I know. I know. Chryst develops players. Don’t get hung up on stars and who has offered. Look at the size. Right now it is just kind of funny at this point.

In addition to Tra’Von Chapman, Pitt added another verbal from Ohio. Carson Baker, an offensive tackle, who had offers from Toledo (man, the Rockets must be just about sick of this), Ohio and Buffalo opted for Pitt.

Measurables. Baker is 6-5 and anywhere from 270-315 pounds. No, really.

Rivals.com, 247 and ESPN.com all have Baker as un-starred, and un-evaluated. Scout.com actually gives him 2-stars. Of course Scout.com also lists Baker’s weight at 270 while the other 3 sites put him at 300-315.

Well, at least his high school coach is fond of him.

“He’s the best lineman I’ve ever coached,” said Fairborn coach Roy Thobe, who has been a high school coach in Ohio for 25 years. “And I’ve sent players to the Big Ten and Mid-American Conference.”

Um, I don’t suppose you could name some that you sent to the Big 10? I mean I found one DT who is at Indiana, but, um, yeah, Indiana football.

Looking like Chryst is determined to show he can really coach ’em up at certain spots.

Full post coming, but it just got reported that Tra’Von Chapman has pulled the trigger a couple days earlier than expected and given Pitt a verbal.

Okay, I’m not saying Tra’Von Chapman gave his verbal to Pitt a couple days earlier to bring Pitt fans back from the deep end over recruiting. But… I’m not saying he didn’t.

Chris Peak at PantherLair.com has been teasing news all morning.

Yeah, today's probably a good day to spend some time on the site…

— Chris Peak (@PantherLair) June 28, 2012

And gets credit for breaking it first.

Four-star QB Tra'von Chapman has committed to #Pitt. http://t.co/5Sm1Wx8B

— Chris Peak (@PantherLair) June 28, 2012

Everyone knew he was going to verbal to Pitt, it was just a matter of when.

(more…)

Losing OT Dorian Johnson to Penn Sate sucks.

There are no two ways around that.  Here was a four star recruit at a position of need for PITT, ranked either 13th or 23rd nationally at his position and after visiting PITT numerous times makes a spur of the moment decision to attend that school while riding in the car on his way back from a PSU visit.  It was a big swing and a miss for Paul Chryst.

PITT will have another good or bad day on Sunday, July 1st, when QB Tra’von Chapman, another four star, ranked 11th at a position of (big time!) need, makes his college choice.  Supposedly he’s been a strong PITT lean but the same could have been said for Johnson.  We await with bated breath, as do we for everyone’s superstar recruit #4 ranked WR Robert Foster who is probably good enough to start next season as a true FR.

Clairton’s four star WR Tyler Boyd is another prime prospect and right in our back yard.  IMO if we can land two of these four that will be a darn good start for Paul Chryst’s time at PITT but we are fighting heavyweight programs nationwide for these player’s services so it’s an uphill battle.

Now, I’m not one for blindly adhering to the ‘star’ ranking system and I’m on record about that,  but these four kids are Blue Chip players as defined by the offers they have received.  Look at the links provided above and you’ll see that these players are being recruited nationwide.

The bottom line is that there isn’t a laundry list of great four and five star recruits in the WPIAL each year any longer.  Jerry DiPaloa of the Tribune-Review has a good article on that this morning explaining how PITT has fared with recruiting these players in the past.  Not too bad actually.  Each of these highly ranked kids from our immediate area is an important recruit for PITT as it shows that we can compete with the big boys in the recruiting arena.

Chris Dokish of The Panther’s Prey wrote a long and detailed article on how he feels where the state of PITT’s recruiting is today.

As for my opinion Chryst’s recruiting so far? As much as I want Chryst to land all the big fish in the WPIAL/WPA area I think that might not happen and I truly can’t fault any kid and their parents who look at the PITT football program with a jaundiced eye right now.

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God bless, open records laws and states with decent FOIA-esque laws.

I reviewed the ND moving its non-football sports to the Big 12  fan fiction at the beginning of the week. Now we have the source for the “facts” in the story.

In a January memo to the Big 12 expansion committee, interim commissioner Chuck Neinas said Notre Dame is the only school the Big 12 could add that would “enhance the Big 12 value for television.”

The memo, obtained by The Oklahoman through an Open Records request, was sent to the committee as an agenda for a late January teleconference.

The expansion committee is made up of Oklahoma State president Burns Hargis, Oklahoma athletic director Joe Castiglione, Texas athletic director DeLoss Dodds and Kansas State president Kirk Shulz.

Reading through the article, you can see where the Orangebloods story got each nugget.

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