Good post. But..........................
Always hear the excuses (reasons) why Pitt can't recruit well against the big boys. But these excuses (reasons) have always existed for Pitt. They are always the step child in a pro town. The big schools always have more people at their games. Yada, yada, yada. Always. Or let's just say this in the last 40-50 years have been true.
And yes, the WPIAL is at an ALL TIME LOW as far as quantity and quality of talent. I emphasize that in caps because it is apparent. And while it is never, ever going back to the 70's and 80's as far as talent producing, there also will be ebbs and tides in the new normal. This is an ebb, there will be a 2-3 year stretch where there will be a tide. We just came out of one of those mini ones.
What I have never seen in my lifetime, even in the period of old Pitt Stadium, Majors II, the fall of the Big East, Wlat, etc...is I have never seen the lack of interest, the almost despise that the locals now have at Pitt. We are in a stable conference, a seat at the table, the National champ plays here, hell we beat them there. But never, EVER seen such disinterest in Pitt by locals.
And while the locals ain't all that, they do represent our best chance at getting really good, top players, Tyler Boyd, James Conner, Aaron Donald, these guys weren't Florida kids. So that year where there are maybe 10 seriously Mid to high level P5 quality talents, Pitt can't just get one of them.
I always see people say "even in our heyday we never got them all", and this is true. But we also never just got 10% or 20%. At least get 40-50%. And I am sorry, this doesn't come down to "instability", it comes down to recruiting. And we lack something, we lack a coach who resonates and connects locally like say a Terry Smith does. We lack someone who can build some trust, because I sense a lack of trust by locals with Pitt and Narduzzi.
