Pittsburgh Sports Insider maintains that Jarred Holley will (or has) commit to Pitt. It seems to be a matter of when, not if.
Josh Jenkins, the stud guard out of Parkersburg, WV did a brief chat on Rivals.com.
Will you take all your visits before making a decision?
What are the pluses and minuses for the schools on your final list (OSU, WVU, PITT, FSU)?
– pittengineer75
Jenkins – Yes.
OSU the positive are that it is close to home and the prestige of the caoches and the program. If you go there the chances you’ll go to the League are very high. The negatives for Ohio State would be they already have three of the top four offensive lineman in the country committed.
West Virginia is in-state, it’s close to my home. If I go there I would be known throughout the state, I wouldn’t just be another kid. The negatives are they don’t put very many offensive linemen int he league.
Pitt is not that far from home, only three hours. They have a prety good program on the rise because they are pretty young.
FSU postives are the coaching staff is amazing. They have great coaches down there. Coach Trickett is a great offensive line coach and he knows how to get the most out of every offensive lineman. The negatives are it is so far away.
I don’t have my hopes up, but I want to.
Then there is the gameday reporting of Shayne Hale’s formal, non-binding, verbal commit to Pitt.
Hale was quick to squash any potential doubters who felt he may choose Pitt just because his best friend Cameron Saddler is heading there.
“I made this choice for me,” Hale said. “I had to pick where I wanted to be regardless of what anyone else thought about it. I chose Pitt, because I feel that is where I belong.” This was actually a tougher decision for Hale then what people think in picking Pitt over perennial Big Ten power Ohio State.
“I honestly was all ready to go there, but then they kind of stopped talking to me for a while,” he said. “Pitt never backed off me. Joe Daniels did a good job of recruiting me, but in the end it just didn’t feel right to me.”
The article is worth clicking to see Hale with the Pitt hat on.
FYI, but I think if Jenkins does make his visit to Pitt, we have a great chance to beat out OSU for his services.
Perfect! “…so I can graduate”, and hopefully the next step he’s thinking of isn’t just on the football field, but what he’ll do with that degree he wants to get.
I’m of two minds about the coaching changes so far this off season. Dunn’s departure is OK I suppose, I’m sure any replacement can result in an improvement, or at least I hope so. Don’t know much about Wise, but will have to trust DW’s hire if he comes on board. At least DW knows him from his past college coaching stints.
Coach Ball’s leaving disturbs me though. I was excited when he was hired and am hoping that his leaving was just an opportunity for him to advance the professional ladder somewhere else, but he took the same position in Washington. Hopefully his replacement, while inexperienced, will have enough raw talent on hand so that he can learn his coaching craft on the job without too many missteps. I do feel, more and more, that not letting Rhoads go become more important now.
Dunn on the other hand, after Dunn was lured away from UK and came to Pitt, UK developed a pretty good o-line in his absence.
I think Stuart is making the right call on his replacement.
