Like I said earlier, TJ Peeler was expected to make his announcement for Pitt today, and he did just that.
Peeler becomes the 4th new Panther today, and 10th overall recruit for this class.
This will be the last commitment for the Panthers for the rest of the day. We should be picking up 2 more very soon, including at least 1 local guy.
Sunday, June 28, 2009
Don Bosco back in the house
Our buddy Grant used to joke how funny it was how there was a school named Don Bosco. I even game them a shout out when I did the player intro's this year when Pitt played Syracuse on Big Monday.
Today, Pitt lands 2 more players from Don Bosco. Bryan Murphy (DL) and Brandon Sacco (OL) have both announced they will be joining Pitt. This just opens up the Jersey pipeline even more. Hafley continues to be bringing in talent. Last year he was able to get Evans and Holmes to visit, but couldn't land them. Now this year we were able to get a couple of guys who Rutgers wanted. Walking into their turf and stealing guys is very impressive considering their improved success over the last 4 years.
With opening up Jersey, we need to keep getting players from there, continue to expand on Florida, and stop losing guys from PA. Hopefully these guys end up being productive players at Pitt. While some guys may never pan out and some may not even make it to Pitt, it is exciting seeing the potential that Pitt now has lined up for the future.
Today, Pitt lands 2 more players from Don Bosco. Bryan Murphy (DL) and Brandon Sacco (OL) have both announced they will be joining Pitt. This just opens up the Jersey pipeline even more. Hafley continues to be bringing in talent. Last year he was able to get Evans and Holmes to visit, but couldn't land them. Now this year we were able to get a couple of guys who Rutgers wanted. Walking into their turf and stealing guys is very impressive considering their improved success over the last 4 years.
With opening up Jersey, we need to keep getting players from there, continue to expand on Florida, and stop losing guys from PA. Hopefully these guys end up being productive players at Pitt. While some guys may never pan out and some may not even make it to Pitt, it is exciting seeing the potential that Pitt now has lined up for the future.
Weatherspoon is a Panther
Well I had just posted that we could expect Weatherspoon to announce for Pitt at any minute, and guess what? He did. I just received a text from one of the coaches who was really excited about him coming to Pitt.
That puts us up to 7 guys so far for the class of 2010.
We may see a couple of guys following Weatherspoon shortly (maybe Peeler). This is the time of the summer when DW usually ends up getting guys to verbal to us.
That puts us up to 7 guys so far for the class of 2010.
We may see a couple of guys following Weatherspoon shortly (maybe Peeler). This is the time of the summer when DW usually ends up getting guys to verbal to us.
A couple more commits, a few more to come
Well this last week was certainly a good one for the Pitt Panthers. We saw Adam Gunn have the charges filed against him drop and we picked up a couple of recruits.
The Bishop McDevitt pipeline continues to flow as Pitt added Salath Williams. Williams is a tall lanky guy who goes at 6'4, 180 pounds. Pitt has had some luck adding tall Wr's the last few years and in the time to come, this will pose some extreme match up problems for people as we could have as many as 4 Wr's on the field who are all 6'3 and taller (as long as Baldwin sticks around). Don't expect Williams to make an impact right away as Wr is a tough position to make an immediate impact on. He will have to add some weight as right now he's not as muscular as we'd like him to be. With a redshirt season and some time in the weight room, he may add the physical presence that he will need to succeed in college and beyond.
The second commitment was K'Waun Williams. This was a Hafley get as K'Waun is a Jersey guy. Right now he plays both WR and DB. The staff projects that he will end up playing CB at Pitt. Expect him to fit the mold of a Jovanni Chappel type. He's an extremely athletic smaller guy who can make plays based purely on athleticism. Hopefully he can add to the special teams the way Jovanni has during his time at Pitt. Every little extra piece he adds will only make Pitt stronger.
Salath had some decent offers, but nothing too exciting. Pitt was probably either the best or 2nd best school to offer him. K'Waun on the other hand, only had Pitt as a bigger school to offer. That's not saying that he won't get anything later, but right now Pitt was the only BCS school to offer at the moment.
With players having the chance to see Pitt, we will probably get a couple more commits in the near future.
Right now it looks like a Kevin Weatherspoon (Rb, Clairton) commitment could come at any minute as he has had a great time here and Pitt is his leader.
After Weatherspoon, the next likely guy to announce for Pitt would be TJ Peeler. He would be a nice guy to get because Bossard is his main recruiter and as many of the readers here know, Jones, myself, and many other Panther fans have given him some grief about his inability to close a guy.
We will keep you posted as soon as we get word of breaking developments.
The Bishop McDevitt pipeline continues to flow as Pitt added Salath Williams. Williams is a tall lanky guy who goes at 6'4, 180 pounds. Pitt has had some luck adding tall Wr's the last few years and in the time to come, this will pose some extreme match up problems for people as we could have as many as 4 Wr's on the field who are all 6'3 and taller (as long as Baldwin sticks around). Don't expect Williams to make an impact right away as Wr is a tough position to make an immediate impact on. He will have to add some weight as right now he's not as muscular as we'd like him to be. With a redshirt season and some time in the weight room, he may add the physical presence that he will need to succeed in college and beyond.
The second commitment was K'Waun Williams. This was a Hafley get as K'Waun is a Jersey guy. Right now he plays both WR and DB. The staff projects that he will end up playing CB at Pitt. Expect him to fit the mold of a Jovanni Chappel type. He's an extremely athletic smaller guy who can make plays based purely on athleticism. Hopefully he can add to the special teams the way Jovanni has during his time at Pitt. Every little extra piece he adds will only make Pitt stronger.
Salath had some decent offers, but nothing too exciting. Pitt was probably either the best or 2nd best school to offer him. K'Waun on the other hand, only had Pitt as a bigger school to offer. That's not saying that he won't get anything later, but right now Pitt was the only BCS school to offer at the moment.
With players having the chance to see Pitt, we will probably get a couple more commits in the near future.
Right now it looks like a Kevin Weatherspoon (Rb, Clairton) commitment could come at any minute as he has had a great time here and Pitt is his leader.
After Weatherspoon, the next likely guy to announce for Pitt would be TJ Peeler. He would be a nice guy to get because Bossard is his main recruiter and as many of the readers here know, Jones, myself, and many other Panther fans have given him some grief about his inability to close a guy.
We will keep you posted as soon as we get word of breaking developments.
Monday, June 22, 2009
T.J. Clemmings picks Pitt
This is the biggest get for the Panthers so far in the class of 2010. Clemmings is a 6'6 270 pound monster with very good speed. If you get the chance, go to Pantherlair and check out his highlight video, it is unreal.
The one thing that we have seen under Wannstedt is a very good defensive line. We are getting guys with very good speed and some nice size. Wanny has also done a good job of finding guys who were not the highest rated or recruited the hardest, but they come in an make an impact.
After only playing one year of organized football, Clemmings was able to pull in offers from schools like Florida and Notre Dame.
Right now he is only a 3 star, but I imagine if he continues to develop as expected and has a good senior season, we will see him get an extra boost in the recruiting rankings.
Also, I want you guys to check back later tonight as I will be posting something very exciting.
The one thing that we have seen under Wannstedt is a very good defensive line. We are getting guys with very good speed and some nice size. Wanny has also done a good job of finding guys who were not the highest rated or recruited the hardest, but they come in an make an impact.
After only playing one year of organized football, Clemmings was able to pull in offers from schools like Florida and Notre Dame.
Right now he is only a 3 star, but I imagine if he continues to develop as expected and has a good senior season, we will see him get an extra boost in the recruiting rankings.
Also, I want you guys to check back later tonight as I will be posting something very exciting.
Thursday, June 4, 2009
Dieffenbach and Ricketts to PSU
Dieffenbach and Ricketts have made it official, they will be going to our rival school that is not our rival. This certainly hurts as only a few months ago, these two were almost Pitt locks, now they'll be heading to a school to our east.
Right now things are starting to look a bit shaky for our program. With Penn State playing well these last few years under a new offense and WVU continuing to recruit well, this could be disasterous for Pitt.
Sure it hurts losing these two and as we all know, losing two guys won't simply kill our program, but the thing that is hurting us is our main recruiting base. We said we needed to build that wall around Western Pennsylvania. By my last count we have now lost 7 top targets from the WPIAL and have 0 commitments from the area.
Some people are floating conspiracy theories that Gattuso is purposely undermining the team. Don't buy into that crap. This is the same guy that a few years ago people were screaming to make the defensive coordinator and looked at as a potential future head coach.
The reason that we're losing these targets is because we have only had 1 winning season under Coach Wannstedt, which ended terribly in our bowl game. Sadly more non-passionate sports fans will remember us losing 3-0 in one of the most boring bowl games in recent memore instead of remembering that we went 9-3. To add to the problem, our geographical rivals are all now moving to a spread type offense where players are more comfortable playing in. With the rise in popularity of the spread, more kids will want to stay with that system.
Like we said in the past, square peg, meet round hole.
Right now things are starting to look a bit shaky for our program. With Penn State playing well these last few years under a new offense and WVU continuing to recruit well, this could be disasterous for Pitt.
Sure it hurts losing these two and as we all know, losing two guys won't simply kill our program, but the thing that is hurting us is our main recruiting base. We said we needed to build that wall around Western Pennsylvania. By my last count we have now lost 7 top targets from the WPIAL and have 0 commitments from the area.
Some people are floating conspiracy theories that Gattuso is purposely undermining the team. Don't buy into that crap. This is the same guy that a few years ago people were screaming to make the defensive coordinator and looked at as a potential future head coach.
The reason that we're losing these targets is because we have only had 1 winning season under Coach Wannstedt, which ended terribly in our bowl game. Sadly more non-passionate sports fans will remember us losing 3-0 in one of the most boring bowl games in recent memore instead of remembering that we went 9-3. To add to the problem, our geographical rivals are all now moving to a spread type offense where players are more comfortable playing in. With the rise in popularity of the spread, more kids will want to stay with that system.
Like we said in the past, square peg, meet round hole.
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