Avonte Maddox joined 738 other prospects (estimated) today when he announced his commitment to Pitt. Maddox is a 2 star player on Rivals, 3 stars on Scout, 3 stars on 247, and unrated by ESPN. He had offers from Cincinnati, Ohio, Central Michigan, and several other schools. WVU, Michigan State, and Purdue also had interest. Maddox hails from Martin Luther King High School in Detroit. He’s 5’9″ 165 lb and possesses a common trend among the verbals so far: a high GPA (3.5).
DC Matt House has been his main recruiter and working with House seemed to seal the deal according to PantherLair. He picked up the offer 2 weeks ago while here for a prospect camp. Maddox’s best asset is his speed. He allegedly ran a 4.38 at an Ohio State camp last year. He had 1,133 total yards and 10 touchdowns on offense and 3 interceptions on defense last year. The coaches project him as a CB at the next level.
Stay tuned for more here on PittBlather. I expect at least 2 or 3 more verbals before the end of the month.
Seriously though, what a shame. Fields had insane athleticism and if he had the work ethic of a LaRod Stephens-Howling he’d be a Pro Bowler by now.
The Steelers became great because they researched and found players different than the mass of teams.. BLESTO came of this unique effort.
The “Steeler way” is not to lose their minds in free agency… they miss all the buzz and are ‘rated’ as not doing well… but they just win divisions and go to super bowls all of the time.
PC and Pitt, to me, have smartly analyzed who they are, where they are (in a lot of ways), and have developed a strategy that works for them.
So…
– Stars… and the “internet says”
– judge kids by who else offered them
– are they from Florida… Florida??
– what division of high school sport
– whose dad they play golf with (except PC’s nephew haha)
– billboards, marketing campaigns
– slick willy recruiter.
… all of that is out the window here.
Thankfully… Makes me proud to be a Panther… a university with balance and thoughtfulness…
PC is a smart man.. I hope it translates to W on the field… enjoy him… in 2-3 years we are going to get “McConnelled” with those infamous words… “this was the only other school I would have left for”… let’s hope Wisconsin gets to some Rose Bowls in the next few years…
H2P
….
The number one pick was a 2*. You can’t judge heart and character on the star charts. Without a doubt it’s better to have the 4 and 5 star kids, but Pitt is not that type of program today.
Also, if Stanford wants you, I see absolutely no reason Pitt shouldn’t want you.
I will miss him.
at fifty frickn one! I am a Sopranos disiple and will really miss him.
While I love the recruiting highs and lows, I know that until 2 years, we will have no idea how they will turn out.
More urgent matters….for Pitt fans.
now if we can have a pretty good QB who can “manage the game and move the chains”…
it is the hight and weight but i guess they are going to be red shirts.
now go get me a big DT and DE and 3LB
DO IT.
what a good day grimm is the man.
to outher schools on panther digest
it is really to bad.
Pitt is not elite, but good, trending towards very good in two years if the OL pans out. A couple good years in the national rankings offensively and the program should take-off. Pitt would be wise to extend out the head coach before that becomes a recruiting issue!!!!
Welcome aboard new verbals! Let’s turn the three stars to four stars during your senior seasons! Stay healthy and let’s go to work! Building a program from scratch, takes a strategic plan by the coach. Our coach has one.
I stated the other day, and I still stand by it, that IN THE FUTURE, pitt cannot live by fighting Akron and Temple for recruits.
In that same comment, I also said, HCPC deserves a few years to get a program in place, and win some games and build recruiting.
He is not Nick Saban, Les Miles, or Steve Spurrier, nor does he have the program to go along with it.
Yes, this is where we’ve sunk too. Allthough I think sunk may be a little strong. The last 4 or 5 years, for what pre season rankings are worth (not much) we’ve been ranked from 38th to 64th or so.
Yes, that’s who we are. Mid pack college football team.
Hey, he may fail, I have no crystal ball. But he did say he was going to “build” over several years.
He looks to be getting a massive offensive line together for the future, with some skill players.
We need to win some exciting games this year and build.
Next year, I would hope to see a little fewer MAC schools involved. Win even more next year, the following year even less MAC and Colonial schools offered and so on and so on.
I kind of wanted to state this again, because looking at it quickly, you might thing I’m making hypocritical statements. I’m not, and I haven’t.
We eventually need to be fighting NC St and Va.Tech and PSU and WVU for recruits consistently, but the guy deserves some time to build the program.
A couple years from now, if we’re still fighting Buffalo and James Madison for recruits, I’ll be right there with you.
This is only the 2nd year for the guy, and frankly his 1st year he was kind of just thrown in there amongst chaos.
I’m not giving him a pass, but to get on him at this point is kind of crazy.
I do realize now, you weren’t talking to me. I have noticed a couple people, not many, but a couple who were bitching up and down about numbers, numbers, numbers for weeks!!!! Now we have 6 recruits, and they’re bitching about them.
Also, the Grimm get was fantastic. Ya, he’s from Pittsburgh. If he wouldn’t have come here, people would have been bitching “can’t even keep guys in his own backyard”.
Now, the kid committs, “big deal, he’s from Pittsburgh, and he was expected to go to Pitt”
It is a big deal. Apparently he had about 40 other offers. Could have gone anywhere he wanted. He chose to go to Pitt.
Give a friggin’ pat on the back to the coaches once in awhile for God’s sake.
3 verbals (one stud) in one day, the 19th of June.
Good birthday present. Thanks guys ! 🙂
Smart football players do not make stupid mistakes
and cost you game !
Recruiting feels like the return of the
Paul Hackett days. Hope our staff is
better evaluators of talent.
Toast to the Bada Bing!
He’s concentrating on having young, big and tough OL who will redshirt each year and be the strength of the program. That will be the hallmark of Chryst’s time here.
Then he’s getting taller HS Safeties who can grow and be moved forward into LBs after a few years in the weight rooms (as said above). Look at the five guys he recruited who were listed as Safeties last class – two of them will be asked to gain weight and will play other positions and one will be a WR.
He’s targeting taller and faster WRs than his predecessor and then adding speed for the special teams.
With Parrish from the 2013 class he’ll have a big & strong FB/H-Back. I see another type player being recruited this season probably.
His QBs are going to be built along the lines of our QB coach Brooks Bollinger – cerebral and able to control the game and move the ball downfield to get into positions to score. That is the prototype QB he had at Wisconsin including Russell Wilson.
But most of all he’s recruiting HS players who he thinks will be on the roster four or five years without disciplinary problems or transferring. It is a complete waste of a scholarship, time and energy having to coddle and cajole players to do the right things. If a player wants playing time along with a decent education then they will work hard toward that.
If you didn’t already know this staff doesn’t formally offer a kid unless;
1) They have seen in in person in a game or in a PITT camp and
2) They have visited the HS if possible and talked with the teachers and football staff there and
3) had a complete academic review by a member of the PITT Academic Support Staff.
We can bitch and moan about teams full of ‘good guys’ and scholars not winning football games but all you have to do is look at the last two years (three really) and ask yourself if all the problems with arrests, suspensions and transfers was worth the sub-.500 we’ve produced.
Travis Frederick a 3* horrible recruit with offers from Navy, Air Force and North Dakota State.
How did he turn out…. drafted by Dallas in the first round this year.
Let Chryst do his job and quit bitching. If you guys know everything about recruiting why aren’t you on somebody s staff.
Keep up the good work HCPC!!!!
Hail to Pitt! 🙂
Great posts. Can’t agree more. It is SO early in this process.
PC is doing a great job so far.
The problem is not bringing in top/elite skill players and settling for MAC-type players. The style of play in ACC is different than Big10. (faster). We shall see but I’m not seeing it based upon what he has recruited.
Chryst will get a pass for this year but 2014 season will be critical for him to keep his job.
Jimbo, amen. well said.
nice links.
