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January 15, 2011

Inevitable Tulsa Fallout

Filed under: Coaches,Football,Graham,Recruiting — Chas @ 11:24 am

Going all the way back to Todd Graham’s opening press conference at Pitt. Graham uttered one statement that should be remembered.

“Kids sign with coaches. I really believe that.”

So, it should come as no surprise, then that kids who committed to Tulsa when they thought Graham would be their coach would look at Pitt.

Yesterday, Jakeem Grant, a receiver from Mesquite, Texas, decommitted from TU and is interested in Pitt, the Dallas Morning News reported. Grant’s coach calls his player the fastest man in Texas.

Today, I’m told by one of our TU beat writers, another Hurricane receiver commitment now has Pitt on his list. TU commitment Keyarris Garrett, a 6-4 receiver from Daingerfield, Texas, is taking visits. (Mike Brown is working on a story for Sunday’s paper about the impact Graham’s departure has had on recruiting.)

Garrett’s high school coach told Brown that Garrett has added Pitt to his list in the last few days. Garrett plans to visit TU this weekend, but he also will visit Pitt and Louisiana Tech in the next couple of weeks, according to his coach.

Garrett has 40 career TD receptions and is a member of a three-time state champion team. He’s a three-star recruit, according to Rivals.com, which also is reporting Garrett’s interest in Pitt.

Although evaluating recruits is never easy, these arguably are TU’s two best receiver commitments.

These two, plus Jason Frimpong are all coming to visit Pitt next week.

Frustrating note about the Big East basketball schedule not working for Pitt this year. In the two weekends leading up to National Signing Day, the basketball team has away games on Saturday.

Grant is a Cam Saddler-esque sized WR at 5-7, while Garrett is more like Devin Street with a lanky 6-5 frame. Frimpong is an athlete. While he plays QB in HS, his 5-10 size has him being projected as a cornerback.

Tulsa media and fans are understandably ticked. It’s one thing to have a coach jump to another job. It’s something else, when talent they thought was coming their way, would be more interested in following the departed coach. So, yeah, sour grapes in the column going after Graham and OC Calvin Magee. Whatever.

In fact, most people down in Tulsa recognize that Tulsa has kept improving its facilities and program. And that Graham has helped, and it is normal that he moved to a bigger, more lucrative opportunity.

Tulsa has already hired their next coach. Bill Blankenship, Graham’s associate HC at Tulsa and a Tulsa grad. I hope this works out well for Tulsa. My initial impulse, looking at his resume is that this is driven by 1) paying a bit less for a HC and 2) wanting to get a “Tulsa guy” in there so they don’t have to lose him in a few years if he wins.





From my understanding Tulsa wanted the OC under TG who went to Clemson, but didn’t come up with enough dough to lure him back.

The two WR’s sound like they can help us. Hope they like the cold weather, hopefully it won’t snow much.

Comment by TwilightZone 01.15.11 @ 11:34 am

This years recruiting class is ruined! PITT is DOOMED! Oh my God! We are never going to recover! Tom Bradley is Gods gift to football fans. PITT will need years to make up for the fall out following Wannstedt!

SHUT UP!

Comment by Todd Gack 01.15.11 @ 12:36 pm

Sports Illustrated reported that during the news conference in which Blankenship was introduced as Tulsa’s new head coach, that Blankenship intends to talk to Graham and ask him to stop poaching players that have already “commited” to Tulsa.

link to sportsillustrated.cnn.com

I guess I understand how he feels but as we all know, a player isn’t committed until he signs his LOI.

Comment by KeithS 01.15.11 @ 12:36 pm

By the way, after everything that is happened over the last 4 weeks, I have come to the following conclusion. Pitt is a football school. As much as everyone wants to declare us a basketball school because the program has done well over the last decade, we are still a football school at heart. We may be a little confused recently, but judging by the number of posts and the attitude of the fans on each topic posted on this site, PITT athletics revolves around football.

If the football team can regain National prominence like the basketball team has, basketball will take a visible back seat.

Don’t get me wrong, I love the basketball team as much as the next guy, but I live in Philadelphia and as much as I want this city to be a Phillies down, people bleed green here.

Comment by Todd Gack 01.15.11 @ 12:40 pm

Pitt has a much better football tradition than basketball, but I’m not ready to declare it as a football school .. primarily due to (1) the BE is the best college BB conference with aruagbly the most visibility, but the worst FB conference with minimal exposure, (2) Pitt FB can never compete with its Heinz Field cohabitants even among many Pitt grads (and no, I’m not advocating an on-campus stadium), and (3) FB recruiting in the northeast US pales in comparison to just about any other region while it is probably the best for basketball.

Comment by wbb 01.15.11 @ 1:13 pm

I recommend a piece in the PG today talking about how high coaching salaries have become. The salaries of Graham and Dixon are discussed with our favorite AD being quoted a couple of times.

I thought it was funny that Bear Bryant insisted that he be paid $1 less the U of Alabama president …. however, this past year the president earned $604k while Nick Saban pulled in $5.9m.

Comment by wbb 01.15.11 @ 1:20 pm

What size class do you think we end up with signed on feb 2 ? I think we end up with 12 players signed but 14 would not shock me. What do you think more or less.

Comment by FRANKCAN 01.15.11 @ 3:08 pm

When I lived in Philly a few decades ago, that town bled orange and black. Every other sport was just something to watch until hockey started.

Comment by HbgFrank 01.15.11 @ 6:55 pm

Yeah, the PG piece on salaries is a few days too late. Already been covered in this blog. Google FBS coaching salaries 2011 and you will see that what we are paying Graham is market rate for a decent coach.

Comment by waxonwaxoff 01.15.11 @ 10:07 pm

What we are, is what most cities or areas are, and there is nothing wrong with it, we are a “winning” school, and the same with pros. Oh, you can say, “St. Louis is a baseball town”, sure, but, when the Rams were in the playoffs and Super Bowl, you couldn’t get a seat to a Rams game. If Pitt football makes a comeback, that will be fantastic, and if Pitt basketball continues with its winning ways, they will not lose one fan. People like a winner, that’s all, and, there’s nothing wrong with that.

Pittsburgh is a “football town”, ya, then why are their 18,000 at the hockey games and 13,000 at Pitt hoop games?? Because all three are winning.

Also, never understood the rivalry, a few, a very few fans have with sports teams in their own area. The talk shows make it out to be more than it is, but, I’m sure there are some jackasses out there. I root for the Steelers, Pens, Pitt Hoops and Pitt Football!! I even root for the Buccos, hopefully someday they will give me something to root for other than a pretty skyline, fireworks and cold beer!!!

Comment by Dan 01.15.11 @ 11:22 pm

Yes, I know, there weren’t 13k at the game tonight. That is because the Steelers were in the playoff game (obviously). If the Steelers were playing a regular season game against the 49ers, and the Pens were playing a regular season game against Colorado, and Pitt was in the Final Four or National Championship game, there would be no shows at the Steeler and Pens games too.

Don’t sweat it, the Super Bowl, Stanley Cup Finals, and the Final Four will never be on the same day, sit back, enjoy, room for all the teams!!!

Comment by Dan 01.15.11 @ 11:28 pm

Dan, the inter-sports rivalry in Western Pennsylvania is somewhat greater than it should be.

There are a bunch of twenty somethings who like the Penguins and don’t care for the Steelers because the Steelers are “their parents’ team”, as dumb as that sounds.

It was a little depressing to see so many empty seats at the Pete last night. I know it was due to the Steelers-Ratbirds game, which should have taken place on Sunday, given that the Ratbirds played the previous Sunday, but that is the NFL’s fault.

My sentiments are that Pitt is indeed a “football” school with a very good basketball program. The empty seats at Heinz Field are not because Pitt has been playing at Heinz Field. They have been empty because the product has been substandard. Pittsburgh and Western Pennsylvania will embrace a winner. Win and people will part with their money.

There are a LOT of college and pro sports in Pittsburgh – and most of them are either competitive or championship caliber. It makes fans spoiled, but it is what it is.

As for the recruits who want to look at Pitt, everybody in college athletics should know that a verbal “commitment” means nothing. If Graham’s Tulsa recruits want to look at Pitt, then let ’em look.

Comment by Penguins Fan 01.16.11 @ 7:11 am

I’m confident that Todd Graham and his coaching staff will end up with a better football class than we all anticipated after DW’s ‘firing’. This spring’s annual football game should be interesting. Hail to Pitt!

Comment by MariettaMike 01.16.11 @ 8:45 am

Penguins, i went to pitt late 80’s and moved to the burgh for a few years in the 90’s for a job. In my travels around the burgh for work, I was shocked at how many burghers disliked Pitt when I said that I went there. the local perspective appeared to be that Pitt was a school you went to only if you could not get in anywhere else. there didn’t seem to be much interest in college sports at all, particularly basketball. the success of pitt football was 20 years old at that point (1996). the focus was the steelers and pens only. Has this changed?

The diehard fans who followed Pitt in 70’s are getting old and if you look at enrollment at Pitt over last 25 years, there are so many students from eastern PA and NJ over the years that it would seem that Pitt football needs to get better to keep the attention of the younger fans who never knew Pitt as a hardcore football school. Pitt needed to spend the money and get a firey type coach to bring positive attention to the program short term.

I would assume that the b-ball team success has increased the interest in b-ball locally?

Comment by Joe P 01.16.11 @ 8:53 am

Comment by Pwmcdupitt 01.16.11 @ 10:59 am

I agree Pens Fan. Yes, if they win, people will come, it’s that simple. Will Heinz ever be bursting at the seams like an Alabama, Michigan, Oklahoma, no, except for, WVU, ND, and PSU and if you occaisionally get a top 10 team to come in.

If they win though, would be nice to see a consistent 45-55k in the stands for a regular game and sell outs for the above mentioned. 45-55 you still might see some yellow seats, but a lot better than 20-30k.

And, I mean a real 45-55k coming and in the seats, not what Steve tells the p.a. announcer to say!!! lol

Winning is not a solve all, but, it sure does help with what ails ya!!!

Pens win, Steelers win, Pitt wins!!!!!!!

Comment by Dan 01.16.11 @ 1:04 pm

Joe P, the University of Pittsburgh has not always had a strong local reputation.

I have had family here for almost 100 years. Many of my older relatives liked Notre Dame because Notre Dame was…Catholic. Today, Notre Dame is no more Catholic than Saudi Arabia. Needless to say, they did not like Pitt.

My dad, who died almost 17 years ago, preferred Penn State over Pitt. I give him credit – we lived near Cleveland and he HATED Ohio State.

I wasn’t here in the late ’80s when Pitt had the great basketball teams. Charles Smith, Jerome Lane, Demetrius Gore, those guys should have won a national championship. I did see them beat Akron U at the old Richfield Coliseum.

Allegheny County has a huge Penn State alumni chapter.

For some reason, Pitt has not done a great job promoting itself locally. This university is a godsend to Pittsburgh. Cleveland, Baltimore, Cincinnati, Buffalo….none of those cities has or is near a university that has a med school, a dental school, a law school and a graduate school of business that compares to Pitt. Geez, Dr. Salk developed the polio vaccine and Dr. Starzl perfected the liver transplant here.

Pitt’s local sports profile is one of the reasons Nordenberg needs to get rid of that smug smiling $&*t Pederson. I don’t have the problem of playing at Heinz Field that many Pitt alumni do, but scrapping the script Pitt and changing the colors was ridiculous. Pittsburghers love their sports traditions. The Penguins went back to their old skating penguin logo which was always more popular. it is also because of this that I suggest Pitt needs a varsity hockey program. Youth hockey has grown by leaps and bounds in Western Pennsylvania and Pitt needs to be relevant to the high school kids who play hockey here. Pitt does not exist in a bubble, but sometimes both the University and the surrounding area act as if it does.
FWIW, hoops has grown in popularity here since Ben Howland hit the scene.

Comment by Penguins Fan 01.16.11 @ 8:23 pm

[…] Peak at PantherLair tweated that CB Jason Frimpong verballed to Pitt. A 2- to 3-star athlete who played QB and CB in HS, he projects as a […]


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