It’s been some kind of week.
This is how December has always gone. The season ends and coaches go on the road. New targets emerge, new offers go out, commits are reinforced and young prospects get seen by the coaches.
Add in the transfer portal, and things are positively crazy. Lots of activity and lots to track down, so let’s recap everything we learned this week.
By my count, there were more than a dozen offers to players in the transfer portal this week. Let’s look at them.
Quarterback
At the top of the list was Phil Jurkovec, the Pine-Richland standout who went to Notre Dame and transferred to Boston College for the last three years before re-entering the portal to find a new home for his final year of college football.
Pitt will be that home. The key here is the familiarity with Pitt offensive coordinator Frank Cignetti and his offense. Jurkovec feels like the offense is a good fit for him, and Cignetti knows Jurkovec is a good fit for the offense, based on the time they worked together at Boston College.
So if nothing else, there should be a higher likelihood of success with Jurkovec than there was with Kedon Slovis, simply based on that prior experience. We’ll see what happens.
The other name we have talked about a lot is Penn State underclassman Christian Veilleux. We’ve talked a lot about the coaches looking to get a veteran transfer to be the starter in 2023 and a younger transfer to compete for the job in 2024.
Jurkvoec is obviously the veteran transfer, and it seems like the coaches want Veilleux to be the younger transfer. I initially heard he was expected to visit Pitt this weekend, but it sounds like that will happen next weekend instead.
I think Pitt’s in good shape here, but we’ll see how things develop over the next week.
Wide receiver
The next priority, from where I’m sitting, has been receiver. I count five transfer receivers who have been identified as targets for the staff, and that’s more than any other position, as far as I can tell. Here are the five:
Jack Bech (LSU)
Dante Cephas (Kent State)
Daejon Reynolds (Florida)
Decoldest Crawford (Nebraska)
Ali Jennings (Old Dominion)
Cephas is obviously the most relevant name. He’s a local, having graduated from Penn Hills in the class of 2019. He picked Kent State over a handful of MAC offers, mostly due to grades, and now he’s got his choice of top schools nationally. Pitt, Penn State, West Virginia, Notre Dame, Georgia, Maryland, Colorado, Virginia Tech, Miami, Oklahoma and Kansas have all offered him so far, but right now, two schools seem to be most prominent:
Pitt and Penn State
Cephas will be at Penn State for an official visit this weekend, but that won’t be his first visit as a transfer portal prospect. He was at Pitt multiple times this week already. I’ve confirmed two unofficial visits to the South Side, with the most recent coming on Thursday, and I’ve heard he could be back again today before he heads to State College.
Does this mean his decision will come down to the in-state schools? Probably. But there are some appealing options among those other schools that have offered, and I have to imagine he’ll be tempted to take a look.
At the same time, Cephas is working on a short schedule. He wants to enroll at his new school in January, which means he has from now until next Sunday to visit anywhere he wants to consider (at least, that’s the window for taking hosted visits; he could always drive to South Bend and walk around and see what he thinks, but he couldn’t interact with the coaches there after next Sunday).
So the timeline might end up forcing his hand to pick one of the schools he knows the best, has seen the most and feels comfortable at - and that would seem to point to Pitt or Penn State.
I’ve said all week that Cephas has an opportunity now that he didn’t have four years ago: he can fully experience the recruiting process, albeit on a shorter timeline, and I’ve heard that he wants to do just that. We’ll see what that means over the next 10 days.
Bech is a name I brought to the conversation yesterday, and I think he’s quickly becoming a priority target for Cignetti and the Pitt offensive staff. He hasn’t posted much in the way of offers, but Pitt is working on him and I’ve heard he is expected to visit TCU this weekend.
The Horned Frogs obviously have a lot going for them, but I expect Pitt to make a push to get Bech on campus next weekend. I don’t know if those efforts will produce a visit, but the efforts will be made.
Similarly, I think efforts will be made with Reynolds, an explosive receiver whose standout performance came last month in Florida’s loss at Vanderbilt. The Gators didn’t win, but Reynolds caught eight passes for 165 yards and two touchdowns. So far, he has tweeted offers from Pitt, Mississippi State and Appalachian State, and I’ve been told that Pitt receivers coach Tiquan Underwood visited with him on Thursday.
We’re still working to see what we can uncover on how that visit went and what it means for Reynolds’ interest in the Panthers.
I don’t have much info on Crawford at this point; we’ll work on that over the weekend. Jennings, on the other hand, is planning to visit Mississippi State and Duke in December before taking two more visits in January, so he’s on a bit of a longer timeline.
I think the priorities right now are Bech and Cephas, with Reynolds not far behind.
Tight end
At tight end, the name I’ve mentioned throughout the week is Indiana junior AJ Barner. He continues to be the top target from what we’ve gathered, and while we haven’t been able to confirm a visit yet, everything I hear points toward him leaning to Pitt.
We’ve also talked about Maryland transfer CJ Dippre, but with an official visit to Alabama in the works, it seems like that won’t happen. Truthfully, it does seem like Barner is the priority regardless, but there was at least contact with Dippre.
Running back
Running back is an interesting position to me. Israel Abanikanda is a TBD at this point, but all indications - understandably so - are that he’s likely to leave for the NFL, probably opting out of the Sun Bowl in the process.
An official decision from Abanikanda could influence Pitt’s efforts with running backs in the portal. Obviously if he comes back, which is unlikely, they wouldn’t need a portal back (or maybe they would, since his return might lead to one of the other backs leaving). But if he leaves, as is expected, I think the staff will push to get someone from the portal.
It’s probably not the worst idea anyway. With Abanikanda and Vincent Davis likely gone, Pitt would have Rodney Hammond and C’Bo Flemister set to return plus Montravius Lloyd and possibly one more freshman back. Adding an experienced player to work in a rotation with Hammond and Flemister, as well as serving as insurance against an injury, makes sense.
So far, we’ve seen Louisville freshman Trevion Cooley announce an offer from Pitt, and there have been some apparent connections between the Pitt staff and Miami back Jaylan Knighton. I don’t know where either one of those situations will lead, and to be honest, I don’t think either guy would even consider Pitt until knowing for certain what Abanikanda is doing. The staff may be having conversations along the lines of “We expect him to go,” but I don’t think any transferring Power Five back will take a serious look until something definitive will happen.
So that one is in a holding pattern.
Offensive line
The other interesting spot is the offensive line. Two transfer linemen have public Pitt offers: Kent State tackle Marcellus Marshall and Purdue guard Spencer Holstege. Both offers are relatively fresh, so we’re gathering info as we can. Overall, I don’t think there’s a dire need for offensive line transfers, as long as the guys who can return from the 2022 roster do return. If you have Matt Goncalves, Branson Taylor and Ryan Baer at tackle and Blake Zubovic, Jake Kradel and Ryan Jacoby in the interior, you’ve got a good group to build from, after which you’ll need to find some younger players to step up - guys like Terrence Moore and Terrence Enos.
That said, if you can get a mature, developed, veteran lineman who has experience, you bring him in.
Continued...
This is how December has always gone. The season ends and coaches go on the road. New targets emerge, new offers go out, commits are reinforced and young prospects get seen by the coaches.
Add in the transfer portal, and things are positively crazy. Lots of activity and lots to track down, so let’s recap everything we learned this week.
By my count, there were more than a dozen offers to players in the transfer portal this week. Let’s look at them.
Quarterback
At the top of the list was Phil Jurkovec, the Pine-Richland standout who went to Notre Dame and transferred to Boston College for the last three years before re-entering the portal to find a new home for his final year of college football.
Pitt will be that home. The key here is the familiarity with Pitt offensive coordinator Frank Cignetti and his offense. Jurkovec feels like the offense is a good fit for him, and Cignetti knows Jurkovec is a good fit for the offense, based on the time they worked together at Boston College.
So if nothing else, there should be a higher likelihood of success with Jurkovec than there was with Kedon Slovis, simply based on that prior experience. We’ll see what happens.
The other name we have talked about a lot is Penn State underclassman Christian Veilleux. We’ve talked a lot about the coaches looking to get a veteran transfer to be the starter in 2023 and a younger transfer to compete for the job in 2024.
Jurkvoec is obviously the veteran transfer, and it seems like the coaches want Veilleux to be the younger transfer. I initially heard he was expected to visit Pitt this weekend, but it sounds like that will happen next weekend instead.
I think Pitt’s in good shape here, but we’ll see how things develop over the next week.
Wide receiver
The next priority, from where I’m sitting, has been receiver. I count five transfer receivers who have been identified as targets for the staff, and that’s more than any other position, as far as I can tell. Here are the five:
Jack Bech (LSU)
Dante Cephas (Kent State)
Daejon Reynolds (Florida)
Decoldest Crawford (Nebraska)
Ali Jennings (Old Dominion)
Cephas is obviously the most relevant name. He’s a local, having graduated from Penn Hills in the class of 2019. He picked Kent State over a handful of MAC offers, mostly due to grades, and now he’s got his choice of top schools nationally. Pitt, Penn State, West Virginia, Notre Dame, Georgia, Maryland, Colorado, Virginia Tech, Miami, Oklahoma and Kansas have all offered him so far, but right now, two schools seem to be most prominent:
Pitt and Penn State
Cephas will be at Penn State for an official visit this weekend, but that won’t be his first visit as a transfer portal prospect. He was at Pitt multiple times this week already. I’ve confirmed two unofficial visits to the South Side, with the most recent coming on Thursday, and I’ve heard he could be back again today before he heads to State College.
Does this mean his decision will come down to the in-state schools? Probably. But there are some appealing options among those other schools that have offered, and I have to imagine he’ll be tempted to take a look.
At the same time, Cephas is working on a short schedule. He wants to enroll at his new school in January, which means he has from now until next Sunday to visit anywhere he wants to consider (at least, that’s the window for taking hosted visits; he could always drive to South Bend and walk around and see what he thinks, but he couldn’t interact with the coaches there after next Sunday).
So the timeline might end up forcing his hand to pick one of the schools he knows the best, has seen the most and feels comfortable at - and that would seem to point to Pitt or Penn State.
I’ve said all week that Cephas has an opportunity now that he didn’t have four years ago: he can fully experience the recruiting process, albeit on a shorter timeline, and I’ve heard that he wants to do just that. We’ll see what that means over the next 10 days.
Bech is a name I brought to the conversation yesterday, and I think he’s quickly becoming a priority target for Cignetti and the Pitt offensive staff. He hasn’t posted much in the way of offers, but Pitt is working on him and I’ve heard he is expected to visit TCU this weekend.
The Horned Frogs obviously have a lot going for them, but I expect Pitt to make a push to get Bech on campus next weekend. I don’t know if those efforts will produce a visit, but the efforts will be made.
Similarly, I think efforts will be made with Reynolds, an explosive receiver whose standout performance came last month in Florida’s loss at Vanderbilt. The Gators didn’t win, but Reynolds caught eight passes for 165 yards and two touchdowns. So far, he has tweeted offers from Pitt, Mississippi State and Appalachian State, and I’ve been told that Pitt receivers coach Tiquan Underwood visited with him on Thursday.
We’re still working to see what we can uncover on how that visit went and what it means for Reynolds’ interest in the Panthers.
I don’t have much info on Crawford at this point; we’ll work on that over the weekend. Jennings, on the other hand, is planning to visit Mississippi State and Duke in December before taking two more visits in January, so he’s on a bit of a longer timeline.
I think the priorities right now are Bech and Cephas, with Reynolds not far behind.
Tight end
At tight end, the name I’ve mentioned throughout the week is Indiana junior AJ Barner. He continues to be the top target from what we’ve gathered, and while we haven’t been able to confirm a visit yet, everything I hear points toward him leaning to Pitt.
We’ve also talked about Maryland transfer CJ Dippre, but with an official visit to Alabama in the works, it seems like that won’t happen. Truthfully, it does seem like Barner is the priority regardless, but there was at least contact with Dippre.
Running back
Running back is an interesting position to me. Israel Abanikanda is a TBD at this point, but all indications - understandably so - are that he’s likely to leave for the NFL, probably opting out of the Sun Bowl in the process.
An official decision from Abanikanda could influence Pitt’s efforts with running backs in the portal. Obviously if he comes back, which is unlikely, they wouldn’t need a portal back (or maybe they would, since his return might lead to one of the other backs leaving). But if he leaves, as is expected, I think the staff will push to get someone from the portal.
It’s probably not the worst idea anyway. With Abanikanda and Vincent Davis likely gone, Pitt would have Rodney Hammond and C’Bo Flemister set to return plus Montravius Lloyd and possibly one more freshman back. Adding an experienced player to work in a rotation with Hammond and Flemister, as well as serving as insurance against an injury, makes sense.
So far, we’ve seen Louisville freshman Trevion Cooley announce an offer from Pitt, and there have been some apparent connections between the Pitt staff and Miami back Jaylan Knighton. I don’t know where either one of those situations will lead, and to be honest, I don’t think either guy would even consider Pitt until knowing for certain what Abanikanda is doing. The staff may be having conversations along the lines of “We expect him to go,” but I don’t think any transferring Power Five back will take a serious look until something definitive will happen.
So that one is in a holding pattern.
Offensive line
The other interesting spot is the offensive line. Two transfer linemen have public Pitt offers: Kent State tackle Marcellus Marshall and Purdue guard Spencer Holstege. Both offers are relatively fresh, so we’re gathering info as we can. Overall, I don’t think there’s a dire need for offensive line transfers, as long as the guys who can return from the 2022 roster do return. If you have Matt Goncalves, Branson Taylor and Ryan Baer at tackle and Blake Zubovic, Jake Kradel and Ryan Jacoby in the interior, you’ve got a good group to build from, after which you’ll need to find some younger players to step up - guys like Terrence Moore and Terrence Enos.
That said, if you can get a mature, developed, veteran lineman who has experience, you bring him in.
Continued...
Last edited:
