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June 23, 2009

Looks like that commit by T.J. Clemmings yesterday is something less than a soft verbal.

“He went out there and made a hasty decision [to commit] without any input from his parents or me,” [Patterson Catholic Coach Benjie] Wimberly said Monday night. “He’s going to rethink it and continue the recruiting process.”

His coach is indicating that Clemmings will be taking all his visits and taking his time. Pitt may still be the leader for his services, but it is not a commit.

Telling, is that both stories in today’s papers have no quotes or comments from the kid about his decision.

Neither Clemmings nor Paterson Catholic coach Benjie Wimberly returned phone calls and text messages seeking comment Monday.

Verbal commitments are non-binding, and recruits can’t sign a binding national letter of intent until February.

The 6-foot-6, 265-pound Clemmings has only played one season of high school football — he recorded 20 tackles for losses and seven sacks last fall — but is ranked the nation’s No. 24 defensive end prospect by Scout.com and No. 31 by Rivals.com.

Prior to his junior year, Clemmings concentrated on basketball, where he is considered a Division I prospect and had scholarship offers from Massachusetts, Providence and Seton Hall.

Clemmings has been timed in the 40-yard at 4.7 seconds — an outstanding time for an athlete his size — and major-college programs are likely to continue pursuing him.

If I’m going to hazard a guess, the kid got a little caught up in things and made an impulsive verbal without talking to anyone. Once home, and after telling his parents and coaches, they had him pull back and look a little more at the whole picture.

That’s what the adults are supposed to do. Killing the coach over this, looking for darker meanings or anti-Pitt messages is a bit much. I can’t get too worked up over this change

I’d prefer Clemmings to be a solid verbal, but I’m not going to insist he is bonded to a verbal based on reports that seems to lack direct quotes or confirmation from the kid himself.





Chas, I agree with your asessment. A cynical approach would be to look at the coaches’ comments and immediatedly wonder if he (Wimberly)was a Rutgers fan, or was trying to push Clemmings towards a perennial power like Florida or OSU. However, in the end it doesn’t matter, we will have to assume that his final decision will be the best choice for him.

One further note — Wanny obvously is getting a reputation for developing DL for the next level, and I would think this will have a major impact here.

Comment by w bill 06.23.09 @ 9:36 am

Call me cynical, then.

Comment by Patrick 06.23.09 @ 1:05 pm

well that didnt last long…no way he ends up at Pitt once some of these guys get in his head. Just please dont go to the State Penn. Choose the chance at an NFL Career over a chance to go to jail.

The best recruiting news for Pitt would be that Bill Stull is not the starting qb or has moved to another position.

Comment by Rich 06.23.09 @ 1:09 pm

New here and not being sarcastic at all, just curious or, perhaps, need a reminder on the DL talent that the Stache has developed. Receivers, yes. Running backs, sure. Just not remembering any stellar d-linemen. Thanks.

Comment by Finite Wisdom 06.23.09 @ 1:29 pm

when you’re dealing w/ 18 year old, many of whom have been fawned over since they were 13 based on their athletic ability, “solid verbal” is an oxymoron.

Comment by wilk 06.23.09 @ 2:26 pm

Finite Wisdom, you can scoff at this comment as you wish … but if Mustakas and Mick Williams stay healthy, there is a good chance that all 4 projected starting DLs will be NFL draft picks. And if Tony Tucker, Shayne Hale and Myles Caragein continue to progress, they may well be future draft picks.

The irony is that 4 OLs have been drafted under Wanny’s realm, yet the program appears to be much more attractive to defensive linemen …. look at the proposed quality of the DLs vs the OLs in the incoming (09) class, not to mention what has appened so far on 2010 recruiting.

Comment by w bill 06.23.09 @ 4:14 pm

not only draft picks but Romeus is thought to be a solid 1st rounder.

i’m not cynical but I think its ridiculous when high school coaches get involved in choosing schools this much. The parents, yes, they should be involved and it should be talked over with them. But the high school coach putting out a statement and such is over the top I believe. Hopefully the kid doesn’t listen to him too much. I’d really love to see T.J. suiting up for the Panthers, and based on his reaction to the school, staff, and visit, it seems he would too.

Comment by Yinzer 06.23.09 @ 4:38 pm

To follow up on w bill’s comment, you have to remember the state of the D-line when Wannstedt arrived. The talent level was pretty depleted, and the linemen were too small and too slow for the competition. Remember, Notre Dame ran roughshod over them in the 2005 opener, and it was a pattern that was repeated for much of that season and the next. The fact that few, if any, defensive linemen have been drafted the past few years does not reflect poorly on Wannstedt, IMHO. As w bill points out, look at the next couple drafts.

Comment by Pantherman13 06.23.09 @ 4:52 pm

Fair enough. Not scoffing, just remembering the state of the program when the Stache arrived I suppose. Thanks.

Comment by Finite Wisdom 06.23.09 @ 5:19 pm

Note that Walt had a very good winning % in his final years, but weren’t competitive every time he ran into a team with a dominant line … i.e., Miami, Utah not to mention ND, with freshman QB Quinn, coming in and racking up over 200 rushing yards in 03.

When Wanny came in, he had to deal with poor D-line talent against Ray Rice, Pat White and Steve Slaton, Brian Brohm and Michael Bush, leading Rutgers’, Louisville’s and WVU’s best-ever teams, plus UC’s best-ever team last year …. and note that all but UC won their bowl games against quality opponents.

Comment by w bill 06.23.09 @ 6:01 pm

forget Walt’s last years B4 he moved on. The team was severely depleted, esp the leftover linemen and some other positions where speed was lacking.. They could not compete against top opposition. Period. Things have changed…

Comment by IronManEE68 06.23.09 @ 9:45 pm

The people on this blog need to get over Walt Harris leaving Pitt…Walt left this team 5 years ago, whatever problems we are experiencing now are completely due to Dave and NOT Walt. The only thing that matters is winning and this year will be a tell-tale sign of the progress made by the current administration and coaching staff.

Comment by Marco 06.24.09 @ 1:18 pm

we’ve been long over Walt. And we know the current issues, mainly QB, is Wanny’s. Marco, if you have looked thru all of the above blogs, you know that we were just clarifying the issues that Wanny had when he took over, specifically the defense.

There is no more blaming of Walt anymore (heck, the republicans have even quit blaming everything on Bill & Hilary for a couple of years now!)

Comment by w bill 06.24.09 @ 3:47 pm

then quit beating a dead horse w bill

Comment by Marco 06.24.09 @ 3:54 pm

Hey guys, I’d appreciate it if you would stop by my blog and check it out. I’m going to be doing a full Big East breakdown. Also, for the Pitt fans out there, I will be keeping up to date with the recruiting wars. Feel free to comment any of my blogs and I will do a mailbag type of thing as well. Thank you so much.
link to pittsburghsteelersnews.com

Comment by Dustin 06.24.09 @ 10:00 pm

Excuse me for at least trying to ride a dead horse, but Walt would have either developed Stull into a fine QB or benched him. Jonathan Baldwin would have become a Heisman candidate this year. Say what you will about Walt’s lack of interest in running backs and defense, he knew how to develop QBs and he made stars out of receivers. Dave Wannstedt falls far short in both areas.

Comment by TonyinHouston 06.25.09 @ 6:10 am

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