Let’s talk about the official visits, because this weekend’s list has, as you’ve no doubt seen, undergone a lot of changes in the last 48 hours.
I should amend that: the list that we’re using on this site and this message board has changed a lot in the last 48 hours. But for the Pitt coaches and for the recruits, some of the changes were in the works already. That’s an important point to keep in mind: this didn’t all happen since Sunday.
Some of it did, but not all of it.
Regardless of timing, here are the recruits who had previously confirmed official visits for the coming weekend but will no longer be making the trip.
That’s a lot of attrition from the official visit list. 10 guys who were on there before and now are not, and the list has gone from 17 to seven.
So what happened?
I think there are a few things at play. For starters, some spots filled up. I think Pitt is at capacity - at least as the coaches see it right now - at linebacker and wide receiver, save for only very high-end exceptions like Hykeem Williams. So Dunn, the Harris twins and Brown came off the list as a result.
Jalen Smith is possibly the lone exception here; he appears to be set on Tennessee and canceled any remaining visits after his trip to Knoxville as a result. If he hadn’t done so, I imagine Pitt would have still brought him in this weekend.
I also think Pitt is very close to its max on defensive backs, which explains Mathews and Robinson. Jesse Anderson is still on the list, which speaks to his place on Pitt’s board.
So that accounts for a fair amount of the attrition.
In the bigger picture, I think there’s something to be said for how the official visits were organized. I do believe the Pitt coaches had targets like Jordan Bass and Rasheem Biles higher on the board than Dunn and the Harris twins (Braylan Lovelace was a recent addition to the offer sheet but impressed the coaches enough at camp to earn a spot in the top tier of targets).
Similarly, I think Pitt’s priorities at receiver - Hykeem Williams aside, since he’s a ‘no-matter-what’ recruit - were Kenny Johnson and Lamar Seymore; add those two to go with Zion Fowler and you have a three-man class that satisfied the staff.
We can say the same for defensive line targets like Isaiah Neal and Antonio Camon and Desmond Umeozulu and defensive backs like Shadarian Harrison (who I think is underrated by Pitt fans right now) and Brice Pollock and Shelton Lewis.
What I’m getting at is, it seems this third visit weekend was, for the most part, set up for fall-back options if Pitt missed on some of those other targets at receiver, defensive line, linebacker and defensive back. That’s not an absolute and it doesn’t apply to every expected visitor, but on the whole, that seems to have been the approach.
The exception, of course, is the offensive line, where Pitt is expected to bring in five visitors this weekend after hosting three over the first two visit weekends. That’s an area where the Panthers really need to make some progress; this weekend’s visitors are largely camp offers - three of the five - and the staff would ideally get one or two of those three plus a few more of the previously-offered guys to get to five in the class. That’s what I would be shooting for, if I was them.
I don’t know if this will alleviate the frustration on the board or not, but I think it provides some context for the decisions that went into this weekend’s official visits and how they were put together.
I should amend that: the list that we’re using on this site and this message board has changed a lot in the last 48 hours. But for the Pitt coaches and for the recruits, some of the changes were in the works already. That’s an important point to keep in mind: this didn’t all happen since Sunday.
Some of it did, but not all of it.
Regardless of timing, here are the recruits who had previously confirmed official visits for the coming weekend but will no longer be making the trip.
That’s a lot of attrition from the official visit list. 10 guys who were on there before and now are not, and the list has gone from 17 to seven.
So what happened?
I think there are a few things at play. For starters, some spots filled up. I think Pitt is at capacity - at least as the coaches see it right now - at linebacker and wide receiver, save for only very high-end exceptions like Hykeem Williams. So Dunn, the Harris twins and Brown came off the list as a result.
Jalen Smith is possibly the lone exception here; he appears to be set on Tennessee and canceled any remaining visits after his trip to Knoxville as a result. If he hadn’t done so, I imagine Pitt would have still brought him in this weekend.
I also think Pitt is very close to its max on defensive backs, which explains Mathews and Robinson. Jesse Anderson is still on the list, which speaks to his place on Pitt’s board.
So that accounts for a fair amount of the attrition.
In the bigger picture, I think there’s something to be said for how the official visits were organized. I do believe the Pitt coaches had targets like Jordan Bass and Rasheem Biles higher on the board than Dunn and the Harris twins (Braylan Lovelace was a recent addition to the offer sheet but impressed the coaches enough at camp to earn a spot in the top tier of targets).
Similarly, I think Pitt’s priorities at receiver - Hykeem Williams aside, since he’s a ‘no-matter-what’ recruit - were Kenny Johnson and Lamar Seymore; add those two to go with Zion Fowler and you have a three-man class that satisfied the staff.
We can say the same for defensive line targets like Isaiah Neal and Antonio Camon and Desmond Umeozulu and defensive backs like Shadarian Harrison (who I think is underrated by Pitt fans right now) and Brice Pollock and Shelton Lewis.
What I’m getting at is, it seems this third visit weekend was, for the most part, set up for fall-back options if Pitt missed on some of those other targets at receiver, defensive line, linebacker and defensive back. That’s not an absolute and it doesn’t apply to every expected visitor, but on the whole, that seems to have been the approach.
The exception, of course, is the offensive line, where Pitt is expected to bring in five visitors this weekend after hosting three over the first two visit weekends. That’s an area where the Panthers really need to make some progress; this weekend’s visitors are largely camp offers - three of the five - and the staff would ideally get one or two of those three plus a few more of the previously-offered guys to get to five in the class. That’s what I would be shooting for, if I was them.
I don’t know if this will alleviate the frustration on the board or not, but I think it provides some context for the decisions that went into this weekend’s official visits and how they were put together.
