I was thinking a little more about Keith’s Neil’s question regarding Kevin Hughes and which recruiting class he actually belongs.

Hughes, as noted, is a 2-star recruit. He’s a diamond-in-the-rough type, that wouldn’t see much action in his freshman year. A quick archive search shows that Coach Wannstedt sold him on grayshirting last year at NLI time.

It allowed Pitt to do 2 things — offer more scholarships than the limits said it could, and gamble (correctly) that there would be some shake-out with transfers and non-qualifiers. Hughes now counts against last year’s scholarship count, had an extra year to work on his conditioning and skills, gets an extra semester to take classes and can participate in spring drills.

Ultimately, it doesn’t matter which class he gets lumped into. The guess is he will be given a good opportunity to get in the O-line considering graduations, the chance to do spring drills and learn, and just how bad the line was last year.

Noticed this on Bruce Feldman’s blog (ESPN Insider subs.):

Enigmatic Johnny Peyton, the poor man’s Fred Rouse, is gone from USF. The athletic 6-foot-5, 190-pound wideout, who caught two touchdowns in the season opener at Penn State, does have his redshirt year left to burn. My hunch is that he might end up at Akron with one-time Pitt assistant J.D. Brookhart.

Peyton, of course, was one of the many 2004 signing day defections that was a major blow to former Coach Harris. I’m not saying there’s a hex, karma or anything for those kids who changed their mind about Pitt, but it is interesting to watch those careers.

One other thing, I’m not totally sure how important it is but it might matter:

No longer can WVU and its Big East Conference brethren take recruits who do not meet the NCAA initial eligibility standards.

A lopsided November vote by Big East university presidents ended the acceptance of non-qualifiers.

“I don’t think they thought this out real well,” Rodriguez said. “The way it is, it goes too far, in my estimation.”

At the Big East presidents’ official league meeting next month in conjunction with the men’s basketball tournament, the policy language will be finalized.

Rodriguez doesn’t expect much tweaking, if any.

The original vote was 13-3, and WVU, which has had success with a limited number of non-qualifiers, was in the minority.

Commissioner Mike Tranghese has admitted previous discussions and at times emotional debate focused on academics and didn’t include consideration of the on-field ramifications of the nixing of non-qualifiers.
…
The Big East is the fourth BCS league to eliminate non-qualifiers, joining the Atlantic Coast, Big XII and Pacific-10.

In football, the Southeastern Conference allows two non-qualifiers annually per school.

The Big Ten has no blanket prohibition, but some of its schools don’t allow NQs, as they are called.

However, if a Big Ten school takes a non-qualifier, although he cannot accept a grant-in-aid, he counts against the limits of 25 (annually) and 85 (total).

I don’t have the urge to look up what the difference is between a partial- and a non-qualifier. I’m guessing a partial has either the grades or the SATs, while a non has neither. Not sure that really cost Pitt anybody, but it is something to keep in mind for football and basketball recruiting.