Signing Day is almost here
48 hours from now, the Letters of Intent will start rolling in and Pitt’s 2022 recruiting class will take its first step toward being finalized. If it seems like Signing Day came up fast, that's because it did. Most coaching staffs were able to hit the road for two full weeks of recruiting after the regular season ended, but Pitt and the other 19 teams that played in conference championship games last weekend didn’t have quite as much time, since they spent the first of those two weeks preparing for the title shots.
(As an aside but keeping in the theme of time flying, does it seem to anyone else like the ACC Championship Game was more than nine days ago? The last week has felt like a month - or more.)
Once Pitt was done celebrating in Charlotte, the coaches hit the road and spent the last week recruiting. We ran down their visits and key stops on Friday, and those recruiting trips led into this past weekend, when the coaches hosted their first official visit weekend in two months and the first visit weekend with more than one recruit in town since June.
So, with Signing Day just two days away, where do the Panthers stand with the class of 2022?
The class
Pitt currently sits with 10 commitments for the class of 2022.
Last week, Pitt visited eight of those 10 players. Brennan Marion had to skip a planned visit with Che Nwabuko on Thursday so he could be with Jordan Addison for the Biletnikoff Award presentation, and as far as I know, nobody went to Australia to see Sam Vander Haar.
As we’ve noted before, a coaching staff can visit each recruit once per week during the contact period but the head coach can only make one visit. Last week, we confirmed visits for Pat Narduzzi with Ryan Baer, Addison Copeland, Jimmy Scott and Ryland Gandy, among the committed recruits (he made other visits, too, and we’ll get to those in a moment).
Part of the priority in seeing Baer, Copeland and Gandy is that each of those players will be enrolling at Pitt in January, along with Sean FitzSimmons and Sam Vander Haar. Narduzzi will have time next month to conduct in-home visits with the other players in the class.
In addition to tracking down all the visits last week, we also worked to confirm that all of Pitt’s current commits are set to sign on Wednesday, and it sounds like they are. We’ve heard that Baer, in particular, was getting some interest from other schools late in the process, but he has been solid since his commitment, and after his official visit, I don’t have any concerns about him signing.
Speaking of Baer, he is currently Pitt’s highest-rated commit, and for as much as we talk about the Panthers needing to continue improving and building along the lines, he probably should get more hype. I know it’s tough when we’re talking about an offensive lineman, but he’s a big, impressive player who has a bright future.
So 10 are in; who’s next? That’s the big question, and right now, we’ve got seven players we’re keeping an eye on heading into Signing Day.
Brown is the biggest name on the board right now and, as you know, he has been on the board since June, when he committed to Pitt. That commitment didn’t stop other schools from pursuing him, and he took an official visit to Florida State during the season.
That visit was a concern, but it doesn’t sound the Seminoles really pushed Brown off his commitment. In fact, I’ve been told that he was still fairly strong with Pitt after the visit and even maintained contact with Narduzzi and the staff while he was in Tallahassee.
However, the interest kept coming, and Brown decided to decommit on Dec. 1. Since then he has taken official visits to Auburn (last weekend) and Georgia (this past weekend), and he announced a top five of Pitt, Auburn, Georgia, Florida State and South Carolina.
On Wednesday, Narduzzi, Charlie Partridge and Brennan Marion had an in-home visit with Brown where the emphasis was what Pitt always recruits on: relationships. When people ask what makes Partridge such an effective recruiter, that’s the answer. He creates strong relationships with the recruits and their families, and that has helped him land a lot of really good players over the years.
So Pitt went full-force on making the case with Brown and it seems like the message got through: heading into the weekend, with Brown set to visit Georgia, I started hearing that the Panthers had climbed back to the top of his list. The Bulldogs are a formidable opponent, both on the field and in recruiting, so you can’t overlook the impact of that visit. But they are also sitting with three receivers in their class already and working on several other prospects to fill what appears to be one spot.
I do think Georgia likes Brown and would want him in the class, but Kirby Smart and company have a few targets, and I’m not sure if Brown is No. 1 on that list.
Even if he is and UGA does make a push, though, I’m not sure if they’ll get Brown. I really think the newly-minted four-star receiver is leaning to Pitt. He won’t make his commitment until noon on Wednesday - or, at least, that’s when he’ll make it public - so a lot can happen in the next 48 hours and things can certainly change. But I think there’s a really good chance Pitt ends up with Brown in this class.
And that would be no small score - not just because of the competition but because Brown is a big-time prospect. His fourth star was long overdue, and if Brown ends up with the Panthers, I would expect him to push for playing time right away.
48 hours from now, the Letters of Intent will start rolling in and Pitt’s 2022 recruiting class will take its first step toward being finalized. If it seems like Signing Day came up fast, that's because it did. Most coaching staffs were able to hit the road for two full weeks of recruiting after the regular season ended, but Pitt and the other 19 teams that played in conference championship games last weekend didn’t have quite as much time, since they spent the first of those two weeks preparing for the title shots.
(As an aside but keeping in the theme of time flying, does it seem to anyone else like the ACC Championship Game was more than nine days ago? The last week has felt like a month - or more.)
Once Pitt was done celebrating in Charlotte, the coaches hit the road and spent the last week recruiting. We ran down their visits and key stops on Friday, and those recruiting trips led into this past weekend, when the coaches hosted their first official visit weekend in two months and the first visit weekend with more than one recruit in town since June.
So, with Signing Day just two days away, where do the Panthers stand with the class of 2022?
The class
Pitt currently sits with 10 commitments for the class of 2022.
Last week, Pitt visited eight of those 10 players. Brennan Marion had to skip a planned visit with Che Nwabuko on Thursday so he could be with Jordan Addison for the Biletnikoff Award presentation, and as far as I know, nobody went to Australia to see Sam Vander Haar.
As we’ve noted before, a coaching staff can visit each recruit once per week during the contact period but the head coach can only make one visit. Last week, we confirmed visits for Pat Narduzzi with Ryan Baer, Addison Copeland, Jimmy Scott and Ryland Gandy, among the committed recruits (he made other visits, too, and we’ll get to those in a moment).
Part of the priority in seeing Baer, Copeland and Gandy is that each of those players will be enrolling at Pitt in January, along with Sean FitzSimmons and Sam Vander Haar. Narduzzi will have time next month to conduct in-home visits with the other players in the class.
In addition to tracking down all the visits last week, we also worked to confirm that all of Pitt’s current commits are set to sign on Wednesday, and it sounds like they are. We’ve heard that Baer, in particular, was getting some interest from other schools late in the process, but he has been solid since his commitment, and after his official visit, I don’t have any concerns about him signing.
Speaking of Baer, he is currently Pitt’s highest-rated commit, and for as much as we talk about the Panthers needing to continue improving and building along the lines, he probably should get more hype. I know it’s tough when we’re talking about an offensive lineman, but he’s a big, impressive player who has a bright future.
So 10 are in; who’s next? That’s the big question, and right now, we’ve got seven players we’re keeping an eye on heading into Signing Day.
Brown is the biggest name on the board right now and, as you know, he has been on the board since June, when he committed to Pitt. That commitment didn’t stop other schools from pursuing him, and he took an official visit to Florida State during the season.
That visit was a concern, but it doesn’t sound the Seminoles really pushed Brown off his commitment. In fact, I’ve been told that he was still fairly strong with Pitt after the visit and even maintained contact with Narduzzi and the staff while he was in Tallahassee.
However, the interest kept coming, and Brown decided to decommit on Dec. 1. Since then he has taken official visits to Auburn (last weekend) and Georgia (this past weekend), and he announced a top five of Pitt, Auburn, Georgia, Florida State and South Carolina.
On Wednesday, Narduzzi, Charlie Partridge and Brennan Marion had an in-home visit with Brown where the emphasis was what Pitt always recruits on: relationships. When people ask what makes Partridge such an effective recruiter, that’s the answer. He creates strong relationships with the recruits and their families, and that has helped him land a lot of really good players over the years.
So Pitt went full-force on making the case with Brown and it seems like the message got through: heading into the weekend, with Brown set to visit Georgia, I started hearing that the Panthers had climbed back to the top of his list. The Bulldogs are a formidable opponent, both on the field and in recruiting, so you can’t overlook the impact of that visit. But they are also sitting with three receivers in their class already and working on several other prospects to fill what appears to be one spot.
I do think Georgia likes Brown and would want him in the class, but Kirby Smart and company have a few targets, and I’m not sure if Brown is No. 1 on that list.
Even if he is and UGA does make a push, though, I’m not sure if they’ll get Brown. I really think the newly-minted four-star receiver is leaning to Pitt. He won’t make his commitment until noon on Wednesday - or, at least, that’s when he’ll make it public - so a lot can happen in the next 48 hours and things can certainly change. But I think there’s a really good chance Pitt ends up with Brown in this class.
And that would be no small score - not just because of the competition but because Brown is a big-time prospect. His fourth star was long overdue, and if Brown ends up with the Panthers, I would expect him to push for playing time right away.
