No surprise….

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On fire right now

Steel Valley star Cruce Brookins committed to Pitt on Signing Day, giving the Panthers' 2023 recruiting class a talented defensive back from the WPIAL. After he signed, Brookins spoke to Panther-Lair.com about picking Pitt, playing for the hometown team and a lot more.

Tune in now for our second live stream of the day. We'll be live to talk about Pitt's class and more starting at 12:30 pm.

Question that no one has asked. If Gump was good enough to not just play, but star at Alabama and win All American honors, why was he not drafted? Don't say "Vietnam" because Rocky Bleier was drafted by the Steelers and still went to Vietnam.

Why?

@JimHammett @Chris Peak not trying to steal thunder here but I’ve seen you both tweet about 22 expected signatures but the count I keep seeing is 21 - 18 verbals for HS plus Brookins, Veilleux and McMillon. Is there a silent commit out there somewhere? Or someone I’m missing? I’m assuming the Elon punter is a walk-on, is he the last one?

Good morning everyone

I'll post in here the tweet graphics as they come in from the Pitt main account.

I’m here at Steel Valley HS for Cruce Brookins’ commitment announcement. I’ll post updates here.

Pitt's highest ranked recruit is the first one to sign.

@Chris Peak and @JimHammett . Really nice job today, guys.

When I looked at the schedule last night with all of the live-streams and attendance at two press conferences, my first thought was actually you guys readying your pocket chargers, extra batteries, and so on. It's a lot to be ready for, and a lot that could go sideways tech-wise.

It's quite a day and it's only 9am, but you've done an excellent job. Hats off.

Will Kancey be an exception?

A couple of thoughts during a commercial break in the Pitt-Syracuse game.

- Consider me surprised that Zion Fowler is back in Pitt's recruiting class. I did not see this coming and really didn't know that contact was still happening there. Around the time of his decommitment, I had heard that some of Pitt's offensive staff wasn't sold on Fowler, and that was likely why he ended up leaving the class.

Well, maybe they like him a little more now than they did. I think that's understandable: he's a really good player. We'll see what else we can dig up on how this whole situation unfolded.

- I do not think this development has any connection to Pitt's pursuit of UNLV transfer Kyle Williams. In fact, I think the Panthers are in a really strong spot with Williams - maybe even the leader. His goal is to get to a campus for the spring semester. I think he'll be looking to make a decision this week in the hopes of making that happen. I don't know if it will be on Signing Day or not, but I think he'll try to get something done in the next few days.

Not sure what the hold up to reinstatement is here other than Pitt’s ridiculous internal policies and machinations cuz at the top of the CBB world not only would he already be playing again, he probably wouldn’t have been suspended in the first place, at least until due process played out.