This is Why You Recruit FL and TX
- Thread starter DiehardPanther
- Start date
We play in Florida at least every other year. We don't play in Texas or California. I would put the resources in Florida.
Agreed, why play a team from Oklahoma when we could play a TX team? Ok has two teams we can't beat, and TX has a herd of lower teams that would give us a win and allow us to get some face time with better recruits.
Nobody is saying those states shouldn't be recruited.
Only that the only way to take the next step is to do better locally, because locally is where a 4* core is going to come from.
Only that the only way to take the next step is to do better locally, because locally is where a 4* core is going to come from.
until we start winning at a better clip just focus on Florida. Any player from Texas that comes here now isnt worth getting excited about.
Wake me up when Pitt grabs a player from Texas that has legit big time offers....until then our assets / resources are far better served in Florida.
Wake me up when Pitt grabs a player from Texas that has legit big time offers....until then our assets / resources are far better served in Florida.
We recruited TX at one time, and pulled a few good players. Curvin Richards, Reggie Thomas, Azzie Beagnyam.
I tend to agree, but I don't really see them wasting too much time in Cali, especially.
1. Everyone recruits Florida, been the case for decades;
2: we should and do recruit Florida hard;
3. We are competing with dozens of other programs for “scraps” and under the radar guys, although once in while we might get a guy with some major offers like an AJ Davis.
4. It is definitely a worthwhile endeavor as a lot of those under the radar guys become really good college players. There is just such a deep talent pool in that state.
5. Forget about Texas.
Indeed we did. Curvin was a nice recruit coming to a program that was winning more than 5 games a year
Thomas and azzie were lightly recruited but developed at The college level I think.....
3 you can name in 35 years. Any program would have that by accident.
- Curvin--from the Golden Panther days.
- Azzie-transferred to D2 school in Texas
- Reggie Thomas-I don't remember him
I don't think any of that makes any kind of case for dedicating any of Pitt's limited recruiting resources to Texas.
pittdan77
Athletic Director
Looks like someone at ESPN picked the ten of the most populous counties in good recruiting states. Big deal.
Maybe we should concentrate on Idaho also, we signed a prospect from there in 1937!!
Every program in the country recruits IMG academy. It's a D1 clearinghouse. Hell, Michigan hosts an open practice there every year as a recruiting gimmick.
You're correct. I spoke with the director of football operations at IMG recently and asked him about the recruiting. He said that most of the kids want to return to the regions of the country they're from so family and friends can see them play. He said while there are exceptions, most want to "go home" or near home.
I never said we should shift our focus to TX, but I think adding Dallas and Houston is smart. PA, OH, NJ, MD, VA, GA, FL, and TX - recruit those areas. Places within a short car ride or areas with a lot of talent.
Shhhh, don't tell anybody this incredibly well hidden secret. Could you imagine if teams KNEW that Texas and Florida were major football hotbeds...Also, and be sure not to tell anyone, I hear that if Pitt wants a good hockey program they should try to recruit in these places called Minnesota and Kannada(I think that's how it's spelled).
The nice thing about recruits from FL, CA, and TX is a lot of times they don't know about our dirty little secret which is the lack of attendance and general apathy surrounding the program that seems to be hurting us with recruits in PA and our surrounding regions. They might only know that Pitt is in a cool city, play/practice where the Steelers do, and have cool uniforms. From there you can continue to sell all the other positives. Duzz does a great job if he can get kids interested enough to take official visits, regardless of where they are from.
The "Dirty Little Secret" is that the WPIAL sucks. We should not take more than 3 players from the local area. The recruiting class breakdown should be:
Florida 10 recruits
Ohio 5 recruits
New Jersey / Eastern PA 5 recruits
Va / DC / Md. 3 Recruits
WPIAL 2 Recruits ( Maybe )
Now I know this will get the panties of all the WPIAL gym teachers in a wad but it's the truth and has been so for 20 years.
How do you think WVU is Fielding competitive teams.
Florida 10 recruits
Ohio 5 recruits
New Jersey / Eastern PA 5 recruits
Va / DC / Md. 3 Recruits
WPIAL 2 Recruits ( Maybe )
Now I know this will get the panties of all the WPIAL gym teachers in a wad but it's the truth and has been so for 20 years.
How do you think WVU is Fielding competitive teams.
Fl supplies:
U of FL
FSU
Miami
Central FL
Fl Atlantic
Fl International
Plus the remainder of college football.
The Nitters just added an RB coach who has signifcant FL connections as they branch out beyond their 250 mile radius from Cow Sh-t U in St College.
We need to spend some money on assistants who can bring in other than WPIAL players!
It's change or die! The dinosaurs refused to change and the tarpits were the result.
"it's five o'clock somewhere"
Signed: Mr Buffett
Go PITT Panthers & CSU Rams!
U of FL
FSU
Miami
Central FL
Fl Atlantic
Fl International
Plus the remainder of college football.
The Nitters just added an RB coach who has signifcant FL connections as they branch out beyond their 250 mile radius from Cow Sh-t U in St College.
We need to spend some money on assistants who can bring in other than WPIAL players!
It's change or die! The dinosaurs refused to change and the tarpits were the result.
"it's five o'clock somewhere"
Signed: Mr Buffett
Go PITT Panthers & CSU Rams!
Absolutely correct.
Its part of the local culture....Pitt sucks.....not good enough.....nobody cares so why should I.....we are Pittsburgh.....all about the Steelers.....eff college football.....
Meanwhile.....recruits from Florida arent infected with this bullshit and notice that Shady and AD and Fitz are killin it in the League.
The thing is Florida isn't a big secret. Every college coach knows that florida and texas are a hotbed and they all are sending guys down there to recruit. You don't just sign a kid "because he's from Florida". You look at measurables, athleticism, etc.
Schools like Clemson, Ohio State, USC, Alabama, Penn State and Michigan are going to florida and texas and signing the 3* guys, they've all made that shift and focus over the last 5-10 years. I hate to break this shocking news, but 9 times out of 10 when going after a kid who has an offer from one of those other schools or another "Blue Blood", they aren't coming to Pitt. Pitt has always made its name with Western Pa athletes. That's the bread and butter. It doesn't matter if Pitt recruits florida well of not, the pillar of Pitt football is WPIAL talent, whether the sites recognize the talent or not, it's always been in western pa. Revis, Donald, Dorsett, Marino, recently Whitehead.... All from Western Pa. Even Shady was from Pa... historically with the exception of Fitzgerald, almost every Pitt "Great" has been from Western Pa, so why all the sudden this obsession with Florida like it will be so much better? Did you see the names mentioned above? None from Florida
Schools like Clemson, Ohio State, USC, Alabama, Penn State and Michigan are going to florida and texas and signing the 3* guys, they've all made that shift and focus over the last 5-10 years. I hate to break this shocking news, but 9 times out of 10 when going after a kid who has an offer from one of those other schools or another "Blue Blood", they aren't coming to Pitt. Pitt has always made its name with Western Pa athletes. That's the bread and butter. It doesn't matter if Pitt recruits florida well of not, the pillar of Pitt football is WPIAL talent, whether the sites recognize the talent or not, it's always been in western pa. Revis, Donald, Dorsett, Marino, recently Whitehead.... All from Western Pa. Even Shady was from Pa... historically with the exception of Fitzgerald, almost every Pitt "Great" has been from Western Pa, so why all the sudden this obsession with Florida like it will be so much better? Did you see the names mentioned above? None from Florida
The WPIAL only sucks if you put all your eggs in that basket. P4P it's still really good football.
Last years class (2017) 4 of the top 5 Pa recruits were from the WPIAL and all of them were considered top 100 players nationally by at least one site.... the talent is in Pitt's backyard, but people always want the shiny new thing which in this case is Florida. Many of these fans are the same ones who's favorite player is ALWAYS the backup QB
i notice you opened the door with Marino and Dorsett yet conveniently left off Ricky Jackson and more recently Antonio Brown .
Win.
That's it.....win......
Win.....and all of a sudden the better players in Florida notice the set of attractions we have that other schools do not.
Win.....and all of a sudden the empty seats syndrome morphs into "sharing facilities with the Steelers"
Win.....and the lousy weather gets trumped by all the cool clubs and hot chicks all over town.
Win.....and Pitt has an opportunity to offer a lifestyle that many kids would rather have over a cow town like Clemson or ST College.
W.I.N.
Florida isn't anybody's "shiny new thing", despite the ignorance of some posters who seem to think that each new Pitt coach who recruits Florida stumbled on some talent hotbed that nobody in the northeast knew about before. For at least the past 2 decades Pitt has relied on Florida talent. Most of the rest of the D1 programs east of Iowa have relied on it longer than that. Hell in 2006 half of Pitt's starting defense was from Florida.
Antonio Brown played at Central Michigan. Did you mean the "other" AB, Antonio Bryant? He was awesome at Pitt.
The guy you're responding to is right, to be successful over the long haul Pitt needs to recruit strong in its backyard--not just the WPIAL but Ohio--but you and others are also correct that Pitt needs to continue to look for and find hidden gems in Florida.
This is unrealistic. How the hell is Pitt going to get 10 recruits from Florida per year that would choose us over many better options? If we can get 3 or 4 players in a year from Florida who ever play for us, we're doing well and I would be into it.
If we didn't keep missing on the top 10 western PA football players, our local results from here would be better.
Which of the following western PA players from this last season would you kick off the team under your theory of two (maybe one or zero?):
- Bookser
- Coleman
- Paris Ford
- Hamlin
- Idowu
- Matthews
- Tipton
- Wheeler
- Whitehead
- Zeise
Other than DiNucci, who we apparently "had" to use a bit as we figured out the QB position, I am not sure we had any scholarship players who were inappropriate to have taken a chance on simply because they were local.
Our mix of where we get guys from under Narduzzi is pretty smart and good. We're doing well in Jersey (thanks to Rutgers misery) and trying hard in Florida. We probably wasted a little too much time in Michigan but maybe it'll work out better now with the MSU mess. The biggest problem is we've missed on guys like Hudson, Sanders, Jurkovec, Jeter, Thorpe, Wade. It's hard to do that and win, no matter how well you do in grabbing a few guys from metro NYC and even if we added an extra player or two from Florida.
Shocky chose Pitt over Ohio St, Michigan, Tennessee, Georgia and several more power 5 schools how is that straps? Shocky is one of the top players in Florida
Other than Whitehead and maybe Ford ( who knows if he stays in college) the remainder are work in progress players.
Bookster showed nothing on the bad PITT OL this year except for a spectacular police chase thru suburban PIttsburgh.
Coleman?
Hamlin - who knows he hasn't played much mysterious injury
Idowu- average to poor walk-on LB small for LB and a WALK ON????
Matthews- average
Tipton-has potential doesn't start
Wheeler- ?
Zeise- ?
I'd take a FL or TX player with the same rating in place of each of the players listed above based on the fact that the kid probably played on a more competitive HS team, had to earn his HS position, and played better HS competition!
"it's five o'clock somewhere"
Signed: Mr Buffet
Go PITT & CSU Rams!
jesus. You realize we usually win locally? Right?
You can say in one thread the WPIAL sucks in 19 then in another say we cant focus on ouside the wpial.
We just need good football players, I couldnt care less where they are from.
I'd keep 3 out of that group: Bookser, Paris Ford & Jordan Whitehead. That's it.
Pitt can easily recruit 10 - 3 Star Florida Players each year. A Florida 3 Star = A Pennsylvania 4 Star in most cases. Again, the WPIAL sucks. It's not 1970 .
