So, so far behind. The 2-deep will be coming out in the next few days. I’m sure that won’t become a highly parsed document.
Hit the links and push them out so there will be a chance for all the other stuff later. The first of a couple link dump posts.
Weird bit of intrigue with one of Pitt’s recruiting targets in the WPIAL. Jaylen Coleman appeared to have his high school football career finished. Once of Peabody then at Gateway, he was suspended for the season by the Gateway coach. No explanation was given by Gateway, but Coleman’s reason is not at all vague: “just a family situation that just messed up everything.”
He is playing somewhere this season. Scout.com has it behind a paywall, but it would appear to be University Prep in Pittsburgh (Insider subs).
Three-star OLB Jaylen Coleman (Pittsburgh/University Prep) still has Cincinnati as his leader after he had to cancel his planned visit to Maryland last weekend.
Two weekends ago, Coleman dropped Pitt from his leader board in favor of Cincinnati after a visit to the university’s campus.
University Prep, for the record, is a magnet school in the Pittsburgh public school system. It is located in the Hill District. Granted Cinci now leads for the services of the 3-star linebacker, and it isn’t clear how whatever happened at Gateway impacts Pitt’s desire to recruit him, but I’ve wasted a week following this one and waiting to see what would happen.
Rushel Shell is the obsession of the moment for Pitt fans. He has many hopeful, but stuck waiting for the next 7 weeks.
Highly recruited Hopewell running back Rushel Shell has picked a college but won’t make his decision known until Oct. 14, the night Hopewell could play Central Valley on national TV.
“In my head, I’ve got it down,” Shell said Thursday. “I know where I’m going.”
Only a couple close friends have been told. Shell said even his future college coach won’t know until Week 7, assuming ESPN goes through with preliminary plans to televise that game. But Shell described the type of program he picked.
“I’m trying to be on an average team on the rise (and) try to win a national title,” he said.
His whittled down list has Pitt along with Florida, VT and Alabama. He’s one of the top players in the Commonwealth, and one of the top running back recruits nationally.
These days, everybody wants a piece of Shell, the nation’s No. 24 recruit in the ESPNU 150, No. 3 among running backs. The 5-foot-11, 211-pounder is a record wrecking ball, on the precipice of state and national marks thought by some to be untouchable.
…
[Hopewell assistant coach Pat] Tarquinio knows better than anyone about the comparisons to Dorsett. He was coaching at nearby Beaver when a young Dorsett lit up prep defenses on his way to the University of Pittsburgh (and later the Dallas Cowboys and the Pro Football Hall of Fame). Both Dorsett and Shell have donned Hopewell navy and gold and both stand 5-foot-11 (although Shell carries more bulk, at 211 pounds, than Dorsett did during his playing days).
“When Tony was in high school, he was a great back, but he didn’t come into his own until his junior year,” Tarquinio says. “I guess it’s fair to compare the two. It’s natural for people to want to compare. But I don’t think Rushel tries to model himself after Tony Dorsett.”
Shell has talked at times with the NFL legend. Dorsett taught the budding young star how to make himself a smaller target on the field. Shell took his advice, avoiding contact when it wasn’t necessary and staying light on his feet.
Next year, he’ll take that advice wherever he wants. There’s scarcely a college coach in the nation who wouldn’t love to claim the elusive Shell for his backfield. The speculation among locals and college football fans runs rampant.
Just a little.
Pitt has also made offer to a high school QB. A sophomore, high school QB.
Graham is also laying the groundwork for the future, as Pitt recently became the first college to offer a scholarship to Blackhawk sophomore quarterback Chandler Kincade.
Pitt’s offer to Kincade, 6-foot-5 and 210-pounds, came last week when he went to Oakland to watch a Pitt practice with Blackhawk assistant Sam Nardone and Kincade’s grandfather, former area scholastic coach Karl Florie.
“They came over and told him they wanted him to be part of their family and offered him,” Blackhawk coach Joe Hamilton said. “That was the first one, but a lot of schools are going to want Chandler.”
Kincade, a humble young man, was almost bashful about the Pitt offer, reluctantly admitting, “It is exciting.”
Tony was certainly skinnier but you may remember that he was quite durable at Pitt .. I believe he missed only 1 game in 4 years. Tony may be faster in the open field but Shell has this amzing burst that when he turns upfield, he has this amzing burst where he seems to go from from 1st immediately into 4th gear.
He would be a great coup but on his own, as FRANKCAM stated above, we will be fine if he goes elsewhere. However, if he does commit, there is a chance that other top recruits may become more interested … you never know about the residual effects of getting a Top 10 QB and RB in the same class.
Of his final four teams, Pitt is the only one that fits that description. The other three (Alabama, Florida, and V-Tech) are all elite programs that have either won recently or are on the cusp of winning.
