It’s not like college and pro football are the only ones getting ready for the new season. There’s high school football. Importantly to college football fans — recruits.
Pitt commit Lucas Nix got some love as the Trib has been writing about Western PA seniors for the past week.
“He’s so athletic,” Thomas Jefferson coach Bill Cherpak said. “He’s big. He can run. He’s nasty. He wants to not hurt you, well, yeah, he wants to hurt you, but I mean he’s not trying to do that, but he has all the tools, all the gifts. He’s not a complete player right now, but he’s got to keep working. The sky is the absolute limit for him. His potential is out the window.”
The five-star offensive lineman’s upside should be evident this year during his final season at Thomas Jefferson and then at Pitt, where he committed to play college ball. For now, Nix is focused on getting Thomas Jefferson back to the PIAA championship, where he helped the Jaguars to a state title in 2004 as a starting freshman.
“Since I’ve committed to college, I feel like I can just come here, try to lead this team and do the best I can to get us back to the state championship,” Nix said. “I was there once. It’s just, I guess, the thing you wait for all year. You work, try to go 16 weeks through the whole season, plus all summer, just to get to that one game and win that one game.”
Apparently he can do a split. That just hurts to think about it.
The best player in the City League this year is WR Ed Tinker.
And the offers came. Tinker has received interest from some prominent Division I schools, including Pitt, West Virginia, Louisville and Iowa. Still, in light of the acclaim, he refuses to be complacent.
“This whole summer I’ve been training and lifting, working on my routes and trying to get better,” he said.
Working alongside Pitt and West Virginia players at the Warrington Recreation Center on the South Side, Tinker has tried to lift his stock. He said he anticipates more scholarship offers throughout the season.
Rivals.com and Scout.com have him as a 3-star recruit. He doesn’t seem like a high priority for Pitt. He’s got a lot of tools and at 6′ 3″, 195 a good frame for a WR. He’s the second best WR in Pennsylvania (#22 overall according to Rivals.com), but I was under the impression Pitt was more interested in Vaughn Carraway (the #1 WR prospect in PA — also 3-stars from Rivals.com but 4-stars at Scout.com).
Finally, a raw project, maybe at linebacker in Chet Welc.
Welc has been a three-year starter on both the baseball and basketball teams, earning all-conference honors in baseball his sophomore and junior seasons and becoming both an offensive and defensive force on the hardwood. Now, Welc is about to begin his third season as a starter on the Vikings’ football team, and it’s this venue that he believes will give him the greatest opportunity to play sports at the collegiate level.
“I like all three sports,” he said. “Football is just what I’m going to do in my future.”
Welc said he has been scouted by several schools, including two of his favorites, Pitt and West Virginia.
“I grew up watching Pitt,” he said. “And West Virginia is an awesome team. I’ve been down there a couple times, and it’s just a great place to be.”
Welc at this point is an unranked, 1-star recruit. No actual offers yet. His athleticism may tempt Coach Wannstedt to offer late if a scholarship is still open. A big if.
not even worth going to the games…..
And just like the mindless drone that I am, I did buy a student season ticket package, because watching bad football in a stadium setting is sometimes better than watching good football on TV. It’s why I often went to football games at Duke.
Looks like Chris Jacobson is out for the season. Needs surgery to repair a dislocated knee cap.
The hits just keep on comin
The other thing i love is hearing “wanny can’t coach the x’s and o’s”…compare to wlat? Third down quick-kicks or draws? Seriously?
I don’t Wanny is out to trick anyone – he’s said he wants the best lines he can get, so he can line up and tell them what he’s gonna do, and then do it. Instead of trickeration on every play (triple options, etc). Plus even he admits he’s had to adapt things to college, and he’s working on it. Obviously half-time adjustments weren’t his forte last year, but i’m willing to give the guy time to perfect his game too.
Not everyone can turn it around in 1 or 2 years. These people are fools for thinking so. A bunch of monday morning coaches we have here “rooting” for pitt.
What have they done since? Nada. Nick Saban went 9-7 with a horrible schedule, though. Wow.
And don’t give me that crap that they underachieved. That’s just silly.
Oh, and let’s not forget about Wanny’s mismanagement of QBs and offensive line. Sure, he had Erik Kramer throw that record-breaking season for the Bears, but in the next season, he mismanaged him to the point of injury (which could also be said about the OLine as well). Hell, he thought Rick f’n Mirer could be a starter, and traded a prime first-round draft pick for him! That trade goes right up there with Chris Young for Matt Herges, who didn’t even make the team out of spring training (and could also have been a harbinger of the AJ Feeley trade). Add that to the numerous other gaffes, such as thinking Curtis Conway would make a bigger impact than OJ McDuffie (but then again, you could say that it was ol’ #13 who made the difference, but I don’t care), drafting Jamar “Blechhh” Fletcher, failing to replace Richmond Webb at the LT spot (which has led to a number of blindside hits that have resulted in an orgy of sacks when someone not named Jay Fiedler (who was a mediocre QB anyways, even though Wanny thought him to be better than Trent Green) was taking the snaps).
Finally, the 9-7/10-6 crap. To me, those records are meaningless. The Fins pissed away a 2002 playoff appearance with the patented Wanny December swoon (capped off with the choke in New England), and were eliminated before the final week of the 2003 season (so that last win was a meaningless win in the MIA/NYJ “Toilet Bowl” game, in which both teams’ seasons were going to end that day anyways). The next season was the 4-12 trainwreck, starting with the draft of third-rate Eddie Moore, rather than Anquan Boldin. Add in a Wanny on a hot seat, who was really clueless with what to do with his QBs, and you get a 1-8 record before his resignation (which probably would have become 2-14 had he not resigned). I could talk about Nick SATAN all day, but we’re sticking with Wanny right now. His OLine this season was thin to begin with (ok, partly Walt, partly him), and it just got thinner. He keeps Paul Rhodes and Matt Cavanaugh, both proven losers, on his staff as a sign of loyalty (which was another trait that did him in in Miami, excessive loyalty). Also, I would like to know what other candidates were considered for the HC job after Walt left/was pushed out. Wanny being the only one considered, bad record and all, only reinforces my belief that the Pitt Athletic Department is just as bad in good-ol-boyism as the DUKE Athletic Department. So to all you Wanny-lovers, y’all can kiss my ass, because y’all know NOTHING!
Monday morning Joshua should take the helm. Nat’l championship here we come.
Wanny will readily admit that his defenses require a certain type of player. Thats why it was better at some schools than it was at others. He’s recruiting players to fit his scheme. Since we realized we were going no where with Wlat and getting some other coach that would use us as a stepping stone made no sense. We knew who the best coach for the job would be and got him.
Is this all misplaced anger because Duke sucks nuts in both sports? Go bitch at them for being terrible, its not our fault.
“And it could also be said that Wanny won with JJ’s players, who were just about to hit their prime (Zach Thomas, Jason Taylor, Sam Madison, Patrick Surtain, along with Shula holdover and workhorse Tim Bowens).”
Want me to spell it out again? THEY WERE HITTING THEIR PRIME!!! They would have won for Art f’n Shell!!!!
