So, it’s been a good week for Ohio State in Western PA, and a lousy week for keeping the local talent. Dorian Bell and Jordan Hall both committed to the Buckeyes. You can guess no one is happy that Ohio State is suddenly a big threat in the region — not Pitt, not Penn State and certainly not Michigan. It was expected that Michigan would continue to recruit the area with Dick-Rod strengthening recruiting ties to the area.
(Brief aside on Dick-Rod. A big hat tip to Gene who forwarded me some of the pics on his old McMansion in Morgantown, by Cheat Lake — you really can’t make this stuff up. Only asking $2 million. I was able to find the actual listing and photo gallery for a post on FanHouse.)
Instead, Ohio State seems to have built off of getting Pryor to commit for this year.
Pitt has been quiet at this point. Part of what has probably added to the quiet is the new NCAA restriction on attending football camps.
Division II, III and NAIA coaches are still permitted to attend camps such as Metro Index, which is held at Pitt’s South Side football facility, and the Nike camp at Penn State. The bylaw on the NCAA Web site states that coaches are limited to visiting high school-sactioned events in the spring, meaning coaches can attend “regular scholastic activities involving prospective student-athletes enrolled only at the institution at which the regular scholastic activities occur.” Division I coaches are not permitted to attend a camp, even if it’s hosted by its own school.
Wannstedt and plenty of coaches backed the new rule, though.
Pitt coach Dave Wannstedt favors the new rule because it gives coaches a bit of a break in their hectic recruiting and coaching schedules.
“It’s overkill,” Wannstedt said. “It’s too much. We don’t need it.”
So many of the ridiculous NCAA rules occur because the coaches demand it as a way to control themselves. Everyone is looking for the edge. The extra facetime, chance to connect with a recruit. No coach can afford to look like he is not pursuing a recruit. So, the only way they stop is if the rules say they have to.
A recruit Pitt is pursuing in Florida seems to be getting noticed. Josh Elizondo is a 6-2, 280 pound DT recruit in Naples. He’s not ranked as much of a prospect, though, that seems to be because they just don’t know him yet. He holds offers from Pitt and NC State and now South Carolina.
“I think I like Pittsburgh a lot now,” Elizondo said. “My coach knows Dave Wannstedt real well.” Elizondo said he’s been hearing from USC recruiter David Reaves. He has not taken any unofficial visits and doesn’t have any planned. Elizondo expects to get a lots of looks from recruiters during spring practice because many will be coming down to see his highly touted teammate OL Nick Alajajian.
Elizondo is also getting interest (but no offers yet) from Alabama, Florida St. and Wisconsin.
Grow a set and come up with an original idea that isn’t calling somebody out.
“The reason West Virginia lost the game is not as difficult to decipher as Andrews made it out to be. Quarterback Pat White suffered a dislocated right thumb in the first half and missed half the game. He came back in the fourth quarter, but not even White, the two-time Big East Offensive Player of the Year, can win with one hand tied behind his back.”
Maybe I am blind, but I have a feeling WVU’s time at the top of the BE is done. Next year, all the offseason articles will be about Pitt. Mind you, Pitt and BE football is forever indebted to WVU for upsetting Georgia a year after Pitt’s BCS appearance. But it is now Pitt’s time to dominate.
HTP
Sam Young will return for his senior year!
Get ready for the preseason handjobs for Pitt from the media!
Lets see… what did a star PA highschool quarterback and a wealthy Columbus area auto dealer have in common this past year?
On Pat White: we’re going to get that forever from morons who don’t know their own ass from a hole in the ground. Until we do something on the field that is…think of it this way: when people want to talk about how great USC is, they talk about their “back to back” national championships, and when people want to talk about how great LSU is, they talk about their 2 championships this decade. No one mentions that one of those years, only one of them won it.
It comes down to this: we go 10+ wins next year, the history is written as “Pitt’s program was turned around with its domination at WVU, the best offense evvvvaarrrr to take a field, being completely shut down.” We go 6-6, history will tell the tale of “Pat Whites” poor thumb, even though we all know he took 75% of the snaps, it wasn’t his throwing hand, and in 1/3 as many snaps the BACKUP qb got in the endzone, we were playing without 6 or so starters including our starting QB (as opposed to just 1). “History” as everyone will remember it has yet to be written…
WVU’s time at the top of the BE *is* done. It ended december 1st. In two years the only thing they’ll be known for is their lack of hygiene and being inbred.
As for Sam Young: he goes apeshit and wins BE POY, he’ll get drafted higher than he would have this year. He wasn’t going that high this year anyways. He better be practicing right now…
Why is it every year people say the “draft is stacked”? Its like we forget last year and the year before, because of the recency of the upcoming draft. I don’t think its anymore stacked than it was a year ago. Who are the “amazing” players like Oden and Durant?
As soon as we start winning again, the recruits will be coming – even moreso than they already are. One 10 win season, with Wannstedt doing the in home visits, we’ll be set.
OK, yes, I’d rather that they had stayed home and gone to my other alma mater. But it could be a lot worse. Speaking of which, did anybody else catch this rationalization from Black Shoe Diaries…
“The day will come when we will be a power again. I read the quotes from all these kids we go after. They all come away from Penn State completely blown away by the atmosphere. They all rave about the facilities and the stadium. We’re sitting on a gold mine here, people. They all list Penn State in their top two or three schools, but they just can’t pull the trigger on us, and it’s because of the uncertainty of the coaching staff. Keep in mind that when Joe leaves we’ll probably lose Galen Hall and Dick Anderson too, so there will be an infusion of new coaches on the offensive side of the ball. Choose the right people and we can effectively put up a fence that extends from Lake Erie down the PA/OH border and down through Virginia to the Chesapeake and claim everything inside it as ours. Penn State will dominate the east coast in recruiting when we get a new coach. Write it down.”
Now, read that and tell me that Ohio State is the greater evil. And don’t even get me started on Dick Fraud…