Morning everyone. Got some coffee? Good. Did you add something to it other than a dairy product or sweetener? I’m not judging.
As expected the snow in the Cleveland area is closing schools, so I am homebound for at least the morning with the kids. The wife is still deciding whether to drive in to work. Either way, the National Signing Day open thread is ready for business.
The whole thing is so much more twitter driven, that this feels a little archaic, but it serves its purpose.
Pitt’s website goes live with signing day chatter at 8 am.
The key twitter accounts to follow are naturally from PantherLair (Rivals.com), PantherDigest (Scout.com) and Panther 247. Along with the Pitt football twitter account and local beat writers Sam Werner and Jerry DiPaola.
Come 3pm there will be a presser with Head Coach Paul Chryst where he will no doubt say that signing day was a success and that Pitt is building something special.
Things start soon, so stay warm and hit the refresh button. I’ll be updating with names and when the reports of signings breaks.
And…
Mike Herndon is first (7:08)
Brian O’Neill is next (7:21)
Connor Hayes is in (7:23)
Dennis Briggs is the first in state and Western PA kid to get his NLI through (7:31)
Qadree Ollison tweeted his own NLI (7:33)
Elijah Zeise makes it official that his father will not cover Pitt football for at least 4 more years (7:36)
Quintin Wirginis has his in, which covers the bottom of the alphabetical list (7:42)
Jaquan Davidson quickly follows (7:43)
Mike Grimm has his done, so there’s some of the big beef (7:45)
Shane Roy has his paperwork in (7:49)
Jalen Williams has made it through (7:52)
Connor Dintino makes it over half the class with faxed in NLIs in the first hour (7:54)
Rori Blair was already enrolled at Pitt, so there was no NLI today (8:04)
Adam Bertke has signed. Stay safe, young QB. Stay safe (8:06)
Alex Bookser, that other big OL is signed (8:11)
James Folston, Jr. is off the board (8:22)
Jamal Davis is off from school today. He has tweeted that he will fax the NLI tomorrow (8:30)
Chris James made it in, so running back is looking good (8:36)
Phillipie Motley has put his NLI through the fax (8:40)
Sorry, folks. Had to go outside for some quick shoveling.
Avonte Maddox made it (9-ish)
More shoveling…
Adonis Jennings tweeted his signing.
Hez Trahan is in the fax
Patrick Amara was in a while earlier, but I had to page back a bit.
Oh, Jamal Davis did get his LOI in today. That really does wrap things up.
…And that does it for signing day. Yes, Freebeck did sign with Vandy. Chryst presser around 3pm. Basketball game tonight. Still a lot to do.
But even if Voytik gets tabbed “Starter” at the beginning of the season, be prepared to see Trey Anderson vying for playing time before it’s all said and done.
I’ve been consistent in support of Anderson going back to his Freshman year when he was thrown to the wolves by Graham despite being severely limited by tendonitis in his wrist.
When his number is called, I think a lot of people are going to be surprised to see just how well Anderson is outfitted to run the Chryst Offense.
Pitt fans are amazing, lots of optimism about football with the stellar 40 something ranked class coming in and doom and gloom about the nearly always ranked basketball team.
His decision to transfer his Senior year to St. Thomas Aquinas certainly left his Coaches and Teammates at his old high school (Western H.S.) in a lurch.
Not exactly a true sign of a LEADER.
How about Giving Chryst a Chance?
After three years of one QB who was anything but a winner… followed by a year of who was a winner at times but not all times… there is the possibility that one of the QBs on the team could be that WINNER we’ve been waiting for.
So far so good with Voytik.
I think a bigger concern is (and I agree with Dockish) too many of our defensive guys are “projects”, too slow, too small, etc. We need to do better and get some guys that are closer to can’t miss prospects.
However, if you’re talking Defense… out of this class Ohio Linebacker Jamal Davis is as close to a “can’t miss” as you can expect to recruit… in my humble opinion.
2 guys, not including any of the 4 star guys, that impressed me the most on those highlights, for what its worth, were Jamal Davis & Bertke. Maybe Herndon too.
But looking past next year… you got to include Bertke in the mix now being Chryst’s first and only QB recruit.
6-6… Lightening-Quick Release… and THREE STATE TITLES in a row (albeit Ohio’s smallest classification).
To me… that qualifies as “intriguing.”
It’ll be interesting to see how the Spring goes where basically you have only Voytik and Anderson to split snaps.
I think you and others will have a different opinion of Trey after you see him going head to head with Voytik.
What a way to ruin an otherwise pretty good day for Pitt Football.
ha ha
