Pitt recruiting geographical focus

[Saboteur]

I watched Ohio State completely outclass Michigan this weekend.

I live in Columbus and know the level of high school players in the state. It is far better than PA in my opinion.

For almost 50 years I've been a Pitt fan and have gone to games since '69.

Never have I noticed anyone deciding to attend or not attend a Pitt game based on where our players went to high school and I've long held the opinion that the WPIAL is vastly overrated. My nephews played for Central and NO, they weren't recruited.

Here is my point.

Only 6 of Ohio States 22 starters are from Ohio and none of them at the skilled positions. Florida, Texas, California...

And while I've never heard anyone in Columbus complain about a noon start I've heard fewer complaints about the vast majority of players coming from out of state.

I'm not a big fan of PN, but I wholeheartedly agree with semi ignoring Western PA in lieu of Florida and Georgia etc...

Ohio State doesn't care...it goes for speed. I like that Pitt has shifted it's focus. On top of all of that, I'd love to eliminate the sense of entitlement some local players/coaches have as it relates to Pitt.

Good luck riding the Pine in State College, South Bend or wherever.

 

[Las Panteras]

I watched Ohio State completely outclass Michigan this weekend.

I live in Columbus and know the level of high school players in the state. It is far better than PA in my opinion.

For almost 50 years I've been a Pitt fan and have gone to games since '69.

Never have I noticed anyone deciding to attend or not attend a Pitt game based on where our players went to high school and I've long held the opinion that the WPIAL is vastly overrated. My nephews played for Central and NO, they weren't recruited.

Here is my point.

Only 6 of Ohio States 22 starters are from Ohio and none of them at the skilled positions. Florida, Texas, California...

And while I've never heard anyone in Columbus complain about a noon start I've heard fewer complaints about the vast majority of players coming from out of state.

I'm not a big fan of PN, but I wholeheartedly agree with semi ignoring Western PA in lieu of Florida and Georgia etc...

Ohio State doesn't care...it goes for speed. I like that Pitt has shifted it's focus. On top of all of that, I'd love to eliminate the sense of entitlement some local players/coaches have as it relates to Pitt.

Good luck riding the Pine in State College, South Bend or wherever.

Pitt's current class has one player from PA.

 

[Mikefln]

Yet over the past 10 years the great majority of our stars were from WPA. You cannot abandoned your backyard.

Furthermore, the only perennial top 25 team that does not have the local talent making up the bulk of the team is Notre Dame. You can now maybe add Utah and Boise St but the rest use the local talent and sprinkle in from wherever else they have in roads. The Blue Bloods can also get the national recruits. Yet still there is a strong local backbone.

 

[Saboteur]

Yet over the past 10 years the great majority of our stars were from WPA. You cannot abandoned your backyard.

Furthermore, the only perennial top 25 team that does not have the local talent making up the bulk of the team is Notre Dame. You can now maybe add Utah and Boise St but the rest use the local talent and sprinkle in from wherever else they have in roads. The Blue Bloods can also get the national recruits. Yet still there is a strong local backbone.

What stars? And did we win something that mattered?

 

[Mikefln]

What stars? And did we win something that mattered?

Stars like Aarron Donald and Ejuan Price and Ford is in the process of being.
Most of our solid multi year starters like Biz, Bookser, Johnson, Hamlin, Dane Jackson I could keep going.

None the less what does any of that have to do with the premise that the great majority of Top 25 teams are built off local talent that is supplemented with regional talent.

 

[Saboteur]

Stars like Aarron Donald and Ejuan Price and Ford is in the process of being.
Most of our solid multi year starters like Biz, Bookser, Johnson, Hamlin, Dane Jackson I could keep going.

None the less what does any of that have to do with the premise that the great majority of Top 25 teams are built off local talent that is supplemented with regional talent.

And what did Pitt win? Nada.
As to the assertion that most top 25 are built on local talent I call BS. First, most are large state schools so "local" is a misnomer. Next, I don't see Utah relying on local talent, nor Bama, nor Ohio State nor Penn State in all honesty.

 

[BFo8]

And what did Pitt win? Nada.
As to the assertion that most top 25 are built on local talent I call BS. First, most are large state schools so "local" is a misnomer. Next, I don't see Utah relying on local talent, nor Bama, nor Ohio State nor Penn State in all honesty.

To be fair Utah does have 37 in state players on their roster, which seemed like a lot to me. Not sure if that’s an aberration or not.

 

[docpanther26]

Most Texas schools see no reason to really recruit outside the state.

 

[docpanther26]

...and there is a lot of schools!

 

[HailToPitt725]

 

[HailtoPitt]

Pitt can't recruit the state outside of western PA, so any successful strategy should involve recruiting out of the state heavily. Pitt needs to focus on recruiting better than the other ACC Coastal schools, if we expect to win the division more than once every 20 years. The recruits OSU brings in literally doesn't matter for Pitt, unless Pitt gets into the playoff. Many people never realized that Boise State under Peterson actually recruited better than most teams they played against. They SHOULD have won a lot of games.

 

[21Guns.]

I watched Ohio State completely outclass Michigan this weekend.

I live in Columbus and know the level of high school players in the state. It is far better than PA in my opinion.

For almost 50 years I've been a Pitt fan and have gone to games since '69.

Never have I noticed anyone deciding to attend or not attend a Pitt game based on where our players went to high school and I've long held the opinion that the WPIAL is vastly overrated. My nephews played for Central and NO, they weren't recruited.

Here is my point.

Only 6 of Ohio States 22 starters are from Ohio and none of them at the skilled positions. Florida, Texas, California...

And while I've never heard anyone in Columbus complain about a noon start I've heard fewer complaints about the vast majority of players coming from out of state.

I'm not a big fan of PN, but I wholeheartedly agree with semi ignoring Western PA in lieu of Florida and Georgia etc...

Ohio State doesn't care...it goes for speed. I like that Pitt has shifted it's focus. On top of all of that, I'd love to eliminate the sense of entitlement some local players/coaches have as it relates to Pitt.

Good luck riding the Pine in State College, South Bend or wherever.

Do you think Pitt can recruit like Ohio State? Ohio State can do that because they have won and built an elite program. Pitt is not In the same stratosphere in recruiting. You aren’t going to go down to Florida, Georgia and Texas and pull top recruits regularly. It all starts at home. If Pitt wants to get over the hump they need to recruit better in the hone region. You are always going to have more success in those areas.

 

[Mikefln]

Do you think Pitt can recruit like Ohio State? Ohio State can do that because they have won and built an elite program. Pitt is not In the same stratosphere in recruiting. You aren’t going to go down to Florida, Georgia and Texas and pull top recruits regularly. It all starts at home. If Pitt wants to get over the hump they need to recruit better in the hone region. You are always going to have more success in those areas.

On top of that Ohio St still has 62 players from Ohio on their roster.

As mentioned before by another poster Utah has 37 from their own state and nobody ever accused Utah of being a football hotbed.

Michigan has 40 from their state.

Georgia has 89 from their state.

Wisconsin had 51 from their state.

Alabama has 42 from their state.

LSU has 60 from their state.

Aurburn has 47 from their state.

Iowa has 46 from their state.

Media Darling Minnesota has 39 from their state.

ND has from 7 their state. Ohio- 9 PA- 9 CA- 12 FL- 7 TX- 4 IL- 13 The rest of the ACC/SEC area 26.

So as you can see every team outside of ND has the back bone of their local talent. If you explore the rosters more you will see after their local area, then the next bulk of players are from the same geographical area that they concentrate their efforts on. Then the blue bloods sprinkle in National recruits because they can.

What you are asking for is for Pitt to become like Notre Dame. Do you not see the failure in that logic? Yes the WPIAL and surrounding districts are not what they used to be. But Pitts biggest problem is too many of its area's top players go elsewhere.

 

[lilspainishflea]

Do you think Pitt can recruit like Ohio State? Ohio State can do that because they have won and built an elite program. Pitt is not In the same stratosphere in recruiting. You aren’t going to go down to Florida, Georgia and Texas and pull top recruits regularly. It all starts at home. If Pitt wants to get over the hump they need to recruit better in the hone region. You are always going to have more success in those areas.

Pitt doesn't need to get top talent from the South. There's so many more D1 players in Georgia and Florida than from WPA so getting the guys who aren't good enough for UGA/LSU but can still play is fine for what we need, which is a consistent 8 wins with some 10 and some 6 sprinkled in there.

Pitt's reputation down here isn't stellar but people also don't have the historical knowledge that Pitt is an average program over the past 30 years. In some ways it's an easier sell since we are more of a blank slate in peoples' minds.

 

[21Guns.]

Pitt doesn't need to get top talent from the South. There's so many more D1 players in Georgia and Florida than from WPA so getting the guys who aren't good enough for UGA/LSU but can still play is fine for what we need, which is a consistent 8 wins with some 10 and some 6 sprinkled in there.

Pitt's reputation down here isn't stellar but people also don't have the historical knowledge that Pitt is an average program over the past 30 years. In some ways it's an easier sell since we are more of a blank slate in peoples' minds.

If it was that easy that you could win 10 games with left overs from Florida then schools like Ga Tech, USF, South Carolina ect would be winning 10 games a year.

 

[Slick Manager of Champs]

Stars like Aarron Donald and Ejuan Price and Ford is in the process of being.
Most of our solid multi year starters like Biz, Bookser, Johnson, Hamlin, Dane Jackson I could keep going.

None the less what does any of that have to do with the premise that the great majority of Top 25 teams are built off local talent that is supplemented with regional talent.

exactly. A talented recruit like Paris Ford would not return our phone calls if he lived in Texas or Georgia.

 

[lilspainishflea]

If it was that easy that you could win 10 games with left overs from Florida then schools like Ga Tech, USF, South Carolina ect would be winning 10 games a year.

Georgia Tech has won 11 games twice in the past 10 years.

USF 10+ twice in the last 4 years.

South Carolina 11 games three times in the last 9 years.

 

[JoseLind13]

Georgia Tech has won 11 games twice in the past 10 years.

USF 10+ twice in the last 4 years.

South Carolina 11 games three times in the last 9 years.

And add UCF and Florida Atlantic to the list of 11+ win seasons recently

 

[lilspainishflea]

And add UCF and Florida Atlantic to the list of 11+ win seasons recently

Mississippi State has a 10 win season and three 9 win seasons in the last decade.

UAB has 11 and 9 wins in the last two years.

Memphis.

Louisiana Tech has five 9 win seasons in the past eight years.

There are good players down here. Especially skill position guys. Jaylon Barden, one of those "afterthought recruits that you can't win with" from Georgia that we got this year would be the best WR prospect out of the WPIAL since Robert Foster and Tyler Boyd. And we only had to beat Kentucky, Indiana, and some local Georgia schools for him.

 

[Saboteur]

Do you think Pitt can recruit like Ohio State? Ohio State can do that because they have won and built an elite program. Pitt is not In the same stratosphere in recruiting. You aren’t going to go down to Florida, Georgia and Texas and pull top recruits regularly. It all starts at home. If Pitt wants to get over the hump they need to recruit better in the hone region. You are always going to have more success in those areas.

If Pitt is shopping in the WPIAL it is recruiting at the MAC level.

 

[Saboteur]

exactly. A talented recruit like Paris Ford would not return our phone calls if he lived in Texas or Georgia.

How do you know unless you call?

 

[Saboteur]

On top of that Ohio St still has 62 players from Ohio on their roster.

As mentioned before by another poster Utah has 37 from their own state and nobody ever accused Utah of being a football hotbed.

Michigan has 40 from their state.

Georgia has 89 from their state.

Wisconsin had 51 from their state.

Alabama has 42 from their state.

LSU has 60 from their state.

Aurburn has 47 from their state.

Iowa has 46 from their state.

Media Darling Minnesota has 39 from their state.

ND has from 7 their state. Ohio- 9 PA- 9 CA- 12 FL- 7 TX- 4 IL- 13 The rest of the ACC/SEC area 26.

So as you can see every team outside of ND has the back bone of their local talent. If you explore the rosters more you will see after their local area, then the next bulk of players are from the same geographical area that they concentrate their efforts on. Then the blue bloods sprinkle in National recruits because they can.

What you are asking for is for Pitt to become like Notre Dame. Do you not see the failure in that logic? Yes the WPIAL and surrounding districts are not what they used to be. But Pitts biggest problem is too many of its area's top players go elsewhere.

Ok, I'll play ball because the players who actually play matter most to me.
Name me the last QB was Western PA to start for a p5 team? Then tell me how long ago he played.
Same with a stud RB.
WR, etc.

The pickings in WPA are very slim. Foster was a senior in HS sux years ago. Shell was a dud. Pryor is 30 years old now.
Even PSU has next to no contributors from WPA. Remember, 22 players.
The number of players from WPA doesn't amount to a backbone, it's a wishbone.
It's ok if you are Toledo, but not a P5 program like Pitt.

 

[Mikefln]

Ok, I'll play ball because the players who actually play matter most to me.
Name me the last QB was Western PA to start for a p5 team? Then tell me how long ago he played.
Same with a stud RB.
WR, etc.

The pickings in WPA are very slim. Foster was a senior in HS sux years ago. Shell was a dud. Pryor is 30 years old now.
Even PSU has next to no contributors from WPA. Remember, 22 players.
The number of players from WPA doesn't amount to a backbone, it's a wishbone.
It's ok if you are Toledo, but not a P5 program like Pitt.

First I never said all players need to be from WPA but AS I PROVED ALREADY ALL TOP 25 TEAMS OUTSIDE OF NOTRE DAME HAS LOCAL PLAYERS AS THE MAJORITY OF THE ROSTER. Yes supplement it from regional recruits and if blessed enough Florida, Texas, and Cali great. But as Slick wisely said in a previous post the Texas or Florida Verizon of Paris Ford isn't coming here.

As far as your question, most players either graduated in last few years or still in school.

QB- former Michigan QB John O'Korn, and Phil Jurkovic is a possibility in the future. Also I bet we will regret Jack Solpack will make a fine college player. Time will tell on him.

RB- James Conner, Terry Swanson, Miles Sanders, Journey Brown. Also Darren Hall is from Youngstown right outside of local and in the region. As far as Shell and Wash High's Shai McKenzie goes, they had the talent but not the right attitude or legal trouble. It happens.

WR- Boyd and Foster of course. But our own Arron Mathews if he had a competent OC and QB who threw the ball up for him he would be a dangerous weapon. Will admit though this is a weak position in the area as of late.

TE- this area has produced many great ones for years going back to Eric Gill, Steve Buches, &Nate Byham. For recent guys Ben Koyack, Scott Ondorff, JP Holtz he'll even Nick Bowers had a nice year this year now that he is healthy. and in the past few recruiting cycles good TEs committed elsewhere and we will see how their careers develop.

OL and DL- do i even need to go here? Good/Great players all over the place still.

LB- must admit this position is a little down recently but still some talent. WVU's Nick K, Zane Zaider, Hudson, Bo Buaer.

DB- probably the biggest surprise as this has been very deep recently. Just on this year's current Pitt team you have Dane Jackson, Paris Ford, and Damar Hamlin. Then you have the Hooker Brothers, Geno Stone, plus there are a few young guys who are working their way up. A very strong group.

So there you go, the only truly weak spot is WR and everything else is either adequate or very good. If Pitt got those guys it is a top 15 team. Then supplemented with the rest of PA, Ohio, NJ, the Maryland/VA area the pick a few gems in the rough in Forida and you have a very talent rich team. I think there is a recent coach who employed this tactic. He was the last coach to finish a season ranked and the last coach to have 10 wins. Go figure.

 

[Saboteur]

First I never said all players need to be from WPA but AS I PROVED ALREADY ALL TOP 25 TEAMS OUTSIDE OF NOTRE DAME HAS LOCAL PLAYERS AS THE MAJORITY OF THE ROSTER. Yes supplement it from regional recruits and if blessed enough Florida, Texas, and Cali great. But as Slick wisely said in a previous post the Texas or Florida Verizon of Paris Ford isn't coming here.

As far as your question, most players either graduated in last few years or still in school.

QB- former Michigan QB John O'Korn, and Phil Jurkovic is a possibility in the future. Also I bet we will regret Jack Solpack will make a fine college player. Time will tell on him.

RB- James Conner, Terry Swanson, Miles Sanders, Journey Brown. Also Darren Hall is from Youngstown right outside of local and in the region. As far as Shell and Wash High's Shai McKenzie goes, they had the talent but not the right attitude or legal trouble. It happens.

WR- Boyd and Foster of course. But our own Arron Mathews if he had a competent OC and QB who threw the ball up for him he would be a dangerous weapon. Will admit though this is a weak position in the area as of late.

TE- this area has produced many great ones for years going back to Eric Gill, Steve Buches, &Nate Byham. For recent guys Ben Koyack, Scott Ondorff, JP Holtz he'll even Nick Bowers had a nice year this year now that he is healthy. and in the past few recruiting cycles good TEs committed elsewhere and we will see how their careers develop.

OL and DL- do i even need to go here? Good/Great players all over the place still.

LB- must admit this position is a little down recently but still some talent. WVU's Nick K, Zane Zaider, Hudson, Bo Buaer.

DB- probably the biggest surprise as this has been very deep recently. Just on this year's current Pitt team you have Dane Jackson, Paris Ford, and Damar Hamlin. Then you have the Hooker Brothers, Geno Stone, plus there are a few young guys who are working their way up. A very strong group.

So there you go, the only truly weak spot is WR and everything else is either adequate or very good. If Pitt got those guys it is a top 15 team. Then supplemented with the rest of PA, Ohio, NJ, the Maryland/VA area the pick a few gems in the rough in Forida and you have a very talent rich team. I think there is a recent coach who employed this tactic. He was the last coach to finish a season ranked and the last coach to have 10 wins. Go figure.

O'Korn was a flop and he left to attend STA for a reason. STA = big time. WPIAL = living in the past.
When Jurk does something, let me know.
Solpack....I hope he does well, but stick to facts.

Your timeframe is spread so wide it qualifies as a time warp.

P5 talent in the WPIAL is sporadic. Don't include Ohio because they don't know Pitt exists in spite of PN and dreams to the contrary. Pity really, but I grew up in eastern Oh and it's THE OSU, ND and WVU.

Your post is a good cover letter to get the recruiting coordinator at Akron.

 

[boseman7]

You dont need to build a program off just wpa guys but you do need to get the top ones when they do come out to improve quickly. Case and point.......Rod Rutherford was a highly touted recruit who had a good career here and put Pitt on the map with Fitzgerald. Tyler Palko kept Pitt out of the bottom of the Big East and won some big games. Larod Stephens Howling, Lucas Nix, Tyler Boyd, Jonathan Baldwin to name a few ,all made significant impact. Now just imagine, if you land Pryor, or Walls who was the #1 corner, or any one of these 5 star or high 4 star guys ONCE or TWICE a year this program is top 25 at worst and even in the top 10 with these guys. Lesean McCoy types in middle Pa, Kevin Jones types in eastern Pa would instantly pull us to above average to good. Then you get them FL and OH kids and your always top 25. Problem is Narduzzi aint get that signature recruit yet like Wandstedt did getting McCoy which then made others like Baldwin follow. That is not that hard. Call the boosters and just get one!!!

 

[Mikefln]

O'Korn was a flop and he left to attend STA for a reason. STA = big time. WPIAL = living in the past.

He was never a WPIAL guy he was a D6 guy which is still WPA. He moved because his dad got a job in Florida. As far as him being a flop, he killed in Houston, it wasn't until he went to Michigan that he struggled. Seems like every QB has struggled at Michigan since Harbaugh took over.

Your timeframe is spread so wide it qualifies as a time warp.

No my time frame makes total sense. Guys who have been out of college for 3 years or less or currently in college. The only one where I went further was TE because i was surprised how far back it went, not because I had to as there are current players in the time frame I suggested who has produced.

P5 talent in the WPIAL is sporadic. Don't include Ohio because they don't know Pitt exists in spite of PN and dreams to the contrary. Pity really, but I grew up in eastern Oh and it's THE OSU, ND and WVU.

I included 1 just 1 Ohio guy (who played for Pitt so your premise that they don't know that Pitt exists is really funny) and he played a position that I named various WPA talents who produced as well or better than he did. I only included him to prove the point of after local you need to look regional. As far as sporadic, from what I can see only WR & QB is it sporadic.

Your post is a good cover letter to get the recruiting coordinator at Akron.

Your just butthurt that I proved your BS argument false with facts. Again every name I mentioned outside of QB and WR were/are all P5 All-Conference level players from WPA who are either 3 years out of college or currently in college. There are also other ones who are just starting their college career that I am sure will replace them.

But hey whatever you want buddy. Let's abandoned WPA and go south like ND does. I am sure that will work out well because we are fully committed and as big as a name as ND for it to work like it does there.

 

[Slick Manager of Champs]

How do you know unless you call?

the call would go something like this:

Mom: Hey Johnny, someone named Pat Narduzzi is on the phone, says he wants to talk about Pitt

Johnny: Who?

 

[jtownknowitall]

P5 talent in the WPIAL is sporadic. Don't include Ohio because they don't know Pitt exists in spite of PN and dreams to the contrary. Pity really, but I grew up in eastern Oh and it's THE OSU, ND and WVU.

Your post is a good cover letter to get the recruiting coordinator at Akron.

Sadly Pitt is located in the heart of the WPIAL and can't be easily be moved to a more fertile recruiting area. How do you propose attracting Florida and Georgia recruits to WPIAL country? It's 30 degrees and there is snow on the ground in WPIAL country.

 

[Saboteur]

He was never a WPIAL guy he was a D6 guy which is still WPA. He moved because his dad got a job in Florida. As far as him being a flop, he killed in Houston, it wasn't until he went to Michigan that he struggled. Seems like every QB has struggled at Michigan since Harbaugh took over.



No my time frame makes total sense. Guys who have been out of college for 3 years or less or currently in college. The only one where I went further was TE because i was surprised how far back it went, not because I had to as there are current players in the time frame I suggested who has produced.


I included 1 just 1 Ohio guy (who played for Pitt so your premise that they don't know that Pitt exists is really funny) and he played a position that I named various WPA talents who produced as well or better than he did. I only included him to prove the point of after local you need to look regional. As far as sporadic, from what I can see only WR & QB is it sporadic.



Your just butthurt that I proved your BS argument false with facts. Again every name I mentioned outside of QB and WR were/are all P5 All-Conference level players from WPA who are either 3 years out of college or currently in college. There are also other ones who are just starting their college career that I am sure will replace them.

But hey whatever you want buddy. Let's abandoned WPA and go south like ND does. I am sure that will work out well because we are fully committed and as big as a name as ND for it to work like it does there.

Butthurt?!
Really?
Does that make you a man?
I can always tell when I've outsmarted someone based on the speed with which they resort to the 9th grade playground insult.
Good luck finding players in WPA.

 

[Saboteur]

You dont need to build a program off just wpa guys but you do need to get the top ones when they do come out to improve quickly. Case and point.......Rod Rutherford was a highly touted recruit who had a good career here and put Pitt on the map with Fitzgerald. Tyler Palko kept Pitt out of the bottom of the Big East and won some big games. Larod Stephens Howling, Lucas Nix, Tyler Boyd, Jonathan Baldwin to name a few ,all made significant impact. Now just imagine, if you land Pryor, or Walls who was the #1 corner, or any one of these 5 star or high 4 star guys ONCE or TWICE a year this program is top 25 at worst and even in the top 10 with these guys. Lesean McCoy types in middle Pa, Kevin Jones types in eastern Pa would instantly pull us to above average to good. Then you get them FL and OH kids and your always top 25. Problem is Narduzzi aint get that signature recruit yet like Wandstedt did getting McCoy which then made others like Baldwin follow. That is not that hard. Call the boosters and just get one!!!

Rutherford played almost 20 years ago.
Baldwin and Palko 15.
Pryor 10.
You guys fill your arguments with players who could be grandads and who played for teams that never won more than 9 games.
No wonder Pitt is mediocre. You guys pine for the good old days of 2000.

 

[Mikefln]

Butthurt?!
Really?
Does that make you a man?
I can always tell when I've outsmarted someone based on the speed with which they resort to the 9th grade playground insult.
Good luck finding players in WPA.

What?

I know I outsmarted someone when I answer their question with specifics and they come back with nonsense that does not acknowledge my points in agreement or disagreement. You literally are avoiding the conversation now. You're not man enough to say something like: you know what you did show that their is still viable talent in WPA but surely it still is not good enough especially at the WR and QB position.

No, instead you avoid the conversation altogether because you spoke out your butt, you got called on it, and now you try and deflect and turn the conversation into something else. Have at it, I'm done here.

 

[boseman7]

Rutherford played almost 20 years ago.
Baldwin and Palko 15.
Pryor 10.
You guys fill your arguments with players who could be grandads and who played for teams that never won more than 9 games.
No wonder Pitt is mediocre. You guys pine for the good old days of 2000.

Ok.....lets talk recent guys who would've made a huge impact, that QB who went to Notre Dame, that Hudson kid, that guy on New England now, that Robert Foster guy, is that more recent? Point is EVERY year 2 to 4 guys come out of the wpial who are potential NFL guys and i dont think its a hard thing to get 2 out of 4. Or 1 of 3. Or 3 of 6. Pitt usually gets NONE and thats the current reality. You get 10-15 Florida guys, 10-15 Ohio guys, 3-5 Texas kids, 5 DC/Va/Md guys and you fill in the rest with guys from NJ, Pa, WV, NY, and nationally. Pitt misses a lot on hidden gems locally so they gotta be better in their evaluation of talent to develop

 

[MarshallGoldberg]

I will admit I always took the "like it or not, 60% of our guys will be from a few hours of here" position because that's how everyone except like Notre Dame and BYU and military academies recruit. So it is surprising to see these Narduzzi classes loaded with Georgia and Florida borderline 3/4 star guys. I never anticipated that.

 

[joeydavid]

First I never said all players need to be from WPA but AS I PROVED ALREADY ALL TOP 25 TEAMS OUTSIDE OF NOTRE DAME HAS LOCAL PLAYERS AS THE MAJORITY OF THE ROSTER. Yes supplement it from regional recruits and if blessed enough Florida, Texas, and Cali great. But as Slick wisely said in a previous post the Texas or Florida Verizon of Paris Ford isn't coming here.

As far as your question, most players either graduated in last few years or still in school.

QB- former Michigan QB John O'Korn, and Phil Jurkovic is a possibility in the future. Also I bet we will regret Jack Solpack will make a fine college player. Time will tell on him.

RB- James Conner, Terry Swanson, Miles Sanders, Journey Brown. Also Darren Hall is from Youngstown right outside of local and in the region. As far as Shell and Wash High's Shai McKenzie goes, they had the talent but not the right attitude or legal trouble. It happens.

WR- Boyd and Foster of course. But our own Arron Mathews if he had a competent OC and QB who threw the ball up for him he would be a dangerous weapon. Will admit though this is a weak position in the area as of late.

TE- this area has produced many great ones for years going back to Eric Gill, Steve Buches, &Nate Byham. For recent guys Ben Koyack, Scott Ondorff, JP Holtz he'll even Nick Bowers had a nice year this year now that he is healthy. and in the past few recruiting cycles good TEs committed elsewhere and we will see how their careers develop.

OL and DL- do i even need to go here? Good/Great players all over the place still.

LB- must admit this position is a little down recently but still some talent. WVU's Nick K, Zane Zaider, Hudson, Bo Buaer.

DB- probably the biggest surprise as this has been very deep recently. Just on this year's current Pitt team you have Dane Jackson, Paris Ford, and Damar Hamlin. Then you have the Hooker Brothers, Geno Stone, plus there are a few young guys who are working their way up. A very strong group.

So there you go, the only truly weak spot is WR and everything else is either adequate or very good. If Pitt got those guys it is a top 15 team. Then supplemented with the rest of PA, Ohio, NJ, the Maryland/VA area the pick a few gems in the rough in Forida and you have a very talent rich team. I think there is a recent coach who employed this tactic. He was the last coach to finish a season ranked and the last coach to have 10 wins. Go figure.

From what you wrote- other than a couple year run with high end DBs the WPIAL has been pretty barren.

Everyone who follows local high school football can see how tha numbers and talent level has dwindled every Friday night.

Miles Sanders is easily the best WPIAL running back in recent history and even he was a transfer from North Carolina.

As an example, in Pitt's current 2020 class where would both running backs be ranked in the WPIAL? #1 and #2. This discussion is really that simple.

 

[lilspainishflea]

From what you wrote- other than a couple year run with high end DBs the WPIAL has been pretty barren.

Everyone who follows local high school football can see how tha numbers and talent level has dwindled every Friday night.

Miles Sanders is easily the best WPIAL running back in recent history and even he was a transfer from North Carolina.

As an example, in Pitt's current 2020 class where would both running backs be ranked in the WPIAL? #1 and #2. This discussion is really that simple.

Totally agree. I went back and compared Jaylon Barden, our Atlanta WR, to all other WPIAL WR recruits. If he lived up here he would have been the highest ranked WPIAL WR since Robert Foster and Tyler Boyd.

There's just not enough talent in the WPIAL for us to field a good class. Certainly not when you consider that OSU, PSU, ND, and Michigan are usually pulling most of the gems. We absolutely have to be able to get kids from the South to augment our roster.

 

[Saboteur]

Ok.....lets talk recent guys who would've made a huge impact, that QB who went to Notre Dame, that Hudson kid, that guy on New England now, that Robert Foster guy, is that more recent? Point is EVERY year 2 to 4 guys come out of the wpial who are potential NFL guys and i dont think its a hard thing to get 2 out of 4. Or 1 of 3. Or 3 of 6. Pitt usually gets NONE and thats the current reality. You get 10-15 Florida guys, 10-15 Ohio guys, 3-5 Texas kids, 5 DC/Va/Md guys and you fill in the rest with guys from NJ, Pa, WV, NY, and nationally. Pitt misses a lot on hidden gems locally so they gotta be better in their evaluation of talent to develop

Fair enough, but the numbers are so few that they can't qualify as a backbone of a program.