Here are a few notes from throughout the last 48 hours to get you caught up on Pitt's wide receiver recruiting efforts on their two primary targets, Shocky Jacques-Louis and Jatavious Harris, just in case you've missed things or not gotten caught up. Below these, I'll have some new information on Pitt's efforts and what I'm expecting moving ahead:
- Yesterday during the day, I posted this update on Georgia wide receiver Jatavious Harris, who's down to just Pitt and Louisville at this point. He's wrapped up his official visit to Pitt, which was this past weekend, and will take his final official visit to Louisville this coming weekend. Pitt is performing very strongly with Harris and this visit seemed to nudge them ahead of the incumbent favorite, Louisville.
- In that same thread, I had another post where I noticed what is either a weirdly coincidental lingual tick between multiple Pitt commits or is a trend of players who will spend their next four years in Pittsburgh.
- Yesterday in the morning, Chris had an article with Florida wide receiver Shocky Jacques-Louis discussing the difficulty of this decision for the Sunshine State product. The receiver was, at the time, widely believed to be down to just Kentucky and Pitt and the Wildcats had been the incumbent favorite for quite some time.
- Jacques-Louis included those two programs and Tennessee, where he won't be playing but was formerly committed to, as his top three list.
- During the afternoon, I had a very positive update on Jacques-Louis in regards to what I was hearing on the Florida wide receiver and Pitt's chances to land him, due to some frays emerging with Kentucky and the momentum built by Pitt. That info made some people very happy, but not everybody.
- Some other people around the country seemingly heard similar info to me and made some positive predictions in regards to Jacques-Louis.
- Additionally, yesterday, Chris posted that Pitt coaches would be visiting both Jacques-Louis and their other Florida wide receiver target, Jeshaun Jones. That info was correct and I'm told that Kevin Sherman, Shawn Watson, and Rob Harley went to see both wide receivers today.
So, that should bring you up to speed so you have the full context on most of what you need to know so far.
In addition to all of that, today I confirmed that Pitt will be making another set of in-home visits with both Shocky Jacques-Louis and Jatavious Harris. While Pat Narduzzi has already used his in-home visits with both prospects (and Jeshaun Jones as well), I'm told that Pitt assistants will be down in Georgia and Florida to see their two wide receiver targets again on Thursday. I haven't yet confirmed that they'll also be visiting Jeshaun Jones, but given that Jacques-Louis and Jones live just a few minutes apart from one another, it would make sense.
Thursday is basically the last day that Pitt can visit either of these guys. Jacques-Louis has exhausted all of his official visits, so he'll be at home this weekend, but Pitt will be hosting an official visitor from Friday through Sunday, so they won't be able to make an in-home. Harris will be departing for his official visit to Louisville on Friday and will be gone for the majority of the weekend. The quiet period begins on Sunday, December 17th and Pitt coaches will no longer be allowed to make in-home visits again until Friday, January 12th. They can only make contact with prospects on campus on Sunday and then not in-person at all from December 18th through January 12th.
Right now, I'm expecting Shocky Jacques-Louis to end up at Pitt and feel confident in predicting that. He'll announce a decision on Wednesday, December 20th, the first day of the early signing period and sign his LOI on that same day. I'm less confident on Jatavious Harris, but I feel that Pitt currently holds the edge over Louisville heading into his official visit to the check out the Cardinals. This weekend will largely tell the story of how this one goes. He will announce a decision on Tuesday, January 19th and sign the next day. There's growing confidence with Pitt sources, but nothing confirmed.
It's much, much more difficult to get a read on Jeshaun Jones and there doesn't seem to be a similar level of buzz around his recruitment in regards to Pitt. It's hard to say why that is and if it's indicative that he has less interest in Pitt. Maryland, Nebraska, Tennessee, USF, and Iowa State are all very much involved here as well. Jones is playing his cards close to his chest and it's really tough to get a read on the Florida product. If you put a gun to my head and made me make a prediction, I'd likely lean towards picking Nebraska, but I would have little confidence in saying that. This is a recruitment where we're going to work hard to mine new information on and get more context. He will also decide during the early signing period.
Pitt is going to take two more wide receivers in this class. They'd love to land Jatavious Harris and Shocky Jacques-Louis and call it a day. Should all three players want to commit, which seems somewhat unlikely right now just by playing the odds, they'd face a tough decision and I'm unsure what they would do. I'd imagine they'd like to avoid the dilemma altogether instead of telling anybody no or stretching their scholarship numbers to the limit. I think Pitt is going to go two for three with Harris and Jacques-Louis.
If they miss on Harris and lose him to Louisville after this weekend and also miss on Jones to any of his other suitors, the clear next option for Pitt appears to be New York wide receiver Sean Ryan of Brooklyn (N.Y.) Erasmus Hall. They're going to wait to make a decision on Sean until after the early signing period when the dust clears and would then likely bring him in for an official visit and extend an offer. I'm told if and when Pitt would choose to offer Sean that he would nearly immediately accept and flip from Temple. When your back-up option is a 6-foot-3 deep threat from one of New York's best programs who you have full certainty you can get, that's a very good place to be at late in the cycle.
- Yesterday during the day, I posted this update on Georgia wide receiver Jatavious Harris, who's down to just Pitt and Louisville at this point. He's wrapped up his official visit to Pitt, which was this past weekend, and will take his final official visit to Louisville this coming weekend. Pitt is performing very strongly with Harris and this visit seemed to nudge them ahead of the incumbent favorite, Louisville.
- In that same thread, I had another post where I noticed what is either a weirdly coincidental lingual tick between multiple Pitt commits or is a trend of players who will spend their next four years in Pittsburgh.
- Yesterday in the morning, Chris had an article with Florida wide receiver Shocky Jacques-Louis discussing the difficulty of this decision for the Sunshine State product. The receiver was, at the time, widely believed to be down to just Kentucky and Pitt and the Wildcats had been the incumbent favorite for quite some time.
- Jacques-Louis included those two programs and Tennessee, where he won't be playing but was formerly committed to, as his top three list.
- During the afternoon, I had a very positive update on Jacques-Louis in regards to what I was hearing on the Florida wide receiver and Pitt's chances to land him, due to some frays emerging with Kentucky and the momentum built by Pitt. That info made some people very happy, but not everybody.
- Some other people around the country seemingly heard similar info to me and made some positive predictions in regards to Jacques-Louis.
- Additionally, yesterday, Chris posted that Pitt coaches would be visiting both Jacques-Louis and their other Florida wide receiver target, Jeshaun Jones. That info was correct and I'm told that Kevin Sherman, Shawn Watson, and Rob Harley went to see both wide receivers today.
So, that should bring you up to speed so you have the full context on most of what you need to know so far.
In addition to all of that, today I confirmed that Pitt will be making another set of in-home visits with both Shocky Jacques-Louis and Jatavious Harris. While Pat Narduzzi has already used his in-home visits with both prospects (and Jeshaun Jones as well), I'm told that Pitt assistants will be down in Georgia and Florida to see their two wide receiver targets again on Thursday. I haven't yet confirmed that they'll also be visiting Jeshaun Jones, but given that Jacques-Louis and Jones live just a few minutes apart from one another, it would make sense.
Thursday is basically the last day that Pitt can visit either of these guys. Jacques-Louis has exhausted all of his official visits, so he'll be at home this weekend, but Pitt will be hosting an official visitor from Friday through Sunday, so they won't be able to make an in-home. Harris will be departing for his official visit to Louisville on Friday and will be gone for the majority of the weekend. The quiet period begins on Sunday, December 17th and Pitt coaches will no longer be allowed to make in-home visits again until Friday, January 12th. They can only make contact with prospects on campus on Sunday and then not in-person at all from December 18th through January 12th.
Right now, I'm expecting Shocky Jacques-Louis to end up at Pitt and feel confident in predicting that. He'll announce a decision on Wednesday, December 20th, the first day of the early signing period and sign his LOI on that same day. I'm less confident on Jatavious Harris, but I feel that Pitt currently holds the edge over Louisville heading into his official visit to the check out the Cardinals. This weekend will largely tell the story of how this one goes. He will announce a decision on Tuesday, January 19th and sign the next day. There's growing confidence with Pitt sources, but nothing confirmed.
It's much, much more difficult to get a read on Jeshaun Jones and there doesn't seem to be a similar level of buzz around his recruitment in regards to Pitt. It's hard to say why that is and if it's indicative that he has less interest in Pitt. Maryland, Nebraska, Tennessee, USF, and Iowa State are all very much involved here as well. Jones is playing his cards close to his chest and it's really tough to get a read on the Florida product. If you put a gun to my head and made me make a prediction, I'd likely lean towards picking Nebraska, but I would have little confidence in saying that. This is a recruitment where we're going to work hard to mine new information on and get more context. He will also decide during the early signing period.
Pitt is going to take two more wide receivers in this class. They'd love to land Jatavious Harris and Shocky Jacques-Louis and call it a day. Should all three players want to commit, which seems somewhat unlikely right now just by playing the odds, they'd face a tough decision and I'm unsure what they would do. I'd imagine they'd like to avoid the dilemma altogether instead of telling anybody no or stretching their scholarship numbers to the limit. I think Pitt is going to go two for three with Harris and Jacques-Louis.
If they miss on Harris and lose him to Louisville after this weekend and also miss on Jones to any of his other suitors, the clear next option for Pitt appears to be New York wide receiver Sean Ryan of Brooklyn (N.Y.) Erasmus Hall. They're going to wait to make a decision on Sean until after the early signing period when the dust clears and would then likely bring him in for an official visit and extend an offer. I'm told if and when Pitt would choose to offer Sean that he would nearly immediately accept and flip from Temple. When your back-up option is a 6-foot-3 deep threat from one of New York's best programs who you have full certainty you can get, that's a very good place to be at late in the cycle.
