Apparently Florida Cornerback Ricky Gary is a little tetchy about his height. That’s what gave Pitt a, uh, leg up.

Pahokee senior cornerback Ricky Gary believes the University of Pittsburgh was the only school that ignored his dimensions and focused on ability.

And for that, Gary on Sunday rewarded Pitt coach Dave Wannstedt by giving the Panthers an oral commitment.

“They don’t care about my size,” Gary said. “They just love my play.”

Gary, who is 5 feet 9 and 177 pounds, said several schools were concerned with his size. He said Wannstedt never mentioned it and was active in the process.

“Coach Wannstedt recruited me harder than any other head coach,” Gary said.

Gary, a member of the Sun-Sentinel’s Super 11, is one of the top cover cornerbacks in the state.

Up in NY, Kevin Collier made his verbal known.

Churchville-Chili’s Kevin Collier expects dozens of phone calls from college football recruiters on Thursday.

The number of coaches who ring the Collier family home will dwindle down after that.

Collier, whose stock among college teams rose significantly this off-season, plans to share the news that he has given a verbal commitment to accept a scholarship from the University of Pittsburgh.

“It was the environment,” the 2004 All-Greater Rochester team running back said. “The guys on the team was the selling point. It’s where I felt comfortable. I can go there and take the majors that I want (communications and physical education).

“I’m going to get an education and have fun doing it playing football.”

Not that I’m not glad he chose Pitt, but it isn’t exactly like he is choosing subjects not offered at other schools.

With 17 verbals, Pitt has been one of the most active teams in the country in securing early commits. Only Texas and North Carolina have more commits than Pitt. Recruiting Coordinator and Tight Ends Coach Greg Gattuso sees more baby sitting than anything else at this point.

“We’re in the ballpark of being done,” said Greg Gattuso, Pitt’s recruiting coordinator. “Up to this point, we’re happy where we are, but we still have a lot of work to do.

“These are still verbal commitments. The bottom line is we still have to keep working at recruiting. We have to keep recruiting the kids we already have, and there are kids out there who are going to have great seniors years. We want to keep our eyes on them, too.”

Still, this will also be a huge recruiting weekend with a lot of out of state kids visiting.

Eight high school players who are being recruited by Pitt are expected to make official visits to the school this weekend and attend the season opener against Notre Dame. Some other players will attend the game, but won’t be on official visits.
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Gary will make his official visit this weekend along with teammate Tamarcus Porter, a receiver who is considering Pitt. Porter also has offers from Ohio State, Boston College and Maryland, among others.

Eric Latimore, a defensive end from Middletown, Del., also will visit this weekend. Penn State and West Virginia are a few other schools that have offered Latimore.

Woodland Hills defensive back Darrin Walls will visit this weekend. A few other top players who are considering Pitt are defensive end McKenzie Mathews of Syracuse, N.Y., and offensive lineman Dan Wenger of Fort Lauderdale, Fla. Both have numerous scholarship offers.

I hope the wealthy alumni and donors aren’t expecting to get much face time with Coach Wannstedt aside from at the Kickoff Lunch on Friday.

Finally, it appears that former Pitt back-up QB Joe Flacco is indeed enrolling at U Delaware to play for the Blue Hens.