Officially Official:
Before I get to this brief post I wanted to say thank you to Chas for an opportunity to blog on his site. Hopefully he knew what he was getting into…
Over the weekend it was learned that 4-star LB Ejuan Price from Woodland Hills had asked to be released from his scholarship at Ohio State. Immediately everyone started talking about whether or not Price would be coming home to Pitt.
It appears to be unofficially official that Price is coming home.. Today the Post-Gazette reported that Woodland Hills coach George Novak stated Pitt has a scholarship for Price and had this to say:
“Pitt is where he wants to go,” Novak said. “Hopefully, he can get all the paper work together and get enrolled in summer classes there.”
Well that’s encouraging, how can I help get him enrolled in summer classes? Actually, he can take my summer classes for me if it helps get him here sooner. For anyone who doesn’t know about Price here is a quick blurb about the 4-star line backer from Scout.com:
“Price is a devastating tackler who has a very quick first step and closes fast on the ball carrier. He sheds blocks and plays well in traffic. Price moves well laterally tracking down ball carriers sideline to sideline.”
The only negative they have to list about him is his size, specifically only being 5’11” or 6′ tall. That’s the only negative? I’ll take it. I was going to insert a bad photoshop of Bob Barker punching Happy Gilmore with Jim Tressel’s head in this post but really, should you kick someone when they’re down?
Hopefully there will be something officially official soon regarding Price and Pitt, and when it is released hopefully it will be good news. Only 74 more days till kickoff. These 74 days “must go faster.”
Small update to the original article as I just saw this tweet:
Now, the position of greatest need (ILB) appears to be helped greatly, (and unexpectedly.) Also unexpectedly .. when the coaches were in need of a backup RB, Desmond Brown appears out of nowhere.
Maybe Graham will have Brian Kelly karma … Tony Pike started as 4th team QB in 08, and only got a chance when the 1st (ineligible) and 2nd & 3rd (injuries) QBs couldn’t go
I’m worried about the defense. I understand that the offense’s fast, no-huddle approach effects the defense and that stats will reflect differently because of that. However, for this coming season (more so than on offense) I’m concerned we do not have the pieces Graham needs to run his defense. Just my early, initial thought. Graham did say he will adjust to the talent, which most of agree that Wanny did not do, so there is hope.
And, is “cool aid” different than Kool Aid ®.
And by your line of reasoning, if you drank the Penn State “cool aid”, then Price would lose a star.
Or, are you saying that he’s only worth 3 stars, but, by drinking the Pitt “cool aid”, he’s gained that extra star?
Click the Show All + under Ohio State to view the schools that made Price an offer.
LMAO!
So, all the sweeter when we beat you on the field even if it’s only been on average 1 game out of the 3 we play. A win against Penn State used to make my season, but I realize times are different now and this game won’t ever have the same meaning unless the teams played in the same conference and a conference title was on the line. Pitt has the Hoopies for that.
What I don’t like are the excuses from certain camps. For starters, from the Penn State camp on why they shouldn’t try to play Pitt more often. Or, from some Nitters trying to rationalize why some school (particularly when Pitt is competing head to head with Penn State for a recruit) got the recruit instead. I’ve heard comments like ‘wasn’t Penn State material to begin with’ or something about the player’s stars. I often find it amusing that a player’s stars appear to be reflective of what schools are interested. A kid that gets interest from Penn State is 4-star material, but if Pitt or some perceived lesser school is interested, it somehow becomes only worthy of 3 or at least there’s no jump. I don’t claim to understand these ratings but know enough that they don’t necessarily predict a player’s impact or true value to a team.
From the Wanny lover camp, the excuses on why the Stache deserved another year (insert excuses here).
I just hope Graham can prove all the Wanny lovers wrong (for Pitt’s sake) and be around for the 2016 game to bring Penn State fans back to reality and maybe some of that arrogance will go away. Wishful thinking I know.
Peace out.
Besides, it took them long enough to win their first Rose Bowl!! We’ve been to 4 Rose Bowls, them, only 3.
If that is ancient history and not relevant as one guy suggested the other day, I’m fine with that, it means the last game must be relevant, so bragging rights!!!
Allthough, that guy argued that the last game was the exception beacuse neither team was playing for anything, so, again, that game was irrelevant!!
LMAO
that’s why it’s always windy where the Allegheny flows!
The only issue I have is that in the past, virtually every time we got a commitment that was offered by both PSU and Pitt, there would be some PSU comment like ‘we quit recruiting him’ .. and I do mean every time.
Spats, it’s OK to lose a recuit to Pitt every once in a while .. trust me.
But this means relatively little at this point. Being unranked means exactly that – the scouting services haven’t evaluated that player yet. They do this with some kids… the ranking service waits until the player plays his senior season before assigning stars.
In Cook’s case he’ll play and then receive – IMO – three stars. He’s a good one.
You have to remember also that this ranking system is highly subjective… as we have seen over the past six years. Scouts.com published their criteria for assigning starts a few years ago and I was surprised at the minimal difference between a 2 – 3 and 4 star ranking. It is assigned mostly on the number of total kids and then broken down almost in a % wide disbursal.
I do remember that a description for a three star is the the players would, to paraphrase, ‘most probably’ be a starter over the majority of his four years – and the two star was that the player would most probably be a starter at some point. Or some such. Given the variables that go into who starts on a college team – existing depth chart, type of play systems the staff uses, the coaches preference for experience, academics, etc… then you can see that these stars are only a shot in the dark projection.
One example is Dorin Dickerson – he was ranked a five star player in HS. In reality we got, maybe, three star play out of him over his four years. Had DD had another HC & OC who put him in the position to succeed better that PITT did Dickerson very well may have been a multiple All-American player and lived up to that five star ranking. Dion Lewis is another example of the flip side. He was the 3rd RB behind two very good starters in HS and didn’t carry the ball much. He was unranked until his senior year and then got two stars. But, he came to PITT at a time when the starting RB job was open and played like a five star player right from the get go.
In reality, aside from some of the perennial powerhouse college teams, the vast majority of teams are comprised of two and three star kids, and those teams do pretty well as long as the coaching is there.
But, give me a starting center Like Cook, on a great HS team like St. Xavier, who the HC gushes over, any day… regardless of how many stars the kid has.
My point wasn’t that PITT shouldn’t try for the highly rated kids – it is that you don’t absolutely need those highly rated kids to be successful. But, that said, If Graham (or any other HC) sees two recruits at differing star levels and he think the lower one fits in his plans better then he should get the lower rated one. Just as if he thinks the kids are equal in talent, and fit in equally, he should probably go with the higher rated one if possible.
I don’t know if PITT is ever going to get back to the ‘Glory Days’ of PITT football. I just don’t. I think we certainly can get the program to many BCS games and perhaps a run at a MNC once in a while. We can be consistently good, even Top 25, Top 15 good… which we should have been for the last three years at least IMO. And that should be our goal – to win the conference and reap whatever good things happen from then on. That isn’t ‘settling for the mediocre’, it’s using the resources at hand to win championships.
But PITT and our fans just don’t invest enough to make PITT being a ‘perennial power house’, like TX, OSU, USC, Alabama, etc. a long term reality in this day and age. Football was a lot different in the 1970s-80s than it is now.
Could we have upped the ante and dropped $5M per year on a stud Head Coach in a long-term contract as a step to being a great program? No, the football program is stretched as thin as it gets in the current circumstances with the salaries we are paying this staff. Could we build a new on-campus stadium to try to draw fans (and thier dollars) and recruits into the fold? Sure we COULD have, but that’s never going to happen at PITT for at least 25-30 years.
But you are correct in that the most reasonable thing that may get PITT to the top 20% of college football and keep us up there in the polls is most likely recruiting – it costs the least to do and is the one thing that feeds off of even small successes year to year.
I guess the real question is “Am I going to be disappointed in PITT football if we win BE championships and end up in the Top 25 on a regular basis – even if we don’t compete regularly for a National Championship?” For me the answer is yes. And I believe we can do that without a roster full of five star kids.
I guess the real question is “Am I going to be disappointed in PITT football if we win BE championships and end up in the Top 25 on a regular basis – even if we don’t compete regularly for a National Championship?” For me the answer is NO. And I believe we can do that without a roster full of five star kids.
3.1 is right around what most of DW’s classes were like. Yet PITT fans are pulling out their hair.
