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Recruiting

pittmeister

Heisman Winner
May 26, 2010
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While we're piling on today let me share my thoughts on recruiting....

Now I’m the first to say that you don’t know how these kids will turn out until they play. I still believe that 100%. But when you are coming off an ACC championship and a trip to the NY6 bowl game, you think you would have some momentum.

Someone mentioned that Tim Salem was worthless when it comes to recruiting… HA! Are you kidding me??? He’s one of Pitt’s best. He’s in charge of the Northeast. He’s brought in under the radar players such as: Pickett, Pinnock, Dennis, DeShields, Ffrench, Goncalves, and Campbell. On top of that, he brought in Izzy, Warren, and Okunlola… That’s great recruiting.

But that aside, I have to be honest… I am less than thrilled with the early recruiting class so far. In the spring, I predicted that Pitt would land 8 four-star recruits. I based that on the number of high-end stars that visited or planning to visit in the summer. We got only one (Minchey) and I’m not sure we hang on to him. Here are some of the recruits that came to visit and went elsewhere:

Hykeem Williams - FSU
Stanton Ramil – OL - MSU
Desmond Umeozulu – DE – South Carolina
Rodney Gallagher - WR – WVU
Ta’mere Robinson – LB – PSU
Jalen Thompson – DE – MSU
Jeremiah Anglin – S – Kentucky
Samson Okunlola -OL -?

You gotta close on some of these guys. A few maybe?

Now in fairness, there seems to be a lot of good players with lots of offers on the defensive side of the ball (Camon, Harrison, Neal, Bass). On offense, not that many. The OL recruiting has been weak. Carretta and Daniels are two good gets. But Williams, Van Rooy and Ray have three Power 5 offers among them. It's not like Borbely has proven he can coach them up...

What are your thoughts?
 
How do you think they type of offense we are obsessed with is viewed by high school QBs and WRs growing up in 7on7 passing camps? Do you think those guys are excited about handing off and blocking?
 
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I don’t follow it closely enough to go into detail but count me among those who’ve been saying, probably annually, that the OL needs to be addressed. If you have Pickett and Addison that can mitigate some of that weakness. And around these parts a year like Pickett had is a one off. But I think a good OL can cure a lot of what ails this team.
 
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There are already so many things other programs can use against Pitt in recruiting, and now add this awful, awful offense and it’s cloud of mud mentality. That’s killer to attract any position in recruiting in this modern era of flashing lights and glory and instant gratification and end zone and sideline dances. Other than possibly running back and possibly OL that dislike pass blocking (which is anathema to being a pro OL prospect)…and even those guys want the rest of the team to be good too, yet guys of all the other positions will be repulsed.
 
Our recruiting has not changed. The offer sheers are meaningless. If anything this team is worse than recruiting rankings would suggest it should be.
 
While we're piling on today let me share my thoughts on recruiting....

Now I’m the first to say that you don’t know how these kids will turn out until they play. I still believe that 100%. But when you are coming off an ACC championship and a trip to the NY6 bowl game, you think you would have some momentum.

Someone mentioned that Tim Salem was worthless when it comes to recruiting… HA! Are you kidding me??? He’s one of Pitt’s best. He’s in charge of the Northeast. He’s brought in under the radar players such as: Pickett, Pinnock, Dennis, DeShields, Ffrench, Goncalves, and Campbell. On top of that, he brought in Izzy, Warren, and Okunlola… That’s great recruiting.

But that aside, I have to be honest… I am less than thrilled with the early recruiting class so far. In the spring, I predicted that Pitt would land 8 four-star recruits. I based that on the number of high-end stars that visited or planning to visit in the summer. We got only one (Minchey) and I’m not sure we hang on to him. Here are some of the recruits that came to visit and went elsewhere:

Hykeem Williams - FSU
Stanton Ramil – OL - MSU
Desmond Umeozulu – DE – South Carolina
Rodney Gallagher - WR – WVU
Ta’mere Robinson – LB – PSU
Jalen Thompson – DE – MSU
Jeremiah Anglin – S – Kentucky
Samson Okunlola -OL -?

You gotta close on some of these guys. A few maybe?

Now in fairness, there seems to be a lot of good players with lots of offers on the defensive side of the ball (Camon, Harrison, Neal, Bass). On offense, not that many. The OL recruiting has been weak. Carretta and Daniels are two good gets. But Williams, Van Rooy and Ray have three Power 5 offers among them. It's not like Borbely has proven he can coach them up...

What are your thoughts?

Pitt's roster is good enough to beat anyone if they are playing clean football. Pitt's roster is good enough to be beaten by anyone if they are not playing clean football.

We haven't seen much clean football this year.
 
What are your thoughts?

his first year, Narduzzi seemed like a real upgrade to Chryst in recruiting. Getting Hamlin and Ford. Plus he was relentless on Miles Sanders and he was almost able to flip him (scared the PG so much they dispatched Mike Blue & White to interview and press him if he was still solid in his PSU verbal). Reestablished Quip connection with Pugh. Plus won some tough recruiting battles for out of state guys like Pine & Camp.

But then things started to change almost immediately. The 2017 class, although pretty much over-hyped, wasn't a good sign (biggest miss in that class was Hinnish, but Wade would have contributed, along with Jeter). Then striking out on all the local lineman, which is slim pickings to begin with and included a legacy (Kristofic). Continued misses to the nits with Porter, & Dinkins, and now WVU even getting in on the act.

The coach em up philosophy only goes so far. You see how much easier it is with actual stars like Addison or Boyd as opposed to Barden. Should have seen more of a bump after the ACC championship, but your list shows the locals (Robinson & Gallegher) had no interest, and the national recruit picked another middling ACC program, although one close to home (Hykeem).

I think Narduzzi is resigned to the fact that he can't recruit well here and choses the philosophy he has and doesn't put a lot of effort into it any more. Plus he knows he won't get heat running a clean program and not finishing under .500, which he has been able to do consistently.
 
his first year, Narduzzi seemed like a real upgrade to Chryst in recruiting. Getting Hamlin and Ford. Plus he was relentless on Miles Sanders and he was almost able to flip him (scared the PG so much they dispatched Mike Blue & White to interview and press him if he was still solid in his PSU verbal). Reestablished Quip connection with Pugh. Plus won some tough recruiting battles for out of state guys like Pine & Camp.

But then things started to change almost immediately. The 2017 class, although pretty much over-hyped, wasn't a good sign (biggest miss in that class was Hinnish, but Wade would have contributed, along with Jeter). Then striking out on all the local lineman, which is slim pickings to begin with and included a legacy (Kristofic). Continued misses to the nits with Porter, & Dinkins, and now WVU even getting in on the act.

The coach em up philosophy only goes so far. You see how much easier it is with actual stars like Addison or Boyd as opposed to Barden. Should have seen more of a bump after the ACC championship, but your list shows the locals (Robinson & Gallegher) had no interest, and the national recruit picked another middling ACC program, although one close to home (Hykeem).

I think Narduzzi is resigned to the fact that he can't recruit well here and choses the philosophy he has and doesn't put a lot of effort into it any more. Plus he knows he won't get heat running a clean program and not finishing under .500, which he has been able to do consistently.
Good summary. Recall the Pitt truck going around to recruits schools, and the fireworks tweets and graphics. Goofy in retrospect but even Harbaugh was doing stuff like that. It at least gave the visual that we were trying hard. Other than the rather grudging Pat signal (sometimes they remember, sometimes they don’t) not much of that any more. Not many great results either.

Though ultimately I don’t think any middle of the road program is going to clean up in high school recruiting any longer with the power of NIL. We’ll all be waiting for the cast offs like Slovis to transfer and whether or not he is actually is a good fit, we have little choice but to try to wrest him from the others like us. The RB from ND we took for … what???? Is a good example of that. Hasn’t contributed a thing.
 
Our biggest recruiting weakness has been OL. So of course, Narduzzi installs an offense that puts an emphasis on the OL mauling people and running the ball at will. Makes perfect sense!

Pitt actually has shown to recruit the skill positions a lot better. We need an offense that can neutralize the OL weakness while getting those skilled guys the ball in space.
 
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Good summary. Recall the Pitt truck going around to recruits schools, and the fireworks tweets and graphics. Goofy in retrospect but even Harbaugh was doing stuff like that. It at least gave the visual that we were trying hard. Other than the rather grudging Pat signal (sometimes they remember, sometimes they don’t) not much of that any more. Not many great results either.

Though ultimately I don’t think any middle of the road program is going to clean up in high school recruiting any longer with the power of NIL. We’ll all be waiting for the cast offs like Slovis to transfer and whether or not he is actually is a good fit, we have little choice but to try to wrest him from the others like us. The RB from ND we took for … what???? Is a good example of that. Hasn’t contributed a thing.

yeah, it seems like now they just do that big event in June, sign a lot of middle of the road/low 3 stars from it and call it a class.

The NIL philosophy seems to be more pay the guys who are here, than to reach on a prospect (i.e. Gallagher). So how much better will things be moving forward in recruiting? As you say, it will be mining the portal for guys like Means, Simon, Flemister. You may connect on some (Devonshire a great addition), but the rest you can see why they are in the portal.
 
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While we're piling on today let me share my thoughts on recruiting....

Now I’m the first to say that you don’t know how these kids will turn out until they play. I still believe that 100%. But when you are coming off an ACC championship and a trip to the NY6 bowl game, you think you would have some momentum.

Someone mentioned that Tim Salem was worthless when it comes to recruiting… HA! Are you kidding me??? He’s one of Pitt’s best. He’s in charge of the Northeast. He’s brought in under the radar players such as: Pickett, Pinnock, Dennis, DeShields, Ffrench, Goncalves, and Campbell. On top of that, he brought in Izzy, Warren, and Okunlola… That’s great recruiting.

But that aside, I have to be honest… I am less than thrilled with the early recruiting class so far. In the spring, I predicted that Pitt would land 8 four-star recruits. I based that on the number of high-end stars that visited or planning to visit in the summer. We got only one (Minchey) and I’m not sure we hang on to him. Here are some of the recruits that came to visit and went elsewhere:

Hykeem Williams - FSU
Stanton Ramil – OL - MSU
Desmond Umeozulu – DE – South Carolina
Rodney Gallagher - WR – WVU
Ta’mere Robinson – LB – PSU
Jalen Thompson – DE – MSU
Jeremiah Anglin – S – Kentucky
Samson Okunlola -OL -?

You gotta close on some of these guys. A few maybe?

Now in fairness, there seems to be a lot of good players with lots of offers on the defensive side of the ball (Camon, Harrison, Neal, Bass). On offense, not that many. The OL recruiting has been weak. Carretta and Daniels are two good gets. But Williams, Van Rooy and Ray have three Power 5 offers among them. It's not like Borbely has proven he can coach them up...

What are your thoughts?
I agree that it is very disheartening that we didn't capitalize on the ACC championship. I expected a better class, but, we got more of the same. As usual there are some nice pieces on the defensive side, but , the offensive skill positions and the line are sadly lacking. Minchey is the piece that could save this class, provided we can keep him. I can imagine Minchey is not enthralled with Pitt's offense he has seen to this point this year. Couple that with an idiot head coach who professes his love for running the ball and the new OC hire and we may have hard time holding onto Minchey. Lose him and the class drops to below average.
 
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Our biggest recruiting weakness has been OL. So of course, Narduzzi installs an offense that puts an emphasis on the OL mauling people and running the ball at will. Makes perfect sense!

Pitt actually has shown to recruit the skill positions a lot better. We need an offense that can neutralize the OL weakness while getting those skilled guys the ball in space.
Right. And why his hoagie-and-grinder preferred style of offense is incongruous with Pitt’s ability to recruit the superlative OL needed to run it. Dunno when he’ll reconcile this in his head. Maybe never.
 
Right. And why his hoagie-and-grinder preferred style of offense is incongruous with Pitt’s ability to recruit the superlative OL needed to run it. Dunno when he’ll reconcile this in his head. Maybe never.
Rushing for 189 yards per game with almost zero passing game. It's not the OL's ability to run block that is the problem, here. You want to talk about Houy throwing a look-out block on the last INT, fine, but the run blocking is fine.
 
I agree that it is very disheartening that we didn't capitalize on the ACC championship. I expected a better class, but, we got more of the same. As usual there are some nice pieces on the defensive side, but , the offensive skill positions and the line are sadly lacking. Minchey is the piece that could save this class, provided we can keep him. I can imagine Minchey is not enthralled with Pitt's offense he has seen to this point this year. Couple that with an idiot head coach who professes his love for running the ball and the new OC hire and we may have hard time holding onto Minchey. Lose him and the class drops to below average.
The new OC hire is the guy that recruited Minchey. I would assume they have a line of communication.

The way you capitalize on the ACC Championship is for more boosters to invest in the program and NIL money to make a push for the best talent. It was obvious that Pitt was going to keep doing things the way they have always done under Narduzzi. Find talent they can develop and buy into the culture. Had Pitt been serious about capitalizing on the ACC Championship, Addison would have been well taken care of around this time last year.
 
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The new OC hire is the guy that recruited Minchey. I would assume they have a line of communication.

The way you capitalize on the ACC Championship is for more boosters to invest in the program and NIL money to make a push for the best talent. It was obvious that Pitt was going to keep doing things the way they have always done under Narduzzi. Find talent they can develop and buy into the culture. Had Pitt been serious about capitalizing on the ACC Championship, Addison would have been well taken care of around this time last year.
Pitt still doesnt have a pay for play salary NIL fund like some others who are providing minimum salaries. I'd contribute to that but it doesn't appear the Bickell one or the other one are that. There needs to be one fund, just one which provided a minimum salary and significantly more money for the top recruits and for guys to stay.
 
For the most part, the recruiting between the ACC teams not named Clemson (and maybe FSU and Miami, if either of those teams ever figure it out again) is close enough that it all comes down to whichever team has their ducks in order at the time and who has a good quarterback in place.

But if you think the OL hasn't performed up to the standard this season, then I would think you're not doing cartwheels over this year's crop.

(using the composite national rankings on this)

Current guys in the fold
Carter Warren - 454
Gabe Houy - 1,165
Marcus Minor - 220
Blake Zubovic - 491
Jake Kradel - 682
Branson Taylor - 516
Matt Goncalves - 677
Ryan Jacoby - 283
Owen Drexel - 1,374
Terrence Moore - 640

This year's class
Phillip Daniels - 808
Ryan Carretta - 930
BJ Williams - 1,106
Tai Ray - 1,313
Colin Van Rooy - 1,475
 
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