Some recruiting notes on a Wednesday:
- As you know, there are two scheduled announcements coming up in the next two days.
The first one will be today at 5 pm. That’s when Cameron Monteiro is announcing his commitment at his high school in Brockton, Mass. Earlier this week, Monteiro announced a top three of Pitt, Kentucky and Virginia; he took official visits to Virginia and Pitt but canceled a planned visit to Kentucky.
Two days after his Pitt visit, Monteiro announced that he would be committing on Wednesday evening. We said it coming out of the visit and we’ll say it again:
I think Pitt is the favorite for Monteiro.
And I think that would be a good score for Pitt. Monteiro is a 6’3” do-everything standout for Brockton, a guy who started last season playing receiver exclusively, but after his team scored a grand total of 20 points in the first two games, the coaches moved him to Wildcat quarterback and things broke open.
Brockton won eight of its next nine games, scoring at least 30 points in all nine, topping 40 points in six of the nine and getting 50 or more four times.
Comparisons to Tyler Boyd and Steve Breaston have been made, and I can see why. I can also see why the Pitt coaches covet him as a receiver prospect. He’s a really good athlete.
- On the topic of receivers, I’m not sure what to make of Ric’Darious Farmer. He took an official visit to West Virginia over the weekend and appears to have been at UCF on Tuesday. I haven’t heard much from Farmer, but I always felt there were questions about how solid his commitment was - even back when he made it on Christmas last December.
Farmer hasn’t decommitted, but I can’t say I’m overly confident in him signing at Pitt. We’ll see; he could go through this process and end up sticking. But I’m guessing he won’t ultimately be in the class, so it won’t be any surprise to see the staff continue working on receivers, even if things go as expected with Monteiro tonight.
- The last visit weekend will be interesting with receivers. We’ve got three names on the list right now - Triston Ward, Josiah McLaurin and Ricky Johnson - but we’ll see what we confirm between now and then. I do think Pitt has a good shot with Ward.
- The next scheduled commitment is tomorrow, and that’s more local. It’s four-star linebacker Cameron Lindsey, the Aliquippa standout who took his official visit to Pitt last weekend. That followed his official visit to West Virginia two weeks ago, and naturally, the expectation heading into his commitment announcement is that he’ll be picking between the Panthers and the Mountaineers.
A 6’1” 200-pound linebacker prospect, Lindsey projects at all three linebacker spots in Pitt’s defense, and he thinks the defensive scheme is among several things that stand out about the Panthers.
“It’s a great fit for me,” Lindsey said after his visit, “and with what they’ve been doing as a program the last few years and as long as Coach Narduzzi has been here, that really stands out. They develop guys and get them ready for the next level; that was something important to me that I looked at. And the scheme and everything, it’s really the fit and how they develop their players.”
As it stands here on Wednesday morning, I think Pitt is the favorite to land Lindsey when he makes his announcement tomorrow night.
It goes without saying that getting a commitment from Lindsey would be huge. That would give the Panthers another four-star recruit in the class and, perhaps more important than the aesthetics, it would help the continuing efforts to restock the linebacker room. Pitt signed three linebackers last year, but the coaches need another big group like that due to some gaps in the recruiting of linebackers in the previous two classes.
- Another linebacker prospect to watch is Reggie Powers. He’s listed as a safety in the Rivals database, but when he visited Pitt two weeks ago, the defensive coaches - coordinator Randy Bates and linebackers coach Ryan Manalac - laid out how he would fit into the scheme as a Star linebacker.
“My versatility makes me a fit for that because that spot covers and blitzes off the edge. It’s not a meathead linebacker - that’s what they said, and they said they like my speed. They don’t like stiff linebackers; they want a leaner kind of guy.”
Powers is a priority for Pitt, and he put the Panthers in his top four after the visit. Northwestern, Michigan State and Ohio State made up the rest of that top four; Powers took an official visit to Northwestern during the spring and followed his visit to Pitt with an official visit to Michigan State this past weekend. He had planned to visit Ohio State, but it sounds like that visit is not happening, and there’s some rumblings that Powers could be committing sometime in the near future.
I can’t say I see the Panthers as the favorite here; Michigan State seems to have the momentum coming out of the official visit. But he’s a priority and would be a great fit in the defense, and if Pitt could land him and Lindsey to go with Davin Brewton (and possibly one of the unannounced commits), it would be an even better class of linebackers than the Panthers signed last year - and I think that class was pretty good, too.
- On the topic of quarterbacks, there’s growing sentiment that Miles O’Neill is going to commit to Texas A&M, possibly as soon as this week. That would take one of Pitt’s top three targets off the board, but such a move would do more than that.
It would also eliminate Texas A&M as an option for Trever Jackson, who is also a top-three target for Pitt. Both O’Neill and Jackson are looking at the Aggies, who already have one quarterback commitment in three-star Anthony Maddox, Jr. If O’Neill picks A&M, then Jackson would seem to be out - and that’s probably a good thing for Pitt.
I’m not saying that Jackson was definitively leaning to the Aggies, but the less competition for a target, the better. He’s still looking to visit Missouri at the end of the month before committing, but removing Texas A&M from the race should give Pitt a pretty good chance of landing him.
I’ve said for awhile now that I think Pitt will sign Jackson or Henry Hasselbeck as the quarterback in the 2024 class. I think Jackson is the preferred option, but it’s pretty close, and I think offensive coordinator Frank Cignetti likes the upside for both guys.
- As you know, there are two scheduled announcements coming up in the next two days.
The first one will be today at 5 pm. That’s when Cameron Monteiro is announcing his commitment at his high school in Brockton, Mass. Earlier this week, Monteiro announced a top three of Pitt, Kentucky and Virginia; he took official visits to Virginia and Pitt but canceled a planned visit to Kentucky.
Two days after his Pitt visit, Monteiro announced that he would be committing on Wednesday evening. We said it coming out of the visit and we’ll say it again:
I think Pitt is the favorite for Monteiro.
And I think that would be a good score for Pitt. Monteiro is a 6’3” do-everything standout for Brockton, a guy who started last season playing receiver exclusively, but after his team scored a grand total of 20 points in the first two games, the coaches moved him to Wildcat quarterback and things broke open.
Brockton won eight of its next nine games, scoring at least 30 points in all nine, topping 40 points in six of the nine and getting 50 or more four times.
Comparisons to Tyler Boyd and Steve Breaston have been made, and I can see why. I can also see why the Pitt coaches covet him as a receiver prospect. He’s a really good athlete.
- On the topic of receivers, I’m not sure what to make of Ric’Darious Farmer. He took an official visit to West Virginia over the weekend and appears to have been at UCF on Tuesday. I haven’t heard much from Farmer, but I always felt there were questions about how solid his commitment was - even back when he made it on Christmas last December.
Farmer hasn’t decommitted, but I can’t say I’m overly confident in him signing at Pitt. We’ll see; he could go through this process and end up sticking. But I’m guessing he won’t ultimately be in the class, so it won’t be any surprise to see the staff continue working on receivers, even if things go as expected with Monteiro tonight.
- The last visit weekend will be interesting with receivers. We’ve got three names on the list right now - Triston Ward, Josiah McLaurin and Ricky Johnson - but we’ll see what we confirm between now and then. I do think Pitt has a good shot with Ward.
- The next scheduled commitment is tomorrow, and that’s more local. It’s four-star linebacker Cameron Lindsey, the Aliquippa standout who took his official visit to Pitt last weekend. That followed his official visit to West Virginia two weeks ago, and naturally, the expectation heading into his commitment announcement is that he’ll be picking between the Panthers and the Mountaineers.
A 6’1” 200-pound linebacker prospect, Lindsey projects at all three linebacker spots in Pitt’s defense, and he thinks the defensive scheme is among several things that stand out about the Panthers.
“It’s a great fit for me,” Lindsey said after his visit, “and with what they’ve been doing as a program the last few years and as long as Coach Narduzzi has been here, that really stands out. They develop guys and get them ready for the next level; that was something important to me that I looked at. And the scheme and everything, it’s really the fit and how they develop their players.”
As it stands here on Wednesday morning, I think Pitt is the favorite to land Lindsey when he makes his announcement tomorrow night.
It goes without saying that getting a commitment from Lindsey would be huge. That would give the Panthers another four-star recruit in the class and, perhaps more important than the aesthetics, it would help the continuing efforts to restock the linebacker room. Pitt signed three linebackers last year, but the coaches need another big group like that due to some gaps in the recruiting of linebackers in the previous two classes.
- Another linebacker prospect to watch is Reggie Powers. He’s listed as a safety in the Rivals database, but when he visited Pitt two weeks ago, the defensive coaches - coordinator Randy Bates and linebackers coach Ryan Manalac - laid out how he would fit into the scheme as a Star linebacker.
“My versatility makes me a fit for that because that spot covers and blitzes off the edge. It’s not a meathead linebacker - that’s what they said, and they said they like my speed. They don’t like stiff linebackers; they want a leaner kind of guy.”
Powers is a priority for Pitt, and he put the Panthers in his top four after the visit. Northwestern, Michigan State and Ohio State made up the rest of that top four; Powers took an official visit to Northwestern during the spring and followed his visit to Pitt with an official visit to Michigan State this past weekend. He had planned to visit Ohio State, but it sounds like that visit is not happening, and there’s some rumblings that Powers could be committing sometime in the near future.
I can’t say I see the Panthers as the favorite here; Michigan State seems to have the momentum coming out of the official visit. But he’s a priority and would be a great fit in the defense, and if Pitt could land him and Lindsey to go with Davin Brewton (and possibly one of the unannounced commits), it would be an even better class of linebackers than the Panthers signed last year - and I think that class was pretty good, too.
- On the topic of quarterbacks, there’s growing sentiment that Miles O’Neill is going to commit to Texas A&M, possibly as soon as this week. That would take one of Pitt’s top three targets off the board, but such a move would do more than that.
It would also eliminate Texas A&M as an option for Trever Jackson, who is also a top-three target for Pitt. Both O’Neill and Jackson are looking at the Aggies, who already have one quarterback commitment in three-star Anthony Maddox, Jr. If O’Neill picks A&M, then Jackson would seem to be out - and that’s probably a good thing for Pitt.
I’m not saying that Jackson was definitively leaning to the Aggies, but the less competition for a target, the better. He’s still looking to visit Missouri at the end of the month before committing, but removing Texas A&M from the race should give Pitt a pretty good chance of landing him.
I’ve said for awhile now that I think Pitt will sign Jackson or Henry Hasselbeck as the quarterback in the 2024 class. I think Jackson is the preferred option, but it’s pretty close, and I think offensive coordinator Frank Cignetti likes the upside for both guys.
