From the Desk of Steve Feller
Cart Kelly
Kelly will be participating in the Nike camp at Penn State this weekend. Kelly has been working hard to not only put on muscle but to increase his speed. He is now at 183 and can run the forty in 4.46. He has verbal offers from Akron and Wisconsin. He hopes to get one from Pitt. Most schools look at him as a corner but if he can get his speed down a to a consistent 4.4, he maybe able to land some WR offers. I am looking forward to seeing the numbers Cart puts up this weekend.
From the Desk of Jim Snyder
Pantherlair at Nike camp
I am headed for State College to attend the Nike Camp tomorrow (Saturday). I will tack on a few vacation days after the camp is over but I will have my portable PC with me and hope to send you some updates while on the road. In many ways it takes 30 days for the all of the data to be downloaded with photos but we will start send you info from the road as soon as possible. Once the entire cycle has been completed the database will be much richer with photo, heights, weights, times ect. We should end up with data from approximately 3,300 prospects once all Nike Camps are completed and the information stored on Rivals servers.
Jason Pinkston
I am not sure if you saw the article on Jason Pinkston from Baldwin but his high school coach advised him not to attend any of the combines. This probably means he already has a firm offer from his top choice. You can bet Dave Wannstedt is hoping that is Pitt. For those without an offer or for those who still have not been offered by the first choice, going to a combine is a very good idea.
Nate Byham
I hope you have had a chance to see the video on Nate Byham. Reportedly his coach sent this to 20 schools and 15 have offered already. He has great hands and pretty good speed. He will need to fill in to be a true tight end. He also plays linebacker for Franklin. He is such as good receiver his talents might be wasted on defense but he could play defense if you had a logjam at tight end. He is a very good prospect.
Rashad Jennings and Kevin Collier
Freshman Rashad Jennings impressed at the spring camp after enrolling in January. Pitt will bring in four more freshmen in September. One could easily pass on recruiting a running back this year unless you can find a “game breaker. There is little need to recruit a running back this year at Pitt unless you can find a “difference maker”. LeSean McCoy at Bishop McDevitt in Harrisburg and Kevin Collier from Churchville-Chili are both “difference makers”. Kevin Collier cannot only take it to the house but he did not fumble in 256 carries. He does not fumble and can go the distance. You may have had a few coaches taking a cold shower after watching his video and hearing about the stat on him not fumbling the football. I have seen the video on Colliers. It is at Rivals for editing and should be available for your viewing shortly.
Darrin Walls
We spoke to the father of Woodland Hills Darrin Walls this week. The Walls family took in the Notre Dame spring game in frigid South Bend weather. He said they had a great visit. Coach Charlie Weiss told him that “Notre Dame would wait for him until the end” to get his signature on a Letter of Intent. He has Notre Dame and Michigan as early leaders.
Wes Lyons, Dorin Dickerson and Elijah Fields
Chris Peak Spoke to Woodland Hills coach George Novak. He told us that to the best of his knowledge Pitt has not offered Wes Lyons. That might explain why he did not list Pitt in his top three this week. Wes Lyons is 6’ 6” tall and is a very gifted target. He does not have blazing speed but is still trying to grow into his frame so it should improve as he develops. His brother goes to Ohio State and they are his leader. Pitt has offered West Allegheny’s Dorin Dickerson and Duquesne’s Elijah Fields. One of my colleagues claims Pitt has 17 wide receivers on scholarship and is rooting for a couple to transfer. I only count 10 on scholarship but you get the idea. Most are young and there are no seniors. This is not an area of high need. Dickerson is a terrific athlete (a difference maker) but I do not expect many wideouts to get offers.
Coach Novak at Woodland Hills said he does not expect any of his players to commit to until this fall and cautioned that they are teenagers and could say just about anything this time of year. Good advice. As we have pointed out before, Coach Novak is a big Pitt supporter. The Pitt coaches will get a fair opportunity to present their case. You cannot ask for anything more.
Fallout from the ACC raid
Chris Peak spoke to a recruit this week that indicated that the fact that Pitt is playing Youngtown State this year bothered him a lot. This is coming from a player that has an offer from Pitt. Hopefully Jeff Long will be able to announce some future game in the coming weeks to help neutralize this negative. A win over Notre Dame in the opener wouldn’t hurt either.
Incoming Fresh
Pitt has 20 players signed to Letters of Intent that are expected to report this summer. My count says there is not room for all of them. Pitt is slightly over the 85-limit that they must get to in August. Current players could transfer or run into academic problems, as may be the case with Azzie Beagnyam. No freshman can clear the NCAA Clearinghouse until they graduate from high school. However, we think 15 of the 20 should qualify easily. There are few that should make it unless they fall prey to senioritis down the stretch. Those are Conredge Collins, Shane Books, Bryan Williams, Ernest Williams and maybe pair from Belle Glades. Harry talked to Ernest Williams from Monessen this week and he told Harry he thought he would make it. I talked to Shane Books on Duquesne. He said he recently improved his SAT exam and is confident he will make it.
Shane Brooks told me he now weighs 225 pounds. He will start at Pitt in June taking summer school classes and working out at the UPMC complex. Freshman Rashad Jennings looked good this spring. If you throw in LaRod Stevens, Shane Brooks and Conredge Collins fall camp could be real battle at running back. Also keep in mind that seniors Tim Murphy, Marcus Furman and Raymond Kirkley were all held out of spring practices. They will also join the fight.
Rumors of a commit
One of our subscribers posted that he had heard that linebacker Nate Nix from Thomas Jefferson had committed to Pitt. We talked to Coach Bill Cherpak who told us he had not committed. Dave Wannstedt and Bob Junko were scheduled to visit TJ later that day. We called and spoke to Nate’s mother that night and she said he had not committed to Pitt but that she had had an opportunity to meet with the Pitt coaches this week. She told us Nate would be at the Nike Camp this weekend and we told her we would talk to him there.
Off to the Nike Camp.
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.
Cart Kelly
Kelly will be participating in the Nike camp at Penn State this weekend. Kelly has been working hard to not only put on muscle but to increase his speed. He is now at 183 and can run the forty in 4.46. He has verbal offers from Akron and Wisconsin. He hopes to get one from Pitt. Most schools look at him as a corner but if he can get his speed down a to a consistent 4.4, he maybe able to land some WR offers. I am looking forward to seeing the numbers Cart puts up this weekend.
From the Desk of Jim Snyder
Pantherlair at Nike camp
I am headed for State College to attend the Nike Camp tomorrow (Saturday). I will tack on a few vacation days after the camp is over but I will have my portable PC with me and hope to send you some updates while on the road. In many ways it takes 30 days for the all of the data to be downloaded with photos but we will start send you info from the road as soon as possible. Once the entire cycle has been completed the database will be much richer with photo, heights, weights, times ect. We should end up with data from approximately 3,300 prospects once all Nike Camps are completed and the information stored on Rivals servers.
Jason Pinkston
I am not sure if you saw the article on Jason Pinkston from Baldwin but his high school coach advised him not to attend any of the combines. This probably means he already has a firm offer from his top choice. You can bet Dave Wannstedt is hoping that is Pitt. For those without an offer or for those who still have not been offered by the first choice, going to a combine is a very good idea.
Nate Byham
I hope you have had a chance to see the video on Nate Byham. Reportedly his coach sent this to 20 schools and 15 have offered already. He has great hands and pretty good speed. He will need to fill in to be a true tight end. He also plays linebacker for Franklin. He is such as good receiver his talents might be wasted on defense but he could play defense if you had a logjam at tight end. He is a very good prospect.
Rashad Jennings and Kevin Collier
Freshman Rashad Jennings impressed at the spring camp after enrolling in January. Pitt will bring in four more freshmen in September. One could easily pass on recruiting a running back this year unless you can find a “game breaker. There is little need to recruit a running back this year at Pitt unless you can find a “difference maker”. LeSean McCoy at Bishop McDevitt in Harrisburg and Kevin Collier from Churchville-Chili are both “difference makers”. Kevin Collier cannot only take it to the house but he did not fumble in 256 carries. He does not fumble and can go the distance. You may have had a few coaches taking a cold shower after watching his video and hearing about the stat on him not fumbling the football. I have seen the video on Colliers. It is at Rivals for editing and should be available for your viewing shortly.
Darrin Walls
We spoke to the father of Woodland Hills Darrin Walls this week. The Walls family took in the Notre Dame spring game in frigid South Bend weather. He said they had a great visit. Coach Charlie Weiss told him that “Notre Dame would wait for him until the end” to get his signature on a Letter of Intent. He has Notre Dame and Michigan as early leaders.
Wes Lyons, Dorin Dickerson and Elijah Fields
Chris Peak Spoke to Woodland Hills coach George Novak. He told us that to the best of his knowledge Pitt has not offered Wes Lyons. That might explain why he did not list Pitt in his top three this week. Wes Lyons is 6’ 6” tall and is a very gifted target. He does not have blazing speed but is still trying to grow into his frame so it should improve as he develops. His brother goes to Ohio State and they are his leader. Pitt has offered West Allegheny’s Dorin Dickerson and Duquesne’s Elijah Fields. One of my colleagues claims Pitt has 17 wide receivers on scholarship and is rooting for a couple to transfer. I only count 10 on scholarship but you get the idea. Most are young and there are no seniors. This is not an area of high need. Dickerson is a terrific athlete (a difference maker) but I do not expect many wideouts to get offers.
Coach Novak at Woodland Hills said he does not expect any of his players to commit to until this fall and cautioned that they are teenagers and could say just about anything this time of year. Good advice. As we have pointed out before, Coach Novak is a big Pitt supporter. The Pitt coaches will get a fair opportunity to present their case. You cannot ask for anything more.
Fallout from the ACC raid
Chris Peak spoke to a recruit this week that indicated that the fact that Pitt is playing Youngtown State this year bothered him a lot. This is coming from a player that has an offer from Pitt. Hopefully Jeff Long will be able to announce some future game in the coming weeks to help neutralize this negative. A win over Notre Dame in the opener wouldn’t hurt either.
Incoming Fresh
Pitt has 20 players signed to Letters of Intent that are expected to report this summer. My count says there is not room for all of them. Pitt is slightly over the 85-limit that they must get to in August. Current players could transfer or run into academic problems, as may be the case with Azzie Beagnyam. No freshman can clear the NCAA Clearinghouse until they graduate from high school. However, we think 15 of the 20 should qualify easily. There are few that should make it unless they fall prey to senioritis down the stretch. Those are Conredge Collins, Shane Books, Bryan Williams, Ernest Williams and maybe pair from Belle Glades. Harry talked to Ernest Williams from Monessen this week and he told Harry he thought he would make it. I talked to Shane Books on Duquesne. He said he recently improved his SAT exam and is confident he will make it.
Shane Brooks told me he now weighs 225 pounds. He will start at Pitt in June taking summer school classes and working out at the UPMC complex. Freshman Rashad Jennings looked good this spring. If you throw in LaRod Stevens, Shane Brooks and Conredge Collins fall camp could be real battle at running back. Also keep in mind that seniors Tim Murphy, Marcus Furman and Raymond Kirkley were all held out of spring practices. They will also join the fight.
Rumors of a commit
One of our subscribers posted that he had heard that linebacker Nate Nix from Thomas Jefferson had committed to Pitt. We talked to Coach Bill Cherpak who told us he had not committed. Dave Wannstedt and Bob Junko were scheduled to visit TJ later that day. We called and spoke to Nate’s mother that night and she said he had not committed to Pitt but that she had had an opportunity to meet with the Pitt coaches this week. She told us Nate would be at the Nike Camp this weekend and we told her we would talk to him there.
Off to the Nike Camp.
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.
