Cornerback From Florida Could Be Pitt’s 17th Verbal, LINK!

[CaptainSidneyReilly]

When I called Gateway (Fla.) High School coach Marlin Roberts on Wednesday, I asked him what three-star prospect Henry Miller brought to his team this season. “He brings so much,” Roberts said. “I don’t know where to start.”

Miller has narrowed his college choices to Pitt and N.C. State and will announce his choice 7 p.m. Friday via Twitter, Roberts said. Miller played quarterback and cornerback for Gateway, a school in Kissimmee, Fla., that plays in the state’s largest classification (8A). He passed for 935 yards and 12 touchdowns, ran for 974 and 16 and only threw two interceptions while leading Gateway (7-4) to its first playoff appearance in school history.

He also intercepted three passes, even though Roberts counted opposing teams throwing his way only 10 times all season. At 6-foot-3, 193 pounds, he projects as a cornerback, which (if he actually plays that position in college) will make some secondary coach very happy. Roberts said Miller has been timed in 4.47 seconds in the 40-yard dash and is a sprinter on the track team. He played basketball, but gave it up this season to concentrate on his recruitment.

Roberts said N.C. State has been on Miller “pretty hard.” In fact, one of its coaches called Roberts immediately before I did Wednesday morning. Meanwhile, Pitt tight ends coach Tim Salem “comes down here all the time,” Roberts said.
Miller also has drawn offers from Kentucky, Louisville, Michigan State, Mississippi State, Oregon State, Rutgers, West Virginia and Wisconsin. Strangely, none of the Florida schools have offered. Florida had interest, “but they weren’t on him as much as Pitt,” Roberts said;

Here are a few facts about Pitt’s Class of 2016:
— Pitt has 16 verbal commitments, including five (all out-of-state) in the past month. The breakdown is WPIAL and City League (five), Ohio (four), New Jersey/New York (three, including two who had previously committed to Rutgers), Virginia (two), Florida (one) and North Carolina (one).

— Rivals.com ranks Pitt’s class 47th in the nation, ninth in the ACC. So, coach Pat Narduzzi clearly has a lot more work to do, this year and beyond.

— Only two Pitt verbals — Lima, Ohio, wide receiver Ruben Flowers and Aliquippa linebacker Kaezon Pugh – are rated four-stars by Rivals.

— Pugh and Central Catholic stars Bricen Garner and Rashad Wheeler are playing in state championship games Saturday.

For more on recruiting and Pitt, Penn State and West Virginia bowl preparations, click here on the College Football Locker Room show on TribLive Radio, with Penn State writer Bob Cohn, West Virginia writer Bill West and myself.
LINK:
http://blog.triblive.com/college-locker-room/2015/12/16/2453/

 

[Teh Teh]

We be an interesting day for sure Friday.

We are landing some big CBs.... dynamic will change. We will be hitting wideouts off the line, jamming them with athletic corners that can keep up with them after. This allows the blitz packages to work and qbs will have to throw over the top to TEs very quick, which then allows the safeties and LB to read those plays and maybe get some picks.

You can see what they are doing as a defense. I really would like to overpay for a genius on offense as well.

 

[PittPoker]

Need 4 or 5 stars, 3 stars are a dime a dozen. That's when Pitt Football completely turns the corner.

 

[QuitCallingMeWanny]

Need 4 or 5 stars, 3 stars are a dime a dozen. That's when Pitt Football completely turns the corner.

LOL

 

[Panthergrowl13]

Need 4 or 5 stars, 3 stars are a dime a dozen. That's when Pitt Football completely turns the corner.

Accept the coaching staff's evaluation of a recruit not just the Rivals rating.

Aaron Donald was a Rivals 3-star.

HAIL TO PITT!!!!

 

[PittPoker]

Accept the coaching staff's evaluation of a recruit not just the Rivals rating.

Aaron Donald was a Rivals 3-star.

HAIL TO PITT!!!!

Yeah and for every miracle Aaron Donald there are dozens of other 3 star guys that are just average at best.

Wanna make Pitt football consistently a top program?? Get a good coach(check) Get better recruits(work in progress).

We need more Whitehead and Boyd types in all different positions. Hopefully Narduzzi can make that eventually happen.

 

[pittdan77]

See a lot of schools with classes full of those four and five star kids that never win anything but I guess that's none of our business.

 

[cruzer]

Oh god, this thread has somehow morphed in another "stars don't matter" debate. I think we should establish a new rule for the board; if you're going to make any comment about the relevance of stars, you first need to certify that you have taken (and passed) at least one statistics class.

Cruzer

 

[CaptainSidneyReilly]

I think Stars are a good measurement and comparison of talent just like NFL Draft Choices, but Coaching matters far more after they come to the Teams.

BYU, NW & TCU did not start with 4 & 5 Star recruits, but finding great coaches! One can throw in Iowa, Wisky, and Washington State has had less 4 & 5 Star Recruits but Coaching improved the 3 Star Recruits that were more numerous same with MSU!

Michigan, UTenn, Miami, and Texas had plenty of 4 & 5 Star Recruits but had to get rid of coaches that recruited them but did not coach them to win more games.

So, no question a Football Program needs Horses to win 10+ Games and maintain Top 25 Winning Program, but it needs more than one year to get there too but better Coaching does that more than just better and higher Recruiting.

And that can be seen in the Teams & Coaches I listed above successes and failures more on Coaching than just on Recruiting?

The same for NFL Draft Choices! Coaching is more important than picking in the Rounds. First Round Picks that lack Coaching won't win games without Draft Picks that get better with Coaching!

This is why The Best Teams pick later and there are still many Teams with many more higher Picks, but Coaching is lacking!

Pitt has had over 20 years of poor to mediocre selection of People that one can now see were not the right people to make them a Top 25 Program.

Pitt has selected New People with that goal in mind, that have had just 1 year to make Pitt Athletics better, been the ACC for only 3 years, and now just gaining the revenue resources to invest in such a goal by being in a Power Conference.

Yet, Michigan, UTenn, Miami, and Texas have found new coaches that changed their coaching to improve the wins even as they continue to recruit on a high level.

 

[Dan from Howell]

For those concerned about class ranking, I think Pitt's ranking may take a big jump today.

One thing to keep in mind with class ranking is that it penalizes small classes (under 20). I don't know how many openings Pitt has left, but MSU redshirts most of their freshmen, and I expect to see the same at Pitt eventually. This year was considered an exception for us as we played 6 true freshmen due to injuries to starters. MSU usually has classes slightly over 20 people as opposed to the SEC classes of 27 or so.

UM is ranked 2 right now in recruiting ranking while MSU is ranked 14. Avg stars for UM - 3.43. Avg for MSU - 3.44

The difference is 23 recruits vs 18 recruits. Pitt has 16 recruits so far.

MSU's 2007 class was ranked 42, but a group of overachievers that was the core of a Big 10 title and Big 10 Division title. The 2008 class was ranked 47 and had some busts due to people getting in trouble. However, our 2009 class was ranked 17 and to this day is the "highest" ranked class of the Dantonio era. The 2009 class was good, but the 2010 class (ranked 31?!) was a top ten class on the field with 10 NFL players.

It comes down to talent evaluation and development. If there's good talent evaluation, any class between 25 and 45 isn't a huge difference unless the class ranked around 25 is a small class size.

 

[panther94]

I don't believe any team has more than one 5 star commit, so I would say more 4 star guys are the goal. Hopefully we will be getting one of those at 2pm today and a couple more before signing day. Should put us in the high 20's or low 30's in ranking.