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