Rori Blair, a DE from Upper Saint Clair, announced that he has given his verbal commitment to Pitt today. Blair is not properly rated by the recruiting services because he did not play his senior year and was granted an extra year to finish high school. He’s a very unique person and player. The reason?
Rori nearly died of a stroke last year.*
The 6’4″ 225 pound super senior appears to have made a full recovery and is ready to go. He has run a 4.52 40 yard dash, which is incredible speed for a player at that size. There are numerous NFL starters who don’t have that combo of size and speed. Once he was cleared to play medically and allowed to get a second shot at his senior season, Pitt, the West Virgina Rushel Shells, and Kent State immediately offered scholarships.
If Rori has made a full recovery, this is a huge pickup. A guy who’s 6’4″ and has the frame to add plenty of weight and runs that fast? You can’t teach big and fast. He fits the “planet theory” Bill Parcells promotes: there are only so many men on the planet with size and speed, so go get ’em. Due to the stroke, Blair’s weight dropped to 180 pounds. He already has it back up to a chiseled 225. It’s safe to say that Rori will get more attention as the season goes on and he proves that he’s healthy.
I’m very confident that the coaching staff would not give Blair a scholarship if they believed his health is a concern. We’re not talking about a knee injury; Blair could be dead right now. This is a risk worth taking. Blair may be one of the best players in the WPIAL when at full strength. Let’s hope he attacks offenses with the same intensity he attacked his recovery after the stroke. If so, there will be a lot of players in the ACC who will feel his pain.
*I recommend you read the whole article from Mike White. Top notch reporting.
Veritas et Virtus !
Is Pitt a charity case? Desperate for players?
Blair played as a Junior 2011/12 school year and didn’t have any offers. He had his stroke in April 2012.
In his 2012/12 school year he didn’t compete in any sports. Not even track in throws or anything.
And Pitt offers a football scholarship without seeing him play a game after a stroke!!
Heck, if I were the parent, no way would I permit him to play football. Talk about living vicariously through your kid.
Solid players, solid citizens. Jody83 always knows how things are going to turn out with a recruit. Almost as ridiculous as asking the entire world for predictions on wins and losses. Every game provides its own match up with much depending on injuries to key players, which cannot be predicted in the pre-season. Just shows ignorance.
@upitt – funny how the WV AD is actively involved in recruiting players. He is recognizable and adds value in the recruiting process. Our guy, not so much!
Solid players, solid citizens. Jody83 always knows how things are going to turn out with a recruit….not! Almost as ridiculous as asking the entire world for predictions on wins and losses. Every game provides its own match up with much depending on injuries to key players, which cannot be predicted in the pre-season. Just shows ignorance.
@upitt – funny how the WV AD is actively involved in recruiting players. He is recognizable and adds value in the recruiting process. Our guy, not so much!
You missed the point.
How can you offer this kid a scholarship basically sight unseen. He hasn’t played any sport in over a year.
Since when is Pitt football a charity case of handing out football scholarships? This sounds more like a “Make a Wish” Foundation.
Are you trying to tell me of the thousands of healthy HS football players out there, this is the best Pitt can do???
You know, WVU is making fun of Pitt that we are competing with Akron for players. Heck, now we are a part of “Make a Wish Foundation”.
I figured that he would never return to the football field because of residual effects of his stroke, but he even surmounted those obsticles, beating those odds with special medical therapy to permot him to come back full speed without any residual effects from such a dire medical emergency. This is a story that is just beyond the extraordinary.
This is a person, I’m sure, who looks at life now in a different way than most of us because of that experience. Use God’s gift to you, of this additional time on earth, to your best advantage. With his future success on the Pitt football team, I’m sure that we will hear this story repeated many times over the next few years while watching Pitt football games on TV. This is the perfect feel good story.
Mr. Blair is definitly a Pitt product, a UPMC product! Welcome to the Panthers.
You really need to get laid! Lighten the F up.
Blair was offered because of his performance at camp and his character and work ethic.
You taking a shot at his parents says a lot more about you than them.
How many credits will WVU accept for Rushel Shell, he may already be a senior by their standards. He may be a graduate student by the time he plays.
Do you think he will be able to stay in school for another year, oh yeah, it’s WVU, classes don’t matter. He will probably commute from Hopewell.
What kind of car is he driving?
No accolades. He wasn’t a BCS D1 prospect then and he isn’t now.
He wasn’t PG Fab 22, not even for south region. He wasn’t Trib Terrific 25, etc.
and yes, his parents are nuts to permit him to play football. I’ve seen many parents living vicariously through their kid in youth sports.
Another diamond in the rough. Most of the 2014 recruiting class is classified as that.
As far as Blair is concerned, this is a really good get for Pitt. Huge upside, minimal downside. He will be a solid three star, barring any setback after this coming year of play. Shady McCoy must have been a make a wish guy too, because every other school backed off him when he was injured severely.
Let’s wait until the final stars are handed out by the so called experts before complaining about the class. For giggles, why doesn’t Joe put the stars on the 2015 class….now! Say who Pitt should get now, full class. LOL, just kiddin joeygirl, you couldn’t do it.
If Pitt.Dan was getting laid by a perfect 10 he would be complaining the air conditioner was making too much noise!
An ACL injury can’t be compared to stroke.
Lets see how many concussions he gets in his HS season this year. Perhaps he will hang up his spikes after his 1st concussion.
Also, Shady had to go to Prep. Most schools drop you if you have to prep first. So Prep + ACL was a problem for Shady.
– giving out an unearned MBA to governor’s daughter
– its town had to pass an ordinance to outlaw couch burning
– its mascot uses his musket to kill baby bears
– its student council bought obscene t-shirts from the students so they wouldn’t wear them at games
– it start selling beer at the stadium in an effort to DECREASE drunkenness
– its lame duck coach tried to get media people to dig up dirt on his successor
– the predecessor, an alum, to this lame duck coach left his coaching job abruptly less than a year after getting a large raise, and then ended up suing the school
– a visiting assistant basketball coach was hit in the forehead by a coin thrown from an adult section
– a pregnant LSU fan was assaulted in the parking lot following a FB game
– both current coaches has been involved in drunken incidents
Now the other schools has had some incidents of late … but seriously, so what if the school described above has had the upper hand in FB lately …. really!!
Must admit that at first, I took him seriously … now I realize that he is only accentuating the negative just to get everybody all riled up.
We all know Pitt has issues, they are well documented … and even PittDan may have noted that nobody here is predicting an ACC title soon, or for that matter, nobody took real exception to the 5th place predicted finish …. proving that we have a much more sense of reality than PittDan would ever want to admit.
If most of us predicted 6 wins, he would predict 3 wins … and if we predicted 3 wins, he would predict 1 …. so just ignore him, he’s harmless!
Ray,
Upside. Thats all I hear about the 2014 recruiting class and how smart they are.
When he last played as a Junior, he didn’t get any accolades. That is a fact. These accolades are voted on by the coaches who have seen him play.
And Chryst evaluation was not in pads.
Better yet… comparing a broken ankle (Shady) to a stroke. smh at Huff.
When they get back to their athletic schedule that has every one of their sports teams flying back and forth from Morganhole to Waco, reality will set in, again, like last year.
It’s bad, when a fan base and school can enjoy the summer off period more than when the games get going.
Lubbock’s bad when you win. Throw in some losses and desparation and rants will set in again, just like last year during their football and hoops season.
P.S.
I have odds on Shell.
Ever even playing a game at WVU. 50 to 1
Playing one season at WVU………10 to 1
Playing more than one season WVU..500 to 1
Finishing career, getting degree..1000 to 1
Ya, my odds are higher of even getting there than playing a full season.
A year and a few months is a very long time. Longer for some than others. A very long time.
Plus you are just making things up, maybe his parents don’t want him to play, but understand that it is his life to live however he choses.
He has overcome serious setback and will now will get a paid college education, I call that high achievement on his part, not Make a Wish.
It is fine to have your opinions, but it is not harmless to make personal attacks on individuals or their families.
My only question would be, who’s the pitcher and who’s the catcher??
Cue ‘dueling banjos’ from ‘Deliverance’ on the Mountaineer Field loud speakers.
Should be a spankin’ good time!!!
“Am I afraid? How do I say this,” Blair said. “We’re all put on this earth to do something, so why don’t you just work hard and find out something that you can do. For now, that’s football. I know football won’t last forever, but right now it’s my first goal to play again.”
As far as I’m concerned he sounds like a great kid and a real Pitt man. Besides, we should recruit anyone named Blair!
We have kids that have played sparingly if at all using scholarships as we speak. Even Alabama has players who don’t play for them over their years at college. That doesn’t mean they aren’t worth the scholarship as a HS senior because at that point you literally have no idea if that scholarship is going to a scrub, a starter or a superstar.
To criticize giving one to Blair after this staff has specifically been made aware of this kid by those involved in the local HS scene, then invited him to and worked him out at camp then decided to use one of those – many now and it will be more by next season – scholarships is the height of a poster’s arrogance.
The reason he doesn’t have more MAC and other offers is obvious. Virtually everyone of these guys have the possibility of being a diamond in the rough …. we’ll see.
Sorry guys, couldn’t resist such an easy target. Back to Blair, I like it a lot. Huge upside, minimal downside. One year scholarships are the problem. OSU seriously considering going to three year awards to get the athlete and the university on more equal footing. Very Progressive! Pitt should consider offering 3 and 4 year scholarships in an effort to land some 4-5 star talent. What do you guys think about that idea?
In my own professional experience of 37 years I have seen quality employees terminated and harrassed because of a misperception by the boss or a low subordinate that has their ear.
I do not feel sorry for Schell a 19 year old that the coaching staff leaked stories to the press about his training habits (not a Pitt kid). It may have been a misperception by the man in charge and a young man trying to please everyone.
IMO this does not reflect well on Chyrst (the team wanted him back). Because of this everyone is downplaying his skills. IMO if schell had got the same carries as Graham last year he would of surpassed him by 300 yards.
Just as Dixon control coaching flaws and inflexibility had to make certain it remained Dixon’s team not Adams team. His ego sacrificed another 5 wins if he had rode Adams, the 12th players picked in the NBA draft from the first game. Just as he did with Taylor ruiining his career playing him at the him 5 forcing to add 25 pounds.
Do not be fooled that your boss or any coach is more concerned with your well being then his own.
You are really too old for that.
Story linked to press had bad attitude (contrary to his impeccible reputation and background) and could not throw the intermeditte pass. How do we know. My guess personal misconception about him my the coach -only playing D3 but only has D3 players with him average yards per game well over 300 yards per game. New coach only D3 player to play as a QB in NFL. Just perhaps
Myers was not recruited by Wisconsin at all and never had an offer from them. His actual offers were PITT, Ball State, Toledo and Bowling Green. If you are stating that those lack of offers was because he didn’t start until his SR year that is laughable… you just wrote a laundry list of why Myers should have been getting BCS offers but he didn’t. Spare the ‘he committed early’ line – if he was as good as you say and truly the #11 QB as stated by Rivals schools would have been actively trying to pry him away from PITT. It doesn’t cost anything at all to issue formal offers to a player, it isn’t like awarding a scholarship where the numbers are limited, yet not one other decent school did that with Myers.
The truth was that me was much more like ESPN recruiting evaluation, a two-star and the 110th QB, then he was Rivals.
That ‘poor attitude’ info came from other players and player’s fathers and was well written about by the beat writers – who do a lot more than just talk to the coaching staff. Again, when you choose not to learn the playbook well enough to even be considered to be played that is a real problem. Don’t confused having a poor attitude with being a bad kid or having poor personal characteristics; all it means is that for whatever reasons he chose not to be fully dedicated to the particular job at hand.
If you quit selectively remembering things you’d remember that Todd Graham stated publicly that he wanted to get Myers into games, especially when Sunseri was doing poorly but Graham and the OC stated more than once that Myers “wasn’t there yet” or ‘was coming around’ meaning he didn’t know anything but the most basic plays even after spring and summer camps and countless meetings and film sessions. Believe me, at mid-point in 2011 when we were 3-4 Graham would have sold his soul to be able to play Myers.
I watched Myers in person in at least six full practice sessions and three scrimmages and can say without hesitation that his passing was all about the deep game and he faltered at the BCS level in his decision making and was very often late with the ball on his intermediate and short passing game. Hell, Myers was soundly beaten out for the #2 spot in the 2011 training camp by Trey Anderson… does a guy who is as talented as you state allow that happen without some piss poor preparation and play by himself?
Yet fans who never saw him play or practice at all except in warm ups maybe just insist that he was railroaded.
Look, there were solid reasons why Myers didn’t play at PITT and then chose to transfer and it wasn’t only because of the coaches he had. Graham practically begged him to progress enough to play as Myers was desperately needed out on the field. Again, if you remember Anderson was injured for a stretch of time and Graham was still forced to go with Sunseri even after Graham had publicly called him out. But the HC couldn’t play Myers because both Graham and the OC knew he wasn’t able to function properly out there.
After Chryst was hired he sat Myers down and explained that Myers had a fair chance at winning the starting job if he did what was necessary and worked his butt off to actually be competitive. Myers chose to transfer instead and it worked out for him.
That is the history. It doesn’t make Myers a bum or anything. It just shows that there were a number of reasons that combined to preclude Myers from being able to play QB at PITT against top level college competition.
Under the radar but looks real good in summer camp, 6’4, 220 and strong arm, good student and only offers were from MAC schools.
And then when he started out his senior years as gang busters, Pitt offered and he quickly accepted (late Sept 09).
A PC pipe dream!
. I am not saying he would have been succeeded although his present performances indicate what I believed he had to be better but he is the kind of QB Chryst would of signed, intellegent with lots of potential.
I am not saying he would have succed at Pitt but his performance indicates he may have. None of us know what the real problem was with Myers or Schell we only know what the coaching staff leaked to the press and they published as gospel.
My only point is as a mature professional employeed for 37 years I believe half of what I am told and more of what actions I see.
College QB is about speed and quick delivery of the football.
Myers had neither or at least not enough for this level.
PC has two years of recruiting classes full of “pipe dreams”. Time will tell if he did his homework and if those dreams end up becoming successful realities.
The fact is Myers played 3 sports in high school (FB, BB and track) and I’m reading he was an honor student. A person cannot accomplish this without being responsible, organized and having a sense of priority.
I must have missed the game(s) Myers played in.
Or is this another statement or conjecture from the press leaked from his coaches that likely had an axe to grind with him as in any organization or thought Tino’s experience was more important (Flacco v. what’s his name)
I also made that point abundantly clear when I formally wrote articles on here and that holds true today as a commenter. What I write is just what Chas, Justin or any other posters writes for the most part, their opinions. I have never pretended to be anything other than a PITT fan who had a formal opportunity to watch practices on the sidelines and sit up in the press box during some home games.
Notice that when someone disagrees with me I don’t say ‘You’re wrong” or ‘You don’t know what you are talking about”. I present a rebuttal based on information that I have learned and on my opinions formed from those conversations and impression I had after watching the player in question.
Also, I have never once commenter on the quality of any recruit prior to his arriving at PITT and my being able to see him in person. I can’t and won’t do that because – as you state – I know nothing at all about these players before they are Panthers.
All that said I will tell you that my writing for The Blather and having a Press Pass opened up some doors to me that I take advantage of in being able to attend those practices and scrimmages and watch interviews, get in sideline conversations and then think about what I have seen. Some of those conversations were with staffers, and some were candid conversations with the PITT beat writers and recruiting site writers… guy who see every practice and are around the football team way more than you or I are.
I have absolutely no axe to grind with anyone nor any real affiliation with anyone associated with the program other than some friendship with player’s parents and a working acquaintance with some staff members – no coaches by the way. Any thing that I’ve directly discussed with a football coach I’v attributed on here.
But here is what gets me a bit – especially in the case with Myers – I had nice talk with his father back in the spring of 2011 and somewhat understood where Myers’ head was at back then. I had conversations with people familiar with Myers himself, I watched Myers in practices and scrimmages and then formed my opinion of his situation, abilities and prospects. I also argued, after the recruiting process was over, about his prior recruitment and stars awarded based on published facts – in that the three recruiting sites varied wildly about the kid’s prospects in college and he had basically no other offer than PITT.
Then a poster who done never those things or hadn’t watched him in internal competition tells me my opinion is completely wrong or skewed for some reason. That’s OK but it would be nice to hear exactly why I’m wrong and what their experience basis is for saying so. I mean isn’t it strange that a fan who has never really been able to watch a player in any depth can form a strong opinion, but someone who has can’t? I had a running argument for two years on here with a poster who was in just that position – to him everything was based on the kid’s HS play yet he wouldn’t believe that it didn’t translate to D1 BCS play well at all.
You are correct that we only saw Myers in minuscule mop up duty so we’ll never really know if he could have done well as a starter. Personally, I would have loved to have seen him play more and I was pulling for him to stick it out for the 2012 season under Chryst. However, my informed opinion is that he never would have been a starter at PITT because he didn’t give it all he had and didn’t try to progress enough that he was a viable competitor for the starter’s spot.
Well, history bore that out and what happened afterward happened, he left a BCS program because he wasn’t ever going to win playing time here and dropped to D3 because he felt much more comfortable there.
My opinions about Sunseri hold the same. I believe that things are not only black and white. Sunseri played some good football for PITT and at the same time made some horrendous play that cost us football games. Some fan’s just refuse to believe that first part at all.
If you look at the losses, he was good enough often. No one showed up vs. YSU, defense was crap against Cinci in the 1st half, defense got torched by Teddy Bridgewater (no shame though, he did it to Florida), and no one showed up in the first half against UConn.
I’m not singing his praises, but if the rest of the team plays average, we beat YSU and UConn for sure, maybe even Cinci. YSU ran for over 200 yards on our defense. A 200+ yard average is top 30 in FBS. With a better team around him, Tino was good enough to win 9-10 games in the Big East.
This fact, apparently is lost on a few of our posting contributors on this blog because they OFTEN attempt to do just that, impose their viewpoints on others.
I’ve seen the phrase, “opinions are like belly buttons, everybody has one” used by other posters and that is the naked truth! However, You Chas and I assume Justin as well, have more knowledgable belly buttons simply because of the access permitted to you. I would love to have the oppotunity to watch Pitt football practices, have the chance to talk to those closely involved in the program and in general just be able to experince the vibe from the coaching staff and players by being able to experience that environment first hand.
Those kinds of insights validate your opinions, and, IMO, therfore carry more weight especially when expressed in a fair and factual way to your readership.
So I guess what I’m saying is that, at least in my eyes, I see no reason why you feel compelled to substantiate your opinions and/or POVs to any of your fan base that takes umbrage to those opinions or POVs.
Keep doing exactly what you have in the past and feel free to discount those who post with self imposed authority on the current subject at hand. In most cases you can rest assured that your advantage of inside information trumps substance over conjecture a majority of the time.
The real argument is based on the reality that coaches are human, and like all humans they have opinions that are based on their history and background that influence their management style.
We saw on Wall-Street the burden that rests on the shoulders when well paid managers with only accountability is to the share holders or boosters for the job they worked all their lives for can influence annyones thinking.
You play who you think are your best to win and keep your job. The question I ask is that in your entire professional career you never witnessed an excellent employee career ruined by the misperception of him by his boss, often from bosses subordinates that based on their values that an employee does not have the companies interest in mind. This is the real world not the perceived world by “experts” or fans who have access to practices.
You maybe right about Myers and probably are but I was right about Adams while people were slamming him (fact 12 pick). Maybe Taylor too who everyone hated until last year and then agreed with my assessment what if he play the 4 at his normanl weight.
Finally I said Graham was a mistake from when he was hired when the players were saying this system is great.
Justin, I think the Syracuse game last year pretty well summed up Tino. I remember seeing him under constant pressure the entire game and still passing for 300 yards … and I was actually thinking that even all his cynics at Pitt Blather will be saying good thngs about him. And then he made those 2 bad plays in a row towards the end!!
Did you actually watch the games? Except for the VT game, Shell generally looked slow and sluggish to me most of the time, and his blocking skills leave much to be desired. What I saw from him on the field was pretty average most of the season, except for a flash now and again. Yes, the O-line was terrible, but Shell just didn’t consistently show me that much. So, I don’t think anyone is downplaying his skills, but based on last season a lot of people should have certainly been asking whether he’s really as good as advertised, or if there was a work ethic problem.
This is not to say that he doesn’t have talent or might not end up being a great RB, and I wish him all the best. However, based on last year, I just don’t think you have any grounds to make that kind of statement. It’s a loss, but I’m not convinced that it’s as big of a loss as you are suggesting. Time will tell, I guess. Frankly, I think Bennett is a more complete player.
link to youtube.com (1:40 mark and a couple after)
