There was a good article from my friend Chris Logue over at Pitt Nation Sports that centered on Narduzzi’s recruiting philosophies, where our recruiting efforts have been targeted and where we will (should?) be getting the bulk of our recruits from. It is titled “Narduzzi active in forging recruiting identity outside of the Pitt norm”
It is a good read and thought provoking but I wonder if Chris took a detailed look at what our geographical recruiting ‘gets’ have been over the last five years. After reading his article I started to wonder if indeed it was more important to spread out Pitt’s recruiting targets or to concentrate on landing more of the higher quality local (meaning Tri-State area) high school players.
Here is our “Out Of Area” (OOA) recruiting over the last six years. I used the years 2011 until 2016 to survey because that was when we had Steve Pederson as our athletic director for most of the years and had lower limits on our recruiting budget.
| Year | In Class | OOA / % | Where From | Key OOA Recruits |
| 2011 | 21 | 13 / 62% | FL (3), TX (3), MD, DC, TN, OK, NY, AL | Mosley-Smith, Jones, Steve Williams |
| 2012 | 15 | 6 / 40% | WI, NY, MD, WA (2), TN | Roberts, Lewis, Voytik |
| 2013 | 27 | 9 / 33% | NY (2), WI (2), HI, MI, NJ, MD | Ibrahim, Blewitt, Officer, Taleni, Weah |
| 2014 | 23 | 10 / 43% | MI (2), NY (2), FL, IL, DE, CT, VA, NJ | Ollison, Folston, O’Neill, Maddox, Hayes |
| 2015 | 15 | 5 / 33% | CA, TX, NJ, DE, FL | Brightwell, Edwards, M. Henderson, Q. Henderson |
| 2016 | 24 | 12 / 50% | FL (4), NJ (2), NY (2), VA,(2), IL, NC, | Watts, Pine, Ffrench, Campbell, Miller, Camp |
However, getting distant players isn’t the end all be all to success at Pitt as we have seen the results of those recruits actually play out on the field, but sometimes it does help. If you look at the 2011 recruiting class of Todd Graham’s and then look at where they are now there are few still with the team. Out of the 13 players from far away 10 of those didn’t last at least four years in the program.
There were a few reasons for this and on was that because Graham was stuck with a decimated class after Wannstedt was fired he went after marginal players who he was recruiting during his latter years at Tulsa. Regardless – a 77% attrition rate is horrendous. Granted many of them were purged when Graham left, then Chryst was hired with the mandate from the administration to get rid of those dead weight and marginal players.
Let’s take a look at Wannstedt’s two best recruiting classes, 2006 and 2007, which made up the bulk of the teams in 2009 and 2010 for those two best winning seasons we had since the early 1980s.
| Year | #Recruits | OOA / % | Where From | Key Players |
| 2006 | 27 | 9 / 33% | FL (5), NY (3), NJ, | Romeus, Gary, L. Robinson, Collier |
| 2007 | 24 | 10 / 42% | FL (4), NJ (2), DC, NY, NC, KS | Wright, Sheard, Greg Williams, Gruder |
Of course there are a lot of variables that go into what makes up recruiting classes. Graham wanted a lot of speed so he offered, and landed, a lot of southern kids. Out of his 12 OOA recruits in 2011 eight of them were from FL, TX, TN and AL.
In normal times teams are able to recruit better OOA players when they are coming off good seasons and have a major bowl win to point to. With that you would have thought that our 2011 and 2012 classes would be much better than they were.
Well, we know the reason they weren’t – that was exactly when Pitt was going through the national embarrassment of DW’s firing, Haywood’s arrest and firing, then of Graham being hired and taking off after one year.
Of course it would be hard to recruit after that series of negative events. Chryst wasn’t a great recruiter at all but he also really had his hands cuffed when he got here. But then again here are the players Chryst landed from outside the Tri-State area: 4* QB Chad Voytik, RB Quadree Ollison, OL Brian O’Neill, OL Alex Officer, RB Rachid Ibrahim, DB Avonte Maddox, K Chris Blewitt and DB Ryan Lewis.
Pat Narduzzi has a bit of an easier time of it in that the program is now stable, the administration has turned over and so he’s getting more financial support than his predecessors did. Plus, Narduzzi has the proactive personality to be good at recruiting – something Chryst sorely lacked.
We’ll start to find out this season how well Narduzzi’s OOA recruiting has gone so far. Out of the 2015 recruiting class that was split between Chryst and Narduzzi two of the ‘key’ OOA players committed after Chryst left – 3* LB Saleem Brightwell and 2* DE Allen Edwards. Two kids who look to be good players but not big and immediate impact players like our local Jorden Whitehead or the incoming Damar Hamlin.
Because Pitt fans always look forward we are excited about Narduzzi’s first full recruiting class – that of the 2016 HS graduates. We see above that he’s been very proactive in getting his staff out to far and fertile recruiting grounds.
Honestly I don’t know if that is a preference of his or because our staff finally has the resources to spend more time and money on longer recruiting forays. The fact that he has 50% of the signed recruits coming from outside the local area is pretty telling in my book.
Our new recruits 4* DL Amir Watts, 3* LB Chase Pine, 3* WR Maurice Ffrench, 3* ATH Phil Campbell, and 3* DB Henry Miller seem to be a pretty good crop of kids from “over the hill and far away”. (“King Pat commands, and we obey, over the hills and far away”).
I believe that the key for Pitt is still to beat out the bigger programs for the tri-State’s top recruits. It isn’t easy going up against such well established winning programs like Penn State, Ohio State and Michigan – teams that tend to get the best of the local kids on an annual basis.
Sure Pitt gets some good area players but by and large we have not been getting the lion’s share as we should being situated smack in the middle of this still pretty fertile recruiting ground.
Chris Dokish of the Panther’s Prey blogsite feels pretty optimistic we’ll land some good away kids this season:
“As for football, I continue to be impressed with the job that the staff has done. Three impressive prospects are already in the fold, and more are on the way, probably soon.
I’m still expecting top local prospects like DE Donovan Jeter, LB Kenny Robinson, and OT Gabe Houy to eventually give the Panthers the nod, and I’m a little more optimistic when it comes to Lamont Wade.
The staff has been going crazy with offers, including nearly 50 to Florida kids. 50!!! One such kid, elite athlete Bruce Judson, who originally committed to Ohio State, has been praising Pitt for weeks, and many think the Panthers could be the favorite. Elite New Jersey DT Fred Hansard also speaks highly of Pitt, and the Panthers have a legitimate chance with him too.”
Here are his Top 10 PA players for the recruiting class of 2017 which Narduzzi and staff are working on now. As you can see there is some real talent here:
1.D’Andre Swift, St. Joseph’s Prep HS (Philadelphia) RB
2. Lamont Wade, Clairton HS (Clairton) CB
3. Paris Ford, Seton-LaSalle HS (McKees Rocks) S
4. David Adams, Central Catholic HS (Pittsburgh) LB
5. Donovan Jeter, Beaver Falls Area HS (Beaver Falls) DT/DE
6. CJ Thorpe, Central Catholic HS (Pittsburgh) OG
7. Kenny Robinson, University Prep HS (Pittsburgh) LB
8. Josh Lugg, North Allegheny HS (Wexford) OT
9. Mark Webb, Archbishop Wood HS (Warminster) WR
10. Kurt Hinish, Central Catholic HS (Pittsburgh) DT
Some of those kids are off the list for us – Hinish committed to ND for example and so far we have landed a verbal from just one – Paris Ford. We have to do better than that to be a real and viable presence in the local recruiting game.
Anytime a new HC does something differently from his predecessors we tend to sit up and take notice. Narduzzi has does this in a variety of ways – some of which are window dressing and some might be the fundamental change that gets us continuous winning seasons. Recruiting with an ‘away’ emphasis may be the thing that does it for us.
But look in-house first and foremost. That is where some real national talent lies also – all those kids in Dokish’s Top 10 have offers from all over the country. Get those onboard and we’ll flush out the rest with whatever we need from the other parts of the country.
For some other Pitt news here is Jerry DiPaola’s podcast from the Trib-Review. The main issue is that James Conner has finished his chemo therapy and will get his diagnosis on how well that worked next month.
Personally I have a gut feeling Conner will be suited up in 2016 but I’m not expecting big production, like his 2014 season, from him. I love him and his drive and desire, but am looking at our other RBs to carry the load.
http://files.triblive.com/podcasts/sportstalk/512PITT16.MP3
The Post-Gazette has an article about the demands on the Student /Athletes time (and in turn energy). I’m putting that aside for now but will get back to it later…
Recruiting locally for the sake of recruiting locally is just romantic fluff.
Narduzzi has yet to show he can win the BIG ones… not even one.
Hopefully this will be the year.
But lose… and the luster will soon be gone.
Wade has Bama and OSU offers as well as many others. We have Ford and hopefully will get Jeter and Robinson.
Notre Dame?? That was like a high school playing a middle school talent wise.
Give him some time to get his program underway.
If he’s losing these games in a couple years with his full recruiting cycle under his belt, I’ll right there with you.
Coaching is huge, but even huger (not a word I know, I think LOL), is getting the talent you want, and much better talent.
We can talk about coaching all we want, and I’m not dismissing it, but Vince Lombardi couldn’t have coached an 8th grade team to beat a 12 grade team.
Hyperbole above certainly to make a point.
My angle is not that there werent’ big games, I just don’t feel he’s been in place long enough to put that burden on him yet.
Although, I would like to see him pull one off
9/10/16
That is why it is important to get the guys in your own backyard.
But, even though W. Pa. isn’t what it used to be with talent, just by the above names you mentioned, there are still a lot of players here.
You want to get to a point where you are getting a good deal of them. Why not, they’re here.
You need W. Pa. locked up, also with players from
Fla., Ga., S.C., Va., etc. etc.
Also helps to get fans in the seats.
Yeti – I agree with you for the most part, but if we look at those same ’06 and ’07 classes of DW’s here’s who we got of our ‘backyard’ kids:
2006 – you can see that out of the highest rated recruits the bulk were from our area
Jeff Otah
John Malecki
Dorin Dickerson
Nate Byham
Aaron Smith
Aaron Berry
Jason Pinkston
2007 – The local list of producing players shortens up considerably…
LeSean McCoy
Chris Jacobson
Myles Caragein DE
Henry Hynoski RB
One reason is that with a 8-4 record and a national TV audience we had a chance to get our 9th win and fell flat on our face. I don’t think Narduzzi and Pitt won any big games at all last season.
Narduzzi was a rookie HC in every sense of the word last year so those types of losses shouldn’t have surprised anyone.
However, that can’t keep happening or we have the DW years all over again (less the off-field crap) when we kept losing the games which could have put us in championship post-season play.
I truly believe that if we can’t come out of the first five games with three wins this upcoming season we have some real problems. We have to beat Villanova and Marshall (even though that will be a tough game) and take at least one of the remaining three. If not I see a .500 or worse season coming.
Sat, Sept 3 vs Villanova
Sat, Sept 10 vs Penn State
Sat, Sept 17 @ Oklahoma State
Sat, Sept 24 @ North Carolina
Sat, Oct 1 vs Marshall
This is when we’ll find out if Narduzzi can game day coach in big games or not – so far he hasn’t shown that he can all that well.
It’s all about relationships with the local High School Coaches and Narduzzi seems to have put a priority on that as did Chryst before him.
Beyond Western Pa, if Narduzzi and his Staff are able to lure 3 and 4 Stars within the Atlantic Coast or even nationally… it obviously means the Team is WINNING.
And if that’s case, everything takes care of itself… including having your pick of the WPIAL and getting the “Boyds” or “Donalds” when they happen to come along.
There’s a lot of good traits that Stallings can see in Thompson, who has a strong, athletic body and very good quickness and speed. He is also an excellent passer, drives well to the hoop, and has great potential leading an offense. So why is he not a top 100 prospect? He’s not a very good shooter- like, at all.
Ugh. I feel like we’ve seen that fish one too many times before. Can we please start recruiting some players who aren’t one-dimensional or at least don’t have big gaping holes in their skill sets? Reading this gives me a very plus ca change feeling.
We haven’t gotten anyone out of WV in forever it seems.
FOR COMPLIANCE AND SPORT SERVICES AT PITT
PITTSBURGH—University of Pittsburgh athletic director Scott Barnes announced today the appointment of Dustin Gray as senior associate athletic director for compliance and sport services.
In this capacity, Gray will lead all aspects of Pitt’s compliance and eligibility services division. He will also serve as the sport administrator for the Panthers’ volleyball program.
Gray spent the past decade as a compliance professional at Iowa State. Beginning as an assistant director, he ultimately elevated to the position of associate athletic director and oversaw all aspects of ISU’s compliance program the past five years.
“Dustin brings a wealth of experience to this important position,” Barnes said. “He has gained great trust with the coaches and staff he has worked with in the past. I know he will build on the strong culture of compliance that we already have in place at Pitt.”
“I am thankful for the opportunity to be joining a university and athletics program with such a storied tradition,” Gray said. “I know under the leadership of Scott Barnes, Pitt Athletics is poised for big things in the classroom, in the community and in competition. My family and I could not be more excited to be a part of that exciting future.”
A highly respected administrator in his field, Gray serves as second vice president for the National Association for Athletics Compliance (NAAC). He has been elected president of NAAC for the 2017-18 term.
In addition to Iowa State, Gray has also worked in the compliance offices of Florida Atlantic University and Jacksonville University.
Gray received his bachelor’s degree in business from Kansas in 2001. He earned his Master of Business Administration from Florida Atlantic in 2004.
The biggest problem with Robinson was we had no true shooting guard in his four years. He also could not drive and score, and wasn’t a great passer.
Brandon Knight wasn’t a great shooter, but he could pass like crazy.
The only thing I might add is, that Narduzzi didn’t show winning the gameday coaching award certainly, but I don’t remember him blowing anything either??
Sincerely asking, I really can’t remember much that made us all say “wtf?”
Do you?? Maybe not having the team ready for the Navy game I suppose?
Then I think about that game and wonder, maybe Navy was really an excellent team had a lot more to do with it. What makes me think that is not trying to give Narduzzi the benefit of the doubt, but Pitt see’s the triple option every year with Ga.Tech, so shouldn’t have been any surprises there.
Maybe Navy was that good?
Anyhow, no biggie. Definitely will have his and their work cut out for them this year.
Penn St. @ Oklahoma St. @ N. Carolina
back to back to back. Brutal.
Prior to the Bowl Game… I repeatedly warned People who were taking a win for granted that Reynolds was SPECIAL… as in ARGUABLY Navy All-Time Best QB Special.
Not sold that he’s going to find the same success at the next Level.
They played excellent football all year long and kicked our asses – and it wasn’t so much that Narduzzi and staff were unprepared, it was that Navy had better athletes than us. I know some will disagree but even if they weren’t as big as some of our guys or as fast as others – every kid on that team plays to the best of his abilities every single game.
I’m still of the wait and see if this year’s team is better than last years. I wasn’t overly impressed with any aspect of the football we played last season because it seemed like we only beat the teams like us or worse.
If we can win so9me tough games this season I’ll feel much better.
But something to point out is that Navy absolutely did NOT have the BEST Athletes on paper in comparison to Pitt.
I’ll give you this, they MIGHT have had the BETTER Football Players who happened to be BETTER Coached and BETTER Prepared to play on that particular Day.
That brings it all full circle to the yet to be answered questions concerning Narduzzi’s ability to win the BIG Games.
Last time I checked… we got one coming up on September 10.
They more than doubled what we had rushing the ball – and most of our yards came in garbage time… after they had a 38-21 lead going into the 4th quarter and put their 2nd string team in.
I’d say they were better athletes because that is what good athletes do – they execute what they are supposed to in concert with their teammates to accomplish winning a game.
I’m not bias toward Navy – I believe this is true.
We better hope this guy just needs lasik or we’re looking at four more years of complaining about slog ball and how our terrible PG is hamstringing the entire offense.
Then James Conner is lost for the season before it even gets started, NICE.
So how does Pitt respond to such circumstances. A RS freshman comes in for an injured Conner to run for over 200 yards to give Narduzzi his 1st win as a HC. We win on the road in a monsoon at Akron without that game ever being in doubt then we play Uowa down to the wire, losing by a Hail Mary last second FG to avoid an OT with what turns out to be the best Iowa team in many years to start 2-1. Then we go into Blacksburg and beat up on the Hokies QB for the entire 4th Q to bring home win #3.
Going into Atlanta and beating a GT team on their home turf is no small potatoes either when they have that option offense running well, but Pitt pulled that off too. Yeah, I know GT stunk last year. BTW, that was the same team predicted to win the ACC Coastal Crown in the Preseason polls by most.
I have no problem about criticizing how the season ended up dropping those last few games to finish a somewhat deflated 8-5 when it was all said and done but don’t discount the 6-1 start that this team fought for each and every week during the rest of that season.
Based on the circumstances Pitt won some games impressively. Geez?!
And I know that the Army-Navy game is a rivalry, so throw the records out the window and all that crap, but if Army can shut down the triple-option (rivalry game or not), then Pitt should have been able to do a much better job than they did.
I don’t think we know how to effectively defend the option (although it’s tough to do when your DEs are not that good…). I suspect we will be studying that problem a lot this summer…
Wanny figured out how to control the option game after a bad loss to Navy — hopefully Coach Duzz can do the same.
Go Pitt.
We cannot look past nova. We hate them in BB, so let’s make sure our road graders are finely tuned to move the dirt necessary for our RB’s to have a field day – (3) 100 yard rushers would send a signal to the other PA team to be ready. Cap that nova game off with a stellar defensive shutout and this team will be primed and ready for the 9/10 showdown.
One game at a time – no need to throw in the towel yet – the current team hasn’t lost a game – the current team has some stud FR moving on campus in a few weeks and two DE transfers that look the part.
This current team is patiently awaiting the medical news on James “the beast” Conner – if it is what we are hoping and praying for (Cancer free), then the team leader will resume his “beast-mode” workouts with a quest to be the best. If the news is anything other than Cancer free, hearts will be heavy, but motivations will shift to winning for a guy who is “hard not to love”.
HCPN brought a new buzz to Pitt when he was hired and that buzz is getting more intense with each passing month. I get the impression that our FB CEO will not “settle” for average. He wants to get the best talent on the field now, win now and bring home an ACC Coastal championship sooner, rather than later.
I’m an optimistic, kool-aid drinking Pitt fan. It has been a long 30 years since I was this optimistic about Pitt FB. Yes, the schedule appears tougher, but you know what, the current team and staff appear to be better than last year and if you compare the 2016 schedule with 2015, it’s not that much different.
HTP!
The prior conversation was about winning ‘big games’ in ’15 and we didn’t do that.
GT had a 1-7 conference record (3-9 overall) going into the game and was dead last in the ACC with a so that isn’t a big win – a nice win but we should have and did beat them.
VT was 2-3 at the time we played – again nice win vs mediocre opponent.
VA was 1-4 going in, we win again, yeah us!!
SYR was 3-4 and 1-2 in conference play when we played them.
Duke was 6-4 (3-3 conf) so that was a good win against a solid team.
Louisville was 6-5 (5-3 conf) and that was a good win also. Note: Peterman’s 7 TDs w 0 INTs in those two games – our only win against D1 teams with winning records really carried the days.
So, two wins against D1 teams with winning records going into the match… stacked up against 5 losses to teams with winning records…
It was a nice season to be sure but I’ll not blow it out of proportion. If we compare it to the previous season, with the two extra wins on record, it is certainly a feel good year. We had one more win than we did in 2013 so that is good also… although in 2013 we beat the #23 ND team.
But the points we are making is that for this program to be a successful one we have to beat the teams who are better on paper than us.
Narduzzi has to win those games against ‘better’ opponents for us to raise our reputation in football. There was a lot of hype surrounding his hire and he made good on it in his 1st year which is great. However, this year and, as mentioned above, certainly next year are the real litmus tests for him.
BTW – Tom Savage had one of the best and most refreshing quotes after that ND win…
“You would like to say that we get up for every game, but we can’t be naive about it,” Savage said. “It’s Notre Dame. It’s a fun game. We’re in prime time, and this is every college kid’s dream to go out there and play in front of everyone like that and come out with a win.”
That is so true and it is nice to hear a player acknowledge that instead of using it as an excuse after a loss.
So I suppose Army has BETTER Athletes than Pitt too?
Reed, everything you have said in regard to the debacle that was the Military Bowl is on point… EXCEPT… to excuse the loss in any way due to Navy having more Athletic talent.
“Coaching” talent… well there you might be getting a little closer to the problem on that particular Day.
No excuse for failure.
“2 and 2” are the numbers that come to mind.
BTW BigB- the Service academies do have athletic scholarships that are not counted under Congressional appointments as are how the other student get admitted.
PoD has a number of posts here suggesting that the jury is out on whether Pat Narduzzi, with one full year of head coaching experience, can actually coach, ostensibly because his team lost to ND and was throttled by Navy. This despite actually winning all the games he should win.
PoD appears convinced that head coach Kevin Stallings, with 17 years of a very middling career at D1 Vanderbilt, is bound for very good things as Pitt’s basketball coach in the ACC. Mind you Vandy hadn’t made the NCAA tourney in the four years prior to last year and was bounced in a play-in game by 20 points this past year.
So Narduzzi has to prove to PoD that he has what it takes as Pitt HC but Stallings is already there?
Remember this is the team that possesses the two ACC award winners for the best newcomers in the Conference in Whitehead and Ollison. That’s our future ladies & gentlemen. Less we forget the recent ranking that Pitt’s O line is considered the best in the Conference this coming season too. To me though, the preseason stuff is just so much fluff. If we can’t produce a potent running game with multiple 100+ yard RBs every game then that preseason accolade means $hit.
Pitt fans are a pretty beat down lot unfortunately. We seem to always get our hopes dashed every time we get teased with some glimmer of success. A bowl loss, a coach quits, a key injury or a star player moves on through the NFL Draft process to confirm the fact that optimism in any related to Pitt football is a unwise mindset.
Get over it! I’m taking over for TT this season and will be carrying his 10-2 banner for this season! Will we get there? No matter what your opinion is, NOBODY KNOWS! That is why they play the games. Just give me the good news that James Conner has won the ultimate victory in his battle over his Hodgkins Lymphoma and I’ll be my good old optimistic self right up to our season opener against NOVA.
Pitt is on the rise, so why not expect excellence? Narduzzi is going to get us there, the next step in the right direction is being taken daily with the wide net being cast with his recruiting efforts. Believe! Hail to Pitt!
Hopefully Canada will get the O geared up and Hendrix will do the same for the D.
While I agree that Chryst left Narduzzi very average defensive talent, he left the offense pretty well stocked. Even when Conner went down, we had depth to deal with it, even when Jone-Smith went down, they had O’Neill. A great wide receiver, and very good tight ends. Even a serviceable QB, albeit with no depth.
I do agree that the honeymoon won’t be over if we only win six games, but Narduzzi needs to do better if he wants a great recruiting class and to keep up the positive vibes.
In college football, EVERY game is a big game. Therefore, we had 13 big games and won 8 of them. A Very solid first year. We will have a guaranteed 12 big games this year. The first big game is Nova. I expect to be 1-0. That’s it. We aren’t going to be 2-0 after the first week.
Nard had a very good year. Find me a coach that doesn’t make mistakes during a game. Mike Tomlin makes a bunch, so what. Pitt is a team on the rise. Expect 1-0 after the first big game.
With regard to Navy, I would have defended them differently. As previously mentioned I would have downsized our front 4, using all LB’s on the defensive line, safeties as LB’s and then corners. The speed and pursuit might neutralize the navy OL. Navy was not ore talented individually (check the draft and free agent signings) They executed well and didn’t change their formula for their opponent.
For you locals, look at upper st. clair high school. Coach Render has all the intermediate schools running his system so that when they make it to high school, they perform like robots.
