Take one day to spend with the family. Banking some small amount of goodwill in anticipation of lost weekends of me either at Pitt games or watching football and basketball from September ’til April and lots happens.
A couple years ago when Henry Hynoski gave his verbal to Pitt, his teammate chose Penn State. Offensive lineman Josh Marks, was a preseason top-15 recruit in PA. Well, this week, it was reported/rumored that Marks failed the conditioning test at Penn State. Marks decided that he was done with PSU. Not, however, done with football.
Marks was unavailable for comment Friday, but his father John Marks said that his son was on a “recruiting visit.” The elder Marks said that Josh would play college football again, and he wanted to dispel rumors about why his son left Penn State.
“He did not get in trouble, he did not get in a fight,” John Marks said. “And his grades are fine.”
Which brings things to this item on who was on the sidelines for Pitt’s Saturday practice.
Perhaps most interesting was the presence of lineman Josh Marks, who recently left the Penn State football team. Marks was heavily recruited by Pitt out of Southern Columbia, where he played with Hynoski. The two spent time talking after practice, and it’s possible Marks could transfer to Pitt and walk-on to the team.
Coming out of spring practices, Marks was second on PSU’s depth chart behind guard Stefen Wisniewski.
Of course, that’s getting ahead of things. There is no verbal. No decisions there. Marks may decide he wants to play right away and go the 1-AA route. Besides there were a couple others that actually verballed.
The first came Friday night when Carl Fleming out of Maryland gave a verbal.
The safety is a 2- to 3-star recruit, with offers from Delaware and UConn, with growing interest from Rutgers and Maryland. He was also the Old Spice Red Zone Player of the Year in Maryland.
Pitt also got a big in-state verbal from Tyrone Ezell from Munhall (Steel Valley HS). A 3- to 4-star defensive tackle recruit, he had offers from Ohio State, Colorado, Illinois, Michigan and Virginia. Rivals.com had him as the 10th best recruit in PA while Chris Dokish at PSR lists him at #8. Here’s a bit on Ezell from ESPN.com/Scouts, Inc. (Insider subs.):
He will play some end and tackle in high school and could project to defensive end in college, but with his size potential and ability it looks like he will be best suited for the tackle position. He looks to be about 250 pounds of muscle and should be able to add more bulk. He can be a stout force versus the run. He has a solid get-off. Does a good job of using his hands. When he gets his hands on a blocker he displays the power to control him and move him aside. Will flash the ability to come off the ball with good pad level and shot his hands and when he does that he can jolt a blocker back.
He’s a bit on the raw side, but lots of the ever-important, “upside.”
Some already Pitt verbals — Devin Street and Juantez Hollins — were at the Friday practice along with past Pitt great Jimbo Covert and his son, Scott, who is also a Pitt recruiting target.
Oh and a couple other recruits and future targets were around the camp.
Allderdice senior defensive end Will Clark, Seneca Valley receiver Matt Plautz and another ’09 commit, Bethlehem Liberty receiver Devin Street, also watched practice from the sidelines.
Sto-Rox junior quarterback Paul Jones, considered by some the state’s top prospect in the Class of 2010, had an audience with Pitt athletic director Steve Pederson (who spent 15 years as a recruiting coordinator at Nebraska, Tennessee and Ohio State).
Dokish had a small profile on Jones recently.
