Top WPIAL Recruits 2025
- Thread starter TheWerewolfFromTwilight
- Start date
No they are not recruiting them "just as hard". Some yeah, but many of parents/ family members have commented that Pitt doesn't prioritize the local kids.
He recruited players that were drafted after he was fired. So take those away and his numbers are worse.
I know. SMF referred to players on the field and not recruits so I picked the easiest way to disprove him.
Narduzzi and Chryst recruited NFL talent from other places. I'm not saying they didnt. I'm simply saying there was a 2-3 year period where Wanny signed around 70% of the WPIAL players that he offered. Nobody is saying that the WPIAL is our only way to become really good. But we have to beat PSU for local kids in every class because we are NOT going to beat programs on the level of PSU for recruits in Florida, NJ, Philly, or the DMV
I wouldn’t put an arbitrary percentage on it but getting skunked on the top 5-6 WPIAL prospects nearly every year is a really bad look for a program that’s clawing for some semblance of relevancy.
We landed 3 highly rated local guys in 2021 and beat Psu for them. It’s been the last 2 years, not the last 5-10 years.
2022, 2023, 2024, and now 2025. We've not beat them for a single recruit. And frankly 2021 was a one-off for us and WPIAL recruiting. It's been awful since 2017.
We didn’t compete against each other for 2022 local recruits and there’s a long way to go until 2025 kids step foot on campus.
False. Just among the '24 commits, there is Cameron Lindsey (WPIAL), Jahsear Whittington, and Sincere Edwards.
Unfortunately, Pitt Football Future is in peril.
When we cannot get a sniff from our own local talent that tells me the perception of the program is not very good.
Penn st hiring Terry Smith has made a huge difference for them. Not only does he gets who he wants. He poisons the well to local kids about Pitt and their handlers.
Narduzzi has been out moved by Franklin.
When we cannot get a sniff from our own local talent that tells me the perception of the program is not very good.
Penn st hiring Terry Smith has made a huge difference for them. Not only does he gets who he wants. He poisons the well to local kids about Pitt and their handlers.
Narduzzi has been out moved by Franklin.
Remember PSU also has Bob Palko on staff now, too.
I've heard that Pitt really has not done a good job to establish relationships with the WPIAL high school coaches. As someone said above, that might be intentional with Pitt focused on other regions. The truth is, recruiting gets less and less regionalized. Don't get me wrong, the prime recruiting area for any school is still going to be within a few hours, but recruiting is less regionalized than say 20-30 or more years ago. I'd guess that 20-30 years ago, you had many kids who probably rarely traveled outside of state. Maybe a family vacation once a year. Nowadays, you have kids driving hours and hours multiple weekends a year with their 7v7 team to compete in various tournaments. Going to a different part of the country is less and less a big deal with the current generation.
I mean Pitt has got to be like 2-20 vs PSU the last few years for local recruits. It shouldn't be THAT bad. I can't even remember the last time we beat PSU for a recruit? Donald and Nakhi? Did they have committable offers?
I don’t think going to a different state is the same thing as going to a different part of the country.
College football is still incredibly regionalized. That’s why the south rose up and dominated college football beginning in the early 2000s, and doesn’t appear as if that will be changing.
It’s just not as state specific dominated. The best kids in FL don’t necessary go to a FL school anymore. But they also aren’t going to Syracuse.
Franklin is obsessed with Pitt. Soon, his whole roster and coaching staff will be relatives of former Pitt players. I used to think that Franklin's obsession with Pitt and WPA has hurt him vs OSU and Michigan because I thought he put too much effort into beating Pitt for over-rated local recruits due to a childish beef that he and and Duzz have. But now with the 12 team playoff, they have a bye to the CFP every year now so I guess it doesn't matter.
They don't go to Syracuse because it is ... Syracuse. They still go to northern schools like Pitt, OSU, Michigan, etc.
Its not even close. Eastern PA is far better. Western PA is closer in talent to the Harrisburg area than the Philly area.
AGAIN! Somebody, please tell me 1 top team outside of Notre Dame where the bulk of the team (50%ish) is not local to the school? Yes, OSU, Bama, and other powers recruit nationally, but the bulk of their team is still local. Your people and your anti-WPIAL stance are absurd.
You are so narrow-minded and into myths.
Players from Florida:
BC - 8
Syracuse - 12
Temple - 14
Cincinnati - 9
WVU - 14
I could go on, but my point is made.
So you want at least 40 WPIAL players on Pitt's roster? And you think that will compete for championships?
LOL
Your point is generally, but not always, legitimate because most of those power teams have a local wealth of talent from which to draw. That's why they are power teams. Pitt doesn't have that luxury.
Oklahoma, Michigan, and Washington, among others, don't have many local players.
That's kind of what I was typing. Name the forty players over the last four years that would be valuable enough for Pitt to be competitive.
I've heard Yinzer's complain because the their school's football hero doesn't get a sniff from Pitt and then the kid ends up at a D2 school. I think people are just lost in the 80's and don't realize that the WPIAL is so far from being the talent pool it once was.
He got that from the same person who told him that Narduzzi won't quit because he makes too much money, despite hating his job.
You took my post to be saying that *literally* nobody from the south goes to Syracuse?
You’re trying too hard to make your “point.”
Well, just thinking of Michigan's roster from this past season, very few of the guys in the 2 deep are from the state of Michigan. Many of the top players in Michigan are going south to play, like the #1 overall 2024 recruit in the country, the QB that just went to LSU.
But I 100% agree that Pitt needs to do a lot better in its own back yard for a myriad of reasons, optics not the least of them.
Of course, in your typical fashion, you're deliberately ignoring this small but critical part of the post you've been railing about:
The best kids in FL
