There's been a lot of talk on the boards since I've arrived here about Pitt's growing interest in recruiting the state of Ohio as a pillar of their recruiting strategy as a whole. With four commitments coming from Ohio (Cam Bright lived in the state when he committed) in the 2017 class and targets like Thayer Munford and Charles Reeves still left on the board in the state, that increased focus has been expressly clear.
Recruiting in Ohio means a few things. It means that there's a general understanding that if you're an out-of-state program recruiting against Michigan, Michigan State, Ohio State, or Notre Dame, you're probably going to lose more than you win. Those schools have had connections and pre-eminence in Ohio recruiting for decades and it's kind of just the cost of doing business. But it also means you're contending with a host of other schools for the state's top talent.
Eight of the B1G's 14 programs have at least one Ohio commit in their 2017 class and every single team in the conference has landed at least one Ohioan since 2015. Tennessee, Virginia, Virginia Tech, Clemson, Iowa State, Syracuse, Louisville, West Virginia, Boston College, and many other Power Five programs outside of the Big Ten also compete with Pitt for recruits on a day-to-day basis in Ohio. The state sits behind only Florida, Texas, California, and Georgia in recruiting prominence for college football and there's always talent to be mined.
However, perhaps no program has been as aggressive in recruiting Ohio in recent years as the Kentucky Wildcats. They offered 36 and 43 Ohioans in 2016 and 2015, respectively, and have already offered 25 and 18 Buckeye State recruits in 2017 and 2018, respectively. Under head coach Mark Stoops, a Youngstown native, and recruiting coordinator/tight ends coach Vince Marrow, Kentucky's focus on recruiting Ohio has been very obvious. In Stoops' first four recruiting classes (2013-16), he's signed 30 scholarship players from Ohio and received commitments from many more who eventually signed elsewhere. In this 2017 class, Stoops currently holds commitments from Ohio natives in four-stars JaVonte Richardson and Tyrell Ajian and three-star prospects Alex King and Bryant Koback.
However, for all of the recruiting success that he's had, Stoops has often failed to meet expectations on the field. He's just 12-26 through his first 38 games, including a 4-21 SEC record and an 0-2 start to the 2016 season. Stoops has a 1-13 record on the road (his lone win came against a South Carolina team that finished 3-9). 4 of his 12 wins come against FCS teams, 1 of them came against a team in their first FBS season, and 3 more come against G5 schools. He has only four wins against fellow Power Five schools: 3-9 Vanderbilt and 7-5 South Carolina in 2014 and 3-9 South Carolina and 5-7 Missouri in 2015. He is 0-3 against his rival, Louisville Simply put, Stoops has not gotten the job done and his seat has grown very hot.
This year doesn't look to be any better. He's already lost at home against Southern Mississippi and gotten blown out on the road by Florida. Stoops should have a lay-up against New Mexico State this week but after that? South Carolina, @ Alabama, Vanderbilt, bye week, Mississippi State, @ Missouri, Georgia, @ Tennessee, lay-up against FCS Austin Peay, and @ Louisville. The fact that Kentucky faces 5 of the 6 worst teams in the conference (excluding themselves) and gets 4 of them at home while avoiding 4 of the top 6 teams is probably beneficial. It probably still won't be enough to make Stoops' chances any better or to put Kentucky in a bowl game. The seat is hot and growing hotter with every loss yet to come.
There is some hope that Stoops could coach for his life, his team could show genuine improvement, and he could keep his job, but it's probably not the most likely scenario. When there is coaching turmoil - or even serious rumors of it - commits tend to jump ship very quickly, especially highly-recruited ones. That is not a scenario that has come to pass at Kentucky in large numbers yet (Charles Reeves' decommitment was more about him looking around and being unsure than anything else and James Hudson simply had better options available to him), but it is something that is going to become increasingly possible.
One of the biggest beneficiaries of this looming gloom and doom for Big Blue Nation may well be Pitt. The Panthers recently put out an offer to the aforementioned Richardson, a 6-foot-4, 210-pound athlete from Maple Heights (Ohio) who best projects to wide receiver in college. Pitt had already offered two of Kentucky's defensive back commits in the aforementioned Ajian and Florida cornerback Michael Nesbitt. The defensive end noted above, King, is one of the top 30 weakside DEs in the country and an explosive pass-rusher.
Rather conveniently, these guys happen to line up right at major needs for Pitt in this 2017 recruiting class. There's no guarantee that all or any of them would flip from Kentucky if a coaching change were to occur, but you can guarantee that Narduzzi and his staff will be circling like sharks around chum.
Wide receiver (Richardson's position) has been largely confined to recruiting Carmoni Green for Pitt as of late. I'm a big fan of Green and think he would be a very nice get, but Richardson is one of the country's truly elite prospect. 6-foot-4 prospects who can run the way he does and have his ball skills don't grow on trees. He's not the most polished route-runner, but he catches it as well as anybody and has fantastic size and athleticism. He's just on the cusp of the Rivals100 and can be a game-breaker as a red-zone threat.
Pitt already has a standout safety committed in Rivals100 Pittsburgh native Paris Ford, but they're not opposed to adding a second player at the position if he has the goods. Mansfield (Ohio) defensive back/athlete Tyrell Ajian is a four-star prospect just outside of the Rivals250 who could very well slide in as a second safety in the class if he wants to look around. I don't think he's quite as high-caliber of a prospect as Jaylen Kelly-Powell, but he would be a great addition to an already strong secondary.
Nesbitt is a player that Pitt has recruited and whom the Panthers made the top ten cut for. The Floridian committed to Kentucky and seems happy with his choice, but Florida kids are notoriously fickle. If he decides to take official visits, Pitt could re-emerge as a contender. Although I feel strongly about the Panthers' chances for local five-star Lamont Wade (which seem to grow every day), they need two cornerbacks in the 2017 class. Nesbitt can be someone that Pitt targets alongside Kenny Bennett, Ambry Thomas, Donovan Johnson, and others.
King hasn't been offered by Pitt and is probably the least likely of the four to be a major target because of the position he plays, but he's a heck of a prospect. Pitt's standing with Donovan Jeter, TyJuan Garbutt, Zach Morton, and others could rule out King's involvement in their recruiting plans, but they could do a lot worse than the Cincinnati-area pass-rusher coming off of the edge, especially if they want to take two defensive ends and view Jeter as a three-technique tackle.
It's no given that Stoops is fired or that these prospects look around when that happens, but if those scenarios come to pass, Pitt should use the opportunity to take advantage of a fertile hunting ground and snap up highly-rated recruits in their backyard. It's a situation to watch moving forward
Recruiting in Ohio means a few things. It means that there's a general understanding that if you're an out-of-state program recruiting against Michigan, Michigan State, Ohio State, or Notre Dame, you're probably going to lose more than you win. Those schools have had connections and pre-eminence in Ohio recruiting for decades and it's kind of just the cost of doing business. But it also means you're contending with a host of other schools for the state's top talent.
Eight of the B1G's 14 programs have at least one Ohio commit in their 2017 class and every single team in the conference has landed at least one Ohioan since 2015. Tennessee, Virginia, Virginia Tech, Clemson, Iowa State, Syracuse, Louisville, West Virginia, Boston College, and many other Power Five programs outside of the Big Ten also compete with Pitt for recruits on a day-to-day basis in Ohio. The state sits behind only Florida, Texas, California, and Georgia in recruiting prominence for college football and there's always talent to be mined.
However, perhaps no program has been as aggressive in recruiting Ohio in recent years as the Kentucky Wildcats. They offered 36 and 43 Ohioans in 2016 and 2015, respectively, and have already offered 25 and 18 Buckeye State recruits in 2017 and 2018, respectively. Under head coach Mark Stoops, a Youngstown native, and recruiting coordinator/tight ends coach Vince Marrow, Kentucky's focus on recruiting Ohio has been very obvious. In Stoops' first four recruiting classes (2013-16), he's signed 30 scholarship players from Ohio and received commitments from many more who eventually signed elsewhere. In this 2017 class, Stoops currently holds commitments from Ohio natives in four-stars JaVonte Richardson and Tyrell Ajian and three-star prospects Alex King and Bryant Koback.
However, for all of the recruiting success that he's had, Stoops has often failed to meet expectations on the field. He's just 12-26 through his first 38 games, including a 4-21 SEC record and an 0-2 start to the 2016 season. Stoops has a 1-13 record on the road (his lone win came against a South Carolina team that finished 3-9). 4 of his 12 wins come against FCS teams, 1 of them came against a team in their first FBS season, and 3 more come against G5 schools. He has only four wins against fellow Power Five schools: 3-9 Vanderbilt and 7-5 South Carolina in 2014 and 3-9 South Carolina and 5-7 Missouri in 2015. He is 0-3 against his rival, Louisville Simply put, Stoops has not gotten the job done and his seat has grown very hot.
This year doesn't look to be any better. He's already lost at home against Southern Mississippi and gotten blown out on the road by Florida. Stoops should have a lay-up against New Mexico State this week but after that? South Carolina, @ Alabama, Vanderbilt, bye week, Mississippi State, @ Missouri, Georgia, @ Tennessee, lay-up against FCS Austin Peay, and @ Louisville. The fact that Kentucky faces 5 of the 6 worst teams in the conference (excluding themselves) and gets 4 of them at home while avoiding 4 of the top 6 teams is probably beneficial. It probably still won't be enough to make Stoops' chances any better or to put Kentucky in a bowl game. The seat is hot and growing hotter with every loss yet to come.
There is some hope that Stoops could coach for his life, his team could show genuine improvement, and he could keep his job, but it's probably not the most likely scenario. When there is coaching turmoil - or even serious rumors of it - commits tend to jump ship very quickly, especially highly-recruited ones. That is not a scenario that has come to pass at Kentucky in large numbers yet (Charles Reeves' decommitment was more about him looking around and being unsure than anything else and James Hudson simply had better options available to him), but it is something that is going to become increasingly possible.
One of the biggest beneficiaries of this looming gloom and doom for Big Blue Nation may well be Pitt. The Panthers recently put out an offer to the aforementioned Richardson, a 6-foot-4, 210-pound athlete from Maple Heights (Ohio) who best projects to wide receiver in college. Pitt had already offered two of Kentucky's defensive back commits in the aforementioned Ajian and Florida cornerback Michael Nesbitt. The defensive end noted above, King, is one of the top 30 weakside DEs in the country and an explosive pass-rusher.
Rather conveniently, these guys happen to line up right at major needs for Pitt in this 2017 recruiting class. There's no guarantee that all or any of them would flip from Kentucky if a coaching change were to occur, but you can guarantee that Narduzzi and his staff will be circling like sharks around chum.
Wide receiver (Richardson's position) has been largely confined to recruiting Carmoni Green for Pitt as of late. I'm a big fan of Green and think he would be a very nice get, but Richardson is one of the country's truly elite prospect. 6-foot-4 prospects who can run the way he does and have his ball skills don't grow on trees. He's not the most polished route-runner, but he catches it as well as anybody and has fantastic size and athleticism. He's just on the cusp of the Rivals100 and can be a game-breaker as a red-zone threat.
Pitt already has a standout safety committed in Rivals100 Pittsburgh native Paris Ford, but they're not opposed to adding a second player at the position if he has the goods. Mansfield (Ohio) defensive back/athlete Tyrell Ajian is a four-star prospect just outside of the Rivals250 who could very well slide in as a second safety in the class if he wants to look around. I don't think he's quite as high-caliber of a prospect as Jaylen Kelly-Powell, but he would be a great addition to an already strong secondary.
Nesbitt is a player that Pitt has recruited and whom the Panthers made the top ten cut for. The Floridian committed to Kentucky and seems happy with his choice, but Florida kids are notoriously fickle. If he decides to take official visits, Pitt could re-emerge as a contender. Although I feel strongly about the Panthers' chances for local five-star Lamont Wade (which seem to grow every day), they need two cornerbacks in the 2017 class. Nesbitt can be someone that Pitt targets alongside Kenny Bennett, Ambry Thomas, Donovan Johnson, and others.
King hasn't been offered by Pitt and is probably the least likely of the four to be a major target because of the position he plays, but he's a heck of a prospect. Pitt's standing with Donovan Jeter, TyJuan Garbutt, Zach Morton, and others could rule out King's involvement in their recruiting plans, but they could do a lot worse than the Cincinnati-area pass-rusher coming off of the edge, especially if they want to take two defensive ends and view Jeter as a three-technique tackle.
It's no given that Stoops is fired or that these prospects look around when that happens, but if those scenarios come to pass, Pitt should use the opportunity to take advantage of a fertile hunting ground and snap up highly-rated recruits in their backyard. It's a situation to watch moving forward
