In regards to some fan’s angst over HC Paul Chryst losing committed recruits, it is important to understand that Dakota Conwell is the only recruit who PITT has actually ‘lost’ so far. It is apparent that the new coaching staff allowed WR Corey Jones to switch to Toledo without much of a fight to keep him as evidenced by Jones’ own words in this Post Gazette Blog article.
“When coach Graham was there, I would get a lot of phone calls from Pitt,” Jones said. “After he left, that slowed down. I just felt like things fell off or something. I felt like I wasn’t a main priority for them.
“I wasn’t sure of how Pitt was going to handle things, how I was going to fit into their offense and if I was still in their offensive schemes. … [Pitt’s coaches] are cool, but I’m just trying to do what is best for me and I think Toledo’s offense is what’s best for me.”
At 5’9 and 165 pounds you can see that Jones fit the stereotype of WR that Todd Graham was recruiting. That didn’t seem to be a priority for Paul Chryst at this time. I would have liked for PITT to keep Jones though, talent is talent and I feel it’s a good use of a scholarship.
Note also that both Corey Jones and DB Chas Whittaker, who had committed to WVU, are teammates who made this decision together.
From the looks of things, as detailed in this Trib-Review piece, our staff is still in hot pursuit of others who will fit their plans for the type of football players they want to field this season.
“Meanwhile, Chryst offered a scholarship to defensive back Ryan Lewis, of Sammamish, Wash., his father said.
Lewis, who visited the campus over the weekend, is the son of Seattle Seahawks vice president of football operations Will Lewis and the nephew of former Steelers defensive coordinator Tim Lewis, who played cornerback at Pitt.
“Ryan really enjoyed his visit and the coach enjoyed having him there,” said Will Lewis, who is a cousin of Pitt linebacker Tristan Roberts. “(Ryan) is going to think about it for a couple of days and get back to him, sooner rather than later.”
Lewis, 6-0, 185, has offers from Colorado and Utah. He is rated a 3-star recruit by rivals.com.
Pitt welcomed several recruits to Pitt over the weekend, including defensive tackle Willie Henry and defensive back Sean Draper of Glenville (Ohio); defensive tackle Terrell Jackson of Marion Franklin (Ohio); and New London (Wisc.) offensive lineman Gabe Roberts, who also is considering Wisconsin.”
Of course, Chryst & Co. have some other more familiar names that they have been working on to play thier college ball at PITT. J.P. Holtz and J.J. Denman, at TE and OL respectively, are highly sought after recruits who have interest in PITT. Safety Bam Bradley and LB Deaysean Rippy are possibilities also among others the staff has contacted and worked to commit.
On the flip side we may lose Adam Pankey to WVU as he visited the Mountaineers on the 13th, but no solid news on him so far. So it looks like we’ll get some real recruiting news over the next eight days.
and has a full staff,
and you miss the point it is not who he lost it is that he has noy replaced them and dockish knows more than you or i and he says they are not
focused or organized that make me worry
look penn state is loseing players but they are replaceing them with outhers if we were doeing the same i would not worry but we have signed one and lost 4 maybe 5 so dont say it is ok not untill he replaces them
Many recruits do that. It’s called ego. Ego. Ego. Not saying that’s the case here because I think he will choose Pitt.
not even with lesser talent which would be ok i guess .
I hear Voytik got a lot of communication from Coach Chryst.
While I believe he meant what he said about honoring all scholarships offered, I also believe he wants players that fit a system.
I think some guys don’t fit into that system necessarily and he likely didn’t reach out as much to them.
That is why quite a few of us believe we should wait until LOI time.
DaveD
Ya, I get that. I would be thrilled to get him, but, he’s not exactly a Terrel Pryor or Russhell Shell where people have followed him around for months with cameras or anything like that.
Hoping for the best.
Not worried in the least at the moment. Wait until fall and next recruiting season.
but as DR TOM says i am not feeling warm and fuzzey abought this.
How many more coaches does he need to hire?? I’m just asking, I really don’t know, seems like he has hired quite a few.
Keeping one of the top 5 RB’s and one of the top 10 qb’s committed to play at Pitt, along with 15 or 16 of the 18 verbals staying committed to Pitt, how is that “this ship is sinking fast”??
As this board proceeds to flip its collective poop over perceived lack of inactivity, I see a fellow Pitt fan on Twitter re-tweet Demitrious Davis, who said he just got off the phone with Chryst. Fellow Pitt fan asked him via Twitter if it was a good talk and he answered in the affirmative.
I don’t follow any of the recruits on Twitter myself but some of the fellow Pitt fans I follow do. From what I’ve seen based off things they retweet, the coaches ARE in very regular contact with these kids.
Again, guys…relax. I understand the concern. I understand the circumstances aren’t the best. But there are people on Chryst’s staff who have been recruiting at a high level for a long time. We’ve got a whole other week of this. A lot can happen and that goes both ways. I know we’re all afraid of worst-case scenario, but as Reed, FTM and PK said, the core pieces of this class still seem to be very secure, and what matters much beyond just this recruiting class is what Chryst and Co. do with the players on the field.
I agree. I’ll never forget when I was a substitute teacher on the day a local qb announced he was going to Mich State on live tv from the high school library. Small school – only time that had happened. there. I commented to one of his coaches what a big deal that was only to be told by his coach – “He’ll be back home in a year. But boy will his 15 minutes of fame last forever here.” Didn’t finish his first season.
I believe there was a sad case in Utah or Nevada where a kid totally lied about who was recruiting him and held his own press conference with the hat picking and everything. Sad what our society has become.
Chryst has hired eight assistants:
Bob Bostad – Offensive Coord./Offensive Line
Dave Huxtable – Defensive Coord.
Joe Rudolph – Asst. Head Coach/QB Coach
Eddie Faulkner – Running Backs
Jim Hueber – Tight Ends
Chris Haering – Linebackers
Matt House – Secondary
Todd Rice – Strength & Conditioning
There are rumors that they’re close to hiring Bobby Engram as the wide receivers coach and Al Holcomb to coach the defensive linemen. Holcomb is currently a defensive assistant with the NY Giants, so he’s busy for two more weeks. Engram was an offensive assistant with the 49ers.
He’s playing up the loss of Cook, but I’m not sure how much stock he’s putting in Cook primarily being a shotgun center in high school, something that may have made him more valuable to Graham’s offense than Chryst’s.
I can understand that. O-line depth has been an issue here for some time. Losing Cook hurts from the standpoint that it at least hurts depth. Beyond that, we’ll see. I think come next week, this staff will still pull in its fair share of linemen on this current class.
I know some of the coaches with Wisconsin ties obviously bring with them their pretty strong reputations for recruiting, developing and coaching up linemen, but I think it was a bit premature to expect the floodgates to open right away as well. This kind of ties into what Reed and others said above – this is still a program that is likely dealing with the aftershocks of three head coaches in 14 months.
The biggest statement this staff will make with recruits isn’t so much what it can do in about a month on the job right now, but rather after recruits have had a chance to see what they do on the field this coming season and even the following one.
but what is the big deal with HOLTZ he is only a 3 star per Rivals it is not like he is a 4 or 5 star and roberts is a NR i mean we need them and if we get them good
but holtz is not in rivals top 35 TE is it becuse he was once a penn state recruit glad to have him and all that . but he is not the best TE out there.
If he started focusing on his job at Pitt after the bowl game he waited way too long in my opinion. It is showing in the recruiting.
And unless Dokish has access to Chryst’s emails and cell phone bill, let’s give our new coach the benefit of the doubt until he shows us he is undeserving.
-do you really think that PC’s best move was to bail out on his Badgers in the Rose Bowl no less after the tg debacle. It’s about accountability in life same in recruiting
-Maybe recruit spots are opening up for players this year..next year with all these recent departures. Perhaps they are part of the master plan PC has implemented to devise his deviancy to take over the world…!
It was also a reflection on PITT whether we like it or not and PITT was going to take the high road no matter what Chryst wanted to do.
As to recruiting, to think that this shortened recruiting season is any sort of harbinger of how Chryst will do in future seasons is a real reach IMO. We just don’t have enough behind the scenes info to say that. However, you can say you are disappointed in this class if you feel the need to. I really don’t though. I’ll reserve my judgement until after LOI Day.
Put it this way. When DW was hired he recruited very well his first three years yet we went all that time without one winning season. I remember people jumping up and down because he was ‘such a good recruiter’ early on yet in his first three years we went 5-6, 6-6, 5-7 and that was with recruiting classes who had a lot of four and five star players.
I think that with hindsight that DW was recruiting the stars and not the players who he felt would most enhance the football team. Most coaches don’t do that unless they are so strong of a program that they stockpile the highly ranked players like USC and ND used to do. I also think it bit him in the ass in the long run because his teams became one dimensional by necessity due to poor recruiting of the whole of the positions. It was like his staff didn’t really put the effort into researching the actual players but instead grabbed the highest ranked ones.
For example, if no star Caprara contributes even on special teams and sees some action at LB, he’ll be far ahead of what five star Shayne Hale has done for PITT.
If Paul Chryst is targeting kids he actually feels will be main contributors to the program instead of worrying about losing a four star WR who he might not have wanted to keep in the first place… then I’ll be satisfied in the long run.
As to the Rose colored glasses, better that than to need a Valium prescription to calm the “PITT is doomed” fears down so you can sleep at night.
As of right now we have two actual TEs on the roster, Hubie Gram and Carozzoni. With the type of offense that Chryst has been very successful with the TEs play a major role.
This staff has targeted and put a lot of time into recruiting Holtz and it will be a big disappointment should Holtz choose MSU – which I don’t think will happen.
Has he really had sufficient time to evaluate his existing players to know what his needs are?
Better to focus on quality rather than quantity.
He has held on to the quality, next year’s recruiting class is the one that matters.
pk REED yes i want holtz i am sure he is a
good TE but all this fuss for a 3 star.
the way you are all talking abought him you would think he was a 5 star number 1 TE in class
he is a 3 star that i want on the team .
I wonder what the numbers are though??
How many scholarships does Pitt have to give and how many does PSU have to give?
I’ve seen different numbers thrown out there, how many scholarships do have to give??
Stoosh???
2 weeks ago we had 5 to give every team can have 25 per year i think that is the way it goes
i just checked are class is down to 15 so we
have 9 to give. 2 things dont count walk ons brown is listed as on team he is a walk on as are outhers.
and cincy has given 32 so they are brakeing some rule some were.
Only the SEC has rules about offering more that 25 I think.
dont know what are total on team is like i said you dont count walk ons and some said there are at least 2 who dont have the grades to stick.
are you sure of the 85 rule i thought it was 100.
As far as Holtz is concerned he was probally coming to Pitt even if Graham was still the coach. I would like to see a decent profile recruit that is picking Pitt because of the new HC.That is why Denman would have been a good get.
FBS football – 85, with an additional limit of 25 initial counters per year
The bottom line with Holtz is that he’s a position of need and has great offers for scholarship…
Michigan, Michigan State, Penn State, Pittsburgh, Purdue, Cincinnati, Connecticut, Maryland, Notre Dame, Rutgers, Syracuse, West Virginia
The transfers and 5th year seniors leaving hasn’t happened and that leaves up with a short class.
Chryst is working under tight constraints here. He may only have three or four scholarships to give out when all is said and done.
BTW – there is word around that Corey Jones wasn’t going to qualify academically at PITT.
do i want him yes but lets keep it real.
as dan said it is not like he is the number 5 rated RBin this class who we have all ready
our the number 4 rated QB who we have all ready
he is a good get yes . and rivals is the best
i think so any way.
please read that then explain ok.
If it was $9.95 or something, might be nice to have, or, my fear, is it something like $39.95 or $59.95???
I tried to see, but they wanted me to fill a bunch of crap out to go further.
Figured it would be easier to find out here.
which if i am right means this class cant go over 18 unless we get rid of some one does that seam right to you.
Under Christ Street could become the wr threat he can be and Graham, if his leg is sound will be much more dangerous with a fullback in a proset. Schell should also be productive in a Christ system since he is the prototype Wisconsin back.
Next year recruiting maybe more important.
It is unfortunate he wasn’t hired last year, but that is as it is. I am way more concered w/ Bball right now.
DRW – nice to have you back.
Scout.com is $9.95 per month I believe and I would get it only if you like discussions about PITT football without all the crap that is on the free board.
I can’t figure out, for the life of me, why on earth his parents, his high school coach, or himself would announce his college choice on KDKA if he wasn’t going to committ to Pitt???
Would he really think anyone is that interested in his story if he choses Michigan State???
I mean, take Pitt and Mich St. out of it.
Lets say he’s from L.A., and he’s done to UCLA and Nebraska, why on earth would you announce to an LA tv station, that you decided your going to Nebraska.
What would be the point??? At all???
Now, if it was between Pitt, PSU and or WVU, then ya, you could see it.