Here is an article from Karl about Peters Twp tight end Lucas Shanafelt and his thoughts on Pitt:


Lucas Shanafelt isn't unfamiliar with Pitt, considering he grew up in the South Hills and has visited the South Side facility before, but his visit last weekend felt different.
Shanafelt -- a 6-foot-4, 235-pound three-star tight end from Peters Township -- visited Pitt last month, spending time with Pat Narduzzi and tight ends coach Jacob Bronowski, and a couple of coaches from the recruiting department.

This time, the players were there, all the coaches were there and everyone knew his name.

It was the first padded practice of the spring for the Panthers, with a few dozen of the top targets in the class of 2026 in attendance, but the coaching staff made him feel like a priority.

"Me and coach Bro have a great relationship," Shanafelt told Pitt Sports News. "We talk pretty much every day, and he was with me pretty much the entire practice. Obviously, he was coaching, but he was pretty fired up throughout the entire practice. He brought great energy, and he just kept coming over to check on me. He sat with me at lunch, walked with me everywhere else throughout the facility. He’s been awesome."






Shanafelt liked what he saw from the tight ends during Saturday's practice, watching Jake Overman leading a young room that includes Max Hunt and Malachi Thomas,
Shanafelt fits the mold of the modern tight end, serving as a big-bodied wide receiver at Peters Township, but he's versatile in what he offers as an athlete.
"I think he sees potential in my game and me playing receiver, there’s not much of me blocking, but he's pointing out all the things that I do well on defense that kind of can translate to the blocking game," Shanafelt said. "And then he likes the way that I catch a ball in front of me, all that stuff, speed at the top and ends of my routes and just the competitor mentality.
He's being recruited on both sides of the ball, and while he would be happy at tight end or defensive end, he's told Bronowski that where he plays -- exactly -- isn't going to impact his final decision.
It's about the cultural fit, the academic fit and where he feels most comfortable as a player at the end of the day.

Pitt is high on his list right now. He holds offers from Akron, Buffalo, Cornell, EMU, Delaware, Fordham, Harvard, JMU, Kent State, Liberty, Miami (Oh.), Navy, Penn, Pitt, Princeton, Toledo, UConn and West Virginia (with interest from half a dozen Power Four programs), but the most recent visit to Pitt felt different.
There was a different type of energy as he watched Saturday's practice, especially on the offensive side of the ball.
And there's a different sort of energy when it comes to the WPIAL emphasis this cycle. Shanafelt, along with four-star defensive end Reston Lehman (Peters Township) and three-star defensive tackle Lincoln Hoke (North Allegheny) is a major local target.

"I definitely noticed that," Shanafelt said. "I mean me and Reston are really good friends, so we definitely have been talking to all the guys who have like opportunities to go play at Pitt. Everyone seems pretty excited that we are getting the opportunities because I know it's kind of fluctuated up and down with the opportunities that the WPIAL has been given. But it’s been cool."
Shanafelt has thought about how cool it would be to be a "hometown hero," but that's not a deciding factor either. He's focused on checking out all of the schools interested in him, which includes Duke this weekend, Rutgers and Purdue next and Stanford and Penn State down the line. And, of course, Pitt again in April.

"Pitt is obviously one of my top contenders, but most of the schools I’m visiting, I don’t have offers from, so I can't obviously really touch on that, but Pitt has definitely shown me the most amount of love," Shanafelt said. "And then a few Ivy schools. Like Harvard has been in constant contact with me and I have a good relationship with all those guys up there. So, other than that, like I said most places I'm visiting I don’t have offers from, so Pitt’s love that they've been showing me throughout the last couple of months definitely means a lot to me."

Before next season.

There is too much at stake not to.

Could come down to a Pitt/Penn State battle:

I'm hearing that Freshman QB Mason Heitnschel is lighting it up in Spring practices and doing really well versus our defense.

Sounds like we may have found a nice diamond in the rough.

With Eli, Julian and him in the QB room, we are sitting pretty well depth-wise.

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Just sayin’.

Well, that's another team that we'll be outmatched against for at least the next couple years.

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7, likely 8, Panthers heading to Philly!

Any predictions on where these guys will be seeded?

Here it is, the link:


And the cut and paste (though click the link because the file is too large for cut and paste and so I have to cut out some of the paragraphs)

Redshirt Diaries: Allen Greene's priorities are easy to see
Paul Zeise • Pitt Sports News
Executive Editor
Welcome to the third edition of my twice weekly column: The Redshirt Diaries.
It is the place where I put news, notes, analysis, opinion, etc. and I try and give good insight to the happenings at Pitt.
A lot has happened since my last edition and I will tackle it all here twice every week. I would like to do it Monday and Thursday but depending on what happens, it could be Tuesday and Friday.
Let's get started:
* Allen Greene made his first two significant hires and they show clearly what his priorities are, at least in terms of updating the athletic department. It is no secret that every athletic department is searching for money, ways to generate revenue and, oh yeah, more money and Greene made it clear with these two hires that is front and center on his radar. Greene hired Brent Ust as senior deputy athletic director administration and Kyle Bruce as senior deputy athletic director for external relations / CRO. Those are fancy names and really scary sounding titles but what it boils down to is this: Both men were hired to find and generate new revenue streams from different angles. And if you read their biographies it is clear both have a proven track record of doing just that. Ust will focus on " will focus on the Panthers' competitive excellence and advancing strategic priorities for the overall department." Bruce will " Pitt's external units and have a strategic focus on revenue generation operations" Translation: These two were brought here to figure out how to keep Pitt competitive in the ever changing and expensive world of college athletics. I like the hires because both come from the SEC and I think they will be great additions to the athletic department. The raising of money and generating revenue stuff will prove to be a bit more challenging as Pitt faces a really uphill battle to dig out from under thanks to the former athletic director. The one thing that should be clear - although Heather spent like a drunken sailor and built a lot of vanity projects, somebody down the hill in the Cathedral had to OK It all and so this isn't completely on her. By the way, I get a kick out of the long ass names these athletic directors come up with in order to create titles for people. It reminds me of Todd Graham's staff here, where everybody seemed to have some version of "assistant associate vice head coach of....." and then the position they were coaching. Good memories, indeed.
* You know we can poke fun at Graham and look at that one year he was here as a disaster but that staff he had actually turned out to be pretty good. As far as I can tell there are four current head coaches from that staff: Danny Lanning (Oregon), Tony Gibson (Marshall), Mike Norvell (Florida State) and Keith Patterson (Abilene Christian). Tony Dews is the running backs coach for the Patriots, Spencer Leftwhich I think was with North Texas as assistant head coach and heck, Mike Shanahan and Tino Sunseri, two players on that team, are the offensive coordinators at Indiana and UCLA, respectively! All Hail the 2011 Pitt coaching staff! OK, I digress.....

* Speaking of coaching staff, Kade Bell was given a three-year extension and already the speculation is that he is unofficially the coach in waiting. I have yet had anyone I trust tell me that specifically but there is some dot connecting going on. It would make perfect sense if that was some of what was in the works with that extension but I don't think it was the primary reason for it. Bell is young, up and coming and one of these offensive gurus that so many of these athletic directors salivate over. The extension means it will be less likely that he gets poached by another program to be the offensive coordinator and gives him a little bit of job security. But if a team wants to come hire him away to be their head coach, the extension does nothing to stop that. There are a few people around Narduzzi I have talked to who have said could retire sometime sooner than later. He still has the fire, he still has the passion but he has made his money and might have some other interests he'd like to explore. I have said vehemently to those people that Narduzzi is a football coach and he won't retire before he is at least 62-63 years old but the game has changed and we have seen a lot of veteran coaches walk away earlier than they had planned because of it. Narduzzi wants to build a winner again and I think as long as he feels like he has everything he needs to compete and win at Pitt he will keep plugging away. My son Elijah played for Narduzzi and he said "dad, most of the time he has more energy than just about every one of us. He is nuts (in a good way)" so I wouldn't be quick to buy the idea he is ready to retire. And let's play this out anyway - the best case scenario for Pitt wouldn't be for Bell to take over directly. The best case would be Pitt has a great season this year, one of the better MAC or American or Conference USA programs hires him as head coach and he spends a few seasons learning how to be a head coach somewhere else. Then when Narduzzi steps aside Bell returns, experienced and ready to attack the ACC. I just think it is very hard to go from coordinator with zero experience to head coach in a power conference. It isn't impossible but it is tough.

* I have gone back and forth about the Pitt hoops team declining the NIT but here is my final answer. Good. I am glad they did, actually. I hope every power conference team that doesn't make the NIT declines the invitation. And the reason is twofold - one, Pitt better have a lot of roster turnover this year because it didn't work. The Panthers need some major changes and that means asking some guys to get on with their life's work so to speak. And I think a few players will leave as well. Given that, these NIT games would not be "preparing players for next season" There needs to be a reasonably different roster next season. The second is this - the NIT should fully commit to becoming a 32-team tournament for teams that are from leagues that have two or less bids in the NCAA Tournament. In other words, reward those teams who have won 25+ games but can't make the NCAA Tournament because only the champions go. That would make for a much better tournament.

* Speaking of Pitt, the transfer portal officially opens next week but I would expect to hear about some guys who are going to make the jump this week. The formal announcement can't happen until next week but guys can tweet about it or have their agents leak it out that they are leaving. And let me talk about this for a minute - when I covered Pitt before I became a columnist we didn't have to deal with agents because they were against NCAA rules. That is one thing I am trying to catch up on real fast - who are the agents that are controlling each of these players because they will make for good sources. I just can't believe how much the world of athletics has changed in such a short time. I remember a program getting a secondary violation because they bought an AAU coach lunch while he was on campus visiting with his player. The coach had to make a donation to a charity in the same amount as the lunch and send in the receipt to reconcile it. Now, all bets are off and I have no idea what is an NCAA violation and what isn't.

* Indiana hired away Darian DeVries from West Virginia and I found this interesting - Indiana had one of the highest NIL pool with more than $5 million. That is close to what Pitt spent this past season...... in football. West Virginia's NIL is $3 million and there is a commitment from the donor base to help push that number north of $4 million for the next coach. The bottom line is the bottom line. Pitt's NIL for football is somewhere in the $6-$7 million range, at least last time I checked in, and while that is a good start, it is only a start. If the Panthers want to compete for real they are going to need to push that number north of $10 million. Heck, North Carolina committed $20 million to Bill Belichick and company. Money isn't everything but it is important these days. I saw Ole Miss women's coach Yolett McCuin, a former Pitt assistant by the way, saying she is disheartened because every kid they recruit - and their agent - says "how much we getting paid" and no longer cares as much about culture, winning and facilities. That's women's basketball, imagine what the pressure is in football and men's basketball. This is why Allen Greene is feeling the heat to bring Pitt into the modern world of big time (and big money) athletics. The NIL collective is "separate from the university" but let's not kid ourselves, the two entities are in bed together and are squeezing many of the same donors. I had one person from development say to me this "when I reach out to donors these days they say 'I have money for your facility upgrades or money for a new quarterback but I can't pay for both so you tell me what you want....'' It is a new world of athletics for sure.

OK so we have been at this for ten days now and as I have given full disclosure there is a learning curve for me on this kind of site and what people want,

Over ten days we have produced 72 items of content which is cranking it out. I don't know if we can keep up that pace but we are sure going to try!

The most popular seem to be anything with respect to recruiting and analysis stuff like my redshirt diaries. Is there anything else that is popular that I am missing?

Next week we will start some sort of morning notebook each day but I told you give me some time to get this thing up and running and while I am still trying to get organized (still need a photographer by the way) we will be continuing to try and bring the best coverage possible for all of our subscribers.

Thanks for hanging in there with us as we get this venture off the ground.

I

Don't look now, but the Buccos swept the Red Sox at Fenway

2023 Team Payroll
New York Mets $355,436,854
N.Y. Yankees $275,249,873
San Diego $257,610,217
Philadelphia $236,260,439
Los Angeles Dodgers $221,759,500
Los Angeles Angels $212,228,095
Toronto $210,367,554
Texas $199,569,490
Atlanta $197,332,500
San Francisco $193,482,500
Houston $192,767,233
Boston $190,556,279
Chicago White Sox $189,158,667
Chicago Cubs $179,168,250
Colorado $176,008,778
Minnesota $156,488,740
St. Louis $152,712,308
Seattle $130,969,948
Detroit $123,500,500
Arizona $117,251,292
Milwaukee $116,351,987
Washington $101,540,153
Miami $91,975,000
Kansas City $90,118,100
Cleveland $89,824,629
Cincinnati $84,175,714
Tampa Bay $75,209,811
Pittsburgh $71,652,500
Baltimore $60,422,300
Oakland $57,795,000


Hey we’re not in last!

Glad to see it but mad did they get screwed. The NET of 51 isn't great but 6-10 in Q1 for a bubble team is really good. Also, no Q3/4 losses. SOS is 25. Non-con SOS is 62 (Pitt's was 300+ last year).

Now Devries off to Iowa probably. Though WVU probably backfills with the other Drake coach.

Interesting read with equally polarizing comments by his readers. My take? I've been following Pitt basketball since I enrolled @ Pitt in 1970. During the half-century+ as a fan, I have come to realize that Pitt is certainly not a "blue blood" program, and while there have been glimpses of greatness, our achievements in this sport are minimal. Better than many, but not great

And while the "legality" of paying players to play has changed, Pitt has never been able to "buy" the best players or coach(es). We fell into Howland and Dixon, and their players exceeded beyond any generation of Pitt BB players in my fan lifetime. The group of players Pitt had during the Paul Evans years were arguably the best/most talented, but Evans couldn't coach his way out of an open locker door

Maybe, in hindsight, Pitt should've accepted the NIT bid last year, when they had the talent to win the damn thing or at the very least, go deep into the tournament to provide guys like Leggett, Lowe, Austin, and the Twins a taste of post-season/tournament play. As Vuk points out, these kids are paid to play and if given the opportunity, they should. Pitt is not, in my loyal and honest opinion, that good that they can turn down any post-season event. In basketball or football. Even if it's the "Hormel Canned Meat Bowl" game played in Laramie, WY, and certainly not the NIT regardless of how meaningful or meaningless it's become

The WVU, PSU and OSU Rivals forums all have OT boards. Whoever the new admin is here, it would be helpful for site traffic to re enable the Locker Room board.

Unfortunately it is the women.

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