From the desk of Jim Snyder
Fall camp comes to an end
For all intents and purposes fall camp is over and now Coach Wannstedt and his staff must now allow the team a chance to have their bodies recuperate while at the same time preparing them to play Virginia in the opener. I guess in some ways you could say there were no huge surprises.
Injuries are a part of the game and it was a certainly a disappointment to see Gateway’s Aaron Smith’s season cut short by shoulder surgery. I thought placekicker David Abdul might be able to join the team sometime during the season but it was not to be. Dorin Dickerson, Mick Williams and Cedric McGee all were slowed in camp by nagging injuries but by in large Pitt probably stayed healthier than many teams during their fall camp.
Last year Pitt’s defense gave up 22 points per game which was not too far behind Louisville and West Virginia which gave up approximately 18 points per game. Certainly Pitt fans are hoping for better success in stopping the run this year and would like to see more pressure put on the other team’s passer. Pitt will rotate a lot of young players up front hoping to keep them fresh while gaining experience. How fast the young defensive line progresses will decide if we will really see an improved defense this fall.
On offense Pitt averaged 24 points per game compared to 32 by West Virginia and 43 by the high-powered Louisville Cardinals. In fall camp the Pitt offense often looked sluggish and quarterback Tyler Palko was inconsistent at times. Coach Cavanaugh and his staff are going to have to find ways to move the ball and put more points on the scoreboard this fall if Pitt is to go bowling again. All the answers at running back and wide receiver have not been totally been resolved. Pitt may have to use the tight ends a lot and hope they can find ways to get LaRod Stephens-Howling and Kevin Collier in open space. Pitt does not yet look like a team that will simply lineup toe to toe and overpower their opponents. They may need some creative game plans and the courage to take a few risks at times. We still think 8-4 is an achievable goal if they can find a way to get past Virginia in their opener. Pitt is a 3 ½ to 4 ½ favorite depending on which line you look at so this is not an impossible task. Virginia has talent but many starters are gone from last year’s team.
West Virginia struggled a little on offense earlier in the year last fall until redshirt freshman quarterback Pat White and true freshman Steve Slaton were inserted into the lineup. It wasn’t until the seventh game against Louisville that things kicked into high gear for them. A similar thing could happen to Pitt. You may see the Panthers start the year with some veterans but if they come up short younger players could be gradually find more and more playing time as they get to know the system better. It is easy for freshmen to be overwhelmed in camp as we saw with McKenzie Mathews and TJ Porter. It will get easier as they get more reps and more time in the classroom watching video.
Pitt will be young at a number of positions. As an example no running back on the Pitt roster has ever scored a touchdown at the college level.
Basketball recruiting
Last night reporter Jay Gomes of the Rivals network broke the story that Pitt had picked up a verbal commitment from Roman Catholic guard Bradley Wanamaker. His coach described him as a two-guard to us. An article on the Rivals network once called him a young Dwayne Wade. He has been described to us a fearless defender. Pitt has previously received a commitment fromDarnell Dodson (6’ 6 ½”) from Eleanor Roosevelt High School in the Washington DC area. Both players were recruited by Mike Rice. Wanamaker was in Pittsburgh this past Tuesday for an unofficial visit and plans to return to Pittsburgh for an official visit September 8th & 9th. We spoke to Wannamaker last night and will have a follow up article later today.
Basketball players are allowed to start taking official visits in September. Schools will be jockeying for position to get their targets in first. Pitt is also scheduled to have guard Chris Wright in the weekend of September 8th-9th. Wright will probably get down to Pitt or Georgetown.
Center Gary McGhee (6’ 10”) out of Anderson Highland High School in Indiana is now scheduled to visit Labor Day weekend. Earlier this week he had been considering Pitt, Indiana, and Wisconsin but Indiana went in a different direction. This means it is down to Pitt and Wisconsin. He has already made an unofficial visit to Wisconsin so a quick decision is expected.
We talked to Aaron Pogue this week. He had been scheduled to visit Labor Day weekend but the coaches were trying to move it back a week. Maybe so he could be in town the same time as Wright and Wanamaker although they want to see what happens with McGhee. He had conflicts with the weekend Pitt wanted him to visit. I think it was his mother’s birthday. We will follow up to see what date he will visit. We have tentatively put him in the database for September 15th.
We reported on Schenley’s DeJuan Blair yesterday. He had not scheduled any visits when Tony talked to him. Not sure of his academic status.
I also talked to the high school coach for center Anthony McClain this week. He also had not scheduled any visits. McClain is a member of the DC Assault AAU program (so he knows David Cox) and he played at the “Pete” earlier this year at the Jam Fest (so he has some familiarity with the campus). .
We have lots of photos and videos
The Pantherlair now has a library of several hundred photos taken during fall camp. You can access all of them by going to Chris Peak’s post at the top of the Between Fifth & Forbes message board. We will leave that up for several more days but long term you can find them going to a Quick Link at the top of the Football Home Page.
The new Rivals.com format that is slowly taking shape allows easy access to all the videos in the system. It looks like there are 59 pages of videos which should translate into approximately 1,700 videos for the football Class of 2007. They are cranking out about a 100 a week now so the library will grow.
Today we are scheduled to have more video on Royal Palm Beach running back Zac Brown.
All the Way to Friday
This year Rivals.com will start a new feature in their coverage of high school football . They call it All the Way to Friday. They will send camera crews out to video tape some of the top high school games around the country. One of those games will be Central Catholic at Woodland Hills football game. Central Catholic is ranked No. 1 in the East by USA Today.
Speaking of USA Today yesterday they had their high school preview issue. If their Top 50 prospects looked familiar to you it’s because for the first time they used Rivals.com as their source.
Football recruiting
A little more Greg Lloyd, Jr.
We will have an article later today on Greg Lloyd Jr. He is the son of former Steelers linebacker Greg Lloyd. He is certainly not high on Pitt’s list right now although he listed Pitt as a favorite in a recent Rivals.com survey. He does not live with his father and is totally estranged from him which is sad. We spoke to his coach and the high school athletic director. Both had high praise for Greg, Jr. as a person. They seemed genuinely happy to hear he was going to get a little publicity and we were happy to oblige.
When is an offer really an offer?
We have been listing Miami Edison running back Chacon Lee with an offer as well as defensive back Rashad Jackson. A “birdie” stopped by to say those players may think they have verbal offers but these two prospects do not have offers in writing. We have changed their profile in the football database to show no offers to help our subscribers track who Pitt’s targets are a little easier.
This means there are only four running backs in Florida with offers. Running backsBo Williams, Xavier Stinson, Greg Williams and Zach Brown all have offers and are Pitt targets. We would like to see Pitt land one out of this group.
Yesterday a story came across the “Ticker” that linebacker Josh Hartigan is still planning on visiting Pitt. He is Bo Williams’ teammate. I’ll take them both.
Pitt is still in the mix with three local wideouts in Valley’s Toney Clemons, Rochester’s [/B]Derek Moye[/B] and Erie’s [/B]Mo Williams[/B]. We think Pitt has a good chance with these three as individuals despite the fact that Clemons has scheduled official visits to Colorado and Michigan. Add to that Florida’s Matt Clements. We think Pitt would like two out of this group. Pitt is recruiting them as wideouts but they are all good athletes capable of playing more than one position. As an example, Williams and Clements will play quarterback in high school this fall. One observer close to the scene indicated Williams could play receiver or defensive back and is not so sure he could not be a running back.
JUCO prospects
In our last War Room we indicated most junior college players are there for a reason. However if Coffeyville’s Tommie Duhart and Valley Forge’s Bryan Williams make progress this fall we think there is a very good chance they will become part Pitt’s recruiting Class of 2007. We think it’s possible some on the Southside have already mentally rung them up as Pitt commits.
Labor Day visitors
Pitt is trying to get running back Greg Williams and wide receiver Matt Clements up to Pittsburgh Labor Day weekend. Barron Collier High School has a game Friday night. The plan is for them to fly up early Saturday morning and watch so they can watch the Virginia game. Williams seems to favor Florida while Clements seems to favor South Carolina. It might be best taking your shot early with these two.
We will be traveling with the holiday weekend next week and do not plan on a War Room article at this time. The clock keeps ticking towards Pitt’s opener with Virginia.
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.
This post was edited on 8/25 8:20 AM by Jim Pantherlairif(GetAdminCookie() != 0) {document.write(' (Revisions[/URL])');}
Fall camp comes to an end
For all intents and purposes fall camp is over and now Coach Wannstedt and his staff must now allow the team a chance to have their bodies recuperate while at the same time preparing them to play Virginia in the opener. I guess in some ways you could say there were no huge surprises.
Injuries are a part of the game and it was a certainly a disappointment to see Gateway’s Aaron Smith’s season cut short by shoulder surgery. I thought placekicker David Abdul might be able to join the team sometime during the season but it was not to be. Dorin Dickerson, Mick Williams and Cedric McGee all were slowed in camp by nagging injuries but by in large Pitt probably stayed healthier than many teams during their fall camp.
Last year Pitt’s defense gave up 22 points per game which was not too far behind Louisville and West Virginia which gave up approximately 18 points per game. Certainly Pitt fans are hoping for better success in stopping the run this year and would like to see more pressure put on the other team’s passer. Pitt will rotate a lot of young players up front hoping to keep them fresh while gaining experience. How fast the young defensive line progresses will decide if we will really see an improved defense this fall.
On offense Pitt averaged 24 points per game compared to 32 by West Virginia and 43 by the high-powered Louisville Cardinals. In fall camp the Pitt offense often looked sluggish and quarterback Tyler Palko was inconsistent at times. Coach Cavanaugh and his staff are going to have to find ways to move the ball and put more points on the scoreboard this fall if Pitt is to go bowling again. All the answers at running back and wide receiver have not been totally been resolved. Pitt may have to use the tight ends a lot and hope they can find ways to get LaRod Stephens-Howling and Kevin Collier in open space. Pitt does not yet look like a team that will simply lineup toe to toe and overpower their opponents. They may need some creative game plans and the courage to take a few risks at times. We still think 8-4 is an achievable goal if they can find a way to get past Virginia in their opener. Pitt is a 3 ½ to 4 ½ favorite depending on which line you look at so this is not an impossible task. Virginia has talent but many starters are gone from last year’s team.
West Virginia struggled a little on offense earlier in the year last fall until redshirt freshman quarterback Pat White and true freshman Steve Slaton were inserted into the lineup. It wasn’t until the seventh game against Louisville that things kicked into high gear for them. A similar thing could happen to Pitt. You may see the Panthers start the year with some veterans but if they come up short younger players could be gradually find more and more playing time as they get to know the system better. It is easy for freshmen to be overwhelmed in camp as we saw with McKenzie Mathews and TJ Porter. It will get easier as they get more reps and more time in the classroom watching video.
Pitt will be young at a number of positions. As an example no running back on the Pitt roster has ever scored a touchdown at the college level.
Basketball recruiting
Last night reporter Jay Gomes of the Rivals network broke the story that Pitt had picked up a verbal commitment from Roman Catholic guard Bradley Wanamaker. His coach described him as a two-guard to us. An article on the Rivals network once called him a young Dwayne Wade. He has been described to us a fearless defender. Pitt has previously received a commitment fromDarnell Dodson (6’ 6 ½”) from Eleanor Roosevelt High School in the Washington DC area. Both players were recruited by Mike Rice. Wanamaker was in Pittsburgh this past Tuesday for an unofficial visit and plans to return to Pittsburgh for an official visit September 8th & 9th. We spoke to Wannamaker last night and will have a follow up article later today.
Basketball players are allowed to start taking official visits in September. Schools will be jockeying for position to get their targets in first. Pitt is also scheduled to have guard Chris Wright in the weekend of September 8th-9th. Wright will probably get down to Pitt or Georgetown.
Center Gary McGhee (6’ 10”) out of Anderson Highland High School in Indiana is now scheduled to visit Labor Day weekend. Earlier this week he had been considering Pitt, Indiana, and Wisconsin but Indiana went in a different direction. This means it is down to Pitt and Wisconsin. He has already made an unofficial visit to Wisconsin so a quick decision is expected.
We talked to Aaron Pogue this week. He had been scheduled to visit Labor Day weekend but the coaches were trying to move it back a week. Maybe so he could be in town the same time as Wright and Wanamaker although they want to see what happens with McGhee. He had conflicts with the weekend Pitt wanted him to visit. I think it was his mother’s birthday. We will follow up to see what date he will visit. We have tentatively put him in the database for September 15th.
We reported on Schenley’s DeJuan Blair yesterday. He had not scheduled any visits when Tony talked to him. Not sure of his academic status.
I also talked to the high school coach for center Anthony McClain this week. He also had not scheduled any visits. McClain is a member of the DC Assault AAU program (so he knows David Cox) and he played at the “Pete” earlier this year at the Jam Fest (so he has some familiarity with the campus). .
We have lots of photos and videos
The Pantherlair now has a library of several hundred photos taken during fall camp. You can access all of them by going to Chris Peak’s post at the top of the Between Fifth & Forbes message board. We will leave that up for several more days but long term you can find them going to a Quick Link at the top of the Football Home Page.
The new Rivals.com format that is slowly taking shape allows easy access to all the videos in the system. It looks like there are 59 pages of videos which should translate into approximately 1,700 videos for the football Class of 2007. They are cranking out about a 100 a week now so the library will grow.
Today we are scheduled to have more video on Royal Palm Beach running back Zac Brown.
All the Way to Friday
This year Rivals.com will start a new feature in their coverage of high school football . They call it All the Way to Friday. They will send camera crews out to video tape some of the top high school games around the country. One of those games will be Central Catholic at Woodland Hills football game. Central Catholic is ranked No. 1 in the East by USA Today.
Speaking of USA Today yesterday they had their high school preview issue. If their Top 50 prospects looked familiar to you it’s because for the first time they used Rivals.com as their source.
Football recruiting
A little more Greg Lloyd, Jr.
We will have an article later today on Greg Lloyd Jr. He is the son of former Steelers linebacker Greg Lloyd. He is certainly not high on Pitt’s list right now although he listed Pitt as a favorite in a recent Rivals.com survey. He does not live with his father and is totally estranged from him which is sad. We spoke to his coach and the high school athletic director. Both had high praise for Greg, Jr. as a person. They seemed genuinely happy to hear he was going to get a little publicity and we were happy to oblige.
When is an offer really an offer?
We have been listing Miami Edison running back Chacon Lee with an offer as well as defensive back Rashad Jackson. A “birdie” stopped by to say those players may think they have verbal offers but these two prospects do not have offers in writing. We have changed their profile in the football database to show no offers to help our subscribers track who Pitt’s targets are a little easier.
This means there are only four running backs in Florida with offers. Running backsBo Williams, Xavier Stinson, Greg Williams and Zach Brown all have offers and are Pitt targets. We would like to see Pitt land one out of this group.
Yesterday a story came across the “Ticker” that linebacker Josh Hartigan is still planning on visiting Pitt. He is Bo Williams’ teammate. I’ll take them both.
Pitt is still in the mix with three local wideouts in Valley’s Toney Clemons, Rochester’s [/B]Derek Moye[/B] and Erie’s [/B]Mo Williams[/B]. We think Pitt has a good chance with these three as individuals despite the fact that Clemons has scheduled official visits to Colorado and Michigan. Add to that Florida’s Matt Clements. We think Pitt would like two out of this group. Pitt is recruiting them as wideouts but they are all good athletes capable of playing more than one position. As an example, Williams and Clements will play quarterback in high school this fall. One observer close to the scene indicated Williams could play receiver or defensive back and is not so sure he could not be a running back.
JUCO prospects
In our last War Room we indicated most junior college players are there for a reason. However if Coffeyville’s Tommie Duhart and Valley Forge’s Bryan Williams make progress this fall we think there is a very good chance they will become part Pitt’s recruiting Class of 2007. We think it’s possible some on the Southside have already mentally rung them up as Pitt commits.
Labor Day visitors
Pitt is trying to get running back Greg Williams and wide receiver Matt Clements up to Pittsburgh Labor Day weekend. Barron Collier High School has a game Friday night. The plan is for them to fly up early Saturday morning and watch so they can watch the Virginia game. Williams seems to favor Florida while Clements seems to favor South Carolina. It might be best taking your shot early with these two.
We will be traveling with the holiday weekend next week and do not plan on a War Room article at this time. The clock keeps ticking towards Pitt’s opener with Virginia.
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.
This post was edited on 8/25 8:20 AM by Jim Pantherlairif(GetAdminCookie() != 0) {document.write(' (Revisions[/URL])');}
