As most of you have already heard, Pitt is taking a WR transfer from Wisconsin.
[Manasseh] Garner, a 6-foot-2, 212-pound junior, was one of the top players in Pennsylvania in 2009 and considered Pitt before committing to Wisconsin. He has played sparingly at Wisconsin, recording his only two receptions for 45 yards last season. He also played defensive end and special teams.
“He’s very gifted. He’s very fast,” Bielema said after Garner recorded three tackles on kickoff coverage in a victory against Ohio State in 2010. “He’s got a little bit of understanding of ball awareness, football IQ. He’s played a lot of football at different positions, so I think his general football awareness is really good.
Garner is from the Pittsburgh area. He attended Brashear High School, and part of why he is coming back to the area is because he also has a baby. Part of why he didn’t play too much last year was because of nagging injuries.
The surprising thing is that Wisconsin head coach Bret Bielema encouraged him to transfer to Pitt.
“Manasseh was maybe leaning toward some FCS schools,” Bielema said after practice on Thursday. “We had a list; I think I released him to 15 schools. I sat down with him. I actually talked to coach Chryst, explained (to Garner), the best option in my opinion would be to go to a BCS school and sit out a year, get himself healthy and have two years to play. So, that’s exactly what he’s doing.”
“He’s got a baby back home; he’s got some life issues,” Bielema said. “Maybe to be closer to home will be a good thing for him.”
Not only did Chryst take the Pitt job, he raided Bielema’s staff — hard. Yet Bielema looked out for one of his players that was leaving and helped him to transfer to Pitt.
I am more than a little impressed with Bielema on this. The internet meme/caricature on Bielema is that he is something of a meathead “bro.” Totally went against that with this classy move.
For those who are worried about Pitt’s scholarship limit, remember by he time we get to December through LOI day in early Feb, there is bound to be some transfers, decommits, players quitting, and/or 4th year redshirt juniors who have graduated and will leave or will be sown the door.
Much too early to worry about the limit right now
RE: Corey Clement situation. Someone in another Pitt internet site’s Clement thread mentions that Clement’s planning other visits (to be accurate he only has said Nebraska for sure and “maybe” ND and Wisconsin) is not a new development as most of us (including Dokish) appear to have assumed. Rather, thisw is no more than his publicly announced plan (stated by he and his HS coach) ever since the day he committed to Pitt.
Bottom line: One can either view it as Clement never being fully committed to begin with (glass half empty view) or that he is just as committed as he ever was and is just following through to make certain he has really made the correct decision(glass half-full view).
In either case, there appears to not be any brand new case of “cold feet.”
Hopefully, Chryst starts winning big and watch that interest grow, would be nice.
Seems like it would be a great recruiting draw!
