in regards to Top 50 Butler PG Ethan Morton, and also mention of Top 100 SG Robbie Carmody. Morton is just entering his Jr year, so he is class of 2020, is 6'5" from Butler HS. Carmody , as many of you know is an athletic SG who is 6'5" and just graduated from Mars HS who is going to....of course, Notre Dame. (It is amazing as a Catholic myself and the fact that the religion is dying in many cases, Notre Dame has even a stronger appeal than it did when I was a little kid and they had the Lindsay Nelson narrated Notre Dame Football Highlights every Sunday AM that I would skip CCD to watch....but I digress).
What does this have to do with football? Or a Pitt football. Well it gave me some thoughts. We often have discussed how this area once so famous for producing QB's and we haven't in awhile. And the fact that a lot of Pitt's lack of success has been partially responsible traceable that this program has had few really good QBs and no really great QB's since Marino. Anyways, 25 years ago, you can bet the farm that likely Morton and Carmody both would have played football too, and likely would have been QB's and with their size and athleticism, they would like be 4 stars if not higher. Add in Jurkovec, you would have 3 straight years of a nationally ranked QB, likely ONE would pick Pitt (they can't all go to ND).
I just thought it was interesting how times have changed....kids are now specializing in one sport, few are really playing multi sports like Jurkovec did (and did really well). You wonder how ex Blackhawk baseball star (#1 MLB draft choice) who went to Louisville would have likely also played football and likely been a QB. Again, I am not posting this as any criticism of anything, merely stating what is the current state of sports, especially in Western PA. Where it used to be a given football was the default sport for all great athletes, and nowadays, that is not happening, combined with the overall drop in Under 18 population (high school kids), it is shrinking the already depleted talent pool that we used to draw from locally.
Just a Saturday AM observation.
What does this have to do with football? Or a Pitt football. Well it gave me some thoughts. We often have discussed how this area once so famous for producing QB's and we haven't in awhile. And the fact that a lot of Pitt's lack of success has been partially responsible traceable that this program has had few really good QBs and no really great QB's since Marino. Anyways, 25 years ago, you can bet the farm that likely Morton and Carmody both would have played football too, and likely would have been QB's and with their size and athleticism, they would like be 4 stars if not higher. Add in Jurkovec, you would have 3 straight years of a nationally ranked QB, likely ONE would pick Pitt (they can't all go to ND).
I just thought it was interesting how times have changed....kids are now specializing in one sport, few are really playing multi sports like Jurkovec did (and did really well). You wonder how ex Blackhawk baseball star (#1 MLB draft choice) who went to Louisville would have likely also played football and likely been a QB. Again, I am not posting this as any criticism of anything, merely stating what is the current state of sports, especially in Western PA. Where it used to be a given football was the default sport for all great athletes, and nowadays, that is not happening, combined with the overall drop in Under 18 population (high school kids), it is shrinking the already depleted talent pool that we used to draw from locally.
Just a Saturday AM observation.
