A pair of commits to start and finish the July 4th weekend.

Pitt just keeps piling up the WRs. Another tall, strong WR in Andrew Carswell out of McKees Rocks.

Carswell, 6-foot-4, 210 pounds, was one of the first juniors to get an offer from Pitt last season. He also had offers from West Virginia, Syracuse, Virginia, Duke, North Carolina State, Maryland, Boston College, Iowa, Illinois, Wisconsin, Michigan, Michigan State, Northwestern, Vanderbilt and Stanford.

“I felt like I had a connection with Pitt,” he said, “and I wanted to stay close to home.”

He’s listed as a WR, but he also played defensive back.

But Ruscitto said Carswell had a number of programs looking at him as a defensive player as well.

Carswell made 56 tackles and had three interceptions as a defensive back, and Ruscitto said this versatility indicates Carswell’s ability to play at the next level.

That seems enticing to have the possibility of a big DB again. Yet Carswell is 3- to 4-star recruit as a WR, and gets good reviews especially with his potential (Insider subs.).

Carswell is a big, physical wide receiver who has a very nice combination of size, speed and athleticism. He is productive both as a deep threat and also on underneath throws because he possesses very good quickness for a player his size. He shows very good change-of-direction after the catch. He is tall, well-built and has an impressive frame to grow into. It is tough for secondary players to judge his deep speed because he lulls them to sleep off the ball and then shows a sneaky second gear to go past them.

So that was a nice way to start things, but the ending was more important as — HOLY GOD, AN OFFENSIVE LINEMAN!!! OMG! SOMEONE TO PLAY O-LINE!!!!

Er, sorry. It’s just that the lack of any commits for the O-line and some glaring misses has made this a source of anxiety. But Pitt got a good one.

Pitt’s recruiting momentum did not slow down for the holidays as the Panthers received a verbal commitment yesterday from North Olmstead, Ohio, offensive lineman Matt Rotheram.

Rotheram is the 12th player from the class of 2010 to commit to the Panthers. He is the highest-rated recruit of any in the class thus far.

Rotheram (6 feet 6, 310 pounds) is a four-star prospect, according to Rivals.com, and the recruiting service also ranks him as the ninth-best guard prospect in the country.

He had numerous scholarship offers, including from Wisconsin, Illinois, Purdue, Indiana, LSU, Arizona, Michigan State, Iowa and Cincinnati. He said his three finalists were Purdue, Indiana and Pitt, and once he compared them it was really no contest.

Well, yeah. Playing somewhere in Indiana or, well, anywhere else.

He mades his decision on his birthday to obligingly give Pitt coaches the present. What makes his verbal such a happy thing is what type of O-lineman he is.

He said playing in the Panthers’ pro-style offense was appealing to his type of game.

“I’m a run blocker,” Rotheram said. “Finishing the block is my best trait. I never give up on a block. People call it a mean streak.”

Rivals.com does have him as a 4-star, while Scout.com gives him 3. ESPN.com/Scouts, Inc. likes him enough to have him in their national 150-player watchlist, and agrees that he is best as a run-blocker (Insider subs.).

Rotheram is exactly what a coach looks for in a run blocking tackle but will need to work on foot quickness at the next level. He has the strength, power and technical skills to be a very productive offensive lineman at the next level.

And if you are excited by watching clips of good blocking, there’s even a YouTube of his best.