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From the Desk of Jim Snyder
Panther Football Notes
The University of Pittsburgh Alumni Association will hold a pep rally in the East Atrium of Raymond James Stadium in Tampa between 2-4 PM on Labor Day. A ticket is required. They are available on line at www.alumni.pitt.edu/calandar. There will be a cash bar and the Pitt cheerleaders are scheduled to attend.
In case you may have missed our article yesterday Pitt received a verbal commitment from Rashad Duncan from Belle Glades Florida. He is a bit of a sleeper but comes out of a very good program at Belle Glades. He has attended the summer camp at Pitt the past two years so the Pitt staff has had a good chance to evaluate him.
The move of Darrell Strong from quarterback to tight end should send Pitt back into the recruiting frays for a quarterback. Since there would be no scholarship player in the class directly ahead of an incoming quarterback it would be a good opportunity for a quarterback to start for two years. We will give the coaches time to react and then we will start interviewing quarterback prospects. You would have to think they would give Bill Stull a second look.
In case you missed our post last weekend, Pitt has indicated in their press guide that they have a home and away agreement with Notre Dame for the 2010 and 1011 seasons. We checked with one of our “birdies” who tells us this is no misprint, a deal is in place. This is very good news for making the non-conference schedule more attractive long term. Pitt now has both Notre Dame and Clemson for 2010. If the NCAA expands the regular season schedules to 12 games, as expected, it could open the way for Pitt to play Penn State. It could also help Pitt AD Jeff Long with other scheduling opportunities. Please see “Future Schedules” on the left hand side of this site.
Speedster Justin King from Gateway has been ranked as the No. 1 prospect in the state of Pennsylvania. Pitt Assistant Curtis Bray has been recruiting him for almost two years. Coach Bray knows Gateway coach Terry Smith from their days in high school (both played at Gateway). Pitt has been mentioned more often lately but we still expect this to come down to Penn State or Michigan. We have allowed the network to cover him. The Rivals network has produced 30 articles and the local newspapers have had features on him.
Former Pitt Coach John Majors will be in Nashville September 9th to speak at a dinner trying to raise money for a substance abuse program. Coach Majors was at Tennessee for 16 seasons and his teams won 116 games.
Cleveland linebacker Glenville’s Freddie Lenix (5’ 11” 195) has an 8 month old son. There is a feeling he might not want to stray too far from home. This could work in Pitt’s favor. Lenix is a bit undersized and may end up playing string safety at the next level. Lenix plays sideline to sideline and was in on over 150 tackles last year.
Peabody’s Corey Davis and running back Rashad Jennings still have not cleared the NCAA Clearinghouse. Our “birdies” say Davis has a little better chance of making it than does Jennings but it does not look good.
Rivals.com has introduced a couple of new features. If you go to the football schedules you will now notice that we give a betting line on each game. Pitt started out as a 3 ½ point underdog but moved to a 1-point underdog the last time I checked. The line changes daily. As the old saying goes these lines are for amusement purposes only.
In case you missed it, the Akron Beacon Journal reported that Pitt recruit Marlon Davis broke his leg in scrimmage Saturday. It was a clean break and he is now in a cast. Coach Claude Brown hopes to get him back in 6-7 weeks. Coach Brown says this will not affect his scholarship with Pitt.
Rivals.com is also rolling out their new AMP product. The “All Media Pass” is free to Ultimate Ticket holders through November. The AMP product will give you a heavy dose of videos. It is design for customers that have high speed Internet access.
The Pantherlair’s preseason Top 50 in the state of Pennsylvania has been updated. Now we will get an opportunity to see if these prospects can live up to their rankings during their senior seasons.
The Pitt summer camp is over. Players will now move back to their dorms or apartments. Coach Harris will no longer issue a statement after each practice. The football team will now move to preparing to play South Florida.
A little Hoops talk
Pitt has released the basketball schedule for next year. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette pointed out that it is very similar to last year’s schedule. Memphis, South Carolina, Richmond, Penn State and Duquesne are the primary teams in the out of conference portion of the schedule. Memphis could be loaded. They had a top 10 recruiting class and have four starters returning. Coach Dixon controls the scheduling of basketball games. He believes the program was built on this type of non-conference schedule so do not expect a change any time soon. Perhaps as Pitt’s reputation grows the networks will schedule a couple of made for TV games. Once Louisville, DePaul, Marquette and Cincinnati join the Big East the conference schedule will be brutal.
One of our “birdies” dropped by to say, a quite optimism is coming out of the “Pete”. Coach Dixon may experiment with a starting lineup, which has Mark McCarroll and Chevy Troutman both starting as forwards and Ronald Ramon as the No. 2 guard. Ramon has been on campus for sometime and the “birdie” reports he is already the best shooter on the team.
The Pitt basketball team will play a number of Canadian teams on a trip to Toronto in September. We think some of the national forecasters will under value the Pitt team but we do not expect much of a drop off from what we have seen the past few years. In fact they could be better if Ramon is as good as advertised and Aaron Gray shows improvement.
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.
This post was edited on 8/27 9:09 AM by Steve Pantherlair
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From the Desk of Jim Snyder
Panther Football Notes
The University of Pittsburgh Alumni Association will hold a pep rally in the East Atrium of Raymond James Stadium in Tampa between 2-4 PM on Labor Day. A ticket is required. They are available on line at www.alumni.pitt.edu/calandar. There will be a cash bar and the Pitt cheerleaders are scheduled to attend.
In case you may have missed our article yesterday Pitt received a verbal commitment from Rashad Duncan from Belle Glades Florida. He is a bit of a sleeper but comes out of a very good program at Belle Glades. He has attended the summer camp at Pitt the past two years so the Pitt staff has had a good chance to evaluate him.
The move of Darrell Strong from quarterback to tight end should send Pitt back into the recruiting frays for a quarterback. Since there would be no scholarship player in the class directly ahead of an incoming quarterback it would be a good opportunity for a quarterback to start for two years. We will give the coaches time to react and then we will start interviewing quarterback prospects. You would have to think they would give Bill Stull a second look.
In case you missed our post last weekend, Pitt has indicated in their press guide that they have a home and away agreement with Notre Dame for the 2010 and 1011 seasons. We checked with one of our “birdies” who tells us this is no misprint, a deal is in place. This is very good news for making the non-conference schedule more attractive long term. Pitt now has both Notre Dame and Clemson for 2010. If the NCAA expands the regular season schedules to 12 games, as expected, it could open the way for Pitt to play Penn State. It could also help Pitt AD Jeff Long with other scheduling opportunities. Please see “Future Schedules” on the left hand side of this site.
Speedster Justin King from Gateway has been ranked as the No. 1 prospect in the state of Pennsylvania. Pitt Assistant Curtis Bray has been recruiting him for almost two years. Coach Bray knows Gateway coach Terry Smith from their days in high school (both played at Gateway). Pitt has been mentioned more often lately but we still expect this to come down to Penn State or Michigan. We have allowed the network to cover him. The Rivals network has produced 30 articles and the local newspapers have had features on him.
Former Pitt Coach John Majors will be in Nashville September 9th to speak at a dinner trying to raise money for a substance abuse program. Coach Majors was at Tennessee for 16 seasons and his teams won 116 games.
Cleveland linebacker Glenville’s Freddie Lenix (5’ 11” 195) has an 8 month old son. There is a feeling he might not want to stray too far from home. This could work in Pitt’s favor. Lenix is a bit undersized and may end up playing string safety at the next level. Lenix plays sideline to sideline and was in on over 150 tackles last year.
Peabody’s Corey Davis and running back Rashad Jennings still have not cleared the NCAA Clearinghouse. Our “birdies” say Davis has a little better chance of making it than does Jennings but it does not look good.
Rivals.com has introduced a couple of new features. If you go to the football schedules you will now notice that we give a betting line on each game. Pitt started out as a 3 ½ point underdog but moved to a 1-point underdog the last time I checked. The line changes daily. As the old saying goes these lines are for amusement purposes only.
In case you missed it, the Akron Beacon Journal reported that Pitt recruit Marlon Davis broke his leg in scrimmage Saturday. It was a clean break and he is now in a cast. Coach Claude Brown hopes to get him back in 6-7 weeks. Coach Brown says this will not affect his scholarship with Pitt.
Rivals.com is also rolling out their new AMP product. The “All Media Pass” is free to Ultimate Ticket holders through November. The AMP product will give you a heavy dose of videos. It is design for customers that have high speed Internet access.
The Pantherlair’s preseason Top 50 in the state of Pennsylvania has been updated. Now we will get an opportunity to see if these prospects can live up to their rankings during their senior seasons.
The Pitt summer camp is over. Players will now move back to their dorms or apartments. Coach Harris will no longer issue a statement after each practice. The football team will now move to preparing to play South Florida.
A little Hoops talk
Pitt has released the basketball schedule for next year. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette pointed out that it is very similar to last year’s schedule. Memphis, South Carolina, Richmond, Penn State and Duquesne are the primary teams in the out of conference portion of the schedule. Memphis could be loaded. They had a top 10 recruiting class and have four starters returning. Coach Dixon controls the scheduling of basketball games. He believes the program was built on this type of non-conference schedule so do not expect a change any time soon. Perhaps as Pitt’s reputation grows the networks will schedule a couple of made for TV games. Once Louisville, DePaul, Marquette and Cincinnati join the Big East the conference schedule will be brutal.
One of our “birdies” dropped by to say, a quite optimism is coming out of the “Pete”. Coach Dixon may experiment with a starting lineup, which has Mark McCarroll and Chevy Troutman both starting as forwards and Ronald Ramon as the No. 2 guard. Ramon has been on campus for sometime and the “birdie” reports he is already the best shooter on the team.
The Pitt basketball team will play a number of Canadian teams on a trip to Toronto in September. We think some of the national forecasters will under value the Pitt team but we do not expect much of a drop off from what we have seen the past few years. In fact they could be better if Ramon is as good as advertised and Aaron Gray shows improvement.
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.
This post was edited on 8/27 9:09 AM by Steve Pantherlair
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