Hey, you guys can thank me I have alot of time on my hands, so I did some research. I posted this Jim's thread, but will clean up a bit and this interesting. Our biggest problem with OL recruiting is Western PA and PA itself, doesn't produce many quality linemen anymore. Take this year, class of 2021 There are only 4 OL in the Top 25. The highest ranked was #2 Nolan Rucci who I would think is a PSU lock and the highest Western PA OL is #11 Aaron Gunn who just committed to Louisville.
Let's go back 15 years or so.....
2005 13 out of Top 40 were OL. Only one was a pro (Mike Turkovich ND). Guys like Marques Slocum, Jason Kacinko, Matt Lowry, John Brown were busts.
2006 Believe it or not, There was only ONE OL in the top 50. And he was the 50th ranked player!
2007 13 out of 40 were OL. The top ranked kid the Steelers just signed (Stefen Wisniewski) but you had guys like Lumpy Jacobson (decent college not a differenc emaker) Dan Matha, Josh Marks, Evan Blankenship (busts) The only other guy who actually played in the NFL was #29 ranked Don Barclay out of Seneca Valley/WVU and played for the Packers.
2008 Only 5 of the top 40. Top guy was Lucas Nix who again was a decent college player but really did not live up to hype. Really poor class
2009 Again, only 5 of top 40 another really poor class. Eric Shrive PSU was the highest rated kid, and he stunk. We had like Ryan Schlieper and Juantez Hollins. You didn't even have starters in this group, let alone stars.
2010 7 out of top 40. Again, all crap. Thomas Ricketts was the top kid, Miles Dieffenbach was second and the only guy really to even make an NFL camp. We had Arthur Doakes at #40
2011 7 of top 40. Again, no pros, draftees, no all conference players in college, the best lineman was Pitt's Artie Rowell.
2012 8 of top 40. This looked on paper like it could have been a strong class with 3 tackles inside top 10. But alas. Nope. Biz might have been the best, highly regarded Chris Muller and JJ Denman
2013 5 out of 30. Dorian Johnson, 5 star. let's be honest, he was a good player, but was he 5 star good? Mike McGlinchey who went to ND and was #9th pick overall, and member of the All Rookie team was by far, the best OL so far on this list.
2014 6 out of top 40. Again, really mediocre class. Alex Bookser was the best OL in this group. Let that define it. Mike Grimm was a complete bust. Other were so nameless not worth mentioning.
2015 9 out of top 35. PSU cleaned up (ahem) with Ryan Bates, Sterling Jenkins and Ryan Bucholz. Pitt landed Tony Pilato and Alex Paulina. That's about all that need said about this class.
2016 8 of top 35. Michael Menet is returning for his 5th season at PSU. Connor McGovern, Pitt's Brandon Ford. Again, another really poor class.
2017....do I really need to go on??? 4. Only 4 of the top 30 were OL. CJ Thorpe, Josh Lugg, Desmond Holmes and Gabe Huoy.
OKAY! ENOUGH ENOUGH! I cry uncle. Look at this, there is only One NFL 1st rd pick. Contrast back in the day, Fralic, Covert, Grimm, Munchak, Farrell were all within a few years of each other.
Fellas, we can even go back a few years before them, you may remember the names, Nick Marmo, Joel Holler, Mark Farris, Dan Simelis, Brian Borgoyne, Kyle Mitchum, Greg Harrison, all of these guys 4-5 star, highly regarded recruits. So ladies and gentlemen of the jury, I give you that it is not that Pitt isn't getting quality OL in this state, but the fact that NO ONE IS!!! This state has produced decent OL in any consistency in over 25 years. The mines dried up, the mills shut down, the big uglies went elsewhere.
Let's go back 15 years or so.....
2005 13 out of Top 40 were OL. Only one was a pro (Mike Turkovich ND). Guys like Marques Slocum, Jason Kacinko, Matt Lowry, John Brown were busts.
2006 Believe it or not, There was only ONE OL in the top 50. And he was the 50th ranked player!
2007 13 out of 40 were OL. The top ranked kid the Steelers just signed (Stefen Wisniewski) but you had guys like Lumpy Jacobson (decent college not a differenc emaker) Dan Matha, Josh Marks, Evan Blankenship (busts) The only other guy who actually played in the NFL was #29 ranked Don Barclay out of Seneca Valley/WVU and played for the Packers.
2008 Only 5 of the top 40. Top guy was Lucas Nix who again was a decent college player but really did not live up to hype. Really poor class
2009 Again, only 5 of top 40 another really poor class. Eric Shrive PSU was the highest rated kid, and he stunk. We had like Ryan Schlieper and Juantez Hollins. You didn't even have starters in this group, let alone stars.
2010 7 out of top 40. Again, all crap. Thomas Ricketts was the top kid, Miles Dieffenbach was second and the only guy really to even make an NFL camp. We had Arthur Doakes at #40
2011 7 of top 40. Again, no pros, draftees, no all conference players in college, the best lineman was Pitt's Artie Rowell.
2012 8 of top 40. This looked on paper like it could have been a strong class with 3 tackles inside top 10. But alas. Nope. Biz might have been the best, highly regarded Chris Muller and JJ Denman
2013 5 out of 30. Dorian Johnson, 5 star. let's be honest, he was a good player, but was he 5 star good? Mike McGlinchey who went to ND and was #9th pick overall, and member of the All Rookie team was by far, the best OL so far on this list.
2014 6 out of top 40. Again, really mediocre class. Alex Bookser was the best OL in this group. Let that define it. Mike Grimm was a complete bust. Other were so nameless not worth mentioning.
2015 9 out of top 35. PSU cleaned up (ahem) with Ryan Bates, Sterling Jenkins and Ryan Bucholz. Pitt landed Tony Pilato and Alex Paulina. That's about all that need said about this class.
2016 8 of top 35. Michael Menet is returning for his 5th season at PSU. Connor McGovern, Pitt's Brandon Ford. Again, another really poor class.
2017....do I really need to go on??? 4. Only 4 of the top 30 were OL. CJ Thorpe, Josh Lugg, Desmond Holmes and Gabe Huoy.
OKAY! ENOUGH ENOUGH! I cry uncle. Look at this, there is only One NFL 1st rd pick. Contrast back in the day, Fralic, Covert, Grimm, Munchak, Farrell were all within a few years of each other.
Fellas, we can even go back a few years before them, you may remember the names, Nick Marmo, Joel Holler, Mark Farris, Dan Simelis, Brian Borgoyne, Kyle Mitchum, Greg Harrison, all of these guys 4-5 star, highly regarded recruits. So ladies and gentlemen of the jury, I give you that it is not that Pitt isn't getting quality OL in this state, but the fact that NO ONE IS!!! This state has produced decent OL in any consistency in over 25 years. The mines dried up, the mills shut down, the big uglies went elsewhere.
