TJ OL to Pitt
- Thread starter TheSpecialSauce
- Start date
I've watched him several times. He's very good and his best football is ahead of him. Really good pickup/
His athleticism pops on his highlight tape. A lot of room to grow, but seems like he has a lot of potential.
Big, Athletic, Room to Grow, and a Good Wrestler
Good to see the Pitt and TJ pipeline still connected. H2P!!!!
"He committed to Pitt over offers from Army, Bowling Green, Bucknell, Buffalo, Central Michigan, Duquesne, Eastern Michigan, Kent State, Lehigh, Navy, Maine, Monmouth, Stony Brook, Temple and UMass."
Lottery ticket. Maybe we get lucky. My guess is that our HS recruiting is going to absolutely tank due to NIL. But we may be able to get some backups from the better schools in the portal.
Lottery ticket. Maybe we get lucky. My guess is that our HS recruiting is going to absolutely tank due to NIL. But we may be able to get some backups from the better schools in the portal.
Its just frustrating seeing the program revert back to Majors 2 in real time. You can blame NIL going forward but Narduzzi's bungling of Cignetti/Slovis/Jurkovec/Villeauz was the sole reason we underachieved the last 2 years.
Ya knew some self loathing clown was going to point out his offer list.
pittdan77
Athletic Director
If Pitt loses him to somewhere else, he posts that Pitt can't even pull a kid with his offers from the WPIAL. It's a really cool way to keep your message board hits going.
Correct. Its a no win situation for Pitt right now. You can only get FCS kids from the WPIAL and if you lose a kid to Duquesne or RMU then you get scolded for it. This is on Narduzzi. I get that NIL is a challenge but he was asleep at the switch for years, crying about Jordan Addison leaving instead of making sure he was paid and happy (ie not hiring Cignetti).
pittdan77
Athletic Director
Except he's not an FCS kid. Everyone has FCS offers. You just always gravitate to the extremes and now you're defending it because you don't know what to do when you get called out for being dumb. No idea if this kid works out or not but Pitt has had decent success with WPIAL linemen and TJ has a history of running a good program. There's also that part where you know very little about the actual nuts and bolts of football (see the part where you talk about NIL and offers) so you should probably sit this stuff out.
Might only be able to take local kids as “lottery tickets” moving forward. Is a Florida kid going to wait 2-3 years for his chance to play? Nah he’s gonna hit the portal. Local kid might still wait his turn to play.
If you’re a FL kid going to Pitt, it’s probably because some of the upper tier teams didn’t come calling.
So a lightly recruited kid that goes to Pitt and does nothing for a few years, is transferring to where exactly? His stock will have only fallen even further in that situation
Right. The HS recruits will be 1 star MAC/FCS level so we will have to make our bones getting the 3 star kids who took a payday but cant get on the field. Pitt is going to have to be a portal program. We arent going to be able to recruit decent HS players going forward.
I mean, I know nothing about this particular recruit. Maybe he'll blow up; maybe he won't. But shouldn't we be pointing out offer lists? They, like, matter. Recruiting hasn't been good lately, and it's a big reason why the program is where it's at.
And that applies to both ends of the spectrum. If we get a recruit who has an Ohio State offer, it's absolutely worth mentioning.
SMF can be annoying but we went 3-9 and are mostly bringing in low 3 star recruits this cycle. Why would anyone be optimisitc about the football program right now? Majors 2 is an exaggeration but Narduzzi is not exactly stocking the cupboards with premium talent.
Here's the thing. There really is no such thing as a 1 star recruit. And very few kids are 2 star recruits. Star rankings are like:
5 stars: 1%
4 stars: 10%
3 stars: 80%
2 stars: 9%
So kids rated as a 3 star, really arent a 3 star. The range is so massive. You could have a top-end 3 star offered by all the blue bloods and a bottom-tier 3 star with only MAC and FCS offers. That's why star ranking doesn't matter as much as offer list. The 2 kids we recently got are very very lowly rated recruits. Doesn't mean they wont become good players for us but there's a much greater chance they dont. That said, I'd always take a TJ kid even if we were recruiting well
Yeah, three stars are such a generic tier. Rivals kind of accounts for this (5.5, 5.6, and 5.7), but I don't really use their rankings to look players up. They also do their averages by star, so it kind of defeats the purpose of the additional breakdown.
pittdan77
Athletic Director
Offers do matter but it's also worth pointing out that the kid didn't camp anywhere so he didn't get any of the top notch evaluation that recruiting services provide. And when it comes to O-linemen, it's mostly a crap shoot beyond the top 50 or so anyway. Big body from a Pittsburgh area school that regularly gets kids to the next level, who probably coveted the Pitt offer, and the type of kid Pitt has historically done pretty well with. There's no reason to be overly excited or overly pessimistic on this one.
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Funny that JM2 keeps being mentioned in this recruiting thread. I recall Pitt landing a number of highly rated kids in that era. Desmond Gibson, Lytle, Kasperowicz, Chris Schneider, Tony Z, Dinkins, Jeff Craig were all on PG22, Big 33, even some All American teams. That coaching staff was a joke though. Johnny was a legend but he was past his prime by then. Having a figurehead as HC is fine if you have a good staff. But Karcher’s career trajectory after that tells you what a dud he was as OC.
I've got no issue with the take. It's early enough that offers might also still come in. Maybe even big offers. I just don't see why discussing offers would be off the table in recruiting talk, haha.
So what is the point here? When had Pitt not recruited like this? You all act like before Nard, they were in the top 10 recruiting. The man has the best Pitt record since Godfried. He has been to 2 championship games and won 1. He realized he made a huge mistake offense and made the move.
He cant force 5 or 4 star players to come to Pitt. No Pitt coach in history has. They all got maybe two to four, 4* players and the other were 3 star players they scouted to fit the team.
I guess you all think Majors had a lot of highly recruited players? If so, you are wrong. First all these rankings didnt exist and second, like 80% of his players was like Hugh Green. They was looking at another player on his team and found him. None of the big programs wanted him. Dorsett was the only highly rated player on that team.
What this says is you all need to quit acting like Nard is some awlful recruiter. His record other than last year says otherwise. His only real problem that he has always had, (innovative offenses). He made the change. That is where the critizism is warranted. Every time his team has had an aggressive offense, they have been good.
His local recruiting is the worst its ever been, including Majors 2. He gets 0% of kids with PSU offers when guys like Wanny and even Walt and others did ok there. And he's getting close to 0% of kids with offers from decent P5 programs like Kentucky.
Okay, but this isn't accurate. 2-4 four-star players? No. Wanny was bringing in 6-7 of them for a while.
2006 Class
2007 Class
2008 Class
was Tumulty a Hackett or Majors recruit? He was a big local signing. Yeah, Karcher I thought was going to be the young innovative OC but he really crashed and burned. I hope Bell doesn't follow the same path.
there are some bigtime recruits that should be in our wheelhouse, Moon at Aliquippa, Robinson at Westinghouse, half the PCC roster. Can't strike out on these and expect to compete moving forward.
pittdan77
Athletic Director
It's the hyperbole that goes along with it that gets tiring.
It’s a free board so you’re welcome to post anything you want I’d only point out a few things
First Pitt has always offered kids early who didn’t have an impressive offer list who later blew up. So maybe it would be better to told off crapping on the kid until he signs
Second I fully understand the lack of enthusiasm given the nil and fee agency situation. Pitt has always had an uphill battle prior to the change in landscape. That hill is now much steeper. Now. Constantly whining about it isn’t going to change things. But if it makes ya feel better lost away
While I don’t follow this stuff as much as I used to and I’m not as rabid a fan as I once was I’m still interested to see how the will do. Be prepared for the worst and hope to be surprised
Tumulty was a Hackett recruit. I remember him having a big game at Southern Miss in Johnny’s first game back. Pitt won and hopes were high. We had no idea of the pending disaster. I remember getting demolished by Ohio State, ND, plus some peak Big East Miami, WVU, Cuse teams.
Excellent summary Like
I said in another post it has always been an uphill struggle for Pitt since Jackie’s era when they killed the Golden panthers. It appears the hill is now even steeper with Nil and free agency. But guess what the vast majority of P5 teams not named Bama and a handful of others are in the same boat
Does it personally dampen my enthusiasm a bit. For sure. But I’m still interested in seeing how this team does this year. I mean if it’s that damn depressing why even post here or follow the program
Wake me up when these recruits do anything other than play special teams, ride the pine, or transfer. The hit rate on higher ranked local kids has to be one of the lowest in the country.
Pretty dumb comment considering I did absolutely no such thing. I simply stated that talking about someone's offers should be expected in a recruiting thread. Evidently you have a problem with that, though - at least when they don't fit your narrative.
Never underestimate a good wrestler playing football. I used to be a high school wrestling buff from the 70’s through the 90’s and there were a lot of them that I can remember off the top of my head:
PITT:
Donovan McMillon (State Runner Up)
Bill Fralic (WPIAL Champ)
Jim Covert (WPIAL Champ)
Dennis Atiyeh (State Champ)
Sam Pilato (State Qualifier)
Troy Benson (State Qualifier)
Bill Neill (State Champ)
Wayne DiBartola (State Qualifier)
Marc Spindler (State Qualifier)
Others:
Matt Suhey (PSU)
Todd Campbell (WVU)
Ray Kemp
Aaron Gatten (PSU)
Steve Geise (PSU)
Brad Benson (PSU)
Paul Suhey (PSU)
Leo Wisniewski (PSU)
Todd Benson (Maryland)
Darrell Patterson (TCU)
Sean Stopperich (SMU)
Carlton Haselrig
Ray Huckenstein (Stanford)
Good point about being a wrestler. They tend to be quicker and more physical. Don't see as many crossover players in high school anymore. Many are focused on one sport by the time they are seniors.
Side note:
WrestleMania: Steelers' draft class includes trio of former state champion grapplers
The formal or informal chats between representatives of NFL teams and draft prospects at the annual combine can span from the spectrum of mundane, awkward, bizarre, informative, conversational and enlightening. This past winter, more than one soon-to-be drafted player found one topic in...
triblive.com
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Ha. Dude, you're responding to a dude that makes Eeyore look like Richard Simmons...
And hardly any of the 4* played like it. Wanny never won anything other than 13 - 9. Look at most of Nard's 4*, they either had medical issues or failed.
He gets other teams 4 and 5 star players, and most of them dont pan out. But you know who does? Those 3* you all rag on. Again, its not embracing the new offenes is his failure. He finally has done that, and most posters are ragging him for that.
Its clear at this point, the most posters just like to come on the message boards to just throw things out to there.
