A few early morning recruiting notes:
- We’ll start with Koy Beasley. I’m hearing the same about him leaning to Purdue, and while it seems surprising that a defensive back would pick Purdue over Pitt, maybe it shouldn’t be quite as much of a shock. Say what you will about Purdue, but new Boilermakers head coach Ryan Walters has a history with defensive backs that can compete with Pat Narduzzi and Pitt. Walters was the defensive coordinator at Illinois the last two years, and the Illini had four defensive backs drafted in the top three rounds over that time, including No. 5 overall pick Devon Witherspoon.
Pitt is building a reputation as a DBU of sorts, but Walters can sell his recent success, too, which is probably even a little more impressive than what Pitt has done.
So that one stings, particularly since I do think one of the Pat Narduzzi tweets from that second official visit weekend was for him. If we’re keeping track, I don’t think this is the first time a Narduzzi commitment tweet has been undone before the player announced; in December 2017, Rashad Ajayi committed to Pitt on the final official visit weekend before Signing Day only to sign with Colorado State a few days later without ever having announced his Pitt commitment. So this is the second time it has happened (although precedent doesn’t lessen the sting).
- Now Pitt’s overloaded defensive back class is slimming down quickly. At one point, this class had six defensive backs committed if we include Beasley, but now he’s seemingly gone to Purdue, Chasen Johnson flipped to UCF and the longevity of Tayshawn Banks’ commitment is still a question mark, leaving just three defensive backs committed.
I do still think highly of Allen Bryant, Davion Pritchard and Nigel Maynard, but given the depth questions we talked about when all of these guys committed, it seems like Pitt will need some more defensive backs. I don’t think they’re likely to land Terhyon Nichols, and he’s the only other defensive back who has visited, so if they add more, it will be from a crop of new targets - or at least guys who haven’t visited yet.
- Conversely, there are a bunch of defensive end targets still on the board, and they’re all committing in the next two weeks. Dominic Kirks is first up; he’s announcing his commitment on Friday. Then Elias Rudolph will commit next Monday and Mylachi Williams will commit next Saturday. And somewhere in there, I imagine Sincere Edwards will make his announcement, too.
That’s four four-star defensive ends committing in the next two weeks. They all have high interest in Pitt and I think the Panthers are in pretty good shape with all of them.
So who will Pitt get?
I think Edwards is assumed to be the unannounced commitment from this past weekend (don’t get anxious about those unannounced commitments; I don’t expect the invalidated Narduzzi tweet phenomena to become commonplace). Beyond him, Pitt has room for one more defensive end, and I’m not really sure who it will be but I think there’s a good chance it will come from that group.
We’re probably looking at a first-come/first-served situation: the first two defensive ends to commit will get the two available spots. Maybe that means Edwards and Kirks, since Kirks has the earliest schedule commitment date. Maybe Kirks will choose Wisconsin and Pitt will get Rudolph three days later. Or maybe Williams the following weekend.
It will definitely be interesting to watch.
- Overall, the Beasley news is a disappointment, for a lot of reasons, and I know some fans are smarting about the quarterback developments we talked about yesterday. But I don’t think you should lose sight of the fact that Pitt has still built a really good class that has a chance to keep getting better. The Panthers weren’t going to win every recruiting battle, especially with the caliber of guys they brought in for official visits this month, and while I know the apparent flip situation with Beasley makes it sting a little more than a typical miss, all I can say is, that’s recruiting.
Meanwhile, Pitt’s got three four-star commitments, a handful of four-star targets set to commit in the next two weeks and at least one or two guys with the potential to bump into four-star range down the road. Last Friday in the 3-2-1 Column, I predicted Pitt would finish the class with six four-star commits, which would be the most in the Narduzzi era, and I’m sticking with that. They might miss it by one, but even then, having five four-stars in a class is a pretty good number, and I still maintain that this month has been one of the most impressive months of Pitt recruiting that we’ve seen in quite some time.
- As to the quarterback situation, I don't think the Pitt coaches are completely giving up on or completely out of it for Trever Jackson. I think what happened on Sunday was, Penn Hills quarterback Julian Dugger looked really good. I have heard a lot of superlatives about his performance from a number of different sources. I think there are some at Pitt who have always believed in Dugger; others weren't so sure, but after Sunday, it seems like some of the non-believers are being converted.
Now, I don't think they stop recruiting Jackson or have given up on him. But I think they found that there's a pretty good quarterback prospect who can develop into a Power Five-level player with a few years of coaching, and he's right here in Western Pa. Plus, he's a good enough athlete that if quarterback doesn't work out, he could play another position as a fallback (although I think quite a few people at Pitt believe that won't be necessary).
Again, I don't read any of this as a sign of panic. If they were really panicking about Jackson, if they had really thrown in their cards and given up, they would have pushed harder for Dugger at the camp and after it. But they didn't. They simply restarted the relationship after a really impressive day. It's good to have options, especially in a class when they probably don't have an urgent need to take a quarterback.
- We’ll start with Koy Beasley. I’m hearing the same about him leaning to Purdue, and while it seems surprising that a defensive back would pick Purdue over Pitt, maybe it shouldn’t be quite as much of a shock. Say what you will about Purdue, but new Boilermakers head coach Ryan Walters has a history with defensive backs that can compete with Pat Narduzzi and Pitt. Walters was the defensive coordinator at Illinois the last two years, and the Illini had four defensive backs drafted in the top three rounds over that time, including No. 5 overall pick Devon Witherspoon.
Pitt is building a reputation as a DBU of sorts, but Walters can sell his recent success, too, which is probably even a little more impressive than what Pitt has done.
So that one stings, particularly since I do think one of the Pat Narduzzi tweets from that second official visit weekend was for him. If we’re keeping track, I don’t think this is the first time a Narduzzi commitment tweet has been undone before the player announced; in December 2017, Rashad Ajayi committed to Pitt on the final official visit weekend before Signing Day only to sign with Colorado State a few days later without ever having announced his Pitt commitment. So this is the second time it has happened (although precedent doesn’t lessen the sting).
- Now Pitt’s overloaded defensive back class is slimming down quickly. At one point, this class had six defensive backs committed if we include Beasley, but now he’s seemingly gone to Purdue, Chasen Johnson flipped to UCF and the longevity of Tayshawn Banks’ commitment is still a question mark, leaving just three defensive backs committed.
I do still think highly of Allen Bryant, Davion Pritchard and Nigel Maynard, but given the depth questions we talked about when all of these guys committed, it seems like Pitt will need some more defensive backs. I don’t think they’re likely to land Terhyon Nichols, and he’s the only other defensive back who has visited, so if they add more, it will be from a crop of new targets - or at least guys who haven’t visited yet.
- Conversely, there are a bunch of defensive end targets still on the board, and they’re all committing in the next two weeks. Dominic Kirks is first up; he’s announcing his commitment on Friday. Then Elias Rudolph will commit next Monday and Mylachi Williams will commit next Saturday. And somewhere in there, I imagine Sincere Edwards will make his announcement, too.
That’s four four-star defensive ends committing in the next two weeks. They all have high interest in Pitt and I think the Panthers are in pretty good shape with all of them.
So who will Pitt get?
I think Edwards is assumed to be the unannounced commitment from this past weekend (don’t get anxious about those unannounced commitments; I don’t expect the invalidated Narduzzi tweet phenomena to become commonplace). Beyond him, Pitt has room for one more defensive end, and I’m not really sure who it will be but I think there’s a good chance it will come from that group.
We’re probably looking at a first-come/first-served situation: the first two defensive ends to commit will get the two available spots. Maybe that means Edwards and Kirks, since Kirks has the earliest schedule commitment date. Maybe Kirks will choose Wisconsin and Pitt will get Rudolph three days later. Or maybe Williams the following weekend.
It will definitely be interesting to watch.
- Overall, the Beasley news is a disappointment, for a lot of reasons, and I know some fans are smarting about the quarterback developments we talked about yesterday. But I don’t think you should lose sight of the fact that Pitt has still built a really good class that has a chance to keep getting better. The Panthers weren’t going to win every recruiting battle, especially with the caliber of guys they brought in for official visits this month, and while I know the apparent flip situation with Beasley makes it sting a little more than a typical miss, all I can say is, that’s recruiting.
Meanwhile, Pitt’s got three four-star commitments, a handful of four-star targets set to commit in the next two weeks and at least one or two guys with the potential to bump into four-star range down the road. Last Friday in the 3-2-1 Column, I predicted Pitt would finish the class with six four-star commits, which would be the most in the Narduzzi era, and I’m sticking with that. They might miss it by one, but even then, having five four-stars in a class is a pretty good number, and I still maintain that this month has been one of the most impressive months of Pitt recruiting that we’ve seen in quite some time.
- As to the quarterback situation, I don't think the Pitt coaches are completely giving up on or completely out of it for Trever Jackson. I think what happened on Sunday was, Penn Hills quarterback Julian Dugger looked really good. I have heard a lot of superlatives about his performance from a number of different sources. I think there are some at Pitt who have always believed in Dugger; others weren't so sure, but after Sunday, it seems like some of the non-believers are being converted.
Now, I don't think they stop recruiting Jackson or have given up on him. But I think they found that there's a pretty good quarterback prospect who can develop into a Power Five-level player with a few years of coaching, and he's right here in Western Pa. Plus, he's a good enough athlete that if quarterback doesn't work out, he could play another position as a fallback (although I think quite a few people at Pitt believe that won't be necessary).
Again, I don't read any of this as a sign of panic. If they were really panicking about Jackson, if they had really thrown in their cards and given up, they would have pushed harder for Dugger at the camp and after it. But they didn't. They simply restarted the relationship after a really impressive day. It's good to have options, especially in a class when they probably don't have an urgent need to take a quarterback.
