Devonshire to Kentucky
- Thread starter Mr. Monaca
- Start date
Good luck to him. Aliquippa has been good to us overall, and can't win em all. He passed up a chance to be a hometown hero, ala Dorsett, Marino, Ditka, Fralic, Revis, and many, many others, to go to Kentucky. That is his choice.
Apparently not many kids from anywhere want to play here. At least the ones needed to compete. We’re going backwards.
And please don’t tell me the division championship will pay dividends next year.
Kentucky sells the sec experience in ohio, pa and the rust belt. Thier hook is you dont have to be a 1000 miles away from home
They finally had a good year so that helped. They are not a program that will have year in and year success and sustain it.
They are a program that has stuck with its coach through some bad and mediocre years and it paid off....seems pretty logical to me
They finally had a good year so that helped. They are not a program that will have year in and year success and sustain it.
They are a program that has stuck with its coach through some bad and mediocre years and it paid off....seems pretty logical to me
I agree all along I felt like Pitt was his back up plan in case nothing better came up. PSU and OSU didn't pan out but these were his top two options it appeared. Like others have said best of luck. I hope he did his homework because it seems like Kentucky just popped up and he chose the program more so than the school but what do I know....maybe he just wanted to go away to school.
Kid wanted out of here. Extremely evident .
He can play in the sec and still have has his parents drive to the game. That's a big selling point in our area and kentuckys surrounding states especially Ohio.
Go to the sec and dont be 1000 miles away
He can play in the sec and still have has his parents drive to the game. That's a big selling point in our area and kentuckys surrounding states especially Ohio.
Go to the sec and dont be 1000 miles away
I wish him well, but it is time for Pitt to stop wasting time in the WPIAL. Few true blue chips and a state of mind "I can always go to Pitt".
Stop that frame of mind now. Only MAC teams can live off the WPIAL. Delmarva, Florida, Georgia. That is where the population is and the really great players in abundance.
Bigtime program? Are you serious? Kentucky can't hold a candle to Pitt's tradition or success in NFL. Yes, they did have a great year this year, but one year doesn't a bigtime program make. If that is what Devonshire was considering, best of luck to him, because they may be down in the SEC again shortly. Maybe Calipari or other intangibles made a difference to him. Certainly the academics or long relationships with staff didn't.
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You're right. The vast majority of them do well in the MAC.
If you want to be elite, you need to land most of the players you want from your backyard AND guys from FL, GA, DMV as you said. It doesnt have to be either or. Its not like we can just clean forget the WPIAL and clean up everywhere else. Generally speaking, if you cant get local kids to come, that probably means its going to be tough to get non-locals.
There are no pro teams in Kentucky. They have a passionate and loyal fanbase. The closest comparisons for Pitt are Boston College and GT. Capel is struggling to recruit, and he was regarded as a stud recruiter. At some point people need to wake up and realize Pitt is the hindrance.
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They were allowed to play the recruiting game for awhile, and then the kabosh was put on them.
Based on what?.
The last great player Ohio State got from Columbus was???
They often don't get the great player from Central Ohio (L. Bell, K. Carter to name a couple). And they certainly don't waste time on the drama queens.
Fitzgerald local?
JC local?
Dion local?
Hugh green?
Even the DPOTY in the NFL was not considered to be the best in the WPIAL by a long shot.
There are not many blue chips in western PA...it is an old area demographically.
Name the last starting P5 QB to come out of the WPIAL.
Name the last NFL rb to come out of the wpial?
The last wide receiver, etc..
I know you guys have great pride in your WPIAL roots, but the reality is this. You live off the wpial if you want to do well in the MAC. One great player a year does not fertile recruiting ground make.
You're fishing a shallow pool with bottom feeders if you go to the wpial.
I was a wanna supporter but his classes are way over rated. Can you say Gary Nova, Pat Bostick
It's one thing to lose a local kid to PSU or ND--but Kentucky--that's not good.
OSU recruits nationally so stop with that.
I said if Pitt wants to be ELITE, they have to get who they want locally. This is because its easier to get elite local players than beating out hometown schools for elite players.
If Pitt had the NA QB, Sanders at RB (though Hall and Ollison were more than adequate), Winovich, Hudson, that ND LB, etc, we are 10-2.
Unless Pitt can land a Matt Ryan/BC type out of nowhere QB, Pitt can only be elite if we get who we want locally AND supplement it with 3/4 star players from elsewhere. We arent replacing Hudson, Adams, Winovich with elite players from the south. We are replacing them with MAC lev recruits. How do you not understand this?
That last class that was broken up when he was fired has reached mythic proportions on this board...it wasn’t really all that good.
On 1 team he had all of the following NFL players. He underachieved but I never said he was good at coaching:
Nix
Alexcih
Sheard
Romeus
Mick Williams (didnt make NFL but was BE POY)
DeCicco
K Waun Williams
Dion Lewis
Ray Graham (woulda made it if wasnt injured)
Byham
McKillop
Hynoski
Baldwin
I am also forgetting some but that 09 teams was absolutely loaded with talent. NFL players as far as the eye could see. Dont tell me his recruiting was overrated.
These kids never heard of any of those names. The old relics of Pitt do not matter. These kids see what Kentucky and PSU are doing and what Pitt is doing in the present and expected future. It's a simple equation really.
100,000 fans in stadium + 9-11 wins = not going to Pitt
SEC + really good recruiters and big 2018 season = not going to Pitt
0-3 stars - big offers = going to Pitt
This is nothing new whatsoever. Kentucky had a great season and they know how to recruit. PSU had a decent season, and they know how to recruit.
Recruiting at first was not overrated....but if you want anymore evidence as to why he had to go that list shows it. He should have been going undefeated in the big east with that talent.
I agree with that but at least he was getting talent here. At some point, your talent wins in spite of you (see James Franklin).
That list isn't as impressive as you seem to think it is. His recruiting was overrated.
I have been to a few UK home games and on those weekends have spent some time in Lexington. UK does not have a "passionate and loyal" football fan base. It's a lame gameday atmosphere and plenty of empty seats in every home game. Even the tailgating is lame. Basketball is obviously a completely different story.
The myth of Wanny as a great recruiter grows stronger every year.
This board would not be happy with anyone on this list not named nix, Graham, byham, or Baldwin. The rest were not heralded recruits.
That was eons ago in the times of today. Recruiting is different even than 6-8 years ago. Wanny would struggle now too. All kids/ parents today want the payoff, and the better ones are willing to sit the bench at better programs, even their whole time as an undergrad if it comes to that, rather than go to a program selling quick playing time. Thanks to the grad transfer rule in part, but also just a societal thing I think. Because kids would rather sit their tails on the bench of a sure thing than risk having to lift up a program that stinks.
That's when competing with blue bloods though. This situation is different. Kentucky is bowel movement. There's more involved here, and we know what it is, and it's not that Narduzzi "can't sell".
Right. I’m sorry. I’m sure next years class will be loaded. Winning that division caused shock waves on the recruiting trail I’m sure. What was I thinking.
And FWIW - I haven’t been one of the negative ones over the last cpl years. But this class appears to be a dud. Things aren’t trending in a good direction.
I don't pay much attention to recruiting, and it's been a long time since I had an 18 year old mind, but let me take a wild guess at the thought process:
Kid would have liked to have gone to PSU, who pounded Pitt but got beat by Kentucky ( much worse than what the final school reflected, if I remember correctly). So, he could either have settled for a lesser team in a weaker conference or upgraded to a better team in a stronger conference.
That's probably the spin that he puts on the story, anyhow.
Kid would have liked to have gone to PSU, who pounded Pitt but got beat by Kentucky ( much worse than what the final school reflected, if I remember correctly). So, he could either have settled for a lesser team in a weaker conference or upgraded to a better team in a stronger conference.
That's probably the spin that he puts on the story, anyhow.
Some of you need to follow a new team. Diaz just signed some freak show looking punter go root for the U.
And still couldn’t win the BE. Many of those guys were not four stars either. But hey. Wanna killed it on the recruiting trail
