Hey guys, as you all know well, I'm based out here in Ohio and Pitt has been very active in recruiting the state under Pat Narduzzi. The Ohio state high school football playoffs brackets were released last night (Pennsylvania's will come out this evening) and some Pitt commits and targets will be featured prominently in the weeks to come. I wanted to round up notes on where all of these recruits would be playing at as the brackets go on, as I know we have a lot of Ohioans on the board who will catch some of these games.
Ohio is split into 7 "divisions", and rather than 1A-6A classifications, their system operates comparably to college (i.e, Division I is the largest, II the second-largest, etc.). Each division is split up into four separate regions. The first week is played on the higher-seeded team's home field while they move to neutral site games after that. Here is a link to all of the brackets, but I'll summarize them below. Note that Division I may be a good bit of reading, but there will be less teams as Divisions get smaller.
In Division I's Region 1, the only real team of note for Pitt fans is Lakewood (Ohio) St. Ed's. They are back-to-back defending state champs and sit as the 2-seed this year. They feature 2018 DB offer Michael Dowell. St. Ed's will play Euclid in the first round.
Divsion I's Region 2 is home to undefeated one-seed Olentangy Liberty and the four-seed in Toledo Whitmer. Neither school has offers out from Pitt yet, but both are notable to watch. Liberty features 2018 LB Ed Warinner Jr., a prospect who is an offer candidate and has visited, among other DI prospects. Whitmer features 2020 QB (yes, a freshman) in phenom Riley Keller. He'll have a chance to be the best QB in America by time he graduates if he keeps putting up numbers like he has. Liberty plays local opponent Olentangy Orange, while Whitmer plays Medina.
Division I's Region 3 features Huber Heights Wayne as the one-seed, Pickerington Central as the three-seed, Dublin Coffman as the four-seed, Springfield as the six-seed and Pickerington North as the seven-seed. Wayne plays Lancaster and has Pitt offers out to 2018 studs L'Christian Smith and Alex Reigelsperger. Pick Central has 2017 RB Morgan Ellison (no offer), 2018 TE Trenton Gillison (offer), 2018 MSU DB commit Xavier Henderson, 2018 DB/LB Jeremiah Wood (no offer), 2018 TE Alex Morgan, and probably a dozen other kids. Big-time school. Dublin Coffman always has guys and 2017 DT Ben Frye is a Duke commit that Pitt could try to poach later on. They play local opponent Hilliard Davidson. Springfield is another massive program and one that features 2018 Rivals250 offer Leonard Taylor, among many other prospects. They'll play Pick Central. Pick North features 2018 OT/DE Alex Williams, who has Pitt interest but no offer yet.
Division I's Region 4 has Fairfield as the four-seed, home to former 2017 Pitt CB target and MSU commit Josiah Scott and 2018 Pitt offers and four-stars Jackson Carman and Malik Vann. They play Cincinnati private school St. Xavier in a big match-up.
Division II's Region 5 doesn't have any Pitt offers out, but 2017 Rivals250 ATH Lynn Bowden and his Warren Harding squad are the three-seed. I expect them to win on the strength of his abilities, but we shall see. They play Brecksville-Broadsview Heights. 2017 MSU commit Weston Bridges (Copley) and 2018 LB Chase Kline (Chardon) are other college prospects in the region.
Division II's Region 6 doesn't have any Pitt offers or real interest.
Division II's Region 7 is home to Massillon Washington (the two-seed) and priority Pitt target, standout 2017 OT Thayer Munford. Washington is hot right now and also features 2019 LB Jamir Thomas, an all-everything kind of player, among other stars. They play Dublin Scioto in round one. Their head coach Nate Moore could be in for a reckoning with his former school (discussed below) if they can both win their regions.
Division II's Region 8 doesn't have any Pitt offers, but they do have a serious candidate in 2017 four-star ATH Jarell White. White does it all on both sides of the ball for Cincinnati La Salle, the back-to-back defending Division II state champs. La Salle is three-seed and plays Edgewood.
Division III's Region 9 has Pitt running back commit Todd Sibley and his Akron Archbishop Hoban Knights looking to defender their state title. They are the three-seed and will take on Howland in round one (they have 2018 LB Chris Julian, a Division I prospect). Hoban's rival St. Vincent-St. Mary is also in the region.
Division III's Region 10 doesn't have any Pitt targets of note.
Division III's Region 11 has St. Francis DeSales (of Columbus, not Toledo), which features former DT target Derrius Mullins, now an Indiana commit, and 2018 LBs Brian AsaMoah (offered and visited) and Ty Van Fossen. All three are legit Division I prospects and I think DeSales should win this region going away. They are the one seed and play Sheridan in round one.
Division III's Region 12 has no Pitt targets of note. There are also no Pitt targets of note in Division IV's Regions 13 or 14.
Division IV's Region 15 is home to recent Pitt commit and standout tight end Charles Reeves, who plays for the Steubenville Big Red. Steubenville suffered only one loss all season and they emerge as the two-seed with a match-up against Indian Creek. I think they'll come out on top of this one.
Division IV's Region 16 doesn't feature any notable Pitt targets. There are also no notable targets in any of the Division V or Division VI games, or Division VII's Regions 25 or 26.
Division VII's Region 27 features Harvest Prep and standout 2018 OT/DE Isaiah Mullens, a potential Pitt target and three-star recruit who's collected offers from Iowa State and the MAC.
Division VII's Region 28 doesn't have any notable prospects.
Ohio is split into 7 "divisions", and rather than 1A-6A classifications, their system operates comparably to college (i.e, Division I is the largest, II the second-largest, etc.). Each division is split up into four separate regions. The first week is played on the higher-seeded team's home field while they move to neutral site games after that. Here is a link to all of the brackets, but I'll summarize them below. Note that Division I may be a good bit of reading, but there will be less teams as Divisions get smaller.
In Division I's Region 1, the only real team of note for Pitt fans is Lakewood (Ohio) St. Ed's. They are back-to-back defending state champs and sit as the 2-seed this year. They feature 2018 DB offer Michael Dowell. St. Ed's will play Euclid in the first round.
Divsion I's Region 2 is home to undefeated one-seed Olentangy Liberty and the four-seed in Toledo Whitmer. Neither school has offers out from Pitt yet, but both are notable to watch. Liberty features 2018 LB Ed Warinner Jr., a prospect who is an offer candidate and has visited, among other DI prospects. Whitmer features 2020 QB (yes, a freshman) in phenom Riley Keller. He'll have a chance to be the best QB in America by time he graduates if he keeps putting up numbers like he has. Liberty plays local opponent Olentangy Orange, while Whitmer plays Medina.
Division I's Region 3 features Huber Heights Wayne as the one-seed, Pickerington Central as the three-seed, Dublin Coffman as the four-seed, Springfield as the six-seed and Pickerington North as the seven-seed. Wayne plays Lancaster and has Pitt offers out to 2018 studs L'Christian Smith and Alex Reigelsperger. Pick Central has 2017 RB Morgan Ellison (no offer), 2018 TE Trenton Gillison (offer), 2018 MSU DB commit Xavier Henderson, 2018 DB/LB Jeremiah Wood (no offer), 2018 TE Alex Morgan, and probably a dozen other kids. Big-time school. Dublin Coffman always has guys and 2017 DT Ben Frye is a Duke commit that Pitt could try to poach later on. They play local opponent Hilliard Davidson. Springfield is another massive program and one that features 2018 Rivals250 offer Leonard Taylor, among many other prospects. They'll play Pick Central. Pick North features 2018 OT/DE Alex Williams, who has Pitt interest but no offer yet.
Division I's Region 4 has Fairfield as the four-seed, home to former 2017 Pitt CB target and MSU commit Josiah Scott and 2018 Pitt offers and four-stars Jackson Carman and Malik Vann. They play Cincinnati private school St. Xavier in a big match-up.
Division II's Region 5 doesn't have any Pitt offers out, but 2017 Rivals250 ATH Lynn Bowden and his Warren Harding squad are the three-seed. I expect them to win on the strength of his abilities, but we shall see. They play Brecksville-Broadsview Heights. 2017 MSU commit Weston Bridges (Copley) and 2018 LB Chase Kline (Chardon) are other college prospects in the region.
Division II's Region 6 doesn't have any Pitt offers or real interest.
Division II's Region 7 is home to Massillon Washington (the two-seed) and priority Pitt target, standout 2017 OT Thayer Munford. Washington is hot right now and also features 2019 LB Jamir Thomas, an all-everything kind of player, among other stars. They play Dublin Scioto in round one. Their head coach Nate Moore could be in for a reckoning with his former school (discussed below) if they can both win their regions.
Division II's Region 8 doesn't have any Pitt offers, but they do have a serious candidate in 2017 four-star ATH Jarell White. White does it all on both sides of the ball for Cincinnati La Salle, the back-to-back defending Division II state champs. La Salle is three-seed and plays Edgewood.
Division III's Region 9 has Pitt running back commit Todd Sibley and his Akron Archbishop Hoban Knights looking to defender their state title. They are the three-seed and will take on Howland in round one (they have 2018 LB Chris Julian, a Division I prospect). Hoban's rival St. Vincent-St. Mary is also in the region.
Division III's Region 10 doesn't have any Pitt targets of note.
Division III's Region 11 has St. Francis DeSales (of Columbus, not Toledo), which features former DT target Derrius Mullins, now an Indiana commit, and 2018 LBs Brian AsaMoah (offered and visited) and Ty Van Fossen. All three are legit Division I prospects and I think DeSales should win this region going away. They are the one seed and play Sheridan in round one.
Division III's Region 12 has no Pitt targets of note. There are also no Pitt targets of note in Division IV's Regions 13 or 14.
Division IV's Region 15 is home to recent Pitt commit and standout tight end Charles Reeves, who plays for the Steubenville Big Red. Steubenville suffered only one loss all season and they emerge as the two-seed with a match-up against Indian Creek. I think they'll come out on top of this one.
Division IV's Region 16 doesn't feature any notable Pitt targets. There are also no notable targets in any of the Division V or Division VI games, or Division VII's Regions 25 or 26.
Division VII's Region 27 features Harvest Prep and standout 2018 OT/DE Isaiah Mullens, a potential Pitt target and three-star recruit who's collected offers from Iowa State and the MAC.
Division VII's Region 28 doesn't have any notable prospects.
