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.
July 4, 2008
To start, here’s a big “Happy Independence Day” from PantherLair.com to all of you. On this day that honors freedom, we realize that you have the freedom to choose your source of Pitt news, and we appreciate that you’ve chosen PantherLair.com, which is, in our humble opinion, the best source of Pitt news on the internet.
Thanks for reading, and have a safe holiday.
Top of The Pitt
The biggest story of the past week came just hours after Jack Lippert to commit to Pitt by the end of the day, and sure enough, Lippert pulled the trigger that afternoon. Lippert’s commitment gave Pitt its first four-star recruit of the year.
Since Lippert is a four-star recruit and here.
Still, there is something to discuss with Lippert, and the AMP piece is a good starting point. In that piece, you hear several times the assertion that Lippert made no secret of his longing for a Penn State offer; additionally, you are told that if Lippert had gotten a Penn State offer, he would have taken it. In the weeks leading up to his commitment, that was the common line of thinking on Lippert: if he got a Penn State offer, he was going there; if he didn’t get the offer, he was going to Pitt.
After watching the AMP piece and hearing that train of thought repeated, I could only think of my interview with Lippert after he committed to Pitt. Obviously he’s not going to corroborate the “PSU is everything” theory when he’s doing an interview about his commitment to Pitt; nevertheless, here is what he said in that article:
”I was never waiting for a Penn State offer; that was never the case. I mean, I like Penn State a lot and I like Pitt a lot, but I wasn’t waiting for them to offer and if they did offer, it wasn’t like I was going to commit to Penn State right away. Really, I think I liked Pitt better through this whole recruiting process.”
The natural response to those quotes is this:
What else was the kid going to say after he had just committed to Pitt?
That’s a good question. So I decided to go back and look at the history of Jack Lippert’s recruitment. Surely if he was a big Penn State lean, he would have indicated as such in previous articles, right? If he truly made no secret of his desire for a PSU offer, he would have talked about it, right?
Well, maybe not. Counting his the article on his commitment, Lippert has been interviewed for 15 articles, starting with a piece on August 24, 2007. In that article, Lippert does say the following:
“I’m definitely really high on Penn State.”
Being high on a school doesn’t mean it’s your dream school. And he also says this in that article:
”I just recently took an unofficial visit to Pitt, which went really great.”
Nevertheless, the article was still headlined “2009 Pennsylvania DE likes PSU.”
The next piece on Lippert comes on October 24, 2007. This article comes from the Penn State site, so clearly we’ll hear Lippert rave about the Nittany Lions, right?
Kind of.
He does say “I love it up there” when discussing State College, but he also says “It’s great, I like it up there a lot” when talking about Pitt. So let’s call it a push.
Moving on, Lippert next told the Penn State site gave the Syracuse site this quote:
”I don’t really have a dream school. I have always liked Penn State, but that is not my dream school.”
On March 7, 2008, told us that he was planning another visit to Pitt.
In an interview with the Penn State site on June 23, things get a little bit more interesting on the “PSU is everything” front. At that point, Lippert had just camped at Penn State and was thoroughly convinced that the Nittany Lions were going to offer. As such, he said the following:
”I was pretty sure that if Penn State wasn’t going to offer…that I was going to commit to Pitt. But now that I have the Penn State offer, it may take awhile.”
So what do we take from that? From my read, it sounds like he is saying that the decision to commit to Pitt was easier before Penn State offered; I think that makes sense and I don’t think it necessarily means he was ready to commit to Penn State. In fact, he predicts that his commitment could still take awhile, despite having the Penn State offer.
That same day, Lippert took an unofficial visit to Pitt, and Mike Farrell interviewed him about the visit. In that article Lippert says that he actually considered committing on the visit and that he is “leaning towards Pitt.” At this point he still believed a Penn State offer was coming.
A day later, I interviewed Lippert and he said basically the same thing. The next article that was written on Jack Lippert was the commitment article that had the quote I used to open this whole discussion. So let’s review:
When did Lippert make no secret of Penn State being his dream school? Because I missed it.
I guess the logical question now is: who cares? He committed to Pitt; isn’t that good enough? Well, yes and no. I can’t speak for what would have happened if Lippert had gotten the Penn State offer; I don’t know if he still would have committed to Pitt. And I don’t know what will happen if Penn State offers mid-season. But I do think that the “PSU is everything” theory got a little bit overblown.
Was the road easier for Pitt because Penn State didn’t offer? Yes. Would it have become an impossible task if Penn State had offered? Not necessarily.
The week’s other commit
Jack Lippert wasn’t the only player to announce for Pitt this week, as Bethlehem (PA) Liberty wide receiver on Sunday. Street is the rare 6’4” 176-pound receiver with 4.5 (or better) speed who somehow falls under the radar. He only had a handful of receptions in his junior season but almost all of them were for big gains and touchdowns. So he entered the camp circuit with the goal of earning the offers that a player of his apparent skill deserves.
Street camped at Pitt in June, and he was easily the best receiver in attendance. As such, he walked out of Pittsburgh with an offer from the Panthers. He eventually added an offer from Connecticut to go along with Pitt, Temple, Eastern Michigan, Akron, and some lower level schools before committing to Pitt.
To be honest, I expected Street to wait it out. If he’s as good as he looked at Pitt’s camp (and we’ve been told that he is), he likely could have built up an impressive offer sheet by December. And that could still happen, so Pitt will have to maintain a healthy and strong relationship with Street from now until February.
Pitt appears to have gotten a real steal in Street, and when the revised PantherLair PA Top 50 comes out next week, he’ll be making his debut at No. 20.
The offer question
With the addition of Street, Pitt’s commitment list for the class of 2009 grew to five, but some concerns were expressed about the players Pitt has been targeting. Namely, these concerns centered on the other offers Pitt’s recruits had.
To wit, Pitt’s five commitments combined to have three non-Pitt BCS offers (Street had an offer from Connecticut; Lippert had an offer from Boston College; and Carl Fleming, whose other offers were Delaware, Eastern Michigan, and Buffalo.
And of course all of this was happening as Pitt targets were committing to Maryland. Concerned Pitt fans saw Dave Wannstedt and company only winning recruiting battles against MAC-and-lower schools.
So what gives? Why are Pitt’s commits choosing the Panthers over MAC schools while the targets that have other “big” offers are going elsewhere?
Well, I think there are a few reasons. For one, Wannstedt and his staff are not pushing to reel in a ton of recruits early this year. The Panthers have a shot at a very good season in 2008, and there is merit in holding out to make a recruiting push with some legitimate on-field success to build on.
Additionally, in all likelihood the 2009 class is not going to be a full 25, which could account for being more selective.
But why then is the staff offering players who, from the looks of things, are not targets for programs like Ohio State, Penn State, and the other top BCS schools in the east?
It probably goes without saying that the Pitt coaches don’t use offers as a barometer that guides their interest in a prospect. I’m sure with a player like Street, they scratch their heads a little and say ‘why isn’t this kid getting recruited more?’ and do extra research to find out if there is something they’re missing. But by and large, the Pitt coaches are relying on their own evaluations to determine if a player is worth an offer or not.
I recall a conversation I had with one of the coaches at the passing camp a few weeks ago. He was telling me that Dave Wannstedt has made it very clear that being a good evaluator is as important as being a good recruiter, if not more so. As such, you get guys like Street and Lewis, who haven’t garnered all that much in the way of national BCS interest, but the Pitt staff likes what they see and they seize the opportunity.
It works the other way, too: consider the case of committed to Penn State on Thursday. Gress had offers from PSU, WVU, Rutgers, and Michigan, but Pitt never pulled the trigger. The staff trusted its own evaluations and, while I don’t advocate blind faith, Pitt fans probably need to trust those evaluations, too.
And let’s not forget, Wannstedt and company have had some success in the “sleeper” department. Greg Romeus has become the poster child for Wannstedt’s recruiting of sleepers, and although he is an extreme example Romeus is not the only one they’ve taken who has paid off. Shane Murray only had one other BCS offer, and last year he was a starting linebacker on one of the nation’s top defenses; Gus Mustakas also comes to mind, since he picked Pitt over Northwestern, South Florida, Central Florida, Florida Atlantic, etc.
(The mention of Gus reminds me of a conversation I had with Charlie Partridge shortly before he left Pitt for Wisconsin. We were talking about the class of 2008 and he told me that Joe Trebitz reminded him a lot of Gus in that both were under-recruited almost to the point of being criminal. He couldn’t rave enough about Trebitz, and he said that he felt about Trebitz the same way he felt about Gus back in 2005. So maybe Trebitz, who chose Pitt over offers from Western Michigan, Florida Atlantic, and Florida International, is the next surprise sleeper.)
Anyway, I guess the point of this passage is to not get too caught up in offers. The way I look at it, reference the offer sheet when Pitt beats out Ohio State or Penn State for a player; ignore the offer sheet if it’s a sleeper with few offers. Is that selective judgment? Sure, but after all, Rivals is a network for fans; by definition, fans are subjective.
Also, and this is a common refrain, don’t be surprised to see Pitt’s recruiting lie a little dormant, at least in terms of commitments, until December and January. A big season can do wonders for recruiting (look what one game did last year), and if Pitt can actually make the post-season this year, big things can happen on the recruiting front. If you need proof of that, look at how Wannstedt capitalized on the West Virginia game, and that was one win at the end of a 5-7 season; imagine if Wannstedt was working with a 9-3 record and a Gator Bowl win in January. Seems like the sky might be the limit then.
Some worthwhile viewing
After you watch the video of Dion Lewis. Sure, he’s not the biggest guy, but he runs with power and he’s got plenty of speed. The first video is of him on defense, where he made a living returning interceptions for touchdowns. But don’t sleep on his hitting ability; that physical play convinced the Pitt coaches that he could play bigger than he is.
Also, we had an Jaleel Clark. At this point it seems to be a two-horse race between Pitt and Missouri for Clark’s services. Barring any new schools getting involved, it seems like his final decision will be one of those two schools, and it seems hard to imagine him going all the way to Missouri.
With that in mind, a number of posters commented on Justin Brown, although I think Pitt’s chances are pretty low with Brown.
Hoops
We’ve had some pretty good basketball content lately, and hopefully you’ve been checking it out. For starters, the Pittsburgh Basketball Club summer pro-am league is underway at the Sportsplex in Green Tree. The league features virtually the entire Pitt hoops roster, and Tony has been to all three games thus far. Additionally, Pete Madia was at Monday and Wednesday’s games to get some photos for us, and from the looks of things, the summer league is catching on (I think DT_Pitt is going to regret trumpeting the summer league so much when he goes one night and can’t find a spot to sit or stand).
Anyway, we’ve got reports on game three. So far, Pitt’s Sam Young and DeJuan Blair appear to be the stars of the show. Young has put together back-to-back 44-point games this week, while Blair scored 35 on Monday and 47 on Wednesday.
According to our unofficial stats, here are the scoring leaders among Pitt players:
Sam Young - 44 ppg
DeJuan Blair - 41 ppg
Levance Fields - 28 ppg
Dwight Miller - 11.7 ppg
Ashton Gibbs - 16.7 ppg
Tyrell Biggs - 17 ppg
Brad Wanamaker - 12.3 ppg
Gary McGhee - 11.7 ppg
Travon Woodall - 18 ppg
Odds & ends
- Before Street’s commitment on Sunday, the week started with a that he was leaning to Pitt.
- We also reported on Maryland safety seems likely to be one of the Panthers’ next commitments.
- We’ve also had a series of articles on Pitt basketball players attending Nike skills camps. Levance Fields attended Steve Nash’s camp. DeJuan Blair also took part in a camp instructed by Amare Stoudemire, and we’ll have a report on that next week.
- Have you voted for the breakout player of 2008 in the latest PantherLair Poll yet? If not, click here to read the options and then vote in the pinned post at the top of this message board.
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.
This post was edited on 7/4 8:57 AM by Chris Peak
July 4, 2008
To start, here’s a big “Happy Independence Day” from PantherLair.com to all of you. On this day that honors freedom, we realize that you have the freedom to choose your source of Pitt news, and we appreciate that you’ve chosen PantherLair.com, which is, in our humble opinion, the best source of Pitt news on the internet.
Thanks for reading, and have a safe holiday.
Top of The Pitt
The biggest story of the past week came just hours after Jack Lippert to commit to Pitt by the end of the day, and sure enough, Lippert pulled the trigger that afternoon. Lippert’s commitment gave Pitt its first four-star recruit of the year.
Since Lippert is a four-star recruit and here.
Still, there is something to discuss with Lippert, and the AMP piece is a good starting point. In that piece, you hear several times the assertion that Lippert made no secret of his longing for a Penn State offer; additionally, you are told that if Lippert had gotten a Penn State offer, he would have taken it. In the weeks leading up to his commitment, that was the common line of thinking on Lippert: if he got a Penn State offer, he was going there; if he didn’t get the offer, he was going to Pitt.
After watching the AMP piece and hearing that train of thought repeated, I could only think of my interview with Lippert after he committed to Pitt. Obviously he’s not going to corroborate the “PSU is everything” theory when he’s doing an interview about his commitment to Pitt; nevertheless, here is what he said in that article:
”I was never waiting for a Penn State offer; that was never the case. I mean, I like Penn State a lot and I like Pitt a lot, but I wasn’t waiting for them to offer and if they did offer, it wasn’t like I was going to commit to Penn State right away. Really, I think I liked Pitt better through this whole recruiting process.”
The natural response to those quotes is this:
What else was the kid going to say after he had just committed to Pitt?
That’s a good question. So I decided to go back and look at the history of Jack Lippert’s recruitment. Surely if he was a big Penn State lean, he would have indicated as such in previous articles, right? If he truly made no secret of his desire for a PSU offer, he would have talked about it, right?
Well, maybe not. Counting his the article on his commitment, Lippert has been interviewed for 15 articles, starting with a piece on August 24, 2007. In that article, Lippert does say the following:
“I’m definitely really high on Penn State.”
Being high on a school doesn’t mean it’s your dream school. And he also says this in that article:
”I just recently took an unofficial visit to Pitt, which went really great.”
Nevertheless, the article was still headlined “2009 Pennsylvania DE likes PSU.”
The next piece on Lippert comes on October 24, 2007. This article comes from the Penn State site, so clearly we’ll hear Lippert rave about the Nittany Lions, right?
Kind of.
He does say “I love it up there” when discussing State College, but he also says “It’s great, I like it up there a lot” when talking about Pitt. So let’s call it a push.
Moving on, Lippert next told the Penn State site gave the Syracuse site this quote:
”I don’t really have a dream school. I have always liked Penn State, but that is not my dream school.”
On March 7, 2008, told us that he was planning another visit to Pitt.
In an interview with the Penn State site on June 23, things get a little bit more interesting on the “PSU is everything” front. At that point, Lippert had just camped at Penn State and was thoroughly convinced that the Nittany Lions were going to offer. As such, he said the following:
”I was pretty sure that if Penn State wasn’t going to offer…that I was going to commit to Pitt. But now that I have the Penn State offer, it may take awhile.”
So what do we take from that? From my read, it sounds like he is saying that the decision to commit to Pitt was easier before Penn State offered; I think that makes sense and I don’t think it necessarily means he was ready to commit to Penn State. In fact, he predicts that his commitment could still take awhile, despite having the Penn State offer.
That same day, Lippert took an unofficial visit to Pitt, and Mike Farrell interviewed him about the visit. In that article Lippert says that he actually considered committing on the visit and that he is “leaning towards Pitt.” At this point he still believed a Penn State offer was coming.
A day later, I interviewed Lippert and he said basically the same thing. The next article that was written on Jack Lippert was the commitment article that had the quote I used to open this whole discussion. So let’s review:
When did Lippert make no secret of Penn State being his dream school? Because I missed it.
I guess the logical question now is: who cares? He committed to Pitt; isn’t that good enough? Well, yes and no. I can’t speak for what would have happened if Lippert had gotten the Penn State offer; I don’t know if he still would have committed to Pitt. And I don’t know what will happen if Penn State offers mid-season. But I do think that the “PSU is everything” theory got a little bit overblown.
Was the road easier for Pitt because Penn State didn’t offer? Yes. Would it have become an impossible task if Penn State had offered? Not necessarily.
The week’s other commit
Jack Lippert wasn’t the only player to announce for Pitt this week, as Bethlehem (PA) Liberty wide receiver on Sunday. Street is the rare 6’4” 176-pound receiver with 4.5 (or better) speed who somehow falls under the radar. He only had a handful of receptions in his junior season but almost all of them were for big gains and touchdowns. So he entered the camp circuit with the goal of earning the offers that a player of his apparent skill deserves.
Street camped at Pitt in June, and he was easily the best receiver in attendance. As such, he walked out of Pittsburgh with an offer from the Panthers. He eventually added an offer from Connecticut to go along with Pitt, Temple, Eastern Michigan, Akron, and some lower level schools before committing to Pitt.
To be honest, I expected Street to wait it out. If he’s as good as he looked at Pitt’s camp (and we’ve been told that he is), he likely could have built up an impressive offer sheet by December. And that could still happen, so Pitt will have to maintain a healthy and strong relationship with Street from now until February.
Pitt appears to have gotten a real steal in Street, and when the revised PantherLair PA Top 50 comes out next week, he’ll be making his debut at No. 20.
The offer question
With the addition of Street, Pitt’s commitment list for the class of 2009 grew to five, but some concerns were expressed about the players Pitt has been targeting. Namely, these concerns centered on the other offers Pitt’s recruits had.
To wit, Pitt’s five commitments combined to have three non-Pitt BCS offers (Street had an offer from Connecticut; Lippert had an offer from Boston College; and Carl Fleming, whose other offers were Delaware, Eastern Michigan, and Buffalo.
And of course all of this was happening as Pitt targets were committing to Maryland. Concerned Pitt fans saw Dave Wannstedt and company only winning recruiting battles against MAC-and-lower schools.
So what gives? Why are Pitt’s commits choosing the Panthers over MAC schools while the targets that have other “big” offers are going elsewhere?
Well, I think there are a few reasons. For one, Wannstedt and his staff are not pushing to reel in a ton of recruits early this year. The Panthers have a shot at a very good season in 2008, and there is merit in holding out to make a recruiting push with some legitimate on-field success to build on.
Additionally, in all likelihood the 2009 class is not going to be a full 25, which could account for being more selective.
But why then is the staff offering players who, from the looks of things, are not targets for programs like Ohio State, Penn State, and the other top BCS schools in the east?
It probably goes without saying that the Pitt coaches don’t use offers as a barometer that guides their interest in a prospect. I’m sure with a player like Street, they scratch their heads a little and say ‘why isn’t this kid getting recruited more?’ and do extra research to find out if there is something they’re missing. But by and large, the Pitt coaches are relying on their own evaluations to determine if a player is worth an offer or not.
I recall a conversation I had with one of the coaches at the passing camp a few weeks ago. He was telling me that Dave Wannstedt has made it very clear that being a good evaluator is as important as being a good recruiter, if not more so. As such, you get guys like Street and Lewis, who haven’t garnered all that much in the way of national BCS interest, but the Pitt staff likes what they see and they seize the opportunity.
It works the other way, too: consider the case of committed to Penn State on Thursday. Gress had offers from PSU, WVU, Rutgers, and Michigan, but Pitt never pulled the trigger. The staff trusted its own evaluations and, while I don’t advocate blind faith, Pitt fans probably need to trust those evaluations, too.
And let’s not forget, Wannstedt and company have had some success in the “sleeper” department. Greg Romeus has become the poster child for Wannstedt’s recruiting of sleepers, and although he is an extreme example Romeus is not the only one they’ve taken who has paid off. Shane Murray only had one other BCS offer, and last year he was a starting linebacker on one of the nation’s top defenses; Gus Mustakas also comes to mind, since he picked Pitt over Northwestern, South Florida, Central Florida, Florida Atlantic, etc.
(The mention of Gus reminds me of a conversation I had with Charlie Partridge shortly before he left Pitt for Wisconsin. We were talking about the class of 2008 and he told me that Joe Trebitz reminded him a lot of Gus in that both were under-recruited almost to the point of being criminal. He couldn’t rave enough about Trebitz, and he said that he felt about Trebitz the same way he felt about Gus back in 2005. So maybe Trebitz, who chose Pitt over offers from Western Michigan, Florida Atlantic, and Florida International, is the next surprise sleeper.)
Anyway, I guess the point of this passage is to not get too caught up in offers. The way I look at it, reference the offer sheet when Pitt beats out Ohio State or Penn State for a player; ignore the offer sheet if it’s a sleeper with few offers. Is that selective judgment? Sure, but after all, Rivals is a network for fans; by definition, fans are subjective.
Also, and this is a common refrain, don’t be surprised to see Pitt’s recruiting lie a little dormant, at least in terms of commitments, until December and January. A big season can do wonders for recruiting (look what one game did last year), and if Pitt can actually make the post-season this year, big things can happen on the recruiting front. If you need proof of that, look at how Wannstedt capitalized on the West Virginia game, and that was one win at the end of a 5-7 season; imagine if Wannstedt was working with a 9-3 record and a Gator Bowl win in January. Seems like the sky might be the limit then.
Some worthwhile viewing
After you watch the video of Dion Lewis. Sure, he’s not the biggest guy, but he runs with power and he’s got plenty of speed. The first video is of him on defense, where he made a living returning interceptions for touchdowns. But don’t sleep on his hitting ability; that physical play convinced the Pitt coaches that he could play bigger than he is.
Also, we had an Jaleel Clark. At this point it seems to be a two-horse race between Pitt and Missouri for Clark’s services. Barring any new schools getting involved, it seems like his final decision will be one of those two schools, and it seems hard to imagine him going all the way to Missouri.
With that in mind, a number of posters commented on Justin Brown, although I think Pitt’s chances are pretty low with Brown.
Hoops
We’ve had some pretty good basketball content lately, and hopefully you’ve been checking it out. For starters, the Pittsburgh Basketball Club summer pro-am league is underway at the Sportsplex in Green Tree. The league features virtually the entire Pitt hoops roster, and Tony has been to all three games thus far. Additionally, Pete Madia was at Monday and Wednesday’s games to get some photos for us, and from the looks of things, the summer league is catching on (I think DT_Pitt is going to regret trumpeting the summer league so much when he goes one night and can’t find a spot to sit or stand).
Anyway, we’ve got reports on game three. So far, Pitt’s Sam Young and DeJuan Blair appear to be the stars of the show. Young has put together back-to-back 44-point games this week, while Blair scored 35 on Monday and 47 on Wednesday.
According to our unofficial stats, here are the scoring leaders among Pitt players:
Sam Young - 44 ppg
DeJuan Blair - 41 ppg
Levance Fields - 28 ppg
Dwight Miller - 11.7 ppg
Ashton Gibbs - 16.7 ppg
Tyrell Biggs - 17 ppg
Brad Wanamaker - 12.3 ppg
Gary McGhee - 11.7 ppg
Travon Woodall - 18 ppg
Odds & ends
- Before Street’s commitment on Sunday, the week started with a that he was leaning to Pitt.
- We also reported on Maryland safety seems likely to be one of the Panthers’ next commitments.
- We’ve also had a series of articles on Pitt basketball players attending Nike skills camps. Levance Fields attended Steve Nash’s camp. DeJuan Blair also took part in a camp instructed by Amare Stoudemire, and we’ll have a report on that next week.
- Have you voted for the breakout player of 2008 in the latest PantherLair Poll yet? If not, click here to read the options and then vote in the pinned post at the top of this message board.
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.
This post was edited on 7/4 8:57 AM by Chris Peak
