So from what I’m reading today, Steelers draft position as things stand right now is 14. Looking at team records, there’s 7 team with records worse than 5-8 and then 7 teams including Steelers with 5-8 record. Anyone know why Steelers currently come out last on that totem pole of 5-8 teams. Maybe SOS and Steelers have had the toughest schedule among those 7 teams.

A side note of interest, Eagles currently have a top 4 or 5 pick as they own New Orleans pick.

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Hope he’s okay. Not a lot more info available

With less than two weeks until Signing Day, TJ Harvison took his first official visit, and the weekend trip to Pitt couldn’t have gone better for the Bowdon (Ga.) running back.

“It was great,” Harvison told Panther-Lair.com. “It was lovely there. I enjoyed myself, just learning more about the school and building great relationship with the coaches. That was my first time being there and I didn’t really expect anything from it; I just wanted to go up there and get the full experience. But it was great. I couldn’t have asked for a better visit.”

Man do I love these stories. They beat something called Portland Bible College, an unaffiliated school who plays in the National Christian Athletic Association and only offers majors in theology and church music. So basically they beat an intramural team from a school training future Protestant pastors.

Given the current state of college sports and NIL, I don't understand why the NCAA simply doesn't drop the pretense of having any rules around NIL. Allow the schools to directly pay athletes whatever the market will bear for their services. Stop making believe that NIL deals have anything to do with name, image, and likeness. The players could still strike NIL deals directly with companies, but their salary would be paid by the institution. Yes, this would effectively make college sports (at least football and mens basketball) a minor league system for the pros. At least it would be an honest approach. What we have now with NIL is a joke. Every institution would then have to decide if they want to participate in the new world of P5 sports. Players would sign multi-year contracts. They could still be eligible to transfer at any time, but the NCAA could require compensation (probably just cash) to the school that loses a player. Comp could be based on the value of the new contract and the number of years remaining on the old contract.

Anyway, just a thought since the current "system" seems to be completely broken.

Cruzer

Start my own thread to say that Nelly has finally seemed settled in and his play has been very good the last 7 games or so .

I ragged on him for seeming overwhelmed - but im
Thrilled he’s proving me wrong .

I’ll own my bad hot takes early on

I was there at the
Barclay Center yesterday.
Ya gotta be a little nuts
to watch this much
Bball....4 games.
I was really impressed
by 6-2 Iona. Of course
as you undoubtedly
know, Pitino is their
coach. They're a mid
level (supposedly) team,
but they have talent and
thy play man to man D
as you would expect from
Pitino. They defensed
St. Bonnies all over the
floor and won by 15. I'll
go on record now and
predict will hear more
from them this year.
This hire says it all IMO
about hiring the right
coach. You will win.

Oh yeah, Va Tech looked
good beating Okl. ST. I
expect the Hoakies to be
in the upper echelon of
the ACC with Duke, UVA,
and NC.

More former WPIAL standouts are showing up in the transfer portal, but can Pitt land them the second (or third) time around? And if Pitt does start having success with transfers from the WPIAL, can that have an impact on recruiting? We're talking about all of that and more on today's Morning Pitt.

I dont want to hear anyone say this World Cup was a success. The team, the most talented in US history, accomplished the bare minimum expectation....get out of the group. We did the same thing in 02 (and did a round better), 10, and 14. 1994 we qualified as a 3rd place team in a 24 team tournament so that doesn't count the same. But the point is, we've had teams that did this.

The team is young, yea yea yea, but lets be realistic. We were 2nd to Canada in qualifying, qualified on the last day despite this being the worst Mexico and CONCACAF has been in quite awhile, scored 3 goals in 4 World Cup games, and only won 1.

Bethalter gets a C for this cycle. That's not good enough. We are hosting in 2026 when all these guys will be in their prime. The USSF has to go out and PAY for the best coach available. They can afford to pay for anyone. Jose Mourinho, Roberto Martinez (though his star his tarnished), Joachim Low, etc.

The job is attractive. People like living in the US. The team is good. We can be really good in 2026. High level Euro managers would be very interested. And we have to find a coach who is able to generate goals without a true #9 because we arent going to have one in 2026. Reyna, Weah, and Aaronson have to be on the field together. We need a coach who can figure out how to do this.

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This is a good get for them

But I think more importantly this was the biggest Veilleaux competition - which could bode well for Pitt

USA Today came out with their database of assistant coach salaries last week. I believe it's behind a paywall this year.

Due to PA laws Pitt doesn't disclose this information. However in the notes you can find that "Bates had $555,208 in Total Pay, accoring to university's most recently available Pennsylvania Right-To-Know pay disclosure for year ended June 30, 2021" and "Partridge had $535,448 in compensation, according to universiry's most recently available Pennsylvania Right-To Know report pay list for year ending June 30, 2021."

Of note, Brennan Marion made $400,000 at Texas this year. Tiquan Underwood made $250,000 at Rutgers last year. You can make a guess what we had to pay him to get him away from his alma mater and it's clear Marion's move wasn't solely financially motivated.

Pat Narduzzi made about $5.6mil this year. That's right between Whittingham at Utah and Kelly at UCLA. Utah had $5.85mil for on field staff. UCLA had $4.28mil total. I would our staff budget is closer to the $4.28mil total. WVU was just under $4mil for staff and I can't believe we are much above them if we even are.

Side note, Lincoln Riley must have received an unlimited budget from USC. He poached him from Texas A&M. Dude was making $720k in the middle of nowhere with no state income tax. Imagine what he would have had to be offered to move to LA.

Also, there was talk about increased budgets for support staff. Basically guys for recruiting and portal scouting. Great article showing how that is the next frontier in the arms race and the big boys will spare no expense. These people getting $100k plus now.

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Should be visiting or have visited Shadarian Harrison too, Lakeland and Tampa are close.

A champion should never be determined by a group of coaches or sports writers, look at the following nonsense...
- Tennessee defeated Alabama on the field and finds themselves ranked 2 spots behind Alabama in the latest AFCA Poll.
- Oregon State defeated Oregon on the field and finds themselves ranked one spot behind Oregon on the same Poll.
They also made sure to keep Ohio State and Alabama in a position that makes it possible for one of the "blue bloods" to slide into one of the four playoff spots.
Increase the number of teams that qualify NOW, not in a couple of years.

Lots of choices for that last chance shot to win the game with 5 seconds left. Shot is a jumper out 16 ft or more.

Per Sagarin's Computer rankings after yesterday's games. For interest I added where Pitt would fit playing at home and playing away from home.

11 Duke = 88.68
22 Virginia = 86.74
28 North Carolina = 85.05
38 Virginia Tech = 83.89
39 Miami-Florida = 83.85
44 Pitt Home = 83.19
49 NC State = 82.65
66 Syracuse = 80.37
70 Pittsburgh = 80.20
75 Clemson = 79.68
77 Wake Forest = 79.62
92 Notre Dame = 78.08
101 Pitt Away = 77.21
114 Georgia Tech = 76.23
118 Florida State = 75.98
186 Boston College = 71.23
245 Louisville = 68.56

Ray Guy is presently the the only punter to make it to the NFL HOF. Will Andy Lee be respected enough to be number 2? He’s 40 years old and averaging over 46 yards a punt this year!

The final countdown is on:

Signing Day is next Wednesday, giving college football coaches one final week of on-the-road recruiting before the effective end of the recruiting cycle* arrives.

* - If you don’t count February signings or transfers who wait to make their decisions until later in December.

Here’s the latest on what we’re hearing to start the week.

- The official visit weekend was a small one but a good one. Pitt hosted three recruits for official visits, and the first one we’ll discuss is TJ Harvison. The Bowdon (Ga.) running back won a state championship last Thursday night and flew to Pittsburgh on Friday after receiving an offer from the Panthers in mid-November.

Pitt might have been relatively late to the party in Harvison’s recruitment, but the Panthers have jumped to the top of the list for him. He told me that Pitt is his top school after the visit, and as of Sunday evening, he did not have any plans to take an official visit next weekend. He said he was considering a visit, but he sounded uncertain to me.

Unless Pitt makes a final-week decision to not take a second running back in the class, I would expect Harvison to sign with the Panthers next Wednesday. He also plans to enroll in January, which is also a nice added bonus. Pat Narduzzi and Archie Collins will have an in-home visit with him on Wednesday.

- The second visitors was Inglewood (Calif.) tight end Jamari Johnson. The four-star prospect is committed to Louisville, but he has been looking around due in no small part to the Cardinals’ coaching change.

I have less of a feel for Johnson’s current situation. In a brief text message exchange, he told me he enjoyed the Pitt visit, and I’ve heard varying amounts of optimism regarding Pitt’s chances here. When he scheduled the official visit, the impression I got from different sources was that the Panthers’ were in a surprisingly strong position; given that the staff has tried to emphasize using official visits on recruits with genuine interest - rather than kids who just want to take a visit for the sake of taking one - I tend to believe that Johnson wanted to give Pitt a serious look.

Still, Johnson’s got some schools in heavy pursuit. He has an official visit to Oregon booked for this coming weekend. Louisville is still a factor, of course, after the the hiring of Jeff Brohm as the Cardinals’ next head coach. And Cincinnati is a factor, too, after that school hired Scott Satterfield - the head coach he was committed to at Louisville.

Given the transition at Louisville and Cincinnati, as well as Johnson’s interest in each school, it seems like there’s a good chance his recruitment will carry into January. From my view, I’m not sure that’s a great scenario for Pitt; I kind of think the staff needed to get Johnson in the class over the weekend, and if that didn’t happen - which seems to be the case - then I think their chances decrease quite a bit.

We’ll see, though. Like I said, the interest is sincere and I expect Pitt coaches to make a visit to Inglewood this week to see what they can do with Johnson.

- The third visitor was Agoura (Calif.) quarterback Ty Dieffenbach, who is already committed to Pitt. That was Dieffenbach’s first visit to Pitt, and while he spent the weekend learning about his new home, he also spent a lot of time working on Harvison and Johnson. That’s what any quarterback commitment worth his salt would be expected to do, and Dieffenbach dove right in.

Actually, it wasn’t just Dieffenbach; it was Dieffenbach and his family. Harvison said that Dieffenbach’s parents were very much involved in telling him how impressed they were with his film and how they hope he can play with Ty at Pitt.

Like I said, I think that will happen.

- I also think Pitt is set to land Steel Valley defensive back Cruce Brookins. I know I’ve said this a bunch of times, but with how things have changed quickly in so many recruiting situations this offseason - literally day-to-day, in some cases - I feel like repeating it.

Brookins was previously committed to Kent State, but he decommitted on Dec. 5 - less than a week after getting an offer from Pitt, which came in the wake of Brice Pollock’s decommitment. I think the Pitt staff was high on Brookins all along, but they kind of filled up the defensive back spots in the class, so they held off on offering. But I think they liked him a lot, and several sources have said the coaches think Brookins’ potential is really high.

Brookins didn’t take an official visit to Pitt this weekend, but he was in the South Side on Saturday to watch the team start bowl practices. On Sunday, he announced a top three of Pitt, Cincinnati and Syracuse, with the intention of making his formal commitment on Signing Day.

Unless the spot somehow fills up - and there don’t appear to be many candidates for that - I think Pitt gets Brookins.

- Elsewhere on the defensive backs landscape, it’s looking more and more like Shadarian Harrison won’t be signing with Pitt. The June commit is one of the top prospects in the class, and Florida State and Oregon were pushing hard for him - a hot pursuit that got only hotter last week when Miami offered.

I don’t know which one of those schools is the biggest threat; I just see the combined efforts as one big threat to Pitt holding onto the underrated three-star prospect. Harrison is really good; that’s why Oregon, FSU and Miami have made him a late-cycle priority, and it’s why Pitt is going to work very hard over the next nine days to hold onto him.

That process of keeping him has been ongoing for quite some time, but today is a big day, as head coach Pat Narduzzi and safeties coach Cory Sanders will have an in-home visit with Harrison. This is the big visit, the moment where Narduzzi and Sanders can convince Harrison to stick with his commitment and stick with the Panthers.

It’s not going to be an easy sell, but I don’t think it’s 100% a done deal that Pitt is losing Harrison. Things seem to be pointing in that direction, but there are strong relationships here, mostly between Sanders and Harrison and his family and the people around him. That bond has kept Harrison in the fold so far; now Narduzzi needs to close the circle.

I don’t know what’s going to happen here. Gun to my head, I’m guessing Harrison doesn’t sign at all next week, delays his signing until February and takes official visits to those three schools in January. Which would obviously be the worst-case scenario for Pitt.

I’ll just add this: it’s really something that, at one point, Pitt had Harrison, Pollock and Shelton Lewis all committed in this class. I know, I know, all that matters is who you sign. But those are three legitimate studs who were all convinced, at some point in time, to commit to Pitt.

- Harrison may be leaning away, but I’m hearing more and more that Hampton (Va.) Phoebus linebacker Jordan Bass is pretty much locked in with Pitt. I use “pretty much” because nothing is ever 100%, but it sounds like any concerns about him slipping away late in the cycle have faded.

- There are two prominent former WPIAL stars in the transfer portal - both considering Pitt and both high-priority targets for the staff. There’s receiver Dante Cephas, the former Penn Hills standout who went to Kent State amid academic issues out of high school but has blossomed into a legitimate Power Five player. Pitt was quick to jump into his recruitment as a transfer candidate, but the Panthers were far from the last school to do so. We’ve run down the list of offers before, but it’s an impressive one, with Notre Dame, Georgia, Oklahoma, Penn State, West Virginia, Miami, Virginia Tech, Kansas, Colorado and Maryland all following Pitt on the parade of Power Five offers.

Cephas was at Penn State for an official visit over the weekend. That follows at least three unofficial visits to Pitt last week. Cephas plans to enroll in January, which obviously puts him on a short timeline, although it does leave next weekend open for another visit.

I’m really not sure which way Cephas is leaning right now. I have a couple sources in different areas on the periphery of his recruitment. One tells me that he is as good as gone, with Penn State or SEC schools as the likely destination; the other tells me Pitt has a really good shot and is more alive than we’ve been previously led to believe.

I can’t call this one yet.

- I’m a little more confident about the other former WPIAL star in the portal, Florida transfer safety Donovan McMillon. There’s a bit of conflicting information from sources on this one, but I’m leaning toward what I’m hearing regarding his intention to come to Pitt after spending two years with the Gators.

That’s not selective sourcing; it just tends to fall in line with some other things I’ve heard about McMillon’s transfer recruitment. My guess is he’ll commit to Pitt at some point this week.

In the meantime, we’re going to keep working on some of the other transfers we’ve talked about, like quarterback Christian Veilleux, tight end AJ Barner and a host of receivers. We haven’t heard anything new on those guys in the last 48 hours, but if we do, we’ll post it.

** It would seem to me that 11 games into the 2022-2023 campaign, and well into Capel’s fifth year as Head Coach, that for most of the most die-hard Pitt Hoops fans, the Panthers have become a tiresome, if not tedious exercise in perspective.

** Let’s start a game ago at Vanderbilt. On it’s own, a one point loss on the road against a fair SEC foe was not a terrible thing by any means. The Panthers didn’t play badly, and actually did plenty of win-worthy things among one-more-than-that loss-worthy things. If the Panthers didn’t need every possible win out of conference win we can get, or if we hadn’t lost to VCU, the Vandy loss wouldn’t feel quite so difficult.

** This evening, a 25-point win could be if not should be something to enjoy. This is especially true for a fan base who should likely savior every iota of success it can swallow.

** Yet an unhealthier dose of perspective reminds us that this was a Sacred Heart team ranked around #300 by Ken Pomeroy, or who lost by 38 to Rutgers after enduring a 21 point first half deficit.

** Lest we not forget that Sacred Heart only trailed by 5 at today’s half, and only 2 points at the 13:56 mark of second half.

** But should we put that into perspective knowing the Panthers only surrendered 12 more points in those final near 14 minutes while scoring 36 the same time frame?

** Quite frankly, I just don’t know anymore. And part of me is tired of tying to figure it out.

** This much I do know. I really enjoyed watching Federiko Federiko today. During both of his second half exits from the game today, I rose to my feet to applaud his energy and effort, if not his athleticism and plain old production.

** Sure, maybe it’s wiser to put perspective into Fede’s 17 point, 14 rebound, 3 assist, 3 block performance knowing that Sacred Heart didn’t have a single starter over 6-6, and only one other player taller than that at 6-8, and he logged a mere 18 minutes.

** To the positive, maybe one could compare Fede to his newly named understudy John, who was remarkably less effective in his 11 minutes. In fact, mostly he was pretty bad actually. Again.

** Plenty have tried to put Big John’s performances into perspective too, knowing that he’s still just getting into shape, or he’s shaking off rust, or is even struggling trying to fit into the Panthers new attack.

** I’m not going to try to dive into how much perspective is healthy for John. I just know at the moment that he’s not anywhere close to the same player he was last year.

** And while I hate to pile on John, I do want to point to three specific plays that I found extremely troubling. The first was in the first half when he tried to pass out of a simply trap a threw a really ridiculous pass over everything for a turnover. It was undisciplined and lackadaisical.

** Next, in the second half, right after he came in the game, John moved to the top of the key for a high ball screen. But before screening anything at all, he faded back for a roll into a spot where he really couldn’t receive anything. Setting a bad screen is nothing new, but one would hope after watching Fede set strong, effective screens followed by disciplined rolls to the basket that John would try to put a little more into his execution.

** And finally, in the game’s homestretch, John had a pretty easy layup and he was blocked straight up by a guy about 3 inches shorter than he is. I don’t know if this is a lack of effort as much as it is the fact that John just can’t get off of his feet very far at the moment.

** I believe Panther fans should appreciate the fine trio of Blake Hinson, Greg Elliott and especially Nelly Cummings. Nelly is bringing some wonderful confidence to the court at the moment, even if one might wonder if we should be impressed by a Pitt career high against a substandard opponent. Still, he’s now 15-32 (47%) from three in his last five games, and the height of the basket and the distance of the three point line is the same regardless of the quality of the opponent.

** My only other disappointment of the day was from Nike who didn’t step forward in Jamarius’ absence. At times, at the forefront of Nike’s issues can be shot selection, which was well exemplified in the first half when Nike came down and rushed a three early in the shot clock. “Nike, you can get that shot anytime you want it” my friend yelled in disgust. I responded: “well, I think he knows that and wanted the shot the just then!”

** I’m noticing there is growing splinter among Pitt Hoops fans, using their own particular perspectives as their evidence that things are actually going better than or worse than others may think.

** As I've said, I don’t have any answers at the moment. I only know that by March 31, perspective most likely won’t be needed. After five years, for better or worse, Capel’s record will speak clearly for itself.

and perhaps, the two CFP games, which bowl matchup are you most interested in seeing/watching in its entirety? For me it's the "runner-up Bowl" - Citrus Bowl - featuring LSU vs Purdue. Yours?

In the portal from Michigan. Heavily pursued by pitt out of HS. https://n.rivals.com/news/ranking-the-contenders-george-rooks

Federico Federico had a solid double - double 17 points & 14 rebounds , 10 offensive boards. The 10 offensive boards is 1 short of THE SCHOOL RECORD held by Dejuan Blair and "Send it In Jerome" Lane. Those are 2 Great Pitt players. If he's not the starting center permanently this season Capel is crazy.

Jorge Diaz Graham played great too. He is still a little awkward at times but he gives 110% effort, has a nice stroke and is 6'11" tall.

In the Dolphins vs Chargers game. No consistency whatsoever. Some QB’s you can’t touch and then others get roughed up and no call.