March 23, 2012
Welcome back to another edition of In the Pitt, Panther-Lair.com’s rundown on everything going on in Pitt football. This week isn’t our longest edition of In the Pitt, but we wanted to hit on a few key areas before the weekend.
First one in
Pitt got its first commitment in the class of 2013 last Sunday when committed before leaving campus. Orndoff was something of an easy one, since he committed to Wisconsin last summer. Now the staff he had a good relationship with was bringing the offense he wanted to play in to the school that is closest to his home.
It’s a perfect match, and a good pickup for Pitt.
At 6’6” 245, Orndoff is a big tight end who can run very well for a player his size. Here are junior highlights of Orndoff in action during the 2011 season at Seton-La Salle.
Looking for more
Pitt isn’t done recruiting tight ends, though. The coaching staff wants to take two in this class, and earlier this week they offered Dayton (Oh.) Archbishop Alter’s Greg Hart.
Hart is intriguing for a number of reasons. At 6’5” 225, he’s another pass-catching tight end - in his highlight film, it says he is a wide receiver - who can be a playmaker in the offense.
When we spoke to Hart about his offer this week, it became pretty clear that Pitt’s in good shape. He has known the coaches since he attended Wisconsin’s prospect camp last summer and he likes the offense they run. Plus, he knows Orndoff from that same prospect camp, and when I asked him whether he was concerned about being recruited by a team that just landed a commitment from a tight end, this is what he said:
“…most schools that I talk to are trying to recruit two tight ends. So you realize that and understand it's the case, and if you know the other tight end that a school takes and you're friends with him, that makes it a little easier.”
Right now Hart has a few other BCS offers, Indiana and Kentucky, so Pitt is in good shape in terms of the competition, and his affinity for the offense, the coaches, and Orndoff - they still keep in touch - makes me think Pitt could be the team to beat. The only thing missing is a visit to Pitt, and Hart plans to do that soon.
The other angle to recruiting Hart is his teammate, four-star quarterback Malik Zaire. Hart and Zaire are close, and that seems like a good transition into a discussion on quarterbacks.
The most important position
Pitt has three primary targets at quarterback in the class of 2013: Zaire, Tra’von Chapman from Kent (Oh.) Theodore Roosevelt.
Chapman is visiting Pitt today, while Rawlins visited last Sunday and he preferred WVU over Pitt, which caught a lot of people’s attention.
But consider the quote:
"Honestly, I would say West Virginia was a little better than Pitt, just as a practice. I would say I liked the intensity and the fast pace and more organized stations. That caught my eye a little more at West Virginia.”
Rawlins is saying he liked the way WVU practiced better than Pitt. He’s not saying he likes WVU as a whole better than Pitt. I’m not saying Rawlins is a lock for Pitt, but I also don’t take that quote to mean Pitt is trailing WVU. He’s got a good relationship with the coaching staff and did say that he liked Pitt’s practice.
Still, the top target appears to be Zaire. Pitt obviously likes all three quarterbacks, but Zaire seems to be the one the coaches like the most and it’s not hard to see why. Fresh off a year of working with Russell Wilson at Wisconsin, Paul Chyrst and Joe Rudolph have had their eyes on Zaire for quite some time.
Initially Pitt was in very good shape, as Zaire said that become a top six. Pitt is still in the mix and so are Ohio State and Nebraska, but now Alabama, Wisconsin, and Notre Dame have joined in as well.
Pitt will have two things working for it in this situation: 1) the connection Zaire has with the coaches, and 2) Greg Hart, if Pitt can land him. Don’t overlook the connection with the coaches or how strong those relationships are. Hart has said several times that Zaire told him how much he liked his visit to Pitt in February, and when Hart called Rudolph last week - which led to his offer from Pitt - the call was made at Zaire’s behest.
If Pitt can land Hart - and I think they have a good chance - then they’ll have as much ammo as they can get in the recruitment of Zaire. It’s still not going to be easy with Ohio State and Notre Dame and Alabama in the mix, but he’ll visit again before spring camp is over, and that visit will probably be in tandem with Hart; it never hurts to have two recruits together on a visit, especially if you have a good chance of landing one of them.
Another key target
Pitt hosted a number of big-time recruits on Sunday. Orndoff and Rawlins were at practice, as were Clairton receiver Dorian Johnson. All four of those recruits are important to Pitt’s recruiting class of 2013, but Johnson may have the biggest combination of recruiting significance and a need position.
Simply put, Johnson would be a huge get for Pitt. While the Panthers need a few playmaking receivers like Boyd or Robert Foster, they need offensive tackles more than anything. And Johnson is as big-time as they get, with an offer sheet that lists Alabama, Boston College, Cincinnati, Connecticut, Maryland, Michigan State, Ole Miss, Nebraska, Notre Dame, Ohio State, Penn State, Rutgers, Temple, Tennessee, Toledo, Virginia, Virginia Tech, West Virginia, and Wisconsin.
Despite all of those offers, there’s one theme for Johnson:
He wants to stay close to home. And from what I’ve heard, it sounds like that will mean Pitt or Penn State. Here’s our article on Johnson’s visit to Pitt practice.
Organizational skills
A final note that I think is important to understand regarding Pitt’s recruiting thus far.
When the new coaching staff was hired, there was a perception that they were moving slowly in recruiting. Perhaps too slowly. And perhaps that perception still exists. I think it might, and I think it’s somewhat understandable because they are moving slowly.
Call it “deliberate” or call it “plodding;” either way, they certainly haven’t been hasty about recruiting, either with locking up the class of 2012 or getting started on the class of 2013.
I think there are some explanations for why the coaches have progressed like this so far. There is a lot that goes on behind the scenes in recruiting, and the best way I can describe the bulk of it is to call it “organizational.” From scouting film to transcripts to contact information to schedules of mailings to elements you would never think of when it comes to the considerable project that is Division I college football recruiting, there’s a ton that goes into the process.
At the end of the day, recruiting is a product of the coaches’ efforts and prowess on the recruiting trail. But that’s the end of the day; the rest of the day is full of activity that is decidedly more in the background.
The problem this staff encountered when it arrived in December was that the people who were familiar with Pitt’s system of organization with regards to recruiting had all left. Tony Gibson, Tony Dews, and Mike Norvell all had some form of “recruiting coordinator” in their titles; presumably they were in charge of those materials and that organization, and they were gone. Bob Junko and Chris LaSala had some familiarity with the system, but each of those guys has his own job that extends beyond the recruiting process.
So there was a real sense of “starting-over” for the new staff when they got to Pittsburgh. Part of that probably explains the occasionally questionable approaches to the class of 2012, and some of it explains the occasionally slow approaches to the class of 2013. Everything has to be identified, organized, and evaluated; from there, decisions had to be made. In the meantime, the coaches also had to evaluate the current team, devise schemes for offense, defense, and special teams, and develop a plan for spring camp.
Now, it’s reasonable for a Pitt fan to point out that Todd Graham’s staff didn’t seem to operate in the same manner last year when those coaches arrived. But here’s the key difference: when Graham got to Pitt, the football program had Matt Dudek in place as Asst. Director of Football Operations. Dudek handled all of those organizational items in recruiting, so there was no “search” campaign that had to take place. The transition was smoother because there was someone there to facilitate it.
Junko and LaSala have done their best over the past three months, but again, there was only so much they could do. Graham removed Dudek over the summer to make room for Blair Philbrick, who took the Asst. Director of Football Ops title but not the organizational responsibilities Dudek had developed.
This is what I was talking about when Pitt announced that Dann Kabala had been hired as Player Personnel Director. You need a non-coach to handle that side of recruiting. I’d even go so far as to say it’s essential. Coaches have enough on their schedules that they don’t need to be bogged down with the extra - and tedious - organizational elements of recruiting. You need a non-coach who can be 100% dedicated to that side of things. If you have that, then the coaches’ involvement in recruiting is 1) evaluation, and 2) actual recruiting.
And if you have the non-coaching position handling that stuff, then a transition can be much smoother. This is why Kabala was an important hire for an important position. I think he will do fine in that job, and it’s important that they “re-established” the position.
Impressive stuff
I don’t want to belabor the point on this much more than I have, but I feel like I should point out the Dan Mason story one more. We ran an article on Mason and his injury recovery today, and I don’t know if it fully explains what Mason has gone through.
The brief version:
Mason dislocated his knee against Miami in 2010. The knee took a long time to heal, but the dislocation entrapped - or pinched - the peroneal nerve in his right leg. That nerve stimulates the muscles that control the up-and-down movement of your foot. Put your foot flat on the floor; now lift the front of your foot off the ground so that it forms a 45-degree angle with your leg. The muscles that control that movement are stimulated by the peroneal nerve. It seems like a pretty simple movement.
Mason can’t move his foot like that. He can’t. If he lifts his foot, the front of his foot will point toward the ground. I think they call it “drop foot.” So Mason wears a brace at practice that wraps around the bottom of his foot and connects to a brace around his ankle. That keeps his foot at a 90-degree angle with his leg.
When you’re dealing with this kind of injury and wearing that kind of brace, you’re not supposed to be able to run. And you’re definitely not going to be able to play football.
But Mason is, and it defies every known piece of research, let alone logic.
It’s amazing that Mason has recovered from the knee dislocation, which was a long, slow rehab in and of itself. But that’s doable. If you have the patience and dedication, you can rehab that injury over time. Willis McGahee had a knee dislocation at Miami, and he has led a lengthy NFL career.
The nerve injury, though, is not recovery-prone. That nerve won’t regenerate; it will heal, slowly, but never get back to its pre-injury condition. When you suffer that injury, you can’t play football again. You can’t, no matter how hard you work and how patient you are. But Mason is. There’s no explanation for it other than faith and will, and Mason has a lot of both. He will be a case study that gets reviewed in years to come.
Unbelievable stuff.
Welcome back to another edition of In the Pitt, Panther-Lair.com’s rundown on everything going on in Pitt football. This week isn’t our longest edition of In the Pitt, but we wanted to hit on a few key areas before the weekend.
First one in
Pitt got its first commitment in the class of 2013 last Sunday when committed before leaving campus. Orndoff was something of an easy one, since he committed to Wisconsin last summer. Now the staff he had a good relationship with was bringing the offense he wanted to play in to the school that is closest to his home.
It’s a perfect match, and a good pickup for Pitt.
At 6’6” 245, Orndoff is a big tight end who can run very well for a player his size. Here are junior highlights of Orndoff in action during the 2011 season at Seton-La Salle.
Looking for more
Pitt isn’t done recruiting tight ends, though. The coaching staff wants to take two in this class, and earlier this week they offered Dayton (Oh.) Archbishop Alter’s Greg Hart.
Hart is intriguing for a number of reasons. At 6’5” 225, he’s another pass-catching tight end - in his highlight film, it says he is a wide receiver - who can be a playmaker in the offense.
When we spoke to Hart about his offer this week, it became pretty clear that Pitt’s in good shape. He has known the coaches since he attended Wisconsin’s prospect camp last summer and he likes the offense they run. Plus, he knows Orndoff from that same prospect camp, and when I asked him whether he was concerned about being recruited by a team that just landed a commitment from a tight end, this is what he said:
“…most schools that I talk to are trying to recruit two tight ends. So you realize that and understand it's the case, and if you know the other tight end that a school takes and you're friends with him, that makes it a little easier.”
Right now Hart has a few other BCS offers, Indiana and Kentucky, so Pitt is in good shape in terms of the competition, and his affinity for the offense, the coaches, and Orndoff - they still keep in touch - makes me think Pitt could be the team to beat. The only thing missing is a visit to Pitt, and Hart plans to do that soon.
The other angle to recruiting Hart is his teammate, four-star quarterback Malik Zaire. Hart and Zaire are close, and that seems like a good transition into a discussion on quarterbacks.
The most important position
Pitt has three primary targets at quarterback in the class of 2013: Zaire, Tra’von Chapman from Kent (Oh.) Theodore Roosevelt.
Chapman is visiting Pitt today, while Rawlins visited last Sunday and he preferred WVU over Pitt, which caught a lot of people’s attention.
But consider the quote:
"Honestly, I would say West Virginia was a little better than Pitt, just as a practice. I would say I liked the intensity and the fast pace and more organized stations. That caught my eye a little more at West Virginia.”
Rawlins is saying he liked the way WVU practiced better than Pitt. He’s not saying he likes WVU as a whole better than Pitt. I’m not saying Rawlins is a lock for Pitt, but I also don’t take that quote to mean Pitt is trailing WVU. He’s got a good relationship with the coaching staff and did say that he liked Pitt’s practice.
Still, the top target appears to be Zaire. Pitt obviously likes all three quarterbacks, but Zaire seems to be the one the coaches like the most and it’s not hard to see why. Fresh off a year of working with Russell Wilson at Wisconsin, Paul Chyrst and Joe Rudolph have had their eyes on Zaire for quite some time.
Initially Pitt was in very good shape, as Zaire said that become a top six. Pitt is still in the mix and so are Ohio State and Nebraska, but now Alabama, Wisconsin, and Notre Dame have joined in as well.
Pitt will have two things working for it in this situation: 1) the connection Zaire has with the coaches, and 2) Greg Hart, if Pitt can land him. Don’t overlook the connection with the coaches or how strong those relationships are. Hart has said several times that Zaire told him how much he liked his visit to Pitt in February, and when Hart called Rudolph last week - which led to his offer from Pitt - the call was made at Zaire’s behest.
If Pitt can land Hart - and I think they have a good chance - then they’ll have as much ammo as they can get in the recruitment of Zaire. It’s still not going to be easy with Ohio State and Notre Dame and Alabama in the mix, but he’ll visit again before spring camp is over, and that visit will probably be in tandem with Hart; it never hurts to have two recruits together on a visit, especially if you have a good chance of landing one of them.
Another key target
Pitt hosted a number of big-time recruits on Sunday. Orndoff and Rawlins were at practice, as were Clairton receiver Dorian Johnson. All four of those recruits are important to Pitt’s recruiting class of 2013, but Johnson may have the biggest combination of recruiting significance and a need position.
Simply put, Johnson would be a huge get for Pitt. While the Panthers need a few playmaking receivers like Boyd or Robert Foster, they need offensive tackles more than anything. And Johnson is as big-time as they get, with an offer sheet that lists Alabama, Boston College, Cincinnati, Connecticut, Maryland, Michigan State, Ole Miss, Nebraska, Notre Dame, Ohio State, Penn State, Rutgers, Temple, Tennessee, Toledo, Virginia, Virginia Tech, West Virginia, and Wisconsin.
Despite all of those offers, there’s one theme for Johnson:
He wants to stay close to home. And from what I’ve heard, it sounds like that will mean Pitt or Penn State. Here’s our article on Johnson’s visit to Pitt practice.
Organizational skills
A final note that I think is important to understand regarding Pitt’s recruiting thus far.
When the new coaching staff was hired, there was a perception that they were moving slowly in recruiting. Perhaps too slowly. And perhaps that perception still exists. I think it might, and I think it’s somewhat understandable because they are moving slowly.
Call it “deliberate” or call it “plodding;” either way, they certainly haven’t been hasty about recruiting, either with locking up the class of 2012 or getting started on the class of 2013.
I think there are some explanations for why the coaches have progressed like this so far. There is a lot that goes on behind the scenes in recruiting, and the best way I can describe the bulk of it is to call it “organizational.” From scouting film to transcripts to contact information to schedules of mailings to elements you would never think of when it comes to the considerable project that is Division I college football recruiting, there’s a ton that goes into the process.
At the end of the day, recruiting is a product of the coaches’ efforts and prowess on the recruiting trail. But that’s the end of the day; the rest of the day is full of activity that is decidedly more in the background.
The problem this staff encountered when it arrived in December was that the people who were familiar with Pitt’s system of organization with regards to recruiting had all left. Tony Gibson, Tony Dews, and Mike Norvell all had some form of “recruiting coordinator” in their titles; presumably they were in charge of those materials and that organization, and they were gone. Bob Junko and Chris LaSala had some familiarity with the system, but each of those guys has his own job that extends beyond the recruiting process.
So there was a real sense of “starting-over” for the new staff when they got to Pittsburgh. Part of that probably explains the occasionally questionable approaches to the class of 2012, and some of it explains the occasionally slow approaches to the class of 2013. Everything has to be identified, organized, and evaluated; from there, decisions had to be made. In the meantime, the coaches also had to evaluate the current team, devise schemes for offense, defense, and special teams, and develop a plan for spring camp.
Now, it’s reasonable for a Pitt fan to point out that Todd Graham’s staff didn’t seem to operate in the same manner last year when those coaches arrived. But here’s the key difference: when Graham got to Pitt, the football program had Matt Dudek in place as Asst. Director of Football Operations. Dudek handled all of those organizational items in recruiting, so there was no “search” campaign that had to take place. The transition was smoother because there was someone there to facilitate it.
Junko and LaSala have done their best over the past three months, but again, there was only so much they could do. Graham removed Dudek over the summer to make room for Blair Philbrick, who took the Asst. Director of Football Ops title but not the organizational responsibilities Dudek had developed.
This is what I was talking about when Pitt announced that Dann Kabala had been hired as Player Personnel Director. You need a non-coach to handle that side of recruiting. I’d even go so far as to say it’s essential. Coaches have enough on their schedules that they don’t need to be bogged down with the extra - and tedious - organizational elements of recruiting. You need a non-coach who can be 100% dedicated to that side of things. If you have that, then the coaches’ involvement in recruiting is 1) evaluation, and 2) actual recruiting.
And if you have the non-coaching position handling that stuff, then a transition can be much smoother. This is why Kabala was an important hire for an important position. I think he will do fine in that job, and it’s important that they “re-established” the position.
Impressive stuff
I don’t want to belabor the point on this much more than I have, but I feel like I should point out the Dan Mason story one more. We ran an article on Mason and his injury recovery today, and I don’t know if it fully explains what Mason has gone through.
The brief version:
Mason dislocated his knee against Miami in 2010. The knee took a long time to heal, but the dislocation entrapped - or pinched - the peroneal nerve in his right leg. That nerve stimulates the muscles that control the up-and-down movement of your foot. Put your foot flat on the floor; now lift the front of your foot off the ground so that it forms a 45-degree angle with your leg. The muscles that control that movement are stimulated by the peroneal nerve. It seems like a pretty simple movement.
Mason can’t move his foot like that. He can’t. If he lifts his foot, the front of his foot will point toward the ground. I think they call it “drop foot.” So Mason wears a brace at practice that wraps around the bottom of his foot and connects to a brace around his ankle. That keeps his foot at a 90-degree angle with his leg.
When you’re dealing with this kind of injury and wearing that kind of brace, you’re not supposed to be able to run. And you’re definitely not going to be able to play football.
But Mason is, and it defies every known piece of research, let alone logic.
It’s amazing that Mason has recovered from the knee dislocation, which was a long, slow rehab in and of itself. But that’s doable. If you have the patience and dedication, you can rehab that injury over time. Willis McGahee had a knee dislocation at Miami, and he has led a lengthy NFL career.
The nerve injury, though, is not recovery-prone. That nerve won’t regenerate; it will heal, slowly, but never get back to its pre-injury condition. When you suffer that injury, you can’t play football again. You can’t, no matter how hard you work and how patient you are. But Mason is. There’s no explanation for it other than faith and will, and Mason has a lot of both. He will be a case study that gets reviewed in years to come.
Unbelievable stuff.
