Welcome back to In The Pitt, PantherLair.com’s new weekly discourse featuring a roundup of everything that’s happened in the past week, with insight and inside information thrown in for good measure.
June 20, 2008
Top of The Pitt
The biggest news of the week came on Tuesday when second commitment in the class of 2009. It wasn’t all that much of a surprise that Lewis committed to Pitt: after all, he flew in from New Jersey to get measured by the Pitt coaches and meet Dave Wannstedt in person. With those two tasks accomplished, Lewis got an offer from the Panthers. After that, it was just a matter of time before he gave a verbal.
In Lewis Pitt has gotten a running back who is small in height but, as you can see in this photo show, he is not really what you would consider a small guy. At 5’7” 182, he is, as the kids say, jacked, and he has drawn favorable comparisons to Ray Rice, the former Rutgers running back and second-round pick of the Baltimore Ravens in the 2008 draft. According to the NFL.com draft page, Rice checked in at 5’8” 199 (although Greg Schiano is quoted as saying he’s 5’9” 195), so Rice is slightly taller and quite a bit heavier than Lewis, but I’m sure Buddy Morris can add a few more good pounds to Lewis.
The key with Lewis is that he’s a fast back (consistent 4.4 with sub-4.4 times on record) who, by his own account, can break tackles as well as he can make people miss in the open field. Last season, while sharing carries with two other Division I prospects at Blair Academy, Lewis gained 979 yards on 79 carries (12.4 yards per carry average) and scored 14 rushing touchdowns. He also added 10 receptions for 180 yards and 2 touchdowns, led the team with 5 interceptions (3 returned for touchdowns), served as Blair’s chief kick and punt returner, and even worked as the kickoff specialist.
The kid can do it all, and he is a classic example of not getting fooled by offer sheets: Lewis had offers from Pitt and Tulane when he committed, but all indications are that he is a legit top-of-the-line Division I prospect. With a big senior season, we’re confident he can be a four-star recruit when all is said and done (similar to Chris Burns in last year’s recruiting class).
The next one?
Could Thomas Jefferson tight end we’ve gotten the impression that a decision could be coming as soon as today. Throw in the fact that T-J recruits have, historically, committed to Pitt during or around the Panthers’ seven-on-seven passing camp, and all signs seem to point toward an impending decision.
Obviously we’ve all expected DeCicco to choose Pitt for awhile, and most smart bets had his commitment coming this weekend. It’s worth noting that there has been some noise on the outskirts that says Brock could hold off and take a few visits; we still think he does it this weekend.
Still very much in play
As we Brown named a top five with Pitt in it. When we reached him for a follow-up on that report, Brown told us that he took an unofficial visit to Pitt on Thursday and said that he is “definitely considering Pitt,” and he added that “they might be at the top of the list.”
Brown is unofficially visiting Ohio State today, but he hopes to make it back in time to attend Pitt’s Big Man Challenge tonight and he’s expecting to stop down for the second day of the passing camp tomorrow. Beyond that, Brown is looking at returning to Pitt’s facilities next week; when he makes that trip, he’s planning to bring along his grandparents, his parents, and his sister. That kind of family entourage for an unofficial visit is a pretty positive sign, and I think it’s safe to call Pitt the favorite for Brown.
He said he wasn’t sure about making a decision soon, instead shooting for the end of the summer. Nevertheless, it looks very good for Pitt right now.
Camp review
Prospect camp report ? Day Onehttp://pittsburgh.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=817482
Prospect camp report ? Day Twohttp://pittsburgh.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=817631
To say the Pitt prospect camp was underwhelming probably tells half the story. There were some excellent players who did a lot to help their recruiting standing at the two-day camp, but for the main group that we (and the Pitt coaches) were looking at ? the offensive line ? the camp was a bit underwhelming. As we sit here nearly a week after the camp, no offensive line prospects who worked out on Friday or Saturday have picked up offers.
I guess there are two ways of looking at this situation:
1. None of the linemen were worth an offer.
2. The Pitt coaches are going to use more than an afternoon’s worth of evaluation to decide who gets offered.
The truth is that the lack of offers has probably resulted from a little bit of both. By his own admission, West Mifflin OT John Wetzel has a ton of upside, but with limited scholarships (and limited spots for o-linemen), can the Pitt staff afford to take a chance, even if that chance has considerable potential?
So the search continues. That’s not to say that one or two of these guys won’t get offers from Pitt in the future, but that future might have to be after one or two games this fall.
As far as we can tell, only two new offers came out of this past weekend: Lewis’ offer, which came on Friday when he visited unofficially (not technically a “camp offer” since he didn’t work out), and the offer to Liberty WR Devin Street. Street is a 6’4” 176-pound stud who was easily the star of the show on Saturday. He suffered from being under-used as a junior, so he’s had to earn his offers the hard way: by going to camps and showing coaches what he can do in person. So far, it has paid off with offers from Pitt, Temple, Akron, Eastern Michigan, James Madison, and Stony Brook, but as his camp schedule progresses, he figures to add to that list. We like Pitt’s chances, but as his offer sheet grows, the intensity of the battle for his commitment will grow commensurately.
Beyond that, it doesn’t look like Pitt extended any other offers, although a few players definitely caught the collective eye of the coaching staff. Perhaps the biggest eye-catcher was Allderdice defensive end Pitt d-line coach Greg Gattuso is thinking the same thing, particularly as he watched Clarke consistently blow-up the offensive linemen in one-on-one drills.
Still, for all the hype surrounding Clarke’s performance on Friday, no offer came from Pitt, and as In the Pitt is going to press, he still holds only one offer. Incidentally that offer came from the Akron coaches who were assisting at the Pitt camp; after watching his performance, they saw that they had no choice but to jump on Clarke as quickly as possible. Pitt appears to be taking a different approach. The problem is, if Clarke goes to any other camps (he mentioned camping at West Virginia, for one) and performs like he did at Pitt, his offer sheet is likely to expand quickly. If that happens and Pitt is still wondering whether or not he’s worth an offer, the Panthers may end up missing the boat.
Pitt’s best chances with Clarke are to get on him early and stay after him. An early commitment from Clarke would do well to keep him from getting too enamored with the recruiting game. When I interviewed him, I got the impression that Clarke would be very receptive to a Pitt offer; in fact, I would probably call him a Pitt lean. But that window could close if he starts feeling lots of love from other BCS schools.
There were some offered prospects in attendance at the camp, too, and those are worth noting:
- You have to like the fact that Baltimore (MD) running back Tavon Austin worked out on Saturday. It’s always a good sign when an offered recruit works out at a prospect camp, particularly if that recruit comes from out of state.
- Aliquippa’s Juantez Hollins was there on Saturday, too. I think the Aliquippa pipeline will pay off for Pitt once again with Hollins, although it may take awhile for him to choose the Panthers (as it did with Jonathan Baldwin and Brandon Lindsey).
- Upper Perkiomen safety/cornerback the sounds of things, Smith came away with a very good impression of the Panthers. Smith told us that he wants to take his five official visits in the fall, but he guaranteed that Pitt would be one of those destinations. It’s never a bad thing to be in the top five for a player with 20-plus offers.
- The only other offered prospect to come to Pitt’s camp was Penn Hills linebacker that Pitt is his favorite.
The crystal ball
Thinking about Mason’s affinity for Pitt got me to thinking about the recruits that now seem very likely to end up as Panthers. Looking at The Big Boardhttp://pittsburgh.rivals.com/content.asp?SID=996&CID=803554, I put together this list. Granted, this list is very preliminary, but I think it’s a fairly accurate approximation of what Pitt’s commitment list for the class of 2009 could look like:
OL Cory King
(committed)
RB Dion Lewis
(committed)
LB Dan Mason
WR/DB Corey Brown
TE Brock DeCicco
OL/DL Juantez Hollins
WR Todd Thomas
DE Jack Lippert
OL Khalil Wilkes
DL Tyrone Ezell
ATH A.J. Fenton
Obviously several of these guys are a bit less certain that others. Thomas and Fenton are hunches; Lippert, as we’ve all heard, hinges on what Penn State does; Wilkes seems to like Pitt quite a bit, but they haven’t sewn that one up. By and large, though, I think this 11-man group has a pretty good chance of signing with Pitt. Of course I have to add the disclaimer that I’ll deny ever writing this if anyone brings it up to me in February and I was horribly wrong. But to tell the truth, the only way I envision being wrong on more than three or four of these guys is if Pitt has a terrible season, and if that happens, recruiting won’t be the biggest concern on the table.
If my estimation proves to be correct, though, I think you’ve got the foundation of a pretty solid class. Mason, Brown, Thomas, and Lippert are all four-star recruits, and Lewis, DeCicco, and Ezell, in my opinion, have a chance to join them in that regard. For that matter, I think Brown might have a shot at jumping into the next level of star rankings. And don’t be surprised if, following a season of healthy success, Wannstedt pulls in a few more top-ranked players, if not a legit five-star in the process.
Have to give props
As much as we all might want to deny (or ignore) it, Rutgers is making a killing in recruiting this year. While In the Pitt was being typed, the Scarlet Knights added three recruits on Thursday, including two with Pitt offers: tight end he visited Pitt on Monday and we interviewed him about the trip.
With Harmon, Bush, and New York fullback the Big East commitment sheet updated.
I guess the biggest question for Pitt fans is whether or not the Panthers’ reign on top of the Big East recruiting rankings will finally come to an end. So far, though, I’d have to say that the biggest contender for that top spot is coming from West Virginia. Yes, Rutgers has 10 commitments, but in those 10 are two four-stars and eight three-stars. For average stars, WVU has Rutgers beat.
In the end, though, if Pitt signs my crystal ball list and adds a few more four-stars to it, plus one or two five-stars, I think the Panthers class will rate right up there with both Rutgers and WVU. The weight of quantity (which I disagree with a little bit) might hurt Pitt a bit, but on average stars, the Panthers should be just as good as, if not better than, their Big East foes.
Thanks for joining this week’s edition of In The Pitt. Since this feature is still in its early stages, it’s safe to assume that the project will be in flux for a few weeks as we strive to find the best format. Feel free to e-mail chrispeak1@comcast.net with any suggestions, feedback, or other input.
June 20, 2008
Top of The Pitt
The biggest news of the week came on Tuesday when second commitment in the class of 2009. It wasn’t all that much of a surprise that Lewis committed to Pitt: after all, he flew in from New Jersey to get measured by the Pitt coaches and meet Dave Wannstedt in person. With those two tasks accomplished, Lewis got an offer from the Panthers. After that, it was just a matter of time before he gave a verbal.
In Lewis Pitt has gotten a running back who is small in height but, as you can see in this photo show, he is not really what you would consider a small guy. At 5’7” 182, he is, as the kids say, jacked, and he has drawn favorable comparisons to Ray Rice, the former Rutgers running back and second-round pick of the Baltimore Ravens in the 2008 draft. According to the NFL.com draft page, Rice checked in at 5’8” 199 (although Greg Schiano is quoted as saying he’s 5’9” 195), so Rice is slightly taller and quite a bit heavier than Lewis, but I’m sure Buddy Morris can add a few more good pounds to Lewis.
The key with Lewis is that he’s a fast back (consistent 4.4 with sub-4.4 times on record) who, by his own account, can break tackles as well as he can make people miss in the open field. Last season, while sharing carries with two other Division I prospects at Blair Academy, Lewis gained 979 yards on 79 carries (12.4 yards per carry average) and scored 14 rushing touchdowns. He also added 10 receptions for 180 yards and 2 touchdowns, led the team with 5 interceptions (3 returned for touchdowns), served as Blair’s chief kick and punt returner, and even worked as the kickoff specialist.
The kid can do it all, and he is a classic example of not getting fooled by offer sheets: Lewis had offers from Pitt and Tulane when he committed, but all indications are that he is a legit top-of-the-line Division I prospect. With a big senior season, we’re confident he can be a four-star recruit when all is said and done (similar to Chris Burns in last year’s recruiting class).
The next one?
Could Thomas Jefferson tight end we’ve gotten the impression that a decision could be coming as soon as today. Throw in the fact that T-J recruits have, historically, committed to Pitt during or around the Panthers’ seven-on-seven passing camp, and all signs seem to point toward an impending decision.
Obviously we’ve all expected DeCicco to choose Pitt for awhile, and most smart bets had his commitment coming this weekend. It’s worth noting that there has been some noise on the outskirts that says Brock could hold off and take a few visits; we still think he does it this weekend.
Still very much in play
As we Brown named a top five with Pitt in it. When we reached him for a follow-up on that report, Brown told us that he took an unofficial visit to Pitt on Thursday and said that he is “definitely considering Pitt,” and he added that “they might be at the top of the list.”
Brown is unofficially visiting Ohio State today, but he hopes to make it back in time to attend Pitt’s Big Man Challenge tonight and he’s expecting to stop down for the second day of the passing camp tomorrow. Beyond that, Brown is looking at returning to Pitt’s facilities next week; when he makes that trip, he’s planning to bring along his grandparents, his parents, and his sister. That kind of family entourage for an unofficial visit is a pretty positive sign, and I think it’s safe to call Pitt the favorite for Brown.
He said he wasn’t sure about making a decision soon, instead shooting for the end of the summer. Nevertheless, it looks very good for Pitt right now.
Camp review
Prospect camp report ? Day Onehttp://pittsburgh.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=817482
Prospect camp report ? Day Twohttp://pittsburgh.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=817631
To say the Pitt prospect camp was underwhelming probably tells half the story. There were some excellent players who did a lot to help their recruiting standing at the two-day camp, but for the main group that we (and the Pitt coaches) were looking at ? the offensive line ? the camp was a bit underwhelming. As we sit here nearly a week after the camp, no offensive line prospects who worked out on Friday or Saturday have picked up offers.
I guess there are two ways of looking at this situation:
1. None of the linemen were worth an offer.
2. The Pitt coaches are going to use more than an afternoon’s worth of evaluation to decide who gets offered.
The truth is that the lack of offers has probably resulted from a little bit of both. By his own admission, West Mifflin OT John Wetzel has a ton of upside, but with limited scholarships (and limited spots for o-linemen), can the Pitt staff afford to take a chance, even if that chance has considerable potential?
So the search continues. That’s not to say that one or two of these guys won’t get offers from Pitt in the future, but that future might have to be after one or two games this fall.
As far as we can tell, only two new offers came out of this past weekend: Lewis’ offer, which came on Friday when he visited unofficially (not technically a “camp offer” since he didn’t work out), and the offer to Liberty WR Devin Street. Street is a 6’4” 176-pound stud who was easily the star of the show on Saturday. He suffered from being under-used as a junior, so he’s had to earn his offers the hard way: by going to camps and showing coaches what he can do in person. So far, it has paid off with offers from Pitt, Temple, Akron, Eastern Michigan, James Madison, and Stony Brook, but as his camp schedule progresses, he figures to add to that list. We like Pitt’s chances, but as his offer sheet grows, the intensity of the battle for his commitment will grow commensurately.
Beyond that, it doesn’t look like Pitt extended any other offers, although a few players definitely caught the collective eye of the coaching staff. Perhaps the biggest eye-catcher was Allderdice defensive end Pitt d-line coach Greg Gattuso is thinking the same thing, particularly as he watched Clarke consistently blow-up the offensive linemen in one-on-one drills.
Still, for all the hype surrounding Clarke’s performance on Friday, no offer came from Pitt, and as In the Pitt is going to press, he still holds only one offer. Incidentally that offer came from the Akron coaches who were assisting at the Pitt camp; after watching his performance, they saw that they had no choice but to jump on Clarke as quickly as possible. Pitt appears to be taking a different approach. The problem is, if Clarke goes to any other camps (he mentioned camping at West Virginia, for one) and performs like he did at Pitt, his offer sheet is likely to expand quickly. If that happens and Pitt is still wondering whether or not he’s worth an offer, the Panthers may end up missing the boat.
Pitt’s best chances with Clarke are to get on him early and stay after him. An early commitment from Clarke would do well to keep him from getting too enamored with the recruiting game. When I interviewed him, I got the impression that Clarke would be very receptive to a Pitt offer; in fact, I would probably call him a Pitt lean. But that window could close if he starts feeling lots of love from other BCS schools.
There were some offered prospects in attendance at the camp, too, and those are worth noting:
- You have to like the fact that Baltimore (MD) running back Tavon Austin worked out on Saturday. It’s always a good sign when an offered recruit works out at a prospect camp, particularly if that recruit comes from out of state.
- Aliquippa’s Juantez Hollins was there on Saturday, too. I think the Aliquippa pipeline will pay off for Pitt once again with Hollins, although it may take awhile for him to choose the Panthers (as it did with Jonathan Baldwin and Brandon Lindsey).
- Upper Perkiomen safety/cornerback the sounds of things, Smith came away with a very good impression of the Panthers. Smith told us that he wants to take his five official visits in the fall, but he guaranteed that Pitt would be one of those destinations. It’s never a bad thing to be in the top five for a player with 20-plus offers.
- The only other offered prospect to come to Pitt’s camp was Penn Hills linebacker that Pitt is his favorite.
The crystal ball
Thinking about Mason’s affinity for Pitt got me to thinking about the recruits that now seem very likely to end up as Panthers. Looking at The Big Boardhttp://pittsburgh.rivals.com/content.asp?SID=996&CID=803554, I put together this list. Granted, this list is very preliminary, but I think it’s a fairly accurate approximation of what Pitt’s commitment list for the class of 2009 could look like:
OL Cory King
RB Dion Lewis
LB Dan Mason
WR/DB Corey Brown
TE Brock DeCicco
OL/DL Juantez Hollins
WR Todd Thomas
DE Jack Lippert
OL Khalil Wilkes
DL Tyrone Ezell
ATH A.J. Fenton
Obviously several of these guys are a bit less certain that others. Thomas and Fenton are hunches; Lippert, as we’ve all heard, hinges on what Penn State does; Wilkes seems to like Pitt quite a bit, but they haven’t sewn that one up. By and large, though, I think this 11-man group has a pretty good chance of signing with Pitt. Of course I have to add the disclaimer that I’ll deny ever writing this if anyone brings it up to me in February and I was horribly wrong. But to tell the truth, the only way I envision being wrong on more than three or four of these guys is if Pitt has a terrible season, and if that happens, recruiting won’t be the biggest concern on the table.
If my estimation proves to be correct, though, I think you’ve got the foundation of a pretty solid class. Mason, Brown, Thomas, and Lippert are all four-star recruits, and Lewis, DeCicco, and Ezell, in my opinion, have a chance to join them in that regard. For that matter, I think Brown might have a shot at jumping into the next level of star rankings. And don’t be surprised if, following a season of healthy success, Wannstedt pulls in a few more top-ranked players, if not a legit five-star in the process.
Have to give props
As much as we all might want to deny (or ignore) it, Rutgers is making a killing in recruiting this year. While In the Pitt was being typed, the Scarlet Knights added three recruits on Thursday, including two with Pitt offers: tight end he visited Pitt on Monday and we interviewed him about the trip.
With Harmon, Bush, and New York fullback the Big East commitment sheet updated.
I guess the biggest question for Pitt fans is whether or not the Panthers’ reign on top of the Big East recruiting rankings will finally come to an end. So far, though, I’d have to say that the biggest contender for that top spot is coming from West Virginia. Yes, Rutgers has 10 commitments, but in those 10 are two four-stars and eight three-stars. For average stars, WVU has Rutgers beat.
In the end, though, if Pitt signs my crystal ball list and adds a few more four-stars to it, plus one or two five-stars, I think the Panthers class will rate right up there with both Rutgers and WVU. The weight of quantity (which I disagree with a little bit) might hurt Pitt a bit, but on average stars, the Panthers should be just as good as, if not better than, their Big East foes.
Thanks for joining this week’s edition of In The Pitt. Since this feature is still in its early stages, it’s safe to assume that the project will be in flux for a few weeks as we strive to find the best format. Feel free to e-mail chrispeak1@comcast.net with any suggestions, feedback, or other input.
