In the football side of things, there have been some new verbals.
On Thursday/Friday — just slightly overshadowed by other things related to Pitt and in the world of pop culure — Pitt got a verbal from a WR from Bishop-McDevitt in Harrisburg.
Bishop McDevitt wide receiver Salath Williams had more than 20 scholarship offers but as the recruiting process unfolded he realized the first one he received was the one which interested him the most.
That is why Williams announced yesterday he had made a verbal commitment to play at Pitt. Williams, who caught 49 passes for 899 yards and 11 touchdowns last season, chose the Panthers over Michigan, Michigan State, West Virginia, Purdue and Iowa.
The 6-4 WR, not surprisingly doesn’t lack for confidence.
“They’re going to give me an opportunity to catch a lot of passes,” said Williams, who was recruited by Pitt tight ends coach Brian Angelichio. “I’m a playmaker. I’m a deep threat. They can throw it up and I’ll go get it.”
Williams had 49 receptions for 899 yards and 11 touchdowns last fall despite playing in a spread offense with a pair of Division I prospects in Jeremy Cornelius – who committed to Purdue yesterday – and Aaron Sye.
It helped that former players at his school spoke well of Pitt to him and his coach thinks other teams were late in realizing his talent.
Williams will follow recent McDevitt players LeSean McCoy and Aaron Berry to Pittsburgh, where both have enjoyed strong careers (McCoy left after his sophomore season to go to the NFL), and Williams acknowledged that those two played a small role in his decision.
“Aaron and Shady [McCoy] both told me how nice it was, so that helped,” Williams said. “I could see myself living in Pittsburgh. It’s a nice city, a nice school. And they run a pro-style offense, which I prefer.”
Williams caught 47 passes for 873 yards and 11 touchdowns despite suffering an early season ankle injury that literally slowed him down last season.
“Some of the people that were recruiting him didn’t even know how fast he was because of that injury,” Bishop McDevitt head coach Jeff Weachter.
“Then we had some workouts here in May, and they went, ‘Wow.'”
Scout.com has him as a 3-star while Rivals.com does not have him ranked. His size and speed obviously makes him intriguing and a WR with some potential.
Size, does not matter as much for Pitt when it comes to recruiting defensive backs. While Pitt keeps getting 6-foot + WRs, the d-backs have seemed to be in the sub-6 category. No reason to change, it seems as K’Wuan Williams out of New Jersey jumps at his first offer.
The Pitt football team picked up its sixth recruit for the 2010 class today as St. Joseph’s (Montvale, NJ) defensive back K’Wuan Williams made an oral commitment to the Panthers.
The Panthers were the first team to offer a scholarshhip to Williams, who is 5 feet 9 inches tall and weighs 178 pounds. But he was receiving interest from Rutgers, Syracuse and a number of other Division I schools as well.
He’s unranked by Rivals.com and has a single star from Scout.com — which also indicates that Rutgers had made an offer. Interest in Williams, though, may have been picking up.
“I was hearing from Notre Dame, Boston College, Syracuse, and North Carolina,” he said. “I was at Rutgers today and they were really interested. They were trying to talk to me but it was too late.”
