From the desk of Jim Snyder
Fall Camp HQ
Please stop by the Pitt Fall Camp HG page on a regular basis. We have provided free video interviews all week with the Pitt coaching staff and players. We have interviewed Coach Greg Gattuso, Coach Chris Ball, Chris McKillop and Coach Wannstedt. It appeared Coach Wannstedt was having a hard time contain himself when talking about his heralded running back LeSean McCoy. Tell you friends to check it out. We have free video interviews on the Pitt Fall Camp HQ page.
We also have numerous photo galleries. We have well over a hundred photos taken at camp this week. We should have several hundred before it’s over. You should be very familiar with most of the Pitt players by the time camp is over if you check the photo galleries on our Fall Camp HQ page.
We also have a link to a page which captures reports from all of the training camps around the country. We should have hundreds of reports for you. You might want to check on the training camps of teams that Pitt plays this year. We have a link at the top of the Between Fifth & Forbes message board. We also have a link on the More News inset on the Pantherlair Home Page. Lot’s of good stuff. Check it out. See the link to Big East Camp Coverage. Once you are there you can toggle to any other BCS conference if you choose.
A few thoughts on Pat Bostick
This week we spoke to Pat Bostick’s father, we spoke to a reporter in Lancaster who is close to Bostick’s family and we have spoken to our contacts inside the Pitt program. We have handle on the issues Pat is trying to deal with.
The Bostick family has chosen to keep this a private matter. At this point Coach Dave Wannstedt has too. We will respect their wishes and hope you will too.
Mr. Bostick did not want to pin down an exact date for his return. It could happen this weekend or it might not happen until early next week but we expect him back.
Coach Wannstedt has been down this road before and is getting high praise from the Bostick family for the way he is handling the matter.
Bill Stull figured to be the starter this year even before this incident. Now we think it is best that Pat take a redshirt year if possible. Pitt will still need to get him all the reps they can. Football is a tough game and injuries do occur. Pat could be needed this year and they should work to get him ready but if they can get by with Bill Stull they should. Both Pitt and Pat would be better off if he took a redshirt.
Pitt has plenty of weapons this year at running back, tight end and wide receiver. In most cases they only need to have the quarterback run the offense and distribute the ball.
Bill Stull has credentials of his own. He committed to Kentucky before settling on Pitt. He was the first WPIAL quarterback to throw for over 3,000 yards in a season and he led his team to a WPIAL championship. He also won his share of awards along the way. He was first team all-state selection. He was a member of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette’s Fabulous 22 and the Harrisburg Patriot News Platinum 33 team. Rivals.com had him as the No. 13 player in the state his senior year.
Bill had the lead in the quarterback race headed into fall camp. We have reported on a number of occasions we expected him to be the starter. But it sure has taken any suspense out of the quarterback race. All eyes will now turn to the tailback position.
Interest builds in the Big East Conference
There is no doubt that a little preseason hype helps sell season tickets. West Virginia is a consensus top ten preseason selection. Rivals.com had them as high as No. 2 in the country. From what I am reading there is a very good chance that West Virginia should come close to selling out Mountaineer Field which seats 60,000 on a season basis.
The media projected Louisville at No. 2 in the Big East Conference and they were ranked No. 11 country in the coaches’ poll. Louisville has sold out Papa John’s Cardinal Stadium for the 2007 season. Louisville has plans to expand their stadium from 42,000 to 62,000.
The media picked Rutgers to finish No. 3 on the conference and the coaches have them No. 16 in the national poll. The Scarlet Knights have soldout Rutgers Stadium for the year. Rutgers is now talking about adding 10,000 seats (perhaps as early as next year). Rutgers Stadium currently seats 42,000.
South Florida was picked to finish No. 4 in the Big East. The Bulls will not sellout Raymond James Stadium which seats 65,000 but they have a favorable home schedule this year hosting North Carolina, West Virginia, Central Florida and Louisville. We expect the Bulls to set attendance records this year.
Pitt was picked to finish in 6th place in the conference and does not have an attractive home schedule this year. Pitt, however, could be a year away from joining in and showing some growth at the box office if the can put together a few wins this year. The first step to growing the fan base is to get the current fan base excited. A few wins will do the trick. Pitt should have an exciting stable of running backs. None of them are seniors so they will all be back in 2008.
The Pitt home schedule also looks better in 2008 with Iowa, Central Florida, Louisville, West Virginia and Rutgers at home next year. A few of these schools could be coming off big years. It could be Pitt’s turn to see some box office success in 2008.
Ratings and rankings
Rivals.com has updated their rankings in both football and basketball this week. It is an ongoing process. The hoops analyst spent the summer on the road looking at players on the AAU circuit. Sometimes they only get to see a player once or twice. If he has a bad game it is hurts. If he lights it up he will impress folks. AAU basketball is a little like summer league basketball. It often lacks the team play concept. These teams do not spend much time practicing together. It does, however, allow you to see them playing against other good players.
On the football side analysts spent their time this summer at a host of passing camps. They were at the national tournament at Hoover, Alabama and they were at the Rutgers passing camp and one at Gateway High School plus a host of others. There probably is a little bias towards players from high-powered high school programs that attend these high profile camps. They also had exclusive coverage of the Elite 11 quarterback camp in California which featured a dozen of the best quarterbacks in the country.
Recently I saw a mathematical breakdown of Rivals recruiting rankings versus rankings in the playing field. The analysis was done over a five-year period correlating recruiting classes to rankings on the field. The top dozen teams in Rivals recruiting rankings were also the top dozen on the field of play. They were not in the exact order but they were the same top 12 on both lists.
It also showed that Penn State, Notre Dame and Pitt were all ranked higher in the Rivals recruiting rankings than their performance on the field warranted. I am not sure why that is. All three have storied football programs and may have traded on their past reputations. It did not include results from the last recruiting class.
I will say this if West Virginia, Louisville and Rutgers can maintain their national rankings over a period of time they might shake up these mathematical correlations going forward.
More players will commit early this year than ever before. Many will have committed before they take official visits in the fall. Colleges are pushing harder for earlier commitments and players don’t seem to want to risk injury.
The entire process has been accelerated in recent years. This means college coaches will make more mistakes and the recruiting analysts probably will too. The ranking process will continue through the balance of the year.
A little hoops talk
Pitt continues to over recruit the Class of 2008 and forward Eloy Vargas is at the top of their list. Yesterday we had an interview based on a conversation with his high school. He said it is difficult for Vargas to make official visits because he has not yet qualified. I may be reading between the lines but they may be holding off having him taking the tests until he has been school in the United States a little longer. I spoke to him a few months back and his English was very limited at that time. It sure did not make for an interesting interview. I have felt for some time this could get down to Pitt and Florida. Not much has happened top change my mind so far.
My guess is that if it were up to Eloy Vargas or his high school coach he would commit to Pitt. However, it might be a mistake to overlook the influence of his AAU coach Brione Gillion. This guy is also his legal guardian. I have interviewed him a number of times but recently he has apparently gone into the government’s Witness Protection Program and has been hard to track down lately.
Brione Gillion is not a Dominican but he has a business in the Dominican Republic. It is probably how he first came into contact with Vargas. Right now his voice mail says he is out of the country. My guess is he is also back in the Dominican Republic.
I told one of my colleagues Eloy Vargas is back vacationing in the Dominican Republic. He laughed and said, “I sure hope that Orlando Antigua decided to vacation in the Dominican Republic this year too.”
Pitt is over recruiting in the Class of 2008. Many of our readers have speculated on a current player transferring out. However it could be one of the commits they are concerned about. I am not so sure Nasir Robinson is on track to qualify yet. When he transferred from American Christian to Chester High school there were reports of academic issues. Robinson still has his entire senior season in front of him so there is time to make up ground but it would not shock us if he ends up going the prep school route.
While Eloy Vargas is at the top of Pitt’s wish list they have been looking at other big men. The database now has a very long list of forwards and centers. Earlier this week there was a report on the Ticker that Ater Mojok (6’ 10”) had visited Pitt. He is originally from the Sudan but has more recently been living in Australia. Despite the visit to Pitt he committed to Baylor.
Pitt has offered Kevin Jones (6’ 7”) from Mount Vernon and Quintrell Thomas (6‘ 8”) from St Patrick’s in New Jersey. They have also been recruiting Troy Gillenwater (6’ 8”) from Notre Dame Prep in Massachusetts. There is a long list of others you can find in the basketball database. Vargas may be at the top of the list but there are others they are looking at.
Yesterday there was an article on the Ticker on forward Allan Chaney (6’ 8”) out of the New London school in Connecticut.
An opportunity
The recruiting classes that Coach Wannstedt has signed over the past three years have resulted in Pitt building some depth at a number of positions. Running back, wide receiver, tight end and defensive linemen are four areas that now finally have some depth.
The NCAA has changed the rules this year to move the kickoff back to the 30-yardline. Lowell Robinson proved to be an exiting kickoff returner last year. Now that Pitt has some depth at tailback I am not sure I would not use LaRod Stephens-Howling with Robinson to return kicks. Wide receiver Aundre Wright is another possibility. There should be a big opportunity to create field position this year.
The new rule change may also result in fewer onside kicks.
Recruiting round up
Earlier this week Chris Peak reported that Lucas Nix, Chris Hayden-Martin, Mike Farrell and Jonathan Baldwin are all expected to watch practice today. Shadyside offensive lineman Mike Farrell has his supporters on the Southside. If Pitt offers Mike Farrell they could get a quick commit. The same is true of Kiski area quarterback Josh Vick.
I am getting a little concerned about tight end Hubie Graham. He was the most interviewed guy on the Internet at one time. Rivals.com had close to 20 articles on him but it has gone very quiet over the five weeks. There were reports that coaches could not reach him because of cell phone problems. We have a valid phone number for him. I could be getting paranoid on this one but I am getting bad vibrations.
There was an article on the Ticker this week defensive end Jack Crawford (6’ 6”) from Richland, NJ (via England). He lists Pitt in his top five. The Penn State site reports he could be leaning to Penn State and our sources say they could have this one right.
It appears Pitt would like to land two defensive ends. The best bets might be Kaleb Ramsey from Laurel Highlands, Jake Stoller from the University School and Jeff Hutchison from West Boca Raton High School in Florida.
Schools in the south have been practicing in pads for a week or more. Many northern states will join them shortly. New York is usually the last to get started. Many players have run out of time for unofficial visits. If they are going to commit before their fall season starts it will be to a school they have already visited.
The NCCA ban on text messaging went into effect August 1st. You have to wonder if some coaches and players will not feel a little insecure as time goes on after having been in constant contact and seeing their life line taken from them.
As a reminder
Please keep checking on the Pitt Fall Camp HG page. Pitt practices everyday until August 23rd so it will be updated daily.
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.
Fall Camp HQ
Please stop by the Pitt Fall Camp HG page on a regular basis. We have provided free video interviews all week with the Pitt coaching staff and players. We have interviewed Coach Greg Gattuso, Coach Chris Ball, Chris McKillop and Coach Wannstedt. It appeared Coach Wannstedt was having a hard time contain himself when talking about his heralded running back LeSean McCoy. Tell you friends to check it out. We have free video interviews on the Pitt Fall Camp HQ page.
We also have numerous photo galleries. We have well over a hundred photos taken at camp this week. We should have several hundred before it’s over. You should be very familiar with most of the Pitt players by the time camp is over if you check the photo galleries on our Fall Camp HQ page.
We also have a link to a page which captures reports from all of the training camps around the country. We should have hundreds of reports for you. You might want to check on the training camps of teams that Pitt plays this year. We have a link at the top of the Between Fifth & Forbes message board. We also have a link on the More News inset on the Pantherlair Home Page. Lot’s of good stuff. Check it out. See the link to Big East Camp Coverage. Once you are there you can toggle to any other BCS conference if you choose.
A few thoughts on Pat Bostick
This week we spoke to Pat Bostick’s father, we spoke to a reporter in Lancaster who is close to Bostick’s family and we have spoken to our contacts inside the Pitt program. We have handle on the issues Pat is trying to deal with.
The Bostick family has chosen to keep this a private matter. At this point Coach Dave Wannstedt has too. We will respect their wishes and hope you will too.
Mr. Bostick did not want to pin down an exact date for his return. It could happen this weekend or it might not happen until early next week but we expect him back.
Coach Wannstedt has been down this road before and is getting high praise from the Bostick family for the way he is handling the matter.
Bill Stull figured to be the starter this year even before this incident. Now we think it is best that Pat take a redshirt year if possible. Pitt will still need to get him all the reps they can. Football is a tough game and injuries do occur. Pat could be needed this year and they should work to get him ready but if they can get by with Bill Stull they should. Both Pitt and Pat would be better off if he took a redshirt.
Pitt has plenty of weapons this year at running back, tight end and wide receiver. In most cases they only need to have the quarterback run the offense and distribute the ball.
Bill Stull has credentials of his own. He committed to Kentucky before settling on Pitt. He was the first WPIAL quarterback to throw for over 3,000 yards in a season and he led his team to a WPIAL championship. He also won his share of awards along the way. He was first team all-state selection. He was a member of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette’s Fabulous 22 and the Harrisburg Patriot News Platinum 33 team. Rivals.com had him as the No. 13 player in the state his senior year.
Bill had the lead in the quarterback race headed into fall camp. We have reported on a number of occasions we expected him to be the starter. But it sure has taken any suspense out of the quarterback race. All eyes will now turn to the tailback position.
Interest builds in the Big East Conference
There is no doubt that a little preseason hype helps sell season tickets. West Virginia is a consensus top ten preseason selection. Rivals.com had them as high as No. 2 in the country. From what I am reading there is a very good chance that West Virginia should come close to selling out Mountaineer Field which seats 60,000 on a season basis.
The media projected Louisville at No. 2 in the Big East Conference and they were ranked No. 11 country in the coaches’ poll. Louisville has sold out Papa John’s Cardinal Stadium for the 2007 season. Louisville has plans to expand their stadium from 42,000 to 62,000.
The media picked Rutgers to finish No. 3 on the conference and the coaches have them No. 16 in the national poll. The Scarlet Knights have soldout Rutgers Stadium for the year. Rutgers is now talking about adding 10,000 seats (perhaps as early as next year). Rutgers Stadium currently seats 42,000.
South Florida was picked to finish No. 4 in the Big East. The Bulls will not sellout Raymond James Stadium which seats 65,000 but they have a favorable home schedule this year hosting North Carolina, West Virginia, Central Florida and Louisville. We expect the Bulls to set attendance records this year.
Pitt was picked to finish in 6th place in the conference and does not have an attractive home schedule this year. Pitt, however, could be a year away from joining in and showing some growth at the box office if the can put together a few wins this year. The first step to growing the fan base is to get the current fan base excited. A few wins will do the trick. Pitt should have an exciting stable of running backs. None of them are seniors so they will all be back in 2008.
The Pitt home schedule also looks better in 2008 with Iowa, Central Florida, Louisville, West Virginia and Rutgers at home next year. A few of these schools could be coming off big years. It could be Pitt’s turn to see some box office success in 2008.
Ratings and rankings
Rivals.com has updated their rankings in both football and basketball this week. It is an ongoing process. The hoops analyst spent the summer on the road looking at players on the AAU circuit. Sometimes they only get to see a player once or twice. If he has a bad game it is hurts. If he lights it up he will impress folks. AAU basketball is a little like summer league basketball. It often lacks the team play concept. These teams do not spend much time practicing together. It does, however, allow you to see them playing against other good players.
On the football side analysts spent their time this summer at a host of passing camps. They were at the national tournament at Hoover, Alabama and they were at the Rutgers passing camp and one at Gateway High School plus a host of others. There probably is a little bias towards players from high-powered high school programs that attend these high profile camps. They also had exclusive coverage of the Elite 11 quarterback camp in California which featured a dozen of the best quarterbacks in the country.
Recently I saw a mathematical breakdown of Rivals recruiting rankings versus rankings in the playing field. The analysis was done over a five-year period correlating recruiting classes to rankings on the field. The top dozen teams in Rivals recruiting rankings were also the top dozen on the field of play. They were not in the exact order but they were the same top 12 on both lists.
It also showed that Penn State, Notre Dame and Pitt were all ranked higher in the Rivals recruiting rankings than their performance on the field warranted. I am not sure why that is. All three have storied football programs and may have traded on their past reputations. It did not include results from the last recruiting class.
I will say this if West Virginia, Louisville and Rutgers can maintain their national rankings over a period of time they might shake up these mathematical correlations going forward.
More players will commit early this year than ever before. Many will have committed before they take official visits in the fall. Colleges are pushing harder for earlier commitments and players don’t seem to want to risk injury.
The entire process has been accelerated in recent years. This means college coaches will make more mistakes and the recruiting analysts probably will too. The ranking process will continue through the balance of the year.
A little hoops talk
Pitt continues to over recruit the Class of 2008 and forward Eloy Vargas is at the top of their list. Yesterday we had an interview based on a conversation with his high school. He said it is difficult for Vargas to make official visits because he has not yet qualified. I may be reading between the lines but they may be holding off having him taking the tests until he has been school in the United States a little longer. I spoke to him a few months back and his English was very limited at that time. It sure did not make for an interesting interview. I have felt for some time this could get down to Pitt and Florida. Not much has happened top change my mind so far.
My guess is that if it were up to Eloy Vargas or his high school coach he would commit to Pitt. However, it might be a mistake to overlook the influence of his AAU coach Brione Gillion. This guy is also his legal guardian. I have interviewed him a number of times but recently he has apparently gone into the government’s Witness Protection Program and has been hard to track down lately.
Brione Gillion is not a Dominican but he has a business in the Dominican Republic. It is probably how he first came into contact with Vargas. Right now his voice mail says he is out of the country. My guess is he is also back in the Dominican Republic.
I told one of my colleagues Eloy Vargas is back vacationing in the Dominican Republic. He laughed and said, “I sure hope that Orlando Antigua decided to vacation in the Dominican Republic this year too.”
Pitt is over recruiting in the Class of 2008. Many of our readers have speculated on a current player transferring out. However it could be one of the commits they are concerned about. I am not so sure Nasir Robinson is on track to qualify yet. When he transferred from American Christian to Chester High school there were reports of academic issues. Robinson still has his entire senior season in front of him so there is time to make up ground but it would not shock us if he ends up going the prep school route.
While Eloy Vargas is at the top of Pitt’s wish list they have been looking at other big men. The database now has a very long list of forwards and centers. Earlier this week there was a report on the Ticker that Ater Mojok (6’ 10”) had visited Pitt. He is originally from the Sudan but has more recently been living in Australia. Despite the visit to Pitt he committed to Baylor.
Pitt has offered Kevin Jones (6’ 7”) from Mount Vernon and Quintrell Thomas (6‘ 8”) from St Patrick’s in New Jersey. They have also been recruiting Troy Gillenwater (6’ 8”) from Notre Dame Prep in Massachusetts. There is a long list of others you can find in the basketball database. Vargas may be at the top of the list but there are others they are looking at.
Yesterday there was an article on the Ticker on forward Allan Chaney (6’ 8”) out of the New London school in Connecticut.
An opportunity
The recruiting classes that Coach Wannstedt has signed over the past three years have resulted in Pitt building some depth at a number of positions. Running back, wide receiver, tight end and defensive linemen are four areas that now finally have some depth.
The NCAA has changed the rules this year to move the kickoff back to the 30-yardline. Lowell Robinson proved to be an exiting kickoff returner last year. Now that Pitt has some depth at tailback I am not sure I would not use LaRod Stephens-Howling with Robinson to return kicks. Wide receiver Aundre Wright is another possibility. There should be a big opportunity to create field position this year.
The new rule change may also result in fewer onside kicks.
Recruiting round up
Earlier this week Chris Peak reported that Lucas Nix, Chris Hayden-Martin, Mike Farrell and Jonathan Baldwin are all expected to watch practice today. Shadyside offensive lineman Mike Farrell has his supporters on the Southside. If Pitt offers Mike Farrell they could get a quick commit. The same is true of Kiski area quarterback Josh Vick.
I am getting a little concerned about tight end Hubie Graham. He was the most interviewed guy on the Internet at one time. Rivals.com had close to 20 articles on him but it has gone very quiet over the five weeks. There were reports that coaches could not reach him because of cell phone problems. We have a valid phone number for him. I could be getting paranoid on this one but I am getting bad vibrations.
There was an article on the Ticker this week defensive end Jack Crawford (6’ 6”) from Richland, NJ (via England). He lists Pitt in his top five. The Penn State site reports he could be leaning to Penn State and our sources say they could have this one right.
It appears Pitt would like to land two defensive ends. The best bets might be Kaleb Ramsey from Laurel Highlands, Jake Stoller from the University School and Jeff Hutchison from West Boca Raton High School in Florida.
Schools in the south have been practicing in pads for a week or more. Many northern states will join them shortly. New York is usually the last to get started. Many players have run out of time for unofficial visits. If they are going to commit before their fall season starts it will be to a school they have already visited.
The NCCA ban on text messaging went into effect August 1st. You have to wonder if some coaches and players will not feel a little insecure as time goes on after having been in constant contact and seeing their life line taken from them.
As a reminder
Please keep checking on the Pitt Fall Camp HG page. Pitt practices everyday until August 23rd so it will be updated daily.
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.
