With the commitment we just received from Safety Bricen Garner of local Central Catholic High School ( Garner is listed as a 3* on two sites and unranked on the other two) we now have a total of four recruits with most being 3* kids.
Looking at that verbal and thinking about the recruiting game in general made me recall that I’ve always thought of the makeup of a school’s successful football program, and its recruiting, as much like a human body.
The skeleton, the frame on which the whole thing depends to stay upright, is the university’s administration and the support system those it gives to the rest of the football body. That support is both financial and administrative and if the program is getting a strong frame from the University, one that is healthy with no cracks or injuries to it, then building on those bones is made that much easier.
I see the internal organs of the program to be the athletic department’s administrative and support systems for the program and the players. There are a lot of separate parts which have to work together as a whole to make and keeps the program’s body functioning. For instance our last AD Steve Pederson was the Urinary Bladder because each time he came to PITT he tried to piss all over the program. Think Torch-Cut and DinoCat for starters.
The heart and lungs of the program, those two elementary life-giving pieces of the body, have to be the students, alumni, staff and administrators who need to love the football program to make it successful. It starts with them and if there are shortcomings in any of those units it just makes success that much harder to happen.
The venal system which is the blood transportation mechanism, works to ensure a steady flow of energy; this the work of the head coach and the staff coaches in their behind the scenes efforts to get the players recruited; on the roster and comfortable in their choice of school. The player’s support staff from the athletic department to help ensure these kids can meet all their academic requirements as well as have the mandated time for football.
Without that administration-player blood system moving smoothly and nourishing the player he would never get a chance to contribute to the team and in most cases would miss out on a PITT education.
Then finally the outer casing, the skin, is what we the fans public see from the university, program and the players all year round. The PITT Media Department presents one facet of this with press releases and offering access to behind the scenes so that other media outlets and the players and their parents can see how this all functions.
This is what a successful university and football program’s skin looks like.
Of course what makes PITT’s entire football body well liked and attractive to us are the actions and results we see on and off the football field. Success measured in games being won is obviously important and what all of us want to see. Winning a lot of football games makes recruiting that much smoother and is a great draw for kids coming out of HS.
However just as important, if not as much talked about or in the media as much, (hopefully) is the program and players off the field activities as we saw in the article on James Conner and previous other media reports of PITT players volunteering all over the world.
When Scott Barnes was first hired on to be the new Athletic Director at PITT he stated this bon mot in his initial press conference:
“Athletics truly is a front porch,” Barnes said after being introduced as athletic director on Friday. “It is not the most important room in the house but it is the most visible and what comes with that is opportunity and responsibility.”
Responding to this statement I subsequently wrote here on The Blather:
“Every single PITT fan that has heard and read that quote is in love with the ‘welcoming’ image and the thought that athletics is the gateway to a school’s positive reputation. Great! How wonderful!
Too bad it only rings true in a perfect world. I am here to tell you and remind to you also, that you can’t take that front porch phrase and apply it only when things are going into a positive direction for PITT athletics and therefore for the University itself.”
The reason I bring that up is that on Barnes second day on the job we had the Boyd DUI incident that landed smack dab on the front porch as if delivered by UPS. Now, what Narduzzi does with Boyd is going to be the determiner on how others, including recruits and their families, view PITT’s ‘front porch’.
(Here is the latest P-G article on Boyd’s travails)
However, James Conner’s positive interactions with others makes that front porch look like it was newly painted, or in the Cathedral of Learning’s case, newly sand blasted.
Chas just wrote a nice piece on PITT offering three Central Catholic kids and landing DB Bricen Garner while still pursuing 3* DT Rashad Wheeler and 4* S Damar Hamlin. These are ‘as local as you can get’ kids who if all three accept PITT’s offer will go a long way in getting the WPA HS football fans interested in the program under the new HC.
But the tricky thing about recruiting is that if all those parts of the football body described above are healthy and working properly then incidents like we just saw on Saturday are minimized in other’s mind.
On the flip side, if that same body is diseased or injured and can’t function properly every negative issue and incident are amplified as we saw in 2010 and beyond. Right now things look good as far as the PITT side goes; new personnel in key positions and a burgeoning buzz surrounding the program will pay off dividends especially if PITT wins more than losses this season.
Here are some videos released by the PITT Media Department on PITT Livewire that appeal to young players looking at PITT as a place to attend college and play ball…
An overview of the University:
The PITT football program video trailer:
PITT’s Beautiful campus:
The city in which PITT is located:
Bill Fralic reminding everyone he once played at PITT (his Q&As to Narduzzi)
Here is PITT pitch reminding everyone to contribute to the $3.5M renovations and that if they want their contributions to count toward 2015 they MUST GIVE NOW. See below:
“The Panther Club fiscal year runs from July 1 to June 20. All annual gifts must be received in this time period to count towards your Panther Club Membership Level and Benefits for both Football and Basketball seating and parking.”
BTW – here is what the vampire-like money sucking ‘The Panther Club’ is all about. Just kidding, they do a great job building team and school spirit.
… and finally, here are the Renovation Giving Levels that will get you Club Points and get your name on a kid’s locker as a donor. Personally I plan on giving $9,999 because it would be just my luck to get my name put on a kid’s locker who can’t play a lick of football… and because my favorite Panther, Chad Voytik, already has “THE DARK KNIGHT” label on his locker.
A quick story… a few years ago at a tailgate I introduced myself to a guy who was very familiar but I just couldn’t remember his name… so he turned around and held up his arms like he was conducting – and I got it, he was the PITT Band Master Jack Anderson. Nice guy with some funny band stories if you can believe there are things like that.
All Hail Chancellor Gallager!! 🙂
He’s the right-man for Academics and Athletics. A Bona-Fide genius intellect with great interpersonal-Charisma to boot?? So proud to be a Pitt Panther 🙂 .
I can feel the energy too now that Scott Barnes is officially at Pitt. If Louisville (no offense) can win a BCS Bowl Game and a basketball National Championship in one-year, Pitt’s potential is absolutely Limitless.
After 30 years of mostly warts, this program needed some major plastic surgery.
And hopefully the new Chancellor is hellbent on ante’ing up the necessary shekels…. as good plastic surgery can be very expensive.
But step one of the overhaul was successful, removing the Cancerous Cornhole BEFORE a new football HC was chosen.
Really…..lmao
If you’re going to show a Pgh Skyscraper why wouldn’t you use your own. UPMC Blg. Duh.
Our best receiver gets in trouble(and if you wonder if it made news elsewhere I read it in the Baltimore Sun!!)
Emel thinks it’s a Heathcare giant plot(well maybe that’s not so usual)
Reed is talking about skin(again not so strange)
We get a 2star recruit
And PA honors Joe
Come to think of it things seem pretty normal!!!
Those two idiots wasted at least 5-7 yrs of my football viewing enjoyment.
Nordenberg, you may have made Pitt #25 in endowment, but you lowered Pitt’s rating to a #62 In US News. I guess not that many kids are applying.
You jerk offs lowered Pitt’s reputation just by being stupid.
This is definitely one of our many “positions of need”. I’m not a social media follower, but my Pedo State friends believe he is a lock to go their way. Isn’t their D-line loaded with depth?
I hope our FB team is working hard this offseason. If I was one of the team leaders (Conner, Voytik, Freeze), I’d have 6am workouts scheduled from now until camp and I’d keep attendance records. No more 2:30am run ins with the law.
Come on man! You are either all in or not. NOTHING in between. This team should win this year, as we thought last year. No more excuses, new HC or not. Winning is an attitude and this team needs some summertime adjustments.
Never forget Houston – let’s make new, positive memories.
HTP!
Seems like the type of thing you often here when there’s a coaching change – but we shall see…
Go Pitt.
—Neil
Oh yeah, in terms of what a successful university program’s skin looks like …of the 25 PHOTOS OF BEAUTIFUL WOMEN WITH BODY PAINT BIKINIS, I’m looking at #10 & #11 for the win, with #18 as runner-up (great tits, weak bikini bottom).
Interesting about Conner losing weight. As long as he can still break tackles, should make him stronger in the fourth quarter. My guess is he will need to carry the O in the first two games. Narduzzi will have to “make a statement” about personal discipline. Also a huge opportunity for our receivers to step up. Voytik will have to look at someone not named Boyd. Maybe a good thing down the road.
Neil – that isn’t the first time I have done this “Body Scan” to figure out the actual structure of something so I could get to the right people, place, etc to maximize my work efforts.
I taught that trick to new Officers coming to my units and it always sunk in and took off. I suggest that whenever anyone is faced with a problem either internal to your organization or external in another entity to sit down with paper and pencil and figure out where you need to concentrate your efforts.
No use talking with a salesman if you need to know tech specs and/or if something meets regulatory standards (as just one example). You’ll just double your time and efforts for the right result.
Ollison (watch this kid if the staff turns him loose) and James can become stars in their own right if given enough carries. It will be a hell of a lot of fun to watch those two in the future if Conner bolts early for the NFL.
We absolutely sucked on both offense and defense in 4th quarter crunch time last season. If we take away the two cupcakes o the schedule DEL and FIU we scored 67 points (6.0 ppq) and gave up 100 points (7.7 ppq) in the last quarter of games in 2014.
However, if we are taking away stuff… if we forget about the bowl game and just concentrate on the 10 ‘regular’ games we had last season then our defense only gave up 5.5 ppq at the end of those ten games… sure doesn’t seem like that though does it.
I hope they aren’t serious about pushing Conner for the Heisman to the detriment of the other runners and the team.
My guess is Boyd’s late night mistake may cost him the Biletnikoff trophy.
The problem with the strategy was that Nordenburg didn’t realize how Pederson was viewed in the football community and by his peers. Pederson was and still is, a putz. He hasn’t yet landed his next job. Could be the big buyout, but if you are truly great at your craft, you want to work. Heck, even Charlie Weiss went back to work and is getting like $5M per year to do nothing now.
Anyway, let’s look forward to landing some more recruits. Interesting time in the ACC with coaches. London is in trouble at UVA and I think Beamer is also. Locally, does anyone think that Holgorsen is in trouble too? I think another sub .500 year and he is out. Frank out at the Dairy College will win 9 games with that creampuff schedule. What would be hysterical is if Hackenburg struggles again this year. They will lose against the big boys in the big10,11,12,13,14, but other than that, cruise control.
At least thats what all the VA Tech fans say.
Hackenberg – 57%, 6.77 ypa, 11.8 ypc, 16 TDs, 12.5 INTs for a 121.7 QB rating and an adjusted QBR rating of 46.3 (ESPN)
Voytik – 61.3%, 7.8 ypa, 12.7 ypc, 16 TDs, 7 INTs for a 140.2 QB rating and an adjusted QBR rating of 71.3 (ESPN)
Our QB bests him in every important QB category . The important numbers there are the two QB ratings measures – and Voytik leaves Hackenberg in the dust with those. (calm down Emel)
I think this #3 drafted QB crap come from his physical stature of 6’4″ & 236 which is about ideal for what teams look for in a NFL QB.
BTW – in case anyone accuses a Blather writer of going of the deep end either loving a PITT player or using hyperbole excessively read this part of Hackenberg’s Bio on the official PSU website
“From the day he arrived on the Penn State campus in June 2013, Christian Hackenberg was on a fast track transition into life as a Division I student-athlete. He started classes in late June, began working out with his new teammates in July, ran onto the practice field to begin training camp…”
and
“…The Virginia product is firmly in a leadership position and has rapidly developed tremendous respect in the locker room. Among the team’s hardest workers in practice and the weight room, Hackenberg is routinely among the first players on the practice field warming up. The vastly talented and instinctive Hackenberg was named the nation’s No. 8 overall quarterback by Lindy’s and the Big Ten’s best passing quarterback by Sporting News.”
Well, then the Big Ten must pretty much suck at passing.
With regard to anatomy, let’s not forget the vision of our Chancellor. He wants to be great at athletics and academics. He seems to understand that you can have both and that a competitive football and basketball team will lead to increased giving and an increase in applications. When your team is always in the news athletically, it is free publicity….for the greater good.
God, help us indeed if he has to play. That would mean at least 2 of our backs are lost to injury.
Happy Father’s Day to all you dads out there. I don’t have any kids that I know of. ????
The incoming freshman moved in today. Not sure if he threw one up for that. Chris Peak hasn’t addressed it on Twitter yet.
Guess we will see. Hadn’t heard that any big fish were ready to make a decision yet.
And I like JC losing some weight – the area where he needs to improve is the quick change of direction, maybe this will help in that regard.
Go Pitt.
Most offers are MAC and Cincinnati and Indiana also offered. Said to be a good in between the tackles runner, not a game breaker.
Go Pitt.
On Twitter, Tony Butler tweeted a “Welcome to the family” out to Moss, right after he tweeted his commitment. Makes me think Butler is pretty solid with his Panther verbal with tweets like those going out to future teammates.
Only other Power 5’s to offer was Iowa & Indiana.
The rest were all MAC offers.
With Darrin Hall(probably RS), Ollison(RS frosh) and James (soph), RB is not really a pressing need.
And with the limited amount of scholies available, this is kind of a headscratcher.
Seems like a Cheesehead Paulie special.
They have him listed as #4 RB in Ohio…#12 in the Midwest.
The reason I’m only lukewarm about this signing is there are areas that need to be addressed waaay more than RB. As Emel said only so many scholarships to give.
Reed may be right also, a position change could always be in his future too, happens all the time.
Anyway, welcome to Pitt Mr Moss!!
Ohio is and has been a talent-rich state for some time … having far surpassed PA and left it in the dust some time ago. For several years now, despite have less population than PA, they have more than twice the number of D1 recruits. Some has to do with the MAC but around here football still rules even for the suburban schools, but more important, the Cleveland urban schools spits so many more prospects than Pgh, it’s pathetic.
My eyes were deceiving me. 🙂
Watched your HUdl link, kid reminds me a little of Dion Lewis (who if I remember correctly didn’t have a ton of P5 offers either). Kinda of a shifty runner like Dion was.
If he can be anywhere close to Dion, this will be a real good get.
Pitt
Pedo State
Temple
Division 1 schools in Ohio.
Cincy
Ohio Fake
Kent State
Akron
Toledo
Bowling Green
Miami
Ohio U.
If Pitt can get its share of quality kids from Ohio, keep the majority of big time WPIAL talent at home, and reach into the south with our ACC connection, I believe that is a recipe for recruiting success…
You NEED to take at least one RB in every class no matter what your more pressing immediate needs are. By the time Moss is ready to carry the rock full time by say his RS sophomore season, if no other RBs get immediately in the pipeline right now, he will be only one of two upperclassmen RBs ready for service in 2018. Gotta plan ahead.
IN 2015:
Conner JR ’17- gone
Ibrahim JR ’17 – gone
James SO ’17 -SR
Ollison rsFR ‘ 17- JR
Hall FR ’17 -rsSO (probably)
That’s at least four quality RB recruits/players on the roster from now until 2017. Moss will be a rsFR then so I suppose he’ll have some room to play after Ollison and Hall leave in ’18 & ’19 respectively…
With the frequency that young FR & SO RBs get major playing time these days I think we could have skipped this kid for more immediate needs.
This verbal also leads me to believe that the Narduzzi believes Pugh is a LB and not a running back and that Miles is still mistakenly leaning towards a bunch of depth at the Dairy High School. Also thought we could land a highly ranked TE from Ohio, but it looks like OSU might get their third one…unless MSU sneaks in. Saw Urb last night for a few minutes. He is non stop recruiting!
Happy Father’s Day gents. Glad we all made it to another one!
But we certainly need more prospects, especially quality DL
If Moss is the only RB commit this year or one of two, he’s not going anywhere
I want to make sure no one forgets.
In that entire video of long runs he had…he was only caught from behind once and it was on a kick off return. He is a good pick up.
Of course the step up in opposition from his days at Dean College is going to be significant,however, just considering his attitude and focus seems to be adequate for him to make an immediate impact at the DE spot THIS season. If Narduzzi is the defensive guru that I think he is, then this guy is the kind of raw materials that Nard Dog builds a defense around.
What I like most about this Edwards guy is his maturity and his recognition of the dedicated effort required to obtain greatness. Talent vs perseverance, I’ll opt for the latter every time when it is possessed by the individual that has just moderate natural talent. This man is that guy. And he is a man, having had two successful seasons under his belt already at the JV level.
I’m less concerned than most here about the DE position because of Allen Edwards. Expect a lot from him soon. You heard it here first.
On another note…
This is the reason I can’t stand some of the things Dokish, Zovko, Vucovcan and those guys say on Twitter about Pitt’s chances with recruits. They make it sound like we are getting a top 10 class and then we get a 2/3 star commitment from a player with minimal P5 offers and mostly MAC offers. Then Dokish, etc. goes into damage control and says things like “I don’t know why this kid doesn’t have more offers after watching his tape” or “This guy has the potential to blow up.”
Generally I’m pretty positive about recruiting and I have full trust in the staff’s judgement on players they offer, but our Pitt Twitter media members really make Pitt look bad in this regard. They keep taking shots at Penn State or WVU and I’m beginning to really question why? We are not sticking it to anyone really in recruiting (maybe Cincinnati), we are by no means dominating the state, and we don’t have one 4 star recruit to date. I’m not even big on the stars, but stars crate perception and perception creates expectation. Right now we look like same old Pitt as far as recruiting goes. I still think we end up with multiple 4 stars in this class but until we even get one, I wish the Pitt media would shut the fuck up about it.
P.S- Dokish really got owned a couple weeks ago by a national recruiting analyst after he criticized an analyst’s tweet about PSU recruiting. He also said something last week about a Cincy recruit who seemed 100% set on going there and then the recruit got a Pitt offer and then dropped Cincy. Well no shit, it’s fucking Cincinnati, they aren’t even a P5 program.
I really hate getting hung up on recruiting, but Pitt isn’t Top 25 in recruiting yet and I wish our media members would wait to talk shit until we actually can back it up.
In a couple three months we’re all going to see if Narduzzi can take a punch and then return the favor in spades to opponents that we can beat, AKA Iowa.
In the meantime talk is cheap. Narduzzi is totally aware!ofmthe tightrope that he is balanced on right now. One major slip and the build up of momentum that is presently forming vanishes and the recruiting hype goes with it.
By contrast, prove that your the real deal by winning now and the nation takes notice, then watch the four stars showm up for early playing time at Pitt in the 16 class.
Everybody loves to jump on the band wagon to be the fan of the newest winner in town, just ask Jordan Speith if he’s gotten anymore attention than usual over the last three months?
That’s the way it goes! This Pitt program could turn around in a heartbeat if things finally start to fall Pitt’s way for a change. Anybody who is old enough to have experienced “a Major change in Pitt Football” will tell you that much stranger things have happened in this program that the potential for success before the Panthers right here and now.
Could the magic occur once again, we’ll see soon enough. Until then it’s ALL just talk.
Ain’t gonna happen for a while.
Needless to say, in Pitt’s history there are many inductees that you could look up additional information on up on the third level where you can take control of a six foot high swiveling computer touchscreen used to navigate through the database.
This is where Narduzzi held his Atlanta Panther on the Prowl meeting, it was a perfect venue for that function! I’m confident that he is going to get Pitt’s “body” into great shape real soon!