Devonshire to Kentucky
- Thread starter Mr. Monaca
- Start date
You also forgot Chris "Lumpy" Jacobson and Myles Carigean. Lumpy was the number 2 or 3 OG in the country out of HS who played great for us but was too injured to go to the NFL. Myles was a great college player who had a few tryouts.
So it’s not ok to express concern? Or should we all just cheer no matter what?
Do you think recruiting is good?
THIS!
The revisionist history is ridiculous...
Recruiting is ultimately about results not stars.
How many of DW’s players played up to 4 star status?
Take a look at the list of commitments from 2005-2010 and tell me how many of them played up to their hype? Do it, take a look...
Most of the players that became big time players were not 4 star players: Lewis, Donald, Romeus, Sheard, Mick Williams, Mustakas, Stephens, Pinkston, Hynoski, Caragein, Shanahan, Street, Mosley-Smith.
The best team we have had in 3 decades also happened to be the most talented. It also happened to be the product of the highest rated recruiting classes. Funny how that works. Had it not been for lackluster coaching, we would have went 12-0.
Nobody can say Yes to this without seeming mentally addled. Of course, being in the lower 1/3 of the P5 isn't good.
But typically these kind of cornering questions with inconvenient but unavoidable answers, result in rants about how cheap and delusional the fans are.
As someone who has spent tens of thousands on Pitt sports, tickets, donations, bowl trips etc.... that's bullshit. Fans are thrilled to get engaged, spend, and attend. But they need a reason. Yeah, that is right, it needs seeded by initial success. Product first, then customers. This idea bothers academics (note I didn't use the S word).
But rest assured, the buyin would result, and it would be significant. This region has tremendous low self esteem and craves sports winners to get behind and associate itself with. Before, in 1979ish there wasn't room for both the Steelers and Pitt, but times have changed, discretionary spending is far bigger, and sports is a far bigger part of culture. Major wealth is there for the taking, Pitt.
The region is filled with PS, WV, ND, and OSU fans. The pool from which Pitt draws from is smaller than you think.
Here's my take... he didn't want to go to Pitt. Ok, glad he went elsewhere.
The people ready to jump off a bridge need to gain some perspective.
The people ready to jump off a bridge need to gain some perspective.
Most by far are not aligned strongly to any specific school or team. Just to winner's.
Nobody could spell hockey in Pittsburgh until Mario finally produced championships for the Penguins, and later Jagr, then Crosby/Malkin had the team in the cup mix nearly annually.
Hardly anyone plays hockey (yes I know more do than before, but that's also thanks to the penguins). Many don't even understand the rules. My wife can't even locate the puck on the screen much of the time. But it's huge in the region. I believe the team and ATT Sportsnet get the biggest local ratings of any NHL team? And not by a close margin either.
Think of the hoops and shenanigans that occurred to get a new arena for team. We also turned over some of the choicest real estate to the team to develop any way it pleases (which it hasn't done squat with, but that in itself is also a sign of how powerful a winning team is, that there's hardly any anger about that).
Pitt could literally be gods of oakland if it merely went to a couple national championship football games and regularly participated in the top 15ish. And yes, i say "merely" because as expensive as that might be, the kind of power it would result in is literally priceless otherwise.
I don't know if Pitt can even win if it tries at this point. Dirty activity would be needed and haters abound that would look to rat on it. But it's just a shame that the opportunity has been wasted.
It’s not about one guy.
How about the perspective that recruiting rankings are going backwards? I get that it’s an inexact “science” but there’s reason to be concerned.
I was hoping that he’d be able to find guys who were underrated ala Mich St and Wisconsin did whose rankings rarely blew anyone away. But that doesn’t seem to be occurring.
And to further your point, local for OSU is the entire state of OH and they obviously do extremely well there
What league did we play in?
Who were the best players on that team?
They weren’t the 4 star players minus Baldwin...
Understand, I'm just not ready to make that determination yet. I think a bigger problem is we've missed on too many of the higher rated commits. I would like to see Pitt be more willing to process recruits, like say Kentucky. We should always be bringing in 22-25 per year.
Re: wannstedts recruiting
We have rehashed pat bostick...5 star QB who simply did not measure up. Myself...and many others here that agree, would say the lack of a playmaking QB cost Pitt some wins and put a shadow on Wannstedts overall recruiting.
I'll take it one step further: A career ending injury to Dan Mason absolutely killed Pitt. That kid was an NFL linebacker and we haven't had anyone near as good besides Mckillop.
Btw, Mason Aaron Berry , Conredge Collins were 4 stars no one has mentioned .
We have rehashed pat bostick...5 star QB who simply did not measure up. Myself...and many others here that agree, would say the lack of a playmaking QB cost Pitt some wins and put a shadow on Wannstedts overall recruiting.
I'll take it one step further: A career ending injury to Dan Mason absolutely killed Pitt. That kid was an NFL linebacker and we haven't had anyone near as good besides Mckillop.
Btw, Mason Aaron Berry , Conredge Collins were 4 stars no one has mentioned .
The bigger issue is players want to attend college, have fun, and live the high life. Other schools treat their players like Greek Gods. The same thing does not happen here.
2001
2002
2016
All would have given that team fits. Canada and Walt would've dropped 50 on that team.
Walt also produced more NFL players than dw.
Mason was average at Pitt. People would get caught up in the occasional big hit but didn't see all the misreads and poor fits.
Adam Gunn was 1st team all conference during that same time.
Not even remotely true.
And dont count those pitt players that were here when Walt took over. Tom Tumulty , for example
Mason was an underclassman when he got hurt. You have no idea whether he would have improved.
I do....and he would have .
Walt coached 8 years and Wannstedt 6 years. The correct evaluation would be total divided by years coached.
Mason was hurt 3 games into his sophomore season. His ceiling was very high based on what he had shown to that point.
Mason was hurt 3 games into his sophomore season. His ceiling was very high based on what he had shown to that point.
Been a fan for over 40 years. Apparently I have no problem following Pitt through the highs and lows, but can we not be critical of the current state of the program? Can we not question a staff that seems to be struggling to bring in a higher level of talent? At some point, you have to get better players to win bigger games.
If your definition of "NFL players" includes anyone who was invited to an NFL camp or would've if they had not been injured, I invite you to look at every P5 team in every P5 conference, every season.
Yeah, we dont have any big names, I agree. We usually land 2-3 4-5 star kids a year, and we did not this time. By that measure, it is a bad class. But, I also say most of our higher rated kids flake out, so I am willing to wait to see how they pain out.
Here’s the reality
Is there reason to be concerned about recruiting. Sure.
But the fact is there is nothing I or any fan can do about it. I’m a bit anxious that a drop dead recruiter like JC is unable to sell his A targets on Pitt hoops and he has a lot more to sell than Duzz
At the end of the day Duzzs on the field results the next two years will determine his fate. If they are no better than 7 win seasons and conclude with bowl losses he’ll be gone If the results are better he’ll remain and the program will likely be headed in the right direction. I think we’ve seen that the constant coaching merry go round has not worked in 30 years so I’m willing to be patient and give him the benefit of the doubt and wait till the fat lady sings so to speak. I just don’t see anyone being hired to replace him that will instantly do better the next coach will have to recruit under the radar kids and coach them up as well. Seems like that was the approach that worked so well for Dixon. so I’m hoping with the new OC the offense improves and the results improve likewise. That should in turn help recruiting.
Continually pointing out how awful recruiting is is not going to change who is coaching over the next two years
Is there reason to be concerned about recruiting. Sure.
But the fact is there is nothing I or any fan can do about it. I’m a bit anxious that a drop dead recruiter like JC is unable to sell his A targets on Pitt hoops and he has a lot more to sell than Duzz
At the end of the day Duzzs on the field results the next two years will determine his fate. If they are no better than 7 win seasons and conclude with bowl losses he’ll be gone If the results are better he’ll remain and the program will likely be headed in the right direction. I think we’ve seen that the constant coaching merry go round has not worked in 30 years so I’m willing to be patient and give him the benefit of the doubt and wait till the fat lady sings so to speak. I just don’t see anyone being hired to replace him that will instantly do better the next coach will have to recruit under the radar kids and coach them up as well. Seems like that was the approach that worked so well for Dixon. so I’m hoping with the new OC the offense improves and the results improve likewise. That should in turn help recruiting.
Continually pointing out how awful recruiting is is not going to change who is coaching over the next two years
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We can start by beating North Carolina before Mack Brown gets them going...
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anon_vmuicqnzlyp3u
Guest
Mack Brown comes across as a semi-idiot these days. Listening to him doing games on tv and hearing some of his opinions on clock management and down/distance was downright scary.
I don’t see them being all that better than they were the last few years under Fedora.
Does anyone remember the way they felt after the Wake Forest game in early November? I know I was flying high. Tough times since. Needless to say, what a thud of an end of recruiting cycle.
LStop what
I don't know, buying know it's growing.
Now....the premise was you have to recruit in your own backyard. I mentioned Ohio State and was told to stop because they recruit nationally.
Duh...that's the point.
WVU has no one in it's backyard and they've been outperforming us for 30 years. Same with Iowa, Oregon, and the list goes on.
Stop wasting time in the WPIAL.
The last 30 years can't be undone. We've sucked folks. Do I have to mention the record for at least 3 losses? One double digits win season in the last 35.
Pitt has got to go elsewhere for players. I asked a question about WPIAL players and it has been avoided.
Name me last WPIAL QB to make an NFL roster. The last RB to do so. The last wide receiver.
Guys... Pittsburgh is filled with old people. There aren't enough players here to worry about.
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anon_vmuicqnzlyp3u
Guest
Agree completely. That is a strong hold, close driving distance that needs to be hit hard by the best recruiter we have on the staff. I just know we don't have the best success there. I was just curious as to the hit rate thats all.
