Week Two of the contact period got started on Monday and the Pitt coaches were on the road once again.
Actually, a number of the Pitt coaches didn’t travel too far. From what I’ve been able to gather, Rob Harley, Renaldo Hill, Tim Salem and John Peterson were all local on Monday.
For the most part, the Pitt coaches who were local were checking in on commits and maintaining relationships with local high schools. So Peterson visited with Upper St. Clair offensive line commit Gabe Houy and Salem spent time with Neshannock tight end commit Tyler Sear.
Meanwhile, Hill visited with five-star Clairton cornerback prospect Lamont Wade; check out Ryan’s post on Wade here - good info.
https://pittsburgh.forums.rivals.com/threads/some-thoughts-notes-on-lamont-wade.102997/
I’m with most people who think Pitt is the underdog in Wade’s recruitment, but it’s certainly not a bad sign to get him on campus for an official visit before his Dec. 17 commitment. Pitt may also look to get an in-home visit for Pat Narduzzi with the Wade family on Sunday, Dec. 11; that’s the final day of the contact period and the coaches could follow the official visit with a little more time with the family. We’ll see if that’s how things play out, although I could see Wade and his family being ready to be done with recruiting at that point.
- Defensive coordinator Josh Conklin wasn’t local on Monday but he was involved with a cornerback. Conklin was in Connecticut to scout Jason Pinnock, whose Windsor team beat Middletown 40-14 in the state semifinals.
Pinnock is committed to Boston College but has quite a bit of interest in Pitt, and if the Panthers offered, he would take an official visit. Conklin had a brief in-home visit with Pinnock after the game and told him that everything looks good; if Narduzzi signs off, Pinnock could have an offer in the next couple days.
- Kofi Wardlow already has an offer from Pitt, and he got a visit from the coaches on Monday, as running backs coach Andre Powell and defensive line coach Tom Sims were in Washington, D.C. We’ve referred to Wardlow as one of the fastest-rising prospects in the Mid-Atlantic region, and the growth of his offer sheet in recent months bears that out.
As such, it was a positive for Pitt that Wardlow scheduled an official visit - he’ll be in Pittsburgh the weekend of Jan. 13-15. Three days ago he said his top seven schools were Pitt, Maryland, Boston College, Michigan State, Missouri, Rutgers and Virginia Tech, but he told me that, in addition to Pitt, he’s planning official visits to Maryland and Virginia Tech.
I’m going to operate on the assumption that those three schools are the top of the top for Wardlow.
- While they were in D.C., Powell and Sims also visited HD Woodson, where top defensive tackle target Jaylen Twyman goes to school. Twyman will return the visit this weekend when he comes for his official.
- Pat Narduzzi was on the road Monday for his in-home visit with quarterback commit Kenny Pickett. That visit worked out well since Narduzzi had to then go into New York City for some events connected with the New Era Pinstripe Bowl. Remember that NCAA rules allow a head coach only one in-home visit with each recruit, and since Pickett is enrolling early, Narduzzi used his visit during the last week of the December contact period.
Narduzzi went solo to the visit since offensive coordinator Matt Canada is in Little Rock, Ark., for the Broyles Award ceremony that will be held Tuesday night.
- We mentioned last week that the Deerfield Beach-Southridge game in the semifinals of the Florida Class 8 playoffs was one for Pitt fans to pay attention to, since Deerfield Beach features defensive end target Deslin Alexandre. An N.C. State commit with plans to enroll early, Alexandre was targeting an official visit to Pitt for this coming weekend, but if Deerfield Beach beat Southridge, the Bucks would play in the state championship game on Saturday night at 8 pm - thus eliminating the possibility of a Pitt visit.
Well, Deerfield Beach lost to Southridge, and while that’s a shame for Alexandre and his teammates, it’s a positive for Pitt. Nothing is scheduled yet, but Alexandre’s coach told me he thinks there is a good chance Alexandre will make that visit. After that, he’ll choose between Pitt and N.C. State, sign with a school and enroll in January.
- And finally, Paris Ford. Some news came out on Monday that Ford had scheduled an official visit to Michigan - a visit that we started mentioning as a possibility last week. It remains to be seen if that visit happens, since Steel Valley is playing in the state championship game on Saturday afternoon, which would make an official visit quite unique in terms of timeframe.
But even if Ford doesn’t visit this weekend, there’s a pretty decent chance that he will visit at some point. He might even visit a couple schools; as far back as the spring, Ford said he might take a few official visits for the experience. Now, it’s never a good thing when your commits take visits to other schools, because there’s always the risk that the recruit sees something he likes - or, more to the point, something he likes better.
That risk makes the Ford situation or any situation like it worth monitoring. But at the same time, anyone I’ve talked to about Paris Ford and Pitt reiterates the same message: he’s still solid, even if he takes visits.
To some extent, we’ve almost come to expect this in recruiting, and it’s even more prevalent when you get into the upper echelons of prospects nationally. Committed recruits take visits; it’s just what they do, particularly the ones who are really good and are getting recruited by some of the biggest names in college football.
Every school has to deal with it - Pitt included. So the staff just has to work that much harder to hold onto the commits. These coaches dealt with it three times last year: Therran Coleman took an official visit to Wisconsin in September Henry Miller took an official visit to Miami and Chase Pine took official visits to Iowa State and Virginia Tech.
All three took those visits after committing. And all three still signed with Pitt.
Whether fans and coaches like it or not, this is going to keep happening and probably happen with even more frequency. The coaches have to keep recruiting their commits and make sure the bonds and relationships are strong enough to withstand all the temptations on official visits to other schools. The staff did that very well last year, and they’ll probably need to do it again this year.
Actually, a number of the Pitt coaches didn’t travel too far. From what I’ve been able to gather, Rob Harley, Renaldo Hill, Tim Salem and John Peterson were all local on Monday.
For the most part, the Pitt coaches who were local were checking in on commits and maintaining relationships with local high schools. So Peterson visited with Upper St. Clair offensive line commit Gabe Houy and Salem spent time with Neshannock tight end commit Tyler Sear.
Meanwhile, Hill visited with five-star Clairton cornerback prospect Lamont Wade; check out Ryan’s post on Wade here - good info.
https://pittsburgh.forums.rivals.com/threads/some-thoughts-notes-on-lamont-wade.102997/
I’m with most people who think Pitt is the underdog in Wade’s recruitment, but it’s certainly not a bad sign to get him on campus for an official visit before his Dec. 17 commitment. Pitt may also look to get an in-home visit for Pat Narduzzi with the Wade family on Sunday, Dec. 11; that’s the final day of the contact period and the coaches could follow the official visit with a little more time with the family. We’ll see if that’s how things play out, although I could see Wade and his family being ready to be done with recruiting at that point.
- Defensive coordinator Josh Conklin wasn’t local on Monday but he was involved with a cornerback. Conklin was in Connecticut to scout Jason Pinnock, whose Windsor team beat Middletown 40-14 in the state semifinals.
Pinnock is committed to Boston College but has quite a bit of interest in Pitt, and if the Panthers offered, he would take an official visit. Conklin had a brief in-home visit with Pinnock after the game and told him that everything looks good; if Narduzzi signs off, Pinnock could have an offer in the next couple days.
- Kofi Wardlow already has an offer from Pitt, and he got a visit from the coaches on Monday, as running backs coach Andre Powell and defensive line coach Tom Sims were in Washington, D.C. We’ve referred to Wardlow as one of the fastest-rising prospects in the Mid-Atlantic region, and the growth of his offer sheet in recent months bears that out.
As such, it was a positive for Pitt that Wardlow scheduled an official visit - he’ll be in Pittsburgh the weekend of Jan. 13-15. Three days ago he said his top seven schools were Pitt, Maryland, Boston College, Michigan State, Missouri, Rutgers and Virginia Tech, but he told me that, in addition to Pitt, he’s planning official visits to Maryland and Virginia Tech.
I’m going to operate on the assumption that those three schools are the top of the top for Wardlow.
- While they were in D.C., Powell and Sims also visited HD Woodson, where top defensive tackle target Jaylen Twyman goes to school. Twyman will return the visit this weekend when he comes for his official.
- Pat Narduzzi was on the road Monday for his in-home visit with quarterback commit Kenny Pickett. That visit worked out well since Narduzzi had to then go into New York City for some events connected with the New Era Pinstripe Bowl. Remember that NCAA rules allow a head coach only one in-home visit with each recruit, and since Pickett is enrolling early, Narduzzi used his visit during the last week of the December contact period.
Narduzzi went solo to the visit since offensive coordinator Matt Canada is in Little Rock, Ark., for the Broyles Award ceremony that will be held Tuesday night.
- We mentioned last week that the Deerfield Beach-Southridge game in the semifinals of the Florida Class 8 playoffs was one for Pitt fans to pay attention to, since Deerfield Beach features defensive end target Deslin Alexandre. An N.C. State commit with plans to enroll early, Alexandre was targeting an official visit to Pitt for this coming weekend, but if Deerfield Beach beat Southridge, the Bucks would play in the state championship game on Saturday night at 8 pm - thus eliminating the possibility of a Pitt visit.
Well, Deerfield Beach lost to Southridge, and while that’s a shame for Alexandre and his teammates, it’s a positive for Pitt. Nothing is scheduled yet, but Alexandre’s coach told me he thinks there is a good chance Alexandre will make that visit. After that, he’ll choose between Pitt and N.C. State, sign with a school and enroll in January.
- And finally, Paris Ford. Some news came out on Monday that Ford had scheduled an official visit to Michigan - a visit that we started mentioning as a possibility last week. It remains to be seen if that visit happens, since Steel Valley is playing in the state championship game on Saturday afternoon, which would make an official visit quite unique in terms of timeframe.
But even if Ford doesn’t visit this weekend, there’s a pretty decent chance that he will visit at some point. He might even visit a couple schools; as far back as the spring, Ford said he might take a few official visits for the experience. Now, it’s never a good thing when your commits take visits to other schools, because there’s always the risk that the recruit sees something he likes - or, more to the point, something he likes better.
That risk makes the Ford situation or any situation like it worth monitoring. But at the same time, anyone I’ve talked to about Paris Ford and Pitt reiterates the same message: he’s still solid, even if he takes visits.
To some extent, we’ve almost come to expect this in recruiting, and it’s even more prevalent when you get into the upper echelons of prospects nationally. Committed recruits take visits; it’s just what they do, particularly the ones who are really good and are getting recruited by some of the biggest names in college football.
Every school has to deal with it - Pitt included. So the staff just has to work that much harder to hold onto the commits. These coaches dealt with it three times last year: Therran Coleman took an official visit to Wisconsin in September Henry Miller took an official visit to Miami and Chase Pine took official visits to Iowa State and Virginia Tech.
All three took those visits after committing. And all three still signed with Pitt.
Whether fans and coaches like it or not, this is going to keep happening and probably happen with even more frequency. The coaches have to keep recruiting their commits and make sure the bonds and relationships are strong enough to withstand all the temptations on official visits to other schools. The staff did that very well last year, and they’ll probably need to do it again this year.
