From the Desk of Jim Snyder
How fast was he?
At this year’s Nike Camps they are introducing a new timing system called “SPARQ Timing” to measure an athletes speed in the 40. It is an electronic timing system, which takes into consideration the start. Sometimes in the past even a slight flinch at the start would throw off the timing devices. The hope is that they have built a better mousetrap. We will see. Historically the times at State College have been a little faster than anywhere else in the country. We will see what happens next weekend at State College.
This past week we had an article on Ricky Neaves from Cooper City, Florida. He ran a 4.37 in the 40 at Miami, which was the third fastest time, recorded out of the 320 athletes that participated. He also had 91.26 SRARQ Rating, which was also the third best of the day. Neaves likes Pitt and his family was originally from Pittsburgh. He plans on attending the Panthers summer camp. A similar workout at the UPMC complex should lead to a scholarship offer.
So far approximately 570 athletes have attended Nike Camps. This weekend they will hold camps at Ft. Worth, Texas and Blacksburg, Virginia. There should have been over a thousand at Nike Camps by the time the weekend is over. Next weekend they will hold the camp at State College, which often has one of the largest turnouts. Last year over 3,000 prospects attended the Nike Camps.
Raising the bar/Taking the program to a new level
When Dave Wannstedt was hired many Pitt fans were hoping that he would “take the program to the next level”. In some ways he may not have a choice. Pitt is up against a scholarship crunch. Offensive lineman Kevin Hughes was given a “grayshirt”. He will not enroll until January to help Pitt through the crunch.
No one really knows how many scholarships Coach Wannstedt will be able to pass out to the recruiting Class of 2006 but it sure won’t be the full compliment of 25. It could be somewhere in the mid-teens. The NCAA has passed new rules. Pitt will lose scholarships if they do not graduate a satisfactory percentage of their players. The new NCAA rules coupled with Pitt’s current scholarship crunch means they will need to be more selective with those players with marginal academic standing.
Some of our readers have quoted players saying I plan on coming to Pitt if I get my academic affairs in order. The big question is will Pitt have a scholarship waiting for them? This past Letter of Intent Day Pitt did not send Letters of Intent to New Brunswick wide receiver Shawn Simmons or to Buchtel’s defensive tackle Marlon Terry. It was questionable if they would qualify. In past year’s, Pitt would have signed them and then crossed their fingers to see if they were able to pull up the SAT scores or grades. In some ways Pitt has already taken the program to a new level. Coach Wannstedt and his staff are being greeted with a renewed optimism. They should find it a little easier to find student athletes that are good on the field and have enjoyed some success in the classroom.
As reported in the War Room last week we are now in an “Evaluation Period”. The Pitt coaches are busy visiting high schools around the state. They will also be in Ohio, New Jersey, New York, Virginia and Florida. Dave Wannstedt is scheduled to spend two weeks in Western PA, one week in Eastern PA and one week in South Florida.
Pitt had a large turnout of recruits at the spring game at Gateway High School. Some of those spotted in the crowd from the Class of 2005 included quarterback Bill Stull, offensive lineman Kevin Hughes, offensive lineman John Brown, offensive lineman John Bachman, running back Shane Books, offensive lineman C.J. Davis and running back Conredge Collins.
Some of the potential recruits from the Class of 2006 were defensive back Cart Kelly from Baldwin, wide receiver Dorin Dickerson from West Allegheny, linebacker Nate Kelly from Central Catholic, defensive lineman Jason Pinkston from Baldwin, offensive lineman Chad Schofield from Strongsville, Tyler Tkach from Northern Lehigh and Chris Hanna from Gateway High School.
A few thoughts on the basketball recruiting class
It was good to see Tyrell Biggs won a MVP award for the New York team at the Chicago-New York all-star game. This makes it three in a row for Pitt with Chris Taft and Ronald Ramon having won the same honors the past two years for the New York team.
I got a chance to watch Levance Fields in the Jordan Classic. My first reaction was that he is small. Not quite as small as Drew Lavender who starts for Oklahoma. Many of you will recall that Pitt recruited Lavender out of Columbus Brookhaven before he became a Sooner. He is taller and strong than Lavender but still you worry about matchup problems when he plays defense. Maybe you will see a little more zone from Pitt going forward.
I was also not crazy about his free throw shooting. The ball seemed to come out of the side of his hand like fellow Xaverian grad Chris Taft. If point guards want the ball in the final two minutes they must be able to make free throws.
In the second half Fields scored 18 points and brought his team back from about a dozen point deficit for the win. He has the ability to blow by his man and break down a defense. He has a quick burst that gets him into the middle of the defense in a hurry. He is more of a scorer than a shooter. He can create his own shot. I am not sure I can recall a Pitt point guard that truly had this ability to blow by his man, not Sean Miller, Brandin Knight or Carl Krauser. These three were all very good basketball players but only had average speed. Fields looks quicker.
Fields will be fun to watch the next four years.
Rivals has entered into a new agreement
Rivals.com has a new agreement with EA Sports. The recruiting section of EA Sports College Football 2006 will be called “Rivals.com Recruiting”. The new agreement will help extend the Rivals.com brand name to video game players across the country.
Panther Clubs are meeting
This time of year many of the Panther Clubs are holding banquets or golf outing. If you chapter is having an event please let Steve or I know and we will help support you.
You can e-mail me at jrsnyder04@comcast.net.
The War Room is targeted towards our premium customers. We ask that all information reported in the War Room MUST stay right here! That’s the way this deal works. When this information is repeated outside of the Between Fifth and Forbes forum it only cheapens the price of yours and every other die hard who have purchased premium services. The War Room is one of our more popular features...thank you all for keeping the information on this board.
Note to Pantherlair.com Fans: The staff at Pantherlair.com works diligently to bring you the best information on University of Pittsburgh football and basketball recruiting (in addition to game coverage). Thousands of Panther fans visit our site on a daily basis. We have received a tremendous amount of e-mail thanking us for our efforts. If you like our site, please feel free to tell other fans about it. “Spread the word” and let’s add to our online family of Panther fans.
How fast was he?
At this year’s Nike Camps they are introducing a new timing system called “SPARQ Timing” to measure an athletes speed in the 40. It is an electronic timing system, which takes into consideration the start. Sometimes in the past even a slight flinch at the start would throw off the timing devices. The hope is that they have built a better mousetrap. We will see. Historically the times at State College have been a little faster than anywhere else in the country. We will see what happens next weekend at State College.
This past week we had an article on Ricky Neaves from Cooper City, Florida. He ran a 4.37 in the 40 at Miami, which was the third fastest time, recorded out of the 320 athletes that participated. He also had 91.26 SRARQ Rating, which was also the third best of the day. Neaves likes Pitt and his family was originally from Pittsburgh. He plans on attending the Panthers summer camp. A similar workout at the UPMC complex should lead to a scholarship offer.
So far approximately 570 athletes have attended Nike Camps. This weekend they will hold camps at Ft. Worth, Texas and Blacksburg, Virginia. There should have been over a thousand at Nike Camps by the time the weekend is over. Next weekend they will hold the camp at State College, which often has one of the largest turnouts. Last year over 3,000 prospects attended the Nike Camps.
Raising the bar/Taking the program to a new level
When Dave Wannstedt was hired many Pitt fans were hoping that he would “take the program to the next level”. In some ways he may not have a choice. Pitt is up against a scholarship crunch. Offensive lineman Kevin Hughes was given a “grayshirt”. He will not enroll until January to help Pitt through the crunch.
No one really knows how many scholarships Coach Wannstedt will be able to pass out to the recruiting Class of 2006 but it sure won’t be the full compliment of 25. It could be somewhere in the mid-teens. The NCAA has passed new rules. Pitt will lose scholarships if they do not graduate a satisfactory percentage of their players. The new NCAA rules coupled with Pitt’s current scholarship crunch means they will need to be more selective with those players with marginal academic standing.
Some of our readers have quoted players saying I plan on coming to Pitt if I get my academic affairs in order. The big question is will Pitt have a scholarship waiting for them? This past Letter of Intent Day Pitt did not send Letters of Intent to New Brunswick wide receiver Shawn Simmons or to Buchtel’s defensive tackle Marlon Terry. It was questionable if they would qualify. In past year’s, Pitt would have signed them and then crossed their fingers to see if they were able to pull up the SAT scores or grades. In some ways Pitt has already taken the program to a new level. Coach Wannstedt and his staff are being greeted with a renewed optimism. They should find it a little easier to find student athletes that are good on the field and have enjoyed some success in the classroom.
As reported in the War Room last week we are now in an “Evaluation Period”. The Pitt coaches are busy visiting high schools around the state. They will also be in Ohio, New Jersey, New York, Virginia and Florida. Dave Wannstedt is scheduled to spend two weeks in Western PA, one week in Eastern PA and one week in South Florida.
Pitt had a large turnout of recruits at the spring game at Gateway High School. Some of those spotted in the crowd from the Class of 2005 included quarterback Bill Stull, offensive lineman Kevin Hughes, offensive lineman John Brown, offensive lineman John Bachman, running back Shane Books, offensive lineman C.J. Davis and running back Conredge Collins.
Some of the potential recruits from the Class of 2006 were defensive back Cart Kelly from Baldwin, wide receiver Dorin Dickerson from West Allegheny, linebacker Nate Kelly from Central Catholic, defensive lineman Jason Pinkston from Baldwin, offensive lineman Chad Schofield from Strongsville, Tyler Tkach from Northern Lehigh and Chris Hanna from Gateway High School.
A few thoughts on the basketball recruiting class
It was good to see Tyrell Biggs won a MVP award for the New York team at the Chicago-New York all-star game. This makes it three in a row for Pitt with Chris Taft and Ronald Ramon having won the same honors the past two years for the New York team.
I got a chance to watch Levance Fields in the Jordan Classic. My first reaction was that he is small. Not quite as small as Drew Lavender who starts for Oklahoma. Many of you will recall that Pitt recruited Lavender out of Columbus Brookhaven before he became a Sooner. He is taller and strong than Lavender but still you worry about matchup problems when he plays defense. Maybe you will see a little more zone from Pitt going forward.
I was also not crazy about his free throw shooting. The ball seemed to come out of the side of his hand like fellow Xaverian grad Chris Taft. If point guards want the ball in the final two minutes they must be able to make free throws.
In the second half Fields scored 18 points and brought his team back from about a dozen point deficit for the win. He has the ability to blow by his man and break down a defense. He has a quick burst that gets him into the middle of the defense in a hurry. He is more of a scorer than a shooter. He can create his own shot. I am not sure I can recall a Pitt point guard that truly had this ability to blow by his man, not Sean Miller, Brandin Knight or Carl Krauser. These three were all very good basketball players but only had average speed. Fields looks quicker.
Fields will be fun to watch the next four years.
Rivals has entered into a new agreement
Rivals.com has a new agreement with EA Sports. The recruiting section of EA Sports College Football 2006 will be called “Rivals.com Recruiting”. The new agreement will help extend the Rivals.com brand name to video game players across the country.
Panther Clubs are meeting
This time of year many of the Panther Clubs are holding banquets or golf outing. If you chapter is having an event please let Steve or I know and we will help support you.
You can e-mail me at jrsnyder04@comcast.net.
The War Room is targeted towards our premium customers. We ask that all information reported in the War Room MUST stay right here! That’s the way this deal works. When this information is repeated outside of the Between Fifth and Forbes forum it only cheapens the price of yours and every other die hard who have purchased premium services. The War Room is one of our more popular features...thank you all for keeping the information on this board.
Note to Pantherlair.com Fans: The staff at Pantherlair.com works diligently to bring you the best information on University of Pittsburgh football and basketball recruiting (in addition to game coverage). Thousands of Panther fans visit our site on a daily basis. We have received a tremendous amount of e-mail thanking us for our efforts. If you like our site, please feel free to tell other fans about it. “Spread the word” and let’s add to our online family of Panther fans.
