It’s signing day. The annual event. A culmination of predominantly male adults obsessing about the decisions of athletic young men in the age category of 17-18 years. It never stops being creepy.
As usual, this will be something of an open thread as we clock-in who officially signs with Pitt, and any info on any surprises. This being a serious and solemn event, it will be treated with the utmost reverence on this site.
Usually the process for marking whether a kid has signed or not is done by noting whether Rivals.com and Scout.com are listing them as signed or not. But things are a-changin’.
Pitt’s athletic department will be keeping things up to date — so the claim goes. It’s the first time they are giving it a shot so I guess we’ll see how they do.
There will be a webcam on the fax machine. Analysis of the signees between 9am and noon by Bill Hillgrove, Pat Bostick and Don Rebel (spolier alert: they are all awesome), and tweets of the signees faxed Letter of Intent with some alacrity.
Around 3pm there will be a live webcast of Coach Paul Chryst waxing rhapsodic over all the fine gentlemen who will be Panthers.
The commits can start rolling in as early as 7am. Get your coffee and try to wait a little while before adding the special additives.
Signed and Sealed:
QB Chad Voytik gets things rolling at 7:01 am.
OL Adam Bisnowaty is in at 7:19 (damn, it’s going to take getting used to typing his last name).
LB Devon Porchia gets through, next at 7:50.
Demetrious Davis and
Chris Davis are both signed and faxed but not yet confirmed by Pitt. PantherLair has put them in the signed and fax category. Now we have official confirmation for the Davis boys, and Chris was technically ahead of his brother.
TE J.P. Holtz has his in to the Pitt athletic Department at 8:18.
DE Daryl Render is listed as signed by Rivals.com, (Confirmed by Pitt at 8:26)
DB Jahmal Pardner as well. It took awhile, but he is official as of 9:19.
[SPECIAL UPDATE: LB Deyasean Rippy has tweeted the following cryptic message: Let’s go Pitt #H2P]
…and Rippy is officially a Panther at 8:58.
Rushel Shell is official at 9am.
OL Gabe Roberts is in the central time zone, so for him, he just faxed in a little after 8.
S Bam Bradley from Trotwood OH is signed and sealed for Pitt.
LB Mike Caprara got around to getting his LOI into the Pitt offices at 9:48.
9:54 UPDATE: Here are some of the verbals for which Pitt is still awaiting LOIs:
Trenton Coles
Ryan Lewis
Tyrique Jarrett
These players are either unknown or reportedly signed elsewhere
Adam Pankey — Pitt or WVU. Pankey went with WVU. Not a total shock. Pankey was contacted by WVU almost as soon as Fraud Graham news broke.
Alkwan Williams — reportedly signed a LOI with Temple.
Jevonte Pitts — Prep school, but rumored to still be academically ineligible
Terrell Jackson — hasn’t announced, but his hat display reportedly has Cinci, Illinois and Mich. St. — no Pitt hat.
—–
Whoo-Hoo! Terrell Jackson did the hat fake: Terrell Jackson pulls a #Pittsburgh hat from underneath the table and puts it on. He’s a Panther.
WR Trenton Coles has gotten his LOI in at 10:33.
DT Terrell Jackson is official with Pitt as of 10:45.
CB Ryan Lewis finishes the class at 11:53.
This ends the signing day open thread. If there are any surprises or noise, it will be in a separate post.
Personally, I still think that offering more scholarships than you have available and banking on guys to fail at life is dishonorable and disgusting and while I understand its part of the game I am glad Pitt doesn’t go around offering 30 kids every year.
Good day picking up Rip, Jax and Bam. HTP!
Treyvon Hester
Ryan Anderson
Josh Stepoli
Haven’t heard much about Anderson or Stepoli, so I think they must be carryovers from the Fraud Graham regime. Also heard somewhere (Was it here?) that Hester was going to Toledo????
better we needed that good man jax
PantherLair Chris Peak
Deaysean Rippy says he would not have picked #Pitt if Todd Graham was still the coach. #RivalsNSD
But has anybody heard anything about kickers for PITT??
and hester went to a mac school
and the offer on the outher kid was from TG
Anderson has bone cancer and is on the shelf…best wishes for a healthy recovery for the kid. Tough stuff.
Stepoli was going DII last I heard…doubt the offer is still there.
What happened to that OT from New Hampshire?
…and they better recruit about 7 OL and 5 DL next year!!!!
Also, my aunt is having a ravioli party for the Super Bowl, 6 different fillings!!!
I’m feeling pretty damn good right now!
Not too bad considering all crap PITT and the new staff had to go through.
I’ve a feel 2013 may be excellent all around for recruiting.
Now, let’s start talking about Spring practices and our QB situation.
Mr. Guy you showed up at The Pete last week and then you faded into thin air.
Walk-on? Scholie? WHO ARE YOU?
Maybe lightning strikes twice … today is a day for optimism .. right?
unless they sign Dorsett will they REED.
Overall, pretty good last 24 hrs … lost Pankey and A Williams but gained Jackson, Bradley and Rippy. Very good tradeoff .. but above all, kept all of the big ones.
A note on this class: what has struck me, now that we have the final results, is that less than one-third (five of sixteen) are from Pennsylvania. I think this bodes extremely well for future classes as the coaches settle in and get to know the territory and the personnel.
I’ll be Heinz Field tonight — let’s give the new staff a rousing welcome! Hail to Pitt!
Hail to Pitt!
Per the real Trib (the Johnstown Tribune Democrat), Chryst pulled Williams’ scholarship offer Sunday.
Has the making of a good class.
Big things are in the works for PITT football I believe and this class will play a major part in that. Chad Voytik appears to be a real leader and it was no coincidence that he was the first one to get his LOI in. I look forward to seeing him and Rush Shell, the Davis boys & JP Holtz light up the scoreboard at Heinz.
Hail To Pitt !
Veritas et Virtus !
cincy signed 30 and WVU signed 26 how are they geting away with this.
haha
I don’t think that 25 limit applies to LOI Day but to the overall year once the official roster is set in August.
However, it would be even better if he can replicate what Graham did in that area with his players this year – one arrest in the spring and zero other public incidents or publicized arrests.
A big difference between 2011 and the 2010 year wouldn’t you say?
link to recruiting.scout.com