stupar (State College).

Apparently Coach Wannstedt by the end of NLI Day, was a little mellower than usual.

It’s not that the Pitt football coach was unhappy with his recruiting class. Far from it.

Yet at his news conference to discuss the freshly signed 25 incoming players, Wannstedt was noticeably more reserved than he was in his early days on the job.

When he was hired in December 2004 and for several months afterward, in nearly every public appearance or meeting with reporters he was downright ebullient.
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Wannstedt has learned that openly emoting can work against you a little if things don’t turn out as well as hoped.

So he decided that although he wanted to convey the good things that happen or that he believes will happen with the Panthers, he needed to hold back some.

“That’s a fine balance,” he said.

Could it possibly just being tired?