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July 25, 2011

A couple verbals for the football team over the weekend. Twin brothers Chris and Demitrius Davis.

Chris Davis (5-9, 185 pounds) chose the Panthers over offers from Arkansas, Baylor, Boise State, Cincinnati, Purdue, Oregon State, Iowa, UCLA and West Virginia.

Demitrious Davis (5-10, 183) had many of the same offers as his brother and also had an offer from Oregon.

Both players are projected to be slot receivers in Graham’s offense.

Both are really speedy players on the field. The ESPN.com profiles on both (Insider subs) emphasize two things: how fast they are and that they are not tall.

Chris Davis:

Davis is an undersized, quicker than fast player as a scatback/slot receiver and cornerback on defense. … Davis shows some redeeming traits and shows good passion and competitive demeanor. Size will always limit him to some degree, but when he positions himself and keeps the ball in front of him on defense he is an effective prospect.

And Demitrius Davis:

He is dramatically undersized or he would be a national recruit as both an ATH and dual-threat QB because he throws the ball surprisingly well. He is a short prospect, but can flat out run. He is a blur of an athlete in space. Displays rapid acceleration, supreme top end speed and moves like a jack rabbit laterally. He has a low center of gravity, can jump cut, shows excellent vision with sharp cuts to exploit the cutback lane. He is the ideal zone runner and could be a spread offense utility back. He explodes through tiny creases in-line and once at the second level he is a homerun threat that can take it the distance. … Size may be a limitation and you know it up front.

It may also help Pitt in the recruitment of their teammate, running back William Mahone. But the announcement yesterday was about the Davis boys.

Demitrious and Chris Davis of Fitch High School in Austintown, Ohio, said they told Pitt coach Todd Graham two weeks ago that they chose the Panthers over 20 other scholarship offers. The Class of 2012 recruits made the announcement Sunday to a crowd of 100 family and friends in Austintown.

They made the announcement after getting back from a weekend Pitt passing camp. There may be some questions about their memory of things.

“Pitt seems like the place we want to be,” he said. “The atmosphere at the spring game, everything.”

Reminded that it rained most of the day during Pitt’s spring game in April at Heinz Field, Chris Davis said, “It turned out to be a good day.”

I’ll concede that the late afternoon and evening was rather pleasant.

The schools recruiting them, makes these commits a lot more positive than the stars next to their name. Not only are they attractive to a lot of programs, their abilities seem to make them a great fit for the offense Graham wants to run at Pitt.





I don’t consider size to be as major a factor as the other considerations. I can see both contributing as returners and slot receivers who can catch a bubble screen pass, avert a tackle or two, and go the distance.

Heck, even Stevens-Howlings continues to make a positive impact in the NFL!

Comment by wbb 07.25.11 @ 10:22 am

Niiiiiiiiice

Comment by Dan35 07.25.11 @ 10:46 am

Stephens-Howling is one of my favorite Panthers due to his lack of crying when Shady came to Pitt. He could’ve transferred or been a cancer to the team but rather he stayed the course plus Wanny gave him a chance to return kicks. That turned out to be a great move for LaRod. I will always pull for the little guy.

Comment by Pete 07.25.11 @ 11:44 am

Hopefully Voytik announces where he is going soon, if he picks Pitt, I think him and the Davis twins can work on Mahone to get him to committ. Notre Dame is working Mahone hard so it is going to be very difficult to get him.

Comment by BnG 07.25.11 @ 11:53 am

Given what they are saying about Demetrius, I’d love to see what he could do especially at RB. He is 5-10 185 according to scout, and if he is as lightening as everyone says why couldn’t he be used as a running back? His size wouldn’t be as big of an issue at RB as it would at WR. I mean he is similar or bigger than Noel Devine, Dion Lewis, and Ray Graham were when they came in as frosh. A year into this program he could put on 10 lbs of muscle and be one amazing weapon. These type of players can work in either position for sure (see Tavon Austin as recent example), with this offense I just imagine that spread run with guys like Slaton and Devine, and can’t help but picture that type of guy in the Pitt backfield.

Comment by BCPITT 07.25.11 @ 1:57 pm

although RichRod may have been the architect, I’m sure that our offensive run coordinator (??) Cal Magee has absorbed quite a bit over the last decade as to how effectively utilize speed in the spread (I mean no huddle) offense.

Comment by wbb 07.25.11 @ 2:15 pm

If we get Voytik and Mahone along with these twins we would take over the Big East

Comment by Tony C 07.25.11 @ 2:44 pm

It’s funny how quickly the sentiment changes with a couple of more sought after recruits.

Comment by BCPITT 07.25.11 @ 2:52 pm

As many have stated on this blog before, it’s nearly impossible to predict how 17-18 year old kids will perform considering all of the variables. With that said, it sure is fun to speculate and debate. Are there any other players on Pitt’s radar set to give “soft verbals” soon?

Comment by JAM 05 PITT 07.25.11 @ 3:02 pm

BCPITT, the sentiment will substantially change if we get some 3-star OL commits

Comment by wbb 07.25.11 @ 3:56 pm

We need some Big uglies on both sides of the ball. But, once we get our QB (Voytik) and RB (Mahone or Shell or dare I say both), the self loathing Pitt fans who complain so bitterly of Graham’s recruiting will go back into their holes.

Comment by TX Panther 07.25.11 @ 4:10 pm

Graham’s recruiting philosophy in a nutshell, speed, speed and more SPEED. He’s like a crystal meth addict, can’t get enough speed!!
I would love to see one or two offensive linemen show up on the recruting radar soon however. Take a look at our current depth chart and you’ll see that we’re in deep do do in two years on the “O” line if we don’t load up there real fast, like now! Speed is good but last time that I checked you still have to block to open a hole for all those speed guys to run through.

Comment by Dr. Tom 07.25.11 @ 4:18 pm

Am I on the only one that thinks we have a snowball’s chance in hell to get Mahone or Shell?

Don’t those guys want to go somewhere when they can line up and run the ball 25-30+ times? Not in an offense that throws the ball to 11 different receivers and four different backs every game?

Tulsa’s top RB had 100 less carries than the QB and averaged 7 carries a game. That is going to be a TOUGH sell to the top back to come out of PA in a long time. Am I missing something?

Comment by cnorwoodaz 07.25.11 @ 6:01 pm

31 of those 158 rushes came against Houston. RB’s and WR’s combined handled 70% of the handoffs. Graham’s offense does get multiple people involved but that doesn’t mean there can’t be a featured back. Graham has never had a Shell to work with.

Comment by TX Panther 07.25.11 @ 6:14 pm

Fair enough TXP. I’m pretty sure though, that the folks on Nick Saban’s staff are more than happy to point out that in Graham’s offense, the top RB had 84 carries the whole season compared to the QBs almost 500 pass attempts. As much as I want to, I just don’t see it.

Comment by cnorwoodaz 07.25.11 @ 6:37 pm

forget the mushers up front..if we can get another 8 or 9 commits that are in the 5’7″ – 5’10” range, we will be great! Now starting at left tackle at 5’9″ 195 pounds… So if we can put 11 players on offense that all run 4.4 forties, the defense will not be able to keep up! Brilliant!!

Comment by huffdaddymc 07.25.11 @ 8:48 pm

I’m an eternal optimist when it comes to Pitt football, but Saban can defintely pay more for Shell’s services. Speed kills baby…speed kills. I’ll take midgets all day if they are playmakers and winners. A slow power running game is boring to me. The big nasty guys will eventually come. System players on offense first.

Comment by TX Panther 07.25.11 @ 10:14 pm

We are a run first offense according to our co-ordinators. Auburn is the only other team that runs our offense and they recruit extremely well from the running back position. Magee is our playcaller and when he was the offensive coordinator at WVU and Michigan they ran heavily. Great article about our offense here link to m.triblive.com

Comment by Tony C 07.25.11 @ 10:27 pm

The first thing Graham said when he came to Pitt is that he plays to the strengths of his team. Right now Ray Graham is our best offensive player and he will be utilized heavily. Shell and Mahone would be smart to track Ray’s production throughout the season before eliminating Pitt. Not the same playcaller TG had at Tulsa

Comment by Tony C 07.25.11 @ 10:31 pm

I hope your right Tony C. Can’t wait to see how it all shakes out.

Comment by Cnorwood 07.26.11 @ 12:19 am

DeCiccio to the Bears? Hynoski to the Giants?

Comment by Cnorwood 07.26.11 @ 12:29 am

PG is reporting DeCicco to the Bears is done, but I don’t see anything on Hyno in Pittsburgh or NY papers.

Comment by BCPITT 07.26.11 @ 7:21 am

remember, Graham was the only schollie RB on the roster in the spring, thus, wasn’t used too much. I would expect a much bigger ratio of runs to pass than what we saw then

Comment by wbb 07.26.11 @ 7:42 am

Spring game might be a good breakdown of pass/run for the upcoming season. Don’t know what it was but seemed pass-heavy.

Comment by Monte 07.26.11 @ 12:02 pm

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