With plenty of time before a bowl game (more on that later this week), the coaching staff is wasting no time. It’s the opportunity for a late push before the dead period and there’s a lot happening right now. I’m only going to post info that’s publicly available because it’s not cool to post info only available behind a paywall for free. Guys like Tony Greco, Chris Peak, Greg Croft, etc. work too hard for their stuff to be thrown out there.
I’ll start with visits for the upcoming weekend. This weekend is a big one. RB Shai McKenzie, WR Jamil Kamara, and DB Rasaan Stewart are coming to town. McKenzie and Kamara are four star prospects and two of the most important prospects on Pitt’s radar. Stewart just finished up some playoff domination and while he’s likely a DB at the next level, don’t sleep on guys who have the ability to dominate at any level.
Shai has announced he will publicly choose his school on December 20th. It looks like it’s down to Pitt and VT. Kamara will probably choose a bit later and it looks like he remains a Virginia lean, but Pitt and Wisconsin are still very much in the running. Stewart doesn’t appear to favor Pitt at the moment, but I know he’s definitely interested and it wouldn’t surprise me at all if he ends up in Oakland next year.
The coaches wanted four star DB Dravon Henry to visit this weekend, especially given that he’s announcing on Monday. Unfortunately he won’t be coming to town but the Quip product doesn’t need any additional time with coaches and on campus; he’s had plenty. For Henry, it’s down to Pitt and WVU. ESPN has tweeted out that he’s a WVU lean, but I’ve seen conflicting reports. It’ll be one of those two, though. Hopefully the Pitt-Aliquippa pipeline continutes to be fruitful.
Four star Monroeville DB Montae Nicholson had his official visit back in September and I’m assuming numerous in home visits from the coaching staff are inevitable. Nicholson is hard to get a read on and there aren’t a whole lot of reports out there on him, which is the complete opposite of Dravon Henry, who is oversaturated with reports. Nicholson has a good chance of going to Pitt and I’d call them the favorite at the moment.
The other quiet recruit is Mount Lebanon OT Alex Bookser. Bookser seems to be down to Pitt and Ohio State and it’s uncertain whether Ohio State is fully committed to taking him. All signs point to Bookser’s family will have a nice easy T ride to the North Shore to watch him play at Heinz.
A few other quick hits on other prospects:
-Two star LB James Folston Jr. is down to Pitt and Minnesota. He seems like a strong Pitt lean and apparently has a thing for schools with miserable winters.
-Three star RB CJ Leggett appears to be a Plan B if the coaches have room. If Shai commits, I doubt the coaches take Leggett. If there’s a spot, they’ll happily accept him.
-Four Star WR Adonis Jennings is still a possibility, but after all of the attention he received after decommitting from Rutgers, it has gotten quiet. He’s still very much on Pitt’s radar and I wonder if the coaches have the room to take him and Kamara.
-DE Hez Trahan is on Pitt’s radar still and I have a feeling he’ll end up a Panther if there’s a spot available.
-Former Temple verbal CB Anthony Davis appears to be out of the picture now.
-There’s a lot of activity with in home visits for current verbals, but all of that is behind the paywall type stuff. I’ll say this: I don’t see any current verbals Pitt is any danger of losing, so these visits are pretty much semantics to make sure guys still know the coaches want them. They’re important because you need to show the guys who’ve committed more love, but they’re not important in that they aren’t newsworthy unless something goes horribly wrong.
Another mid forties recruiting class
equates to another 6-6 record. Hopefully
the coaches will close hard with the
short list of highly rated guys. Would
hate this lose Shai and Dravon.
Is he Plan B if Henry and Nicholsen go elsewhere?
Another mid forties recruiting class
equates to another 6-6 record. Hopefully
the coaches will close hard with the
short list of highly rated guys. Would
hate this lose Shai and Dravon.
Comment by JR 12.04.13 @ 11:00 am
……
another 6-6 season will be attributed to breaking in a new QB but more glaringly obvious, is the slow development of Chryst and his staff.
Open the checkbook and hire some legitimate coordinators and you will see the difference on the field and in recruiting.
Pitt receives an additional $16M in TV rights compared to the BE; they refuse to spend it on the biggest revenue sport, it is obvious to see Pitt is content with being a 2nd tier FB program. PC was hired bc he will run a clean program and keep them out of trouble.
Do we have a punter already verballed?
H2P Let’s Go Bowling—maybe against Bowling Green
Adam Bertke has lead Marion Local (OHIO) back for a possible THIRD STRAIGHT State Championship. This coming off an injury to a bone in his hand that required surgery.
Wade Freebeck and St. Thomas Aquinas of Florida lost a close game to Dwyer last week in a bid to make it to the State Championship game.
********
“We played our [butts] off,” said Freebeck, who finished 9 of 27 for 140 yards, three touchdowns and a costly interception before the half that led to a field goal.
“I enjoyed playing with all the guys. I really enjoyed the experience. I just wish we could have finished it.”
The pass Freebeck wishes he had back most came with under five minutes to play. On fourth-and-9 at the Dwyer 29, Freebeck stepped into the pocket to avoid pressure and threw a dart toward the back of the end zone where 6-5, 200-pound junior receiver Devante Peete stood wide open.
But the pass was just beyond the reach of Peete, who leaped as high as he could to try and bring the errant pass down.
Miami Herald
********
Below is vid of the highlights from the game. Freebeck is in white.
Both Bertke and Freebeck are tall 6-6 and 6-5 respectively, but not the quickest when it comes to mobility. Freebeck does look to be the quicker of the two but that’s not saying much considering how slow Bertke appears to be.
Both are pretty accurate passers with adequate arm strength who are used to being in and winning BIG GAMES. Although between the two the SIDE-ARM delivering Betke would seem to be the one who best fits the description “GUNSLINGER.”
“Adam Bertke has been in huge games and this is what he lives for,” Marion Local Head Coach Tom Goodwin said.
The other differentiating fact here is the enrollment at the two high schools. Marion is tiny with 325 TOTAL students whereas St. Thomas Aquinas is one of Florida’s BIGGEST with more than 3,200 students in the High School alone.
However, despite playing for such a small school and being so SLOW of foot… Bertke is the most intriguing!
If Voytik can be half of what Wilson was, we’re in great shape.
Freebeck looked good on the highlights but 9 for 27?
Nonetheless, I am anxious to see what Voytik can do next year … we haven’t had a mobile QB since Palko (and he wasn’t to be confused with Pat White)
fields and WVU is going to sign him i think Henry and fields are frends i think they want to go to same school maybe part of why henry is a wvu lean.
i would have taken fields if it gave me better shot at henry.
I sincerely hope that our staff would make every effort to get any and all 4 star recruits that are interested in committing to Pitt at this point on the roster, come hell or high water. And that would include pulling scholarships away from current verbals that have less upside potential or skill sets than these premier, highly rated, HS players.
This team needs as many 4 & 5 stars as Pitt’s practice facility can hold!
Welp, at least hoops is entertaining.
ACC teams are recruiting on rivals thake a look at there commits most of them are better then ours.
i am worryed . check them out and let us know what you think.
Take Jaleel Fields, the Aliquippa DT, for example. The coaches told him they were taking 2 DTs this class, no more no less. Fields drug his feet, 2 other DTs verballed. The coaches told him sorry, no more room. They didn’t hurt any relationships because they were honest the whole time.
If Henry is dumb enough to pick WVU, maybe he is not smart enough for us. Let’s see, visits to the stinkin Texas desert or the great plains vs. Miami or Tallahassee?
Trivia Question, how many Pitt grads have superbowl rings? I just saw Stepnoski, on a show about Dallas’ line. I know there are guys like Tom Flynn, Giants, Carlton Williamson and another back for the 49ers, was it Lynn Thomas? Of course Ditka and Dorsett, Jimbo Covert, Mark May, Russ Grimm.
Is there a complete list somewhere?
henry and the quip pipe line maybe.
and he will get his way here are the only warm whether bows that he could get
independence bowl
poinsettia
beef
and he wants to play a name team talk abought a spoiled child.
the independence bowl gives him the best chance of that becuse he would play one of these 2 teams
boston college or georgia tech.
the point of this post is it would open up the pinstripe bowl for pitt or syracuse then we gould go to NY and freeze.
I wouldn’t be too concerned about the quality of Pitt’s recruits (3 stars) as you mention. Three stars is the fat middle of the recruiting stock that is available. In fact, that is exactly where Pitt is harvesting the bulk of their recruits. As Atlanta Panther opines, we’ll be OK with this class as it stands right now if most of these kids pan out to be productive players on the upside. However there all always those that wash out or just don’t live up to their potential. I think that you see less of that in those recruits that have excelled at the HS level. They just are more of a known entity. There are exceptions that don’t work out (Shell, for instance) but you have a much better bet with solid 4 and 5 star guys filling your recruiting class than you do with a herd of 3 and 2 stars.
Pitt just needs a couple premier guys to commit at the end to improve the class. A Boyd type player that could make an immediate impact would be fantasic. Guys like Henry, Nicholson, Kamara and Stewart all fit that profile.
I’m not all that concerned about McKenzie now that Chris James has verbaled. James sure helps improve the RB position. Also Bookser has lost his luster too IMO, since Chryst has done a good job of bringing in a lot of Big Uglies for the OL in last year’s class along with guys like Grimm in this year’s class.
The key is to get at least two of these “game changer” guys that I’ve listed above already, just to keep the natives from becoming restless. Recruiting is the life blood of any program and is especially important when attempting to rebuild a program. Chryst could do it with the class that he currently has assembled but almost everyone would have to pan out. That just isn’t going to happen. So bringing in a Nicholson or Henry type sure improves that potential for success.
Hail to Pitt!
Boyd is a game changer, who do you see coming in with this recruiting class, chethejet, that can make that kind of impact next season? Makes for a steep hill to climb, getting to the next level of competition in the ACC when your entire recruiting class is a bunch of “good guy projects” with unknown upside potential.
2014: 6-6
2015: 5-7
2016: 7-5
2017: 6-6
2018: 6-6
2019: 7-5
2020: 5-7
2021: 6-6
2022: 6-6
The real disappointment if we lose Henry is that it is WV. I hate losing the good ones to WV and PSU.
Dr. Tom, absolutely must have two impact players of the caliber of Donald on either side of the ball if you want to be top twenty, 4 each if you want to be top ten.
We have had some great ones recently like Donald, Revis, Fitzgerald, McCoy. Just not enough of them.
Was that a better attempt?
Pitt football future predictions.
2014: 8-4
2015: 9-3
2016: 9-3
2017: 10-2
2018: 11-1
2019: 9-3
2020: 8-4
2021: 10-2
2022: 10-2
Now, that’s friggin’ hilarious!!
It’s just one factor, of course. There’s talk that Henry and Fields are close, that Henry and Shell are close. Who knows? Maybe they just like WVU better. Maybe they both want to get out of Western PA.
Losing Henry and Fields to WVU would hurt, but it won’t jeopardize the future of the Aliquippa pipeline. Zmijanic, the Aliquippa program and the community hold Pitt in very high regard and recognize that playing at Pitt allows kids to stay home and play in front of family. This is something no other Division I school can promise to those kids, and it will always keep Pitt in the running for Aliquippa players. It doesn’t guarantee that every Division I-caliber kid who plays there will go to Pitt (it’s still largely up to the kid), but the pipeline will still be open for future classes of kids there.
A lot of national media types have him pegged as a WVU lock, but I’ve seen a lot of people (Dokish, Friedman, among others) closer to the local or regional level saying he’s completely up in the air.
Who knows? After the way everything happened with Foster, it’s impossible to say.
And I am downright resolute when stating that I feel even less certain about how the ones we sign will do in their Pitt careers.
I thought it was time I manned up.
But on the other hand WVU does offer things that Pitt doesn’t. College town atmosphere, gameday atmoshere, rock-throwing fans, the great outdoors, a head coach with a drinking problem, basket weaving classes. There, um, is a lot to like about WVU…
Water finds it’s level boys. You’re either Pitt material or your’re not. I hope that Mr. Henry is up to the challenge.
I agree with you. And, I am not certain how to say this “correctly”—but, does anyone actually think that an African American kid in WV is really welcome? They love you if you can play ball for them. But, don’t date their daughters, go to their restaurants, etc. The Burgh, while not a perfect place, is a tremendous melting pot of races, religions, ethnic groups, and so on. There is a reason why the ground floor of the Cathedral is ringed by the Nationality Rooms.
H2P
hell i am white and when i drove thru some of thoes little towns they looked at are car like we were
from mars we had pa plates on car but you talk abought being un frendley all i could think abought was childern of the corn and was glad to get back to pa.
Again, I am not saying that the Burgh is a perfect place with no racial issues. But, WV is a whole other world. Is amazing to me that an African American kid would choose it. It is like a kid from a real city choosing Penn State to play basketball.
H2P
So where you gonna find that kind of sweet action up in the big city of Pittsburgh? So they got that goin for them!
Right. But, if I was an Alliquippa player, I would be worried about who is the sheep and who is the shepherd.
With all due respect to my many friends from WV, you live in a place where we could turn back the clock 100 years. Why would anyone kid from western PA want to go there?
H2P
As a DB too… do you really want to play in a defense you know is going to be in a track meet every week and have 40-50 point put up on you?
I truly believe if he picks WVU then we would not want him anyway… just like Shell… and didn’t an LB Rippy or something like that flip back down there. It would indicate something about his priorities are just not in alignment with Pitt… so no matter the stars better off without him.
We want players with good heads on the shoulders and who don’t have crazy parents…
Now if you pick PSU I might hate it… but at least I can understand it… OS, even V tech, etc…
H2P!!!!
Now if Chryst can just transform that into some more consistant meaningful wins next season to get the momentum rolling in the right direction, maybe we can get this “rebuilding Pitt” show on the road.
Still holding out hope for a windfall on the recruiting trail. Come on down Nicholson, Henry and Kamara, Pitt needs guys like you, very dearly need you. Come join in the process.
Hail to Pitt!
The argument that Bennett and Connors are better than Schell is a fantasy or Chryst would not be desperately seeking RB’s by the dozen. We had no running attack in 2013 and that was with a QB not since Flacco who could stretch the field with an NFL arm. I am a Chryst fan whether he can coach or not because Pitt has decided to restore sanity at Pitt after Graham. This year hopefully has put to rest the “touch” football v. “tough” football controversy. Pitt successful teams were forged by tough football peperred with skill players. We will never get the top flight skilled players again. We will not see 11-1 or 10-2 because integration, migration, football is king, and money talks, SEC has a franchise on the National Championship. Under proper conditions we can can be a consistent 9-3 and 8-4 teams. Howevr we have to recruit better than Chryst has yet to show.
As for recruit Pitt basketball with the exception of the 2012 class that the coach screwed up so bad it pains me to much to consider Pitts basketall recruiting has continued to slide.
The 2014 class is awful, as was the 2013, except for possibly Young.
The The 2011 class was dreadful. I hope I am wrong but the 2013 team, with the giant lea at PG compared to any past season, looks very much like the 2011-2012 squad. 2012-2013 ranked in top 10 until January from which the program has yet to recover any prestige.
Even with a lottery pick a 7′ center who is getting approximately the same floor time he got at Pitt as a rookie in the NBA Pitt could not rise above the stigma the 2011-2012 created.
As much as it pains me to say it because Pitt basketball was bigger to me than football, last year showed that Dixon (regardless of his runs from Novemeber through December) is not a good judge of personnel (Woodall) plays favorites and is not a good floor coach (Villanova elite 8/Fields favorite Pitt goes home).
I have watch Zanna for two years and see the same Zanna. The same for Patterson. Johnson heaves up 3’s with the touch of a brick layer that sometimes go in. In January the three of them have to something they have never shown consistent.
The top schools of the ACC because they are built around shooting can have bad nights and get picked off. But unlike the Big East the bottom feeders have players that can beat you any night.
Back to recuiting not a Dixon strength/2014 Duke 4 5tar recruits, Pitt, kid from Vanderbuilt, local kid who maybe over his head in D1 and 6’11” kid from Europe who cannot dunk.
The major problem Pitt faces is to “coach up” kids you have to recruit players with potential.
You don’t allow a coach to give away a scholarship to a player on football team who physically is drained after 4 quarters carrying the clipboard.
I put him and Henry as the most important ‘gets’
This team is exceptionally thin at WR and the DB corp, well, yeah. Not too much talent there in all honesty.
I expect Shai to VT after landing James and Ollison(will go to FB), but who knows…Pitts backfield is suddenly loaded.
I think Nicholson ends up a Panther.
Henry..who the eff knows.