Well it’s time to put a couple more in the verbal category.
Nicholas Grigsby out of Ohio gave a verbal to Pitt. A four- to three-star outside linebacker. He had offers from Michigan St., Mizzou, and Louisville. Plenty of potential (Insider subs.).
We like his acceleration when tackling, can knock’em back where they came from. Demonstrates good blitz production with sacks and turnovers; displays good timing with a closing burst off the edge. We see promise as a zone and man coverage player; flashes good underneath route recognition; breaks up on the ball well while demonstrating good ball skills. Shows the ability to man up and run with inside receivers; is especially competent at getting his head around and locating the ball in flight. This guy’s motor and intensity create turnovers while causing havoc in the backfield. His range and ability to play in space is what we look for when evaluating the OLB position. Grigsby may not be an immediate starter however it won’t take long before he makes his presence known on the field.
Then there was the verbal from Jevonte Pitts.
A 5-foot-10, 175-pound senior, Pitts visited the campus over the weekend, along with his cousin, Lafayette, who remains committed to Rutgers.
Pitts will be the fifth Wolverine from this class to land an FBS (formerly Division I-A) football scholarship, joining LaFayette Pitts, Quinton Jefferson (Maryland), Ejuan Price (Ohio State) and James Price, who committed Monday to Akron. Jevonte Pitts was not being recruited by the Panthers until Todd Graham became coach.
“He was overshadowed by some of the other players,” Woodland Hills coach George Novak said. “Lafayette, Quinton and Ejuan got all the recognition, but when people started looking at tapes of Jevonte, they saw what a great athlete he is.”
The move to get Jevonte Pitts is cynically seen as part of luring Lafayette Pitts back to Pitt.
Woodland Hills coach George Novak said Lafayette Pitts is still committed to Rutgers, but acknowledges that Lafayette’s recruiting saga might not be over. “It might come down to [signing day],” Novak said of Lafayette Pitts’ decision. According to a source close to the family, Lafayette Pitts is strongly considering Pitt again now that his cousin is headed there.
Or it could be to help reel in a different Woodland Hills player. Linebacker, Ejuan Price, who had committed to Ohio State might be a last minute switch. Some OSU blogs are almost assuming as much at this point.
Adding to the intrigue on Signing Day tomorrow: all the bad weather. Will kids be able to get to a fax machine?
I think it has something to do with a bunch of complicated things like grayshirts and so forth. So you sign a guy, but he doesn’t enroll until the spring semester. Then he counts towards your limit the next season.
There are a few other tricks that coaches use to get around the “25 player limit.”
There are tons of articles out there on how coaches get around the limits. I’m attaching one that just explains grayshirts.
link to recruiting-101.com
Another thing I’ve heard happens is coaches will “overbook” the class, almost like an airplane oversells its seats. So if a coach is looking at 5 kids who are all borderline to be eligible academically, he can reasonably assume that one of them won’t make it. So he’ll go ahead and sign them all anyway. Now if they all make it, I’m not sure what happens. I guess one of them would then have to grayshirt.
As in What Would Michael Haywood Have Done?
I would hate to see what signing day would have looked like with Haywood still at the helm. We would be reading message boards of Central, Eastern, and/or Western Michigan about Pitt snagging their recruits on signing day.
Great job Coach Graham and staff! Can’t wait to see the final class tomorrow morning.
HAIL TO PITT!!!
how long ago was this player at ND?
surely he wasnt there when Haywood had the clipboard pulled from him for being incompetent and then was pushed out by boosters for saying he could recruit the south and then not recruiting the south
link to youtube.com
it will be nice to see our NFL receivers get balls thrown to them over 10 yards on target
DeVanzo, it was a former QB that played decades ago (and had a nice career with ND). I do not know what his current affiliation (if any) is with ND. My comment was that everyone has an opinion. Obviously, Pitt’s administration had a high opinion of Mike Haywood at one time.
link to youtube.com
The SEC teams are notorious for going over the limits of commits to scholarships, and then showing the door to the less productive upperclassmen .. not unlike Jamie has been doing recently.
Nix, Jacobsen, Gibbs (returning starters/seniors)
Gaskins (sr) Turnley and King (Jr)
Lippert and Hollins (Soph)
Sacco, Rotheram and Doaks (RS FR)
according to Zeise, Sacco and Lippert are two to watch
Sitting Myers this year was incredibly selfish.
I really think more than anything that was what got him fired.
I do agree that Wanny was really looking forward to next year … he all but said that last summer after he questioned why Pitt was consensus No. 1 BE pick (which is of course complete opposite of Jamie’s philosophy)
meanwhile, more good news?
you people just never learn
There is no doubt that Myers may be more accurate that Tino, throw a better ball and have more physical tools, but coming into play FBS Level football straight out of high school, make reads, call audibles at the line, manage the play clock and know where everyone on the offense needs to be is an incredibly tall order for a freshman.
Wanny made plenty of mistakes, just don’t think this was one of them.
Football doesn’t have to be that complicated. I remember making plenty of yards on “33 on 3.”
Wanny made plenty of mistakes, just don’t think this was one of them.
Comment by TJ 02.01.11 @ 9:25 pm
This is exactly what they did to Pat Bostick.
The kid was totally mismanaged by Wanny and his staff. Palko’s development was also stunted by Wanny & staff. If Myers isn’t ready and the kid from California doesn’t come, I’d really like to see Bostick get a shot to be starting QB. He will certainly pickup Graham’s offensive system teh quickest and I still believe he has the ability to be good.
“…make reads, call audibles at the line, manage the play clock and know where everyone on the offense needs to be is an incredibly tall order for a freshman.”
Aside from one other thing your list is exactly what Tino Sunseri could NOT do for the Panthers last season.
Oh, that one other thing – throw a deep pass to our most potent big play threat. Tino Sunseri effectively did the defense’s job for them with his inability to throw a long enough or accurate enough deep ball.
I don’t think Myers should have played as a true FR either – that’s a lot to ask any new college player to do. But, IMO Sunseri should immediately be put back into the middle of the pack of QB competitors and have zero advantage from his one year of starting – we have a completely different offense being installed and it’s too important to give it to someone solely because DW hand picked him without competition at the position.
any update on Eubank? im not seeing anything… this kid’s tape is unreal…
hats off to Graham… what a class with so little time to put it together