For years and maybe decades Pitt has hung it’s future and success with recruiting on the local kids first and then PA and surrounding areas. I think we have pushed in many instances too hard (maybe due to budget restraints) and we just couldn’t out dual all the competition recruiting “our” area for too kids.
Sometimes it’s the allure of the big school but other kids want to get away from home. Those are the kids we can go find in Miami, Atlanta and other great recruiting areas. Pittsburgh has so much to offer, but local kids take a lot of it for granted. They’ve been coming to Pitt for years so seeing the Steelers, for instance, practicing next door might not be a big deal. But out of town kids might be really wowed by that.
This looks like one of our best recruiting classes in years and right now we have just one PA kid. I, for one am very excited for us to be going hard after out of area kids and not saving scholarships till the end to chase local kids who just seem to want to get away. If anything, a few seasons like this may make the local kids not look at Pitt as so much of a fall back option as they seem to now.
Sometimes it’s the allure of the big school but other kids want to get away from home. Those are the kids we can go find in Miami, Atlanta and other great recruiting areas. Pittsburgh has so much to offer, but local kids take a lot of it for granted. They’ve been coming to Pitt for years so seeing the Steelers, for instance, practicing next door might not be a big deal. But out of town kids might be really wowed by that.
This looks like one of our best recruiting classes in years and right now we have just one PA kid. I, for one am very excited for us to be going hard after out of area kids and not saving scholarships till the end to chase local kids who just seem to want to get away. If anything, a few seasons like this may make the local kids not look at Pitt as so much of a fall back option as they seem to now.
