There was a little bit of everything on Wednesday when it comes to Pitt recruiting: good news, bad news, interesting news and more. Here’s the latest on what we’re hearing.
- The big recruiting news on Wednesday wasn’t good news for Pitt, as Miami (Fla.) Columbus running back Henry Parrish made it official by announcing his decommitment from the Panthers. As we all know, this was a long time coming. He committed in June but was talking about taking other official visits before the season even started, and that talk only intensified when he blew up on the field.
As a senior, Parrish averaged 8.8 yards per carry and rushed for 2,319 yards and 28 touchdowns in 14 games. There’s no question that he’s really good; we’ve known that, and like I said, we’ve known that he was trending away from Pitt for quite some time.
But we’ve also known that Parrish wasn’t the only good running back in Pitt’s class. The Panthers also landed a June commitment from Israel Abanikanda, who averaged 9.9 yards per carry and rushed for 1,350 yards and 20 touchdowns at Lincoln High School in Brooklyn. It’s not the same level of competition, to be sure, but Abanikanda is no slouch and he was named the Gatorade Player of the Year for the state of New York, so he’s got some accolades to his name.
Does it hurt to lose Parrish? Absolutely. Is his departure going to make or break Pitt’s class? No. Will Pitt pursue another running back? That’s an interesting question.
- One potential target is Jalen Berger, a four-star prospect from Don Bosco Prep in New Jersey. Pitt running backs coach Andre Powell visited him last Wednesday and we believe there has been a follow-up visit this week, although we haven’t confirmed it.
Berger is probably a long shot; most expectations are that he will get into the hype of Greg Schiano’s return and pick Rutgers when he commits on Jan. 4. According to the Rivals.com database, he has only taken one official visit - he went to Wisconsin in November - so this weekend is the key weekend, as every school pursuing him will be trying to get him on campus for an official visit.
I don’t know if Pitt will be able to pull it off; we’ll see what develops in the next 48 hours.
- The other notable news to emerge on Wednesday was that Florida State offered Valdosta (Ga.) quarterback Tate Rodemaker. Rodemaker, of course, has emerged as Pitt’s top quarterback target late in the cycle for the 2020 recruiting class, and FSU is the most recent in a line of Power Five programs to offer him as the mad scramble for a quarterback is on.
The FSU offer is really significant - more so than the offers from Northwestern and Baylor that Rodemaker picked up previously. Rodemaker had scheduled an official visit to Northwestern for this weekend, but when he got the FSU offer, he dropped that visit and promptly scheduled one to Tallahassee.
For Pitt, this is clearly a blow. Offensive coordinator Mark Whipple honed in on Rodemaker as his top priority, and it was all going swimmingly until this development. The last I heard, Whipple and Pat Narduzzi were expected to visit Rodemaker today; we’ll see if they can swing the pendulum back. They do have the advantage of being able to say that they were the first Power Five school to offer him, but FSU can even trump that to some extent since new Seminoles coach Mike Norvell offered Rodemaker when he was the head coach at Memphis.
- The interesting offshoot of the Rodemaker news is that Norvell’s offer came as the second half of his reordering of FSU’s quarterback recruiting chart. The first half came earlier this week when Norvell told four-star dual-threat quarterback Jeff Sims, who had been committed to the Seminoles since February, that he was not a good fit for the offense FSU would be running. That put the No. 15 dual-threat quarterback prospect in the country back on the market one week before Signing Day, which is obviously very interesting.
Sims took an official visit to Georgia Tech in November after Willie Taggart was fired and then visited Maryland last weekend. The Yellow Jackets are probably the favorite, but I expect Pitt to have a conversation with him, because as fortune would have it, Narduzzi was already planning to be in Jacksonville on Thursday. There’s no reason not to say hello and see if Sims would have any interest in taking a weekend trip to Pittsburgh.
I don’t know if anything will come of it, but there will be a conversation, so we’ll see what happens.
- Narduzzi’s previously-planned trip to Jacksonville is for safety Derek Bermudez, one of the Panthers’ top targets at this point in the process. A Florida State decommit himself, Bermudez took official visits to Pitt and Georgia Tech in November and will finish his recruiting trips this weekend with a visit to Ole Miss. He was considering the Rebels but put those plans on hold when they changed coaches. Now Lane Kiffin’s staff has reached out and will host him over the weekend.
That puts another hat in the ring, so to speak. I like Pitt’s chances, but they’ll obviously have to survive the trip to Oxford.
- Turning the focus back to Wednesday’s recruiting for a second, Narduzzi had a busy one. He started his morning in Ohio where he met with linebacker commit Bangally Kamara. Then he headed up to Detroit for an 11:30 press conference to preview the Quick Lane Bowl. After that, he boarded a plane for Florida to visit Clearwater Academy International defensive lineman Ahkeem Mesidor.
Mesidor attends the same school that produced current Panthers Habakkuk Baldonado and Jared Wayne, so there’s a connection for the Pitt staff there. He will be on campus this weekend for an official visit; that will be his fifth official, following trips to West Virginia, UCLA, Georgia Tech and Syracuse.
It seems that WVU is the favorite right now, but the old cliché in recruiting is that it’s best to have the last visit. Pitt is in that position with Mesidor (but not with Bermudez, so you can decide how much you want that to mean).
- Also on Wednesday, receivers coach Chris Beatty visited receiver commit Jaylon Barden and defensive line coach Charlie Partridge visited defensive end commit Sam Williams.
- Narduzzi will be busy on Thursday with visits to see Rodemaker and Bermudez (and possibly more; you never know this time of year). Beatty will leave his follow his Wednesday visit with Barden by traveling north to see receiver commit Jordan Addison.
I’m trying to confirm this, but I have also heard that Partridge will visit defensive tackle commit Timothy Brown on Thursday. The Palm Beach Lakes standout was arrested this fall but Pitt has stood by him while the details of that situation get sorted out, and he’s still on the commitment list. The key thing I’m looking for today is whether or not Narduzzi joins Partridge on the visit; if he does, that could signal a step forward in the situation and potentially Brown signing next week.
The staff may want to sit back and wait a bit longer while everything gets settled, though. I think that’s understandable. We’ll see what comes out of today’s visit.
Stay tuned. I’m sure there will be updates throughout the day.
- The big recruiting news on Wednesday wasn’t good news for Pitt, as Miami (Fla.) Columbus running back Henry Parrish made it official by announcing his decommitment from the Panthers. As we all know, this was a long time coming. He committed in June but was talking about taking other official visits before the season even started, and that talk only intensified when he blew up on the field.
As a senior, Parrish averaged 8.8 yards per carry and rushed for 2,319 yards and 28 touchdowns in 14 games. There’s no question that he’s really good; we’ve known that, and like I said, we’ve known that he was trending away from Pitt for quite some time.
But we’ve also known that Parrish wasn’t the only good running back in Pitt’s class. The Panthers also landed a June commitment from Israel Abanikanda, who averaged 9.9 yards per carry and rushed for 1,350 yards and 20 touchdowns at Lincoln High School in Brooklyn. It’s not the same level of competition, to be sure, but Abanikanda is no slouch and he was named the Gatorade Player of the Year for the state of New York, so he’s got some accolades to his name.
Does it hurt to lose Parrish? Absolutely. Is his departure going to make or break Pitt’s class? No. Will Pitt pursue another running back? That’s an interesting question.
- One potential target is Jalen Berger, a four-star prospect from Don Bosco Prep in New Jersey. Pitt running backs coach Andre Powell visited him last Wednesday and we believe there has been a follow-up visit this week, although we haven’t confirmed it.
Berger is probably a long shot; most expectations are that he will get into the hype of Greg Schiano’s return and pick Rutgers when he commits on Jan. 4. According to the Rivals.com database, he has only taken one official visit - he went to Wisconsin in November - so this weekend is the key weekend, as every school pursuing him will be trying to get him on campus for an official visit.
I don’t know if Pitt will be able to pull it off; we’ll see what develops in the next 48 hours.
- The other notable news to emerge on Wednesday was that Florida State offered Valdosta (Ga.) quarterback Tate Rodemaker. Rodemaker, of course, has emerged as Pitt’s top quarterback target late in the cycle for the 2020 recruiting class, and FSU is the most recent in a line of Power Five programs to offer him as the mad scramble for a quarterback is on.
The FSU offer is really significant - more so than the offers from Northwestern and Baylor that Rodemaker picked up previously. Rodemaker had scheduled an official visit to Northwestern for this weekend, but when he got the FSU offer, he dropped that visit and promptly scheduled one to Tallahassee.
For Pitt, this is clearly a blow. Offensive coordinator Mark Whipple honed in on Rodemaker as his top priority, and it was all going swimmingly until this development. The last I heard, Whipple and Pat Narduzzi were expected to visit Rodemaker today; we’ll see if they can swing the pendulum back. They do have the advantage of being able to say that they were the first Power Five school to offer him, but FSU can even trump that to some extent since new Seminoles coach Mike Norvell offered Rodemaker when he was the head coach at Memphis.
- The interesting offshoot of the Rodemaker news is that Norvell’s offer came as the second half of his reordering of FSU’s quarterback recruiting chart. The first half came earlier this week when Norvell told four-star dual-threat quarterback Jeff Sims, who had been committed to the Seminoles since February, that he was not a good fit for the offense FSU would be running. That put the No. 15 dual-threat quarterback prospect in the country back on the market one week before Signing Day, which is obviously very interesting.
Sims took an official visit to Georgia Tech in November after Willie Taggart was fired and then visited Maryland last weekend. The Yellow Jackets are probably the favorite, but I expect Pitt to have a conversation with him, because as fortune would have it, Narduzzi was already planning to be in Jacksonville on Thursday. There’s no reason not to say hello and see if Sims would have any interest in taking a weekend trip to Pittsburgh.
I don’t know if anything will come of it, but there will be a conversation, so we’ll see what happens.
- Narduzzi’s previously-planned trip to Jacksonville is for safety Derek Bermudez, one of the Panthers’ top targets at this point in the process. A Florida State decommit himself, Bermudez took official visits to Pitt and Georgia Tech in November and will finish his recruiting trips this weekend with a visit to Ole Miss. He was considering the Rebels but put those plans on hold when they changed coaches. Now Lane Kiffin’s staff has reached out and will host him over the weekend.
That puts another hat in the ring, so to speak. I like Pitt’s chances, but they’ll obviously have to survive the trip to Oxford.
- Turning the focus back to Wednesday’s recruiting for a second, Narduzzi had a busy one. He started his morning in Ohio where he met with linebacker commit Bangally Kamara. Then he headed up to Detroit for an 11:30 press conference to preview the Quick Lane Bowl. After that, he boarded a plane for Florida to visit Clearwater Academy International defensive lineman Ahkeem Mesidor.
Mesidor attends the same school that produced current Panthers Habakkuk Baldonado and Jared Wayne, so there’s a connection for the Pitt staff there. He will be on campus this weekend for an official visit; that will be his fifth official, following trips to West Virginia, UCLA, Georgia Tech and Syracuse.
It seems that WVU is the favorite right now, but the old cliché in recruiting is that it’s best to have the last visit. Pitt is in that position with Mesidor (but not with Bermudez, so you can decide how much you want that to mean).
- Also on Wednesday, receivers coach Chris Beatty visited receiver commit Jaylon Barden and defensive line coach Charlie Partridge visited defensive end commit Sam Williams.
- Narduzzi will be busy on Thursday with visits to see Rodemaker and Bermudez (and possibly more; you never know this time of year). Beatty will leave his follow his Wednesday visit with Barden by traveling north to see receiver commit Jordan Addison.
I’m trying to confirm this, but I have also heard that Partridge will visit defensive tackle commit Timothy Brown on Thursday. The Palm Beach Lakes standout was arrested this fall but Pitt has stood by him while the details of that situation get sorted out, and he’s still on the commitment list. The key thing I’m looking for today is whether or not Narduzzi joins Partridge on the visit; if he does, that could signal a step forward in the situation and potentially Brown signing next week.
The staff may want to sit back and wait a bit longer while everything gets settled, though. I think that’s understandable. We’ll see what comes out of today’s visit.
Stay tuned. I’m sure there will be updates throughout the day.
