To get out of the BB negativity here are some items about the football program…

First – here is the UPMC LiveWire 2016 LOI Day Special program – 50 minutes of Pitt fun.  Enjoy!!

In breaking news Pitt wants more asses in those yellow seats.  Not that we haven’t heard that before but AD Barnes has set specific goals and started the process by having the season ticket renewal forms arrive at the season ticket holders’ homes the day after we landed our best recruiting class in eight years… smart move actually.

Athletic director Scott Barnes set the bar high for everyone — coaches, players, the ticket office and fans — when he revealed Monday an ambitious plan to sell a record number of Pitt full-season packages at Heinz Field: 53,775, an increase of more than 16 percent from last year. Two years ago, Pitt sold 40,696.

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Let’s get this out of the way. Virginia is a very good team. They dismantled Louisville at the Yum! Center by 16 a couple days before coming to the Pete. They’ve been playing some of their best basketball in the past week. So losing to the Hoos, even by double-digits should not have been a stunner.

The Cavs even acknowledged that they have been getting into a groove.

“I think it’s fun to watch,” Bennett said, “when you share the ball and guys move it and they make the next pass. … They’re playing, in my opinion, the right way, the way that gives us the best chance to be as good as we can, when we’re that unselfish, on both ends, defensively kind of playing for each other, and offensively.

“Hopefully our guys understand, and very clearly, this is how we’re at our best on both ends of the floor.”

Bennett called Saturday “one of our better position games defensively. For most of the day we were always in the right spots.”

That said, watching Pitt fall apart in a short span in the second half, and never recover, was just so familiar.

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12 pm start time. Syndicated on ACC Network or ESPN3

Bleeping hell. For whatever reason the local channel that carries ACC Network in Cleveland is going with BC-Louisville. Unbelievable.

Pitt is a home dog in this one. Virginia has had some bad games, but more often than not they have been nearly as good as expected.

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Time to glance at some of the coverage.

Pitt did very well with the local talent this year. And it was a steady accumulation of local players. Not all from one visit or another. One here. One there. A few days, a week, a month even would pass between verbals. They all kept coming to the same conclusion that the combination of the coaches recruiting them and the local team were where they wanted to be.

The end result being that with only two exceptions, Pitt kept the best local players. That is a huge change, especially since this year and next are among the better years in terms of quality players coming out of the WPIAL ranks.

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What a fine finish to a hard fought and victorious recruiting season!  Here is Pitt’s “Signing Day Special” presentation of the 23 young men who just signed on the dotted line to play football for the University of Pittsburgh.  They posted great write ups and videos of each recruit – well done Pitt and thanks for the info.

Before we start digging into the details of the class, here is a great 40 minute video of Pat Narduzzi’s 3:00 pm press conference where he discusses this 2016 recruiting class. Does he look like a happy guy to you?

I agree with the commenters who said that this may be the best overall recruiting class since Dave Wannstedt’s time at Pitt.  Rivals.com has us with 23 recruits who average out to 3.13 stars apiece; five 4*s, 16 3*s and two 2* on the whole.  Not too shabby at all.

The excitement for recruiting is as high as any I can remember it being over the last 15 years, as is the excitement for the program and especially the coaching staff.

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As far as the recruiting rankings go:

Rivals — 30th (5th in ACC)

Scout — 27th (4th in ACC)

ESPN — 31st (5th in ACC)

247 — 26th, though 30th in their composite rankings (4th in ACC)

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It’s here. The year long sprint is reaching its end. Pitt looks to finish strong. Maybe a couple final flourishes with some announcements at 9:30 am and 3 pm. Finding out if Pitt has a last minute flip away *cough* Chase Pine *cough*. And hey, there’s cake.

When I asked [Gateway (Fla.) High School coach Marlin] Roberts about Gateway cornerback Henry Miller, who is committed to Pitt but considering Miami, Roberts said he expected him to sign with Pitt:

“If not, it’s going to be an awkward ceremony. I’ve already ordered blue and gold balloons and a blue and gold cake,” he said.

Awkward would be the right word.

Coach Pat Narduzzi will hold his press conference — where he can officially talk about the recruits at last — at 3pm.

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Well, it was certainly a big day for Pitt football and HC Pat Narduzzi yesterday.  Both local recruits 4* DB Damar Hamlin (Central Catholic) and WR Aaron Mathews 3* (Clairton) made verbal commitments to play for us.  This is what the staff, the fans and the other present and future local recruits have been waiting for.  Hamlin is the Great White of this year’s crop of WPA players and Narduzzi reeled him in.

Both kids are truly filling positions of need – Hamlin certainly with the graduation of CB Lafayette Pitts and that may happen as quickly as this season, and Mathews helping to ease the pain of 4* Juwann Winfree departure from Pitt to Colorado U.  Mathews won’t be seeing much playing time as a true FR but he’ll help out down the road.

So, Because of this good news and because you guys need your Pitt fixes while at work here, is a compendium of snapshots of media articles to get you through your day.

First off, here is the P-G’s take on Winfree bolting this recruiting class.

Without Winfree, Pitt is left with four-star prospect Ruben Flowers and three-star Maurice Ffrench (who could play defense) as its only receiver commitments for 2016. That’s a position of need for the Panthers heading into next year without Tyler Boyd, who opted to leave after his junior season to enter the NFL Draft.

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Work with me here, I am desperately trying to avoid the cliched headlines for a big recruiting win.

Roughly 36 hours until signing day kicks off and Pitt received the big verbal to top off this recruiting class.

Unless you do everything to avoid recruiting, then you already know that Damar Hamlin a top recruit in Pennsylvania and a consensus 4-star cornerback was making his choice tonight.

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