Aliquippa, Clairton, and Woodland Hills

[Sean Miller Fan]

We've lost the last 4 big-time recruits from these once Pitt-friendly programs.

Selling the ACC, the best season in 30 years, renovated facilities, etc, WPIAL recruiting is at pre-Walt lows. You can blame a lot of things but the fact is that Walt, Wanny, and even Chryst recruited better locally than Narduzzi is.

If Pitt wants to be great, we have to land 70% of the WPIAL we offer. 50% is the absolute minimum requirement.

If we contine to struggle this bad locally, one has to wonder if its wise to continue to devote this many resources locally and perhaps its better to triple down on places like the south Florida, the DMV, and NJ.

 

[Pittski]

We certainly need to land more, the fact that we're not is a loud statement. We don't win enough, we don't draw enough so the kids don't care enough to come here. The next 2 seasons are pivitol for HCPN.

 

[DiehardPanther]

We've lost the last 4 big-time recruits from these once Pitt-friendly programs.

Selling the ACC, the best season in 30 years, renovated facilities, etc, WPIAL recruiting is at pre-Walt lows. You can blame a lot of things but the fact is that Walt, Wanny, and even Chryst recruited better locally than Narduzzi is.

If Pitt wants to be great, we have to land 70% of the WPIAL we offer. 50% is the absolute minimum requirement.

If we contine to struggle this bad locally, one has to wonder if its wise to continue to devote this many resources locally and perhaps its better to triple down on places like the south Florida, the DMV, and NJ.

Why do u keep trying to change the past? It is a myth. Woodland Hills and Clairton were never Pitt strongholds, and a lot of guys from Aliquippa have gone to WV and other schools over the years.

Which guys from WH did we beat out big-time schools for? Borgoyn? Breaston? Mowl? Jefferson?

Clairton - The only guy that we had legit competition for was Boyd. We lost Desimond Green to Texas Tech.

Aliquippa guys to other schools - Willie Lindsay, Henderson, Fisher, Law, R. Jeter, Henry, Kirkland, etc.

 

[Sean Miller Fan]

We certainly need to land more, the fact that we're not is a loud statement. We don't win enough, we don't draw enough so the kids don't care enough to come here. The next 2 seasons are pivitol for HCPN.

Yea but Walt, Wanny, and Chryst won at a lower rate than Narduzzi and recruited better locally with less to sell.

There is more to it than wins and attendance. I mean I think we would all be ecstatic if Narduzzi could recruit as well as Wanny. Is that asking too much?

 

[joeydavid]

PN collective recruiting is well ahead of PC and on par with DW. Who cares where he gets the talent from?

We've lost the last 4 big-time recruits from these once Pitt-friendly programs.

Selling the ACC, the best season in 30 years, renovated facilities, etc, WPIAL recruiting is at pre-Walt lows. You can blame a lot of things but the fact is that Walt, Wanny, and even Chryst recruited better locally than Narduzzi is.

If Pitt wants to be great, we have to land 70% of the WPIAL we offer. 50% is the absolute minimum requirement.

If we contine to struggle this bad locally, one has to wonder if its wise to continue to devote this many resources locally and perhaps its better to triple down on places like the south Florida, the DMV, and NJ.

 

[Pittski]

Sean you're correct but you're not seeing the field. Let me introduce you to Harbaugh, Urban, Franklin, DJ Durkin, Stoops and Holgy. The game has been elevated and we're not rising fast as others.

 

[poconopanther]

in fairness to this staff they have also successfully recruited a number of local standouts and have several again this year but I do agree that we are not landing the majority of the difference makers for whatever reason or reasons.
I hear the quips have another big time defensive standout for the 2019 class. Hope the trend of not going to Pitt doesn't continue.

 

[pittzap]

Yea but Walt, Wanny, and Chryst won at a lower rate than Narduzzi and recruited better locally with less to sell.

There is more to it than wins and attendance. I mean I think we would all be ecstatic if Narduzzi could recruit as well as Wanny. Is that asking too much?

Maybe local talent isn't as good as you think it is? Maybe instead of a local player a coach wants an equal or better player that wants to be at Pitt and doesn't think Pitt is beneath them? You're assuming WPIAL talent is as good as it once was. I don't think it is. While there is still talent, I don't think it is as good as it once was.

 

[pittzap]

in fairness to this staff they have also successfully recruited a number of local standouts and have several again this year but I do agree that we are not landing the majority of the difference makers for whatever reason or reasons.
I hear the quips have another big time defensive standout for the 2019 class. Hope the trend of not going to Pitt doesn't continue.

Who are the "difference makers"?

 

[Las Panteras]

Its too early to say Narduzzi hasnt recruited well. We are mostly in agreement that this defense is starting to round into shape. How many playmakers on this improving defense are from around here??

 

[DiehardPanther]

There are quite a few things that have occured recently that have impacted recruiting kids from Aliquippa.

1. Shell - he is connected to a lot of people in Aliquippa. We obviously know the story with him. We all would have been better off if we just let him go with Fraud to ASU.

2. Hollins - Quip who got suspended for the year at Pitt. Some issues there.

3. Gibson - we allowed him in the door as a coach under Graham. He wedged it open by getting Shell, and now it is completely open.

4. Losing Henry. We offered multiple kids at Clairton to get Boyd, and Aliquippa felt they had better players collectively and should have been treated the same way.

5. Whitehead getting suspended did not help.

6. Pugh not getting any PT has not helped.

 

[Pitt-Chains]

We've lost the last 4 big-time recruits from these once Pitt-friendly programs.

Selling the ACC, the best season in 30 years, renovated facilities, etc, WPIAL recruiting is at pre-Walt lows. You can blame a lot of things but the fact is that Walt, Wanny, and even Chryst recruited better locally than Narduzzi is.

If Pitt wants to be great, we have to land 70% of the WPIAL we offer. 50% is the absolute minimum requirement.

If we contine to struggle this bad locally, one has to wonder if its wise to continue to devote this many resources locally and perhaps its better to triple down on places like the south Florida, the DMV, and NJ.

It's not the end of the world..

 

[Gunga_Galunga]

Yea but Walt, Wanny, and Chryst won at a lower rate than Narduzzi and recruited better locally with less to sell.

There is more to it than wins and attendance. I mean I think we would all be ecstatic if Narduzzi could recruit as well as Wanny. Is that asking too much?

Regarding local recruiting...

Walt had a brand new stadium, big crowds, and a good BE conference to sell.

Wannstedt was a well known local guy with, but in a conference that was trying to remain viable.

Duzz has the ACC and an apathetic fan base that just produced the worst attended Pitt game at Heinz field.

They have to continue recruiting the WPIAL, but it's become an uphill battle for Pitt. It doesn't bother me much anymore because I've seen so many must gets end up doing nothing.

 

[rpost3]

Are Pitt's recruiting rankings in the ACC any better than they were in the Big East under Harris/Wannstedt?

 

[daminals76]

I heard Raines had some very disrespectful things to say about the local Pittsburgh school... can anyone confirm what was said?

 

[sherepower]

Who are the "difference makers"?

Your right! Arron Donald, Biz, Johnson , Whitehead, Baldwin, Nix , Boyd, Polite, Spencer, Mick Williams and many, many more were not any good. LOL

 

[pittzap]

Your right! Arron Donald, Biz, Johnson , Whitehead, Baldwin, Nix , Boyd, Polite, Spencer, Mick Williams and many, many more were not any good. LOL

Yes, many "misses" we have had wound up not being very good. Hell, we had some we did get that were not very good.

Aaron Donald and Boyd were true "difference makers" in the list you have. The rest you listed were good players for us. Baldwin was certain games and not in others. The jury is still out on Whitehead. He had a bad season last year but seems to have turned the corner.

With the amount of doom and gloom when we lose a local recruit, you would think they are all "can't miss" players. They aren't.

 

[pittmeister]

Yea but Walt, Wanny, and Chryst won at a lower rate than Narduzzi and recruited better locally with less to sell.

There is more to it than wins and attendance. I mean I think we would all be ecstatic if Narduzzi could recruit as well as Wanny. Is that asking too much?

Revisionist history at its finest. I've already posted more than once that recruiting is not any better or worse under Narduzzi.

 

[Gunga_Galunga]

Yes, many "misses" we have had wound up not being very good. Hell, we had some we did get that were not very good.

Aaron Donald and Boyd were true "difference makers" in the list you have. The rest you listed were good players for us. Baldwin was certain games and not in others. The jury is still out on Whitehead. He had a bad season last year but seems to have turned the corner.

With the amount of doom and gloom when we lose a local recruit, you would think they are all "can't miss" players. They aren't.

Nobody wants to go back and count the busts, they only remember the good guys. This guy thinks the WPIAL is a top 10 region in the country. It's likely only 4th or 5th between PA and OH. Add in NJ, MD, and VA and maybe it's top 10 in these 5 states.

It's not the 70s anymore.

 

[vegasgreed]

Narduzzi has tried recruiting the state of Michigan for 3 years, where he spent a lot of time. So far, zero commits in 3 years.

This year has the least amount of recruiting buzz since he got here. Each time at this year, we can talk about the top guys left on the board and who we might have a shot at. This year, one cannot even come up with a top 5.

Much less social media activity this year. There hasn't been a pic of Raines in a LONG time, the staff knew he wasn't coming here for a long time.

This year during home games, has the staff gone out on fridays nights to local games? Haven't seen much mentioned on this front.

Is the staff still doing everything within their power to make the team better, or are they looking for new employment?

 

[PittGuyYessir]

This looks like it will be the first year I can remember that Pitt hasn't landed a 4star recruit. There are always some surprises but I don't know of any 4stars they are even in on right now. The WVU 247 recruiting guy said on their site that all of Raines friends who play for Pitt were talking bad about Duzz and the program, I wonder who that could be?

 

[Sean Miller Fan]

This looks like it will be the first year I can remember that Pitt hasn't landed a 4star recruit. There are always some surprises but I don't know of any 4stars they are even in on right now. The WVU 247 recruiting guy said on their site that all of Raines friends who play for Pitt were talking bad about Duzz and the program, I wonder who that could be?

3 things. Pugh is likely disgruntled being that he can't ever get on the field. Right or wrong, its common for players like that to bad-mouth the coach.

Whitehead getting suspended 3 games for smoking weed isn't a good look. I understand that all schools have similar policies but places like PSU, WVU, and OSU find a way to not suspend these players for internal test failures.

3. Players really like Tony Gibson, James Franklin, and Terry Smith. Say what you want but they can close.

 

[thebadby2]

in fairness to this staff they have also successfully recruited a number of local standouts and have several again this year but I do agree that we are not landing the majority of the difference makers for whatever reason or reasons.
I hear the quips have another big time defensive standout for the 2019 class. Hope the trend of not going to Pitt doesn't continue.

This staff has also had two outstanding prospects permanently sidelined due to congenital heart problems, and a crown jewel recruit who is only now getting healthy enough to play in his 3rd year in the program. George Hill had a lot of talent and he was going to have the ball in his hands. Gilbert may have made a big difference in our DE picture.

We've had some bad breaks with some of our top signees.

 

[pittdoc57]

Smith in particular has been a good addition for PSU. Although, at a time when WPIAL talent is at a low, it is ironic that they've got 3 WPIAL graduates on staff.

 

[PittGuyYessir]

3 things. Pugh is likely disgruntled being that he can't ever get on the field. Right or wrong, its common for players like that to bad-mouth the coach.

Whitehead getting suspended 3 games for smoking weed isn't a good look. I understand that all schools have similar policies but places like PSU, WVU, and OSU find a way to not suspend these players for internal test failures.

3. Players really like Tony Gibson, James Franklin, and Terry Smith. Say what you want but they can close.

He certainly won't have to worry about missing 1 snap, let alone 3 games, for smoking weed at WVU. As long as he doesn't kill anyone he will be on the field.

 

[rmf05]

We've gone from getting beaten by Ohio St., Michigan and Notre Dame for most elite locals to getting beaten by those teams plus PSU and now WVU for most elite locals. Even Majors II got a handful of local kids every year. We'll always land one or two quality players per year from the WPIAL. What is happening now is unprecedented though. We're only getting one or two out of the top ten locally.

There is no way around it. The brand that is Pitt football is far below all of our rivals right now. The only answer is to out-scout our competitors and do a better job in talent development.

 

[Pittfan85]

This staff has also had two outstanding prospects permanently sidelined due to congenital heart problems, and a crown jewel recruit who is only now getting healthy enough to play in his 3rd year in the program. George Hill had a lot of talent and he was going to have the ball in his hands. Gilbert may have made a big difference in our DE picture.

We've had some bad breaks with some of our top signees.

Everyone has bad luck with either injuries or high rated recruits busting. Pat bostic and Dustin pisciotti come to mind.

 

[Sean Miller Fan]

We've gone from getting beaten by Ohio St., Michigan and Notre Dame for most elite locals to getting beaten by those teams plus PSU and now WVU for most elite locals. Even Majors II got a handful of local kids every year. We'll always land one or two quality players per year from the WPIAL. What is happening now is unprecedented though. We're only getting one or two out of the top ten locally.

There is no way around it. The brand that is Pitt football is far below all of our rivals right now. The only answer is to out-scout our competitors and do a better job in talent development.

Narduzzi's first class, he did get 7 of the top 10. Can't remember what it was for his 2nd class. But last year it was 1 out of 10 which is totally unacceptable.

 

[DiehardPanther]

Narduzzi's first class, he did get 7 of the top 10. Can't remember what it was for his 2nd class. But last year it was 1 out of 10 which is totally unacceptable.

You realize this is a pattern. Correct? Harris, Wanny, and Chryst started strong, and then started having a lot more local recruiting misses as time went on.

 

[Sean Miller Fan]

Narduzzi's first class, he did get 7 of the top 10. Can't remember what it was for his 2nd class. But last year it was 1 out of 10 which is totally unacceptable.

You realize this is a pattern. Correct? Harris, Wanny, and Chryst started strong, and then started having a lot more local recruiting misses as time went on.

To some degree but Wannstedt's last class that all decommitted once he was fired was one of his strongest (on paper) but with a lot of help from Hafley in NJ.

 

[Pittfan85]

To some degree but Wannstedt's last class that all decommitted once he was fired was one of his strongest (on paper) but with a lot of help from Hafley in NJ.

I constantly hear about how strong that last wanny class was...what did those decommits do elsewhere?

Gary nova is one I know of..he was really good....

 

[DiehardPanther]

To some degree but Wannstedt's last class that all decommitted once he was fired was one of his strongest (on paper) but with a lot of help from Hafley in NJ.

Which verbals were from the WPIAL in that class?

 

[MarshallGoldberg]

You realize this is a pattern. Correct? Harris, Wanny, and Chryst started strong, and then started having a lot more local recruiting misses as time went on.

That's very concerning. You'd think building up relationships with local coaches would improve recruiting over time, not decrease it.

Though perhaps part of it too is these guys come in and don't win as much as our biggest recruiting rivals (PSU, ND, WVU I mean more than the MAC types) and some kids want to play for a winner so the gleam starts to dull on a new coach.

 

[Sean Miller Fan]

To some degree but Wannstedt's last class that all decommitted once he was fired was one of his strongest (on paper) but with a lot of help from Hafley in NJ.

I constantly hear about how strong that last wanny class was...what did those decommits do elsewhere?

Gary nova is one I know of..he was really good....

Nova sucked actually but was better than Tino. I don't remember all those players. I remember Bill Belton had a good, but unspectacular career at Penn State. We went 6-6 4 years in a row so I am sure those kids could have helped.

 

[LeftCoastPanther]

One decommit was a three-year starter at D-end at Northwestern. He would have helped.

Another was a two-year starter at linebacker at Iowa, likely starts every season at Pitt.

A safety who went to VTech was a four-year starter there. He, Hendricks, Pitts and Williams would have formed a terrific secondary.

Chestnut went to WVU and contributed. Terrific depth at corner for Pitt.

Belton would have helped, Nova wasn’t great but the OC could have found another QB.

The receiver who ended up at Toledo wasn’t great. There were some misses who ended up at Rutgers. The class was going to add more guys as well. It’s not like Dave was done recruiting.

The groundwork for 2012 was being laid and that was the killer, especially with O- and D-linemen. That and Wanny getting some PSU transfers.

 

[DiehardPanther]

That's very concerning. You'd think building up relationships with local coaches would improve recruiting over time, not decrease it.

Though perhaps part of it too is these guys come in and don't win as much as our biggest recruiting rivals (PSU, ND, WVU I mean more than the MAC types) and some kids want to play for a winner so the gleam starts to dull on a new coach.

A lot of people do not view Pitt as THE hometown school. If the recruit has family members or coaches that attended other schools, then they are not going to pitch Pitt as THE hometown school. Then when you do get these kids to a game and they see the apathy first hand it only reinforces the negative recruiting from other schools. Pitt HAS to downsize Heinz, find a way to improve school spirit on campus and at Heinz, and win more.

 

[Pittfan85]

A lot of people do not view Pitt as THE hometown school. If the recruit has family members or coaches that attended other schools, then they are not going to pitch Pitt as THE hometown school. Then when you do get these kids to a game and they see the apathy first hand it only reinforces the negative recruiting from other schools. Pitt HAS to downsize Heinz, find a way to improve school spirit on campus and at Heinz, and win more.

Pitt fans need to get it out of their head that to be worthy of attention, the team needs to be a top 15 program. My fear is that if we do get a coach, narduzzi or whoever else, that averages 8 wins a year over a five year period, pitt fans will run him off. We saw it with Dixon in basketball...I’ve heard stories that jackie sherril caught a lot of flack.

In the current ACC, 8 wins is acceptable. This isn’t the wanny big east that was comparable to the current AAC, the ACC is one of the top conferences, and with VT and Miami on the rise it will be tough to ever win the division.

 

[Gunga_Galunga]

Well, he won 8 games in each of his first two years and you want him fired this year. I'd say you're either schizophrenic or a troll. You pick.

 

[sherepower]

Pitt fans need to get it out of their head that to be worthy of attention, the team needs to be a top 15 program. My fear is that if we do get a coach, narduzzi or whoever else, that averages 8 wins a year over a five year period, pitt fans will run him off. We saw it with Dixon in basketball...I’ve heard stories that jackie sherril caught a lot of flack.

In the current ACC, 8 wins is acceptable. This isn’t the wanny big east that was comparable to the current AAC, the ACC is one of the top conferences, and with VT and Miami on the rise it will be tough to ever win the division.

Umm........ the coastal is one of the easiest conferences out of all P5 schools. There’s no doubt Pitt should compete for a costal title once every 4 years. You name Miami and VT. Have you watched them play this year? Hardly Titian’s of college football lol

 

[Pittfan85]

Umm........ the coastal is one of the easiest conferences out of all P5 schools. There’s no doubt Pitt should compete for a costal title once every 4 years. You name Miami and VT. Have you watched them play this year? Hardly Titian’s of college football lol

Example one of a delusional pitt fan.