From the desk of Jim Snyder
My daughter is moving into a new home today so this has been a very hectic week at our house. I am not moving one piece of furniture but there are a million details and I have been constantly distracted this week by a variety of items on her honey-do list.
Some hoops talk
We had reported several weeks ago that Pitt would try to sign Jamie Dixon to a deal similar to the one John Beilein had at West Virginia. The Mountaineers had put a $3.0 million dollar buyout clause in their deal. It worked in holding off NC State. I do not know the details of Coach Dixon’s new contract but I sure hope Jeff Long was successful in getting this provision in Coach Dixon’s new deal.
It appears Joe Lombardi leaving hurt Pitt in their recruitment of Hamady N’diaye. I don’t know how many times the prep school coach told me Joe Lombardi did a great job of recruiting him. I didn’t have the heart to tell him Joe Lombardi was leaving for IUP but it looks like it eventually dawned on them in California.
It also appears Barry Rohrssen leaving hurt with the recruitment of forward Tyler Young. I am not sure Pitt really needed Tyler Smith but his potential was so great that you had to chase him even if he was not filling an area of need. He was a high school legend in Middle Tennessee. Too bad it might have been fun watching him for a couple of years.
The last 24 hours total confusion set in on the recruiting story of Luis Colon. It appears some Rivals reporters were talking to his high school coach and some were talking to his AAU coach. These two are apparently close friends but were telling slightly different stories. We will keep working to sort it out. For now let’s just say Pitt is involved but so is Kansas State, UConn and Duquesne. The AAU coach had high praise of the recruiting effort of Orlando Antigua although Coach Alverez appears to have ties to Bob Huggins. Colon is listed in the database as a power forward. I asked Coach Averez if he saw him as a center or a forward? He said Colon is 6’ 10 ½” and weighs 265 pounds. He said he could player either position and could best be described as a combo 4/5.
Promoting Orlando Antigua to assistant is a no brainer. He has ties to the New York area. His brother Oliver is the coach of St Raymond’s in the Bronx and is an AAU coach. Orlando has been at Pitt three years now so he should be ready to move up. Orlando is 33 years old and is married with two children. There is a report that Pitt will also promote John Alesi to the Director of Basketball Operations that Orlando now holds. Alesi’s father is the head coach at Xaverian in Brooklyn so that relationship is maintained. This is the program that sent Pitt Chris Taft and Levance Fields. Barry Rohrssen was also an alum at that school. As long as John Alesi is on the Pitt payroll the staff will have access to their players.
Barry Rorhssen was being paid a lot for an assistant so Coach Dixon should have no problem bring in another quality assistant. There are dozens of good coaches out there. It is simply important that Jamie simply find someone that will work hard for him.
Let’s go camping this weekend
This weekend there will be an Elite Camp in New Jersey and a Nike Campin Athens, Georgia. Rivals will have reporters at both camps giving you coverage. Henry Hynoski and Nick Sukay are scheduled to visit the Elite College Camp at Rutgers and Cameron Heyward is supposed to go to the Nike Camp in Athens, Georgia.
The King James Classic will be held at the University of Akron this weekend. I spoke to Justin Young yesterday and asked that either he or Jerry Myers cover the JOTS. He said they would make sure they got some coverage.
There is an article on the “ticker this morning on Jeannette’s Terrell Pryor. Please check it out.
Football recruiting
Hopefully you read Mike Farrell’s article this week on Pat Bostick of Manheim Twp. Mike did a good job on this one. The only school that appeared to present a serious challenge to Pitt was Michigan and they have now taken a top ranked quarterback. Pat’s coach went to Michigan, which made it risky if they Wolverines had made a serious run at Pat. Coach Dunn is scheduled to visit on May 11th. Hopefully that visit will result in a commitment from Pat sometime next month.
Chris Peak had an article earlier this week on quarterback Kevin Smith. If he is an early round draft choice he could end up playing professional baseball. If he goes very late in the draft you will probably see him at Pitt this fall. It is about that simple. It is about the same position that Pitt finds itself in with Aaron Gray in basketball. Boy I sure hope Aaron returns for his senior season.
Elijah Fields told us this week he was on track to graduate from high school and make it past the NCAA Clearinghouse. He told us he plans on going to summer school at Pitt although he still had not selected his classes. He planned to do so on line after we talked. No player is really eligible until after he graduates and until after the final transcript has been received.
It is a busy weekend. In addition to all the camps we have the NFL draft. Chris Peak had articles this week on former Panthers Charles Spencer and Josh Lay. Both are waiting to see if they are selected. Rivals Radio has a lot of NFL draft talk today.
TJ’s Chris Drager now has scholarship offers from West Virginia and Stanford. I assume at some point the Pitt staff will too. How in the world do you take the chance that he has success playing for Walt Harris or Rich Rod and you have not even offer?
We told you sometime ago we heard that Pitt would not recruit Florida as hard this year. There was a report they were a little discourage by their inability to get certain targets to take an official visit late last fall. Our understanding was that only Charlie Partridge would recruiting South Florida this year. Lately every time I talk to a high school coach they seem to mention Aubrey Hill. If fact I get cut off when Coach Hill called while I was talking to one coach. Not sure what caused the change of plans.
We will have articles today on Coatesville’s Derrick Morgan, Mount Lebanon’s Andrew Devlin, Gateway’s Dan Loyhede and Nordinia’s Jordan Mabin. Derrick Morgan looks like a Penn State or Michigan guy to us but the Pitt coaches had not had a chance to make a pitch yet so I guess it is best not to jump to quick conclusions.
Yesterday we had video on Penn Hills tight end Derek Drummond. Pitt has been recruiting him but has not offered him. He has attended Junior Days and Blue Chip Days at Pitt. If memory serves me right he was selected first team all-combine at the combine held at the UPMC Complex in late February. He has some talent and is worth following. If there is a knock on him it is that he needs to add a lot of weight to play tight end but appears to have the frame to do it.
This week we had an article on four players from Homestead High School in Florida. At that time we linked video of three of the players to the bottom of the article. On Monday Rivals will have video of the fourth player. Jamiel Farrington indicated to the folks at the Nike Camp that he had an offer from Pitt. Not sure if it was a verbal offer or a written offer at this point. Check him out on Monday.
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.
My daughter is moving into a new home today so this has been a very hectic week at our house. I am not moving one piece of furniture but there are a million details and I have been constantly distracted this week by a variety of items on her honey-do list.
Some hoops talk
We had reported several weeks ago that Pitt would try to sign Jamie Dixon to a deal similar to the one John Beilein had at West Virginia. The Mountaineers had put a $3.0 million dollar buyout clause in their deal. It worked in holding off NC State. I do not know the details of Coach Dixon’s new contract but I sure hope Jeff Long was successful in getting this provision in Coach Dixon’s new deal.
It appears Joe Lombardi leaving hurt Pitt in their recruitment of Hamady N’diaye. I don’t know how many times the prep school coach told me Joe Lombardi did a great job of recruiting him. I didn’t have the heart to tell him Joe Lombardi was leaving for IUP but it looks like it eventually dawned on them in California.
It also appears Barry Rohrssen leaving hurt with the recruitment of forward Tyler Young. I am not sure Pitt really needed Tyler Smith but his potential was so great that you had to chase him even if he was not filling an area of need. He was a high school legend in Middle Tennessee. Too bad it might have been fun watching him for a couple of years.
The last 24 hours total confusion set in on the recruiting story of Luis Colon. It appears some Rivals reporters were talking to his high school coach and some were talking to his AAU coach. These two are apparently close friends but were telling slightly different stories. We will keep working to sort it out. For now let’s just say Pitt is involved but so is Kansas State, UConn and Duquesne. The AAU coach had high praise of the recruiting effort of Orlando Antigua although Coach Alverez appears to have ties to Bob Huggins. Colon is listed in the database as a power forward. I asked Coach Averez if he saw him as a center or a forward? He said Colon is 6’ 10 ½” and weighs 265 pounds. He said he could player either position and could best be described as a combo 4/5.
Promoting Orlando Antigua to assistant is a no brainer. He has ties to the New York area. His brother Oliver is the coach of St Raymond’s in the Bronx and is an AAU coach. Orlando has been at Pitt three years now so he should be ready to move up. Orlando is 33 years old and is married with two children. There is a report that Pitt will also promote John Alesi to the Director of Basketball Operations that Orlando now holds. Alesi’s father is the head coach at Xaverian in Brooklyn so that relationship is maintained. This is the program that sent Pitt Chris Taft and Levance Fields. Barry Rohrssen was also an alum at that school. As long as John Alesi is on the Pitt payroll the staff will have access to their players.
Barry Rorhssen was being paid a lot for an assistant so Coach Dixon should have no problem bring in another quality assistant. There are dozens of good coaches out there. It is simply important that Jamie simply find someone that will work hard for him.
Let’s go camping this weekend
This weekend there will be an Elite Camp in New Jersey and a Nike Campin Athens, Georgia. Rivals will have reporters at both camps giving you coverage. Henry Hynoski and Nick Sukay are scheduled to visit the Elite College Camp at Rutgers and Cameron Heyward is supposed to go to the Nike Camp in Athens, Georgia.
The King James Classic will be held at the University of Akron this weekend. I spoke to Justin Young yesterday and asked that either he or Jerry Myers cover the JOTS. He said they would make sure they got some coverage.
There is an article on the “ticker this morning on Jeannette’s Terrell Pryor. Please check it out.
Football recruiting
Hopefully you read Mike Farrell’s article this week on Pat Bostick of Manheim Twp. Mike did a good job on this one. The only school that appeared to present a serious challenge to Pitt was Michigan and they have now taken a top ranked quarterback. Pat’s coach went to Michigan, which made it risky if they Wolverines had made a serious run at Pat. Coach Dunn is scheduled to visit on May 11th. Hopefully that visit will result in a commitment from Pat sometime next month.
Chris Peak had an article earlier this week on quarterback Kevin Smith. If he is an early round draft choice he could end up playing professional baseball. If he goes very late in the draft you will probably see him at Pitt this fall. It is about that simple. It is about the same position that Pitt finds itself in with Aaron Gray in basketball. Boy I sure hope Aaron returns for his senior season.
Elijah Fields told us this week he was on track to graduate from high school and make it past the NCAA Clearinghouse. He told us he plans on going to summer school at Pitt although he still had not selected his classes. He planned to do so on line after we talked. No player is really eligible until after he graduates and until after the final transcript has been received.
It is a busy weekend. In addition to all the camps we have the NFL draft. Chris Peak had articles this week on former Panthers Charles Spencer and Josh Lay. Both are waiting to see if they are selected. Rivals Radio has a lot of NFL draft talk today.
TJ’s Chris Drager now has scholarship offers from West Virginia and Stanford. I assume at some point the Pitt staff will too. How in the world do you take the chance that he has success playing for Walt Harris or Rich Rod and you have not even offer?
We told you sometime ago we heard that Pitt would not recruit Florida as hard this year. There was a report they were a little discourage by their inability to get certain targets to take an official visit late last fall. Our understanding was that only Charlie Partridge would recruiting South Florida this year. Lately every time I talk to a high school coach they seem to mention Aubrey Hill. If fact I get cut off when Coach Hill called while I was talking to one coach. Not sure what caused the change of plans.
We will have articles today on Coatesville’s Derrick Morgan, Mount Lebanon’s Andrew Devlin, Gateway’s Dan Loyhede and Nordinia’s Jordan Mabin. Derrick Morgan looks like a Penn State or Michigan guy to us but the Pitt coaches had not had a chance to make a pitch yet so I guess it is best not to jump to quick conclusions.
Yesterday we had video on Penn Hills tight end Derek Drummond. Pitt has been recruiting him but has not offered him. He has attended Junior Days and Blue Chip Days at Pitt. If memory serves me right he was selected first team all-combine at the combine held at the UPMC Complex in late February. He has some talent and is worth following. If there is a knock on him it is that he needs to add a lot of weight to play tight end but appears to have the frame to do it.
This week we had an article on four players from Homestead High School in Florida. At that time we linked video of three of the players to the bottom of the article. On Monday Rivals will have video of the fourth player. Jamiel Farrington indicated to the folks at the Nike Camp that he had an offer from Pitt. Not sure if it was a verbal offer or a written offer at this point. Check him out on Monday.
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.
