From the Desk of Jim Snyder
Some football recruiting thoughts
Following football recruiting at Pitt the past two years has been a little like watching sausage being made. Last year Pitt and the other members of the Big East Conference were bashed in the media as the conference imploded. Every competing school used it against them including schools from the MAC conference. As a collective group the competing schools projected doubt about the future of the conference and whether it would lose it’s BCS status and their television contracts.
This year Pitt went to summer camp and one member of the local media after another called for the resignation of the head coach. Bob Smizik and Ron Cook led the charge but others soon joined in the fray and the Pitt staff found themselves trying to recruit in a storm of negative publicity for the second year in a row. The net result has been that two classes were recruited with one armed tied behind the back of the Pitt football staff. Pitt could not get an official visit from prospects like Penn-Trafford’s Jason Kacinko, Upper St Clair’s Sean Lee, Erie Cathedral Prep’s Andre Mathis or Gateway’s Justin King. You will never put a fence around Western PA and get them all but at least you would like the courtesy of a visit. You would like to think you could work your way into a player’s top five.
During the month of January, Dave Wannstedt will be trying to salvage what he can from the Class of 2005. Dave Wannstedt and his staff will be holding hands of those that have already committed while trying to add a few more players. Fortunately Pitt has a small senior class and as a result this year’s recruiting class figured to be smaller than normal. The last time we heard from the staff it was to be in the neighborhood of 17-18 prospects. If Pitt signs 16-17 the damage will be minimized and you can use any unused scholarships next year. Hopefully when we report on recruiting in 2005 it will be back to a “normal” year. Hopefully it will not remind us all of sausage being made.
Pitt had ten recruits in this past weekend. We have interviewed all of them this week have published articles on each of them with the exception of John Pelusi. We did speak to John and he did not commit to Pitt during his visit. He told us he still might make some of his visits. I suspect that Pitt’s chances are very good on this one as long as Dave Wannstedt reassures him he is wanted. It was probably unreasonable to expect that Pitt would pick up any additional commitments this past weekend. All the current staff could do is try to show them a good time and sell the merits of the University of Pittsburgh. Dave Wannstedt will still have a chance to close the deal with in-home visits in January. Pitt did move a few players like John Bachman and John Brown back to January. These two are firm commitments. We are not sure which weekend they will visit in January but they will undoubtedly be brought in to influence others that are still trying to make up their minds. In some cases we have put a date in the database just as a reminder to follow-up. We will firm up dates over the next two weeks.
Earlier this year I did not think Pitt would take a quarterback this year but things changed when Luke Getsy transferred to the University of Akron in August. Pitt’s No. 1 target right now is Central Catholic’s Shane Murray. We have asked Murray on a number of occasions if Pitt was recruiting him as a quarterback. He has assured as they are and that is the position he wants to play in college. Quite frankly we think he will commit to Pitt as soon as Dave Wannstedt reassures him that he wants him as their quarterback. The backup plan right now appears to be Craig Carey from Cincinnati Elder. This is a big time program that has won the Ohio large school state championship in 2002 and 2003. We have had articles on both of them this week so just check the database if you missed them.
We would like to see both Shane Murray and John Pelusi from Central Catholic sign with Pitt. Although neither is a five-star prospect they are both solid players. Perhaps more importantly it might help open up a pipeline to the Vikings program. As long as Art Walker, Jr is coaching at Central Catholic they are very likely to pump out legitimate Division 1 prospects virtually every year.
There were reports that Marlon Terry from Akron Buchtel and Donnell McKenzie from Aliquippa might visit in December. Both of these players, however, are still trying to get their academic affairs in order. They are both good athletes but you better pass the SAT or ACT exams or Pitt could be forced to look in other directions.
You have to believe that Dave Wannstedt will help Pitt recruit in Florida. I talked to a recruit a week or so ago before Dave withdrew his name. He told me “I hear that Dave Wannstedt might be the next coach”. The recruit brought it up. I did not mention it. In short, there is name recognition, which will benefit Pitt for prospects in South Florida.
There are some that feel that Pitt has never been able to fully exploit from a recruiting point of view their new facilities, which they share with the Pittsburgh Steelers. Bill Cowher’s team is having a magical year and could be very good for several years to come under quarterback Ben Roethlisberger. The Steelers figure to get plenty of national attention over the next several years. Dave Wannstedt has 10 years experience as a coach in the NFL. It seems to us that a very good recruiting pitch can be put together highlighting Wannstedt’s experience, the success of the Pittsburgh Steelers and the facilities, which they share. In short the sales pitch might go “I know how I can get you to the point that you have a shot at working next door.”
Bowls, the BCS and a new coach
This week we had posts in the Between Fifth and Forbes Board that you may have missed. We would like to recap them because they are very important to Pitt and the Big East Conference.
The BCS coalition announced that the Big East could count Louisville in this year’s standings. Louisville finished 10th in the BCS standings this year. The rule has been you had to average a top twelve finish over a three-year period. This ruling means the Big East will remain qualified. They are scheduled to change the formula going forward but it figures to be some variation of the old formula. It looks like Big East Commissioner Mike Tranghese has done a good job selling this one.
Gridiron Sage posted an article he found on the bowl payouts. If I read this right Pitt will take in more money from this year’s bowl revenue than any other school in America. This is in part because there are only seven (7) schools in the Big East this year. Other conferences must spread the money over 11 or 12 teams. The Big East also uses a weighted formula while most of the conferences spread the money in equal shares. Pitt should take in over $5+ million. Pitt winning 6 of their last 7 games meant a very big payday for the school.
We spoke to the ticket office this week. Pitt was obligated to “buy” 12,000 tickets. It looks like Utah fans bought many of them. The net result is Pitt will not have to eat the cost. They have held a few back for season ticket holders and Panther Club members in case you are still debating a last minute trip to the Fiesta Bowl. The help by the Utes fans in selling tickets means Pitt will actually get to keep all the bowl money.
Pitt did a good job of keeping the coaching search within closed circles. As a result it made it very difficult for the media to report on the search. You will never know for sure but our sources tell us that Jeff Long would probably have promoted Paul Rhoads had Dave Wannstedt not re-entered the picture. Two years ago I would have told you Paul Rhoads would have been a lock. He is a bright, energetic and well-liked young coach. The stars just did not align for Paul Rhoads this time around.
Walt Harris has already interviewed several members of the Pitt staff about joining him at Stanford. Dave Wannstedt indicated at his press conference that he too would like to keep a number of members of the existing staff. The first order of business is for Dave to recruit coaches. Once he has a few of them on board he can turn his attentions to recruiting prospects in early January. The good news for the existing staff, which did a good job getting Pitt to a BCS bowl, is that many of them will end up with jobs either at Pitt or at Stanford.
Rivals Radio is on the Way
In January Rivals.com will launch a new radio service, which will air from 10:00 AM to Noon EST Monday through Friday. This program will be carried via satellite on the Sirius service on XM-radio. In addition you will also be able to hear it on the Internet if you have the Ultimate Ticket. It will be hosted by veteran talk show host Bill King and Rivals’ Bobby Burton. These two have been reporting on football recruiting for many years. If this doesn’t ruin productivity in America nothing will. You will be able to post on the message boards while listening to the radio show. America is a wonderful country.
Rivals.com continues to run two marketing promotions. One encourages Ultimate Ticket subscribers to convert to an annual subscription. The other tries to convert those with the old team subscription to upgrade to the Ultimate Ticket. Both campaigns have been a huge success nationwide and in fact they have been so successful that the old team ticket will be phased out sometime in 2005. Over the past four months 97% of all subscriptions sold nationally have been for the Ultimate Ticket. It is your best value for the money. Please call Customer Service for all the details at 1-866-2-Rivals.
Merry Christmas
The staff at the Pantherlair hopes that all of you have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Years. Here is hoping for a win in the Fiesta Bowl and that a couple of big 6’ 5” 300 pound offensive linemen show up in the stocking of Dave Wannstedt.
We will be in Phoenix next weekend for the Fiesta Bowl so there will be no War Room next Friday. The coaching staff will also be in Phoenix next week and we are in a “Dead Period” so there should be no hard recruiting news going on while we are in Arizona. If we can find an Internet connection we will try to pass along any info we come across in Phoenix on the Between Fifth & Forbes Message Board.
Recruiting will heat up again in January after the bowl game. It should also be very interesting to watch Dave Wannstedt and his new staff put together the Class of 2006 next year.
Merry Christmas!!!
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.
This post was edited on 12/24 8:51 AM by Jim Pantherlairif(GetAdminCookie() != 0) {document.write(' (Revisions[/URL])');}
This post was edited on 12/26 3:57 PM by Jim Pantherlairif(GetAdminCookie() != 0) {document.write(' (Revisions[/URL])');}
Some football recruiting thoughts
Following football recruiting at Pitt the past two years has been a little like watching sausage being made. Last year Pitt and the other members of the Big East Conference were bashed in the media as the conference imploded. Every competing school used it against them including schools from the MAC conference. As a collective group the competing schools projected doubt about the future of the conference and whether it would lose it’s BCS status and their television contracts.
This year Pitt went to summer camp and one member of the local media after another called for the resignation of the head coach. Bob Smizik and Ron Cook led the charge but others soon joined in the fray and the Pitt staff found themselves trying to recruit in a storm of negative publicity for the second year in a row. The net result has been that two classes were recruited with one armed tied behind the back of the Pitt football staff. Pitt could not get an official visit from prospects like Penn-Trafford’s Jason Kacinko, Upper St Clair’s Sean Lee, Erie Cathedral Prep’s Andre Mathis or Gateway’s Justin King. You will never put a fence around Western PA and get them all but at least you would like the courtesy of a visit. You would like to think you could work your way into a player’s top five.
During the month of January, Dave Wannstedt will be trying to salvage what he can from the Class of 2005. Dave Wannstedt and his staff will be holding hands of those that have already committed while trying to add a few more players. Fortunately Pitt has a small senior class and as a result this year’s recruiting class figured to be smaller than normal. The last time we heard from the staff it was to be in the neighborhood of 17-18 prospects. If Pitt signs 16-17 the damage will be minimized and you can use any unused scholarships next year. Hopefully when we report on recruiting in 2005 it will be back to a “normal” year. Hopefully it will not remind us all of sausage being made.
Pitt had ten recruits in this past weekend. We have interviewed all of them this week have published articles on each of them with the exception of John Pelusi. We did speak to John and he did not commit to Pitt during his visit. He told us he still might make some of his visits. I suspect that Pitt’s chances are very good on this one as long as Dave Wannstedt reassures him he is wanted. It was probably unreasonable to expect that Pitt would pick up any additional commitments this past weekend. All the current staff could do is try to show them a good time and sell the merits of the University of Pittsburgh. Dave Wannstedt will still have a chance to close the deal with in-home visits in January. Pitt did move a few players like John Bachman and John Brown back to January. These two are firm commitments. We are not sure which weekend they will visit in January but they will undoubtedly be brought in to influence others that are still trying to make up their minds. In some cases we have put a date in the database just as a reminder to follow-up. We will firm up dates over the next two weeks.
Earlier this year I did not think Pitt would take a quarterback this year but things changed when Luke Getsy transferred to the University of Akron in August. Pitt’s No. 1 target right now is Central Catholic’s Shane Murray. We have asked Murray on a number of occasions if Pitt was recruiting him as a quarterback. He has assured as they are and that is the position he wants to play in college. Quite frankly we think he will commit to Pitt as soon as Dave Wannstedt reassures him that he wants him as their quarterback. The backup plan right now appears to be Craig Carey from Cincinnati Elder. This is a big time program that has won the Ohio large school state championship in 2002 and 2003. We have had articles on both of them this week so just check the database if you missed them.
We would like to see both Shane Murray and John Pelusi from Central Catholic sign with Pitt. Although neither is a five-star prospect they are both solid players. Perhaps more importantly it might help open up a pipeline to the Vikings program. As long as Art Walker, Jr is coaching at Central Catholic they are very likely to pump out legitimate Division 1 prospects virtually every year.
There were reports that Marlon Terry from Akron Buchtel and Donnell McKenzie from Aliquippa might visit in December. Both of these players, however, are still trying to get their academic affairs in order. They are both good athletes but you better pass the SAT or ACT exams or Pitt could be forced to look in other directions.
You have to believe that Dave Wannstedt will help Pitt recruit in Florida. I talked to a recruit a week or so ago before Dave withdrew his name. He told me “I hear that Dave Wannstedt might be the next coach”. The recruit brought it up. I did not mention it. In short, there is name recognition, which will benefit Pitt for prospects in South Florida.
There are some that feel that Pitt has never been able to fully exploit from a recruiting point of view their new facilities, which they share with the Pittsburgh Steelers. Bill Cowher’s team is having a magical year and could be very good for several years to come under quarterback Ben Roethlisberger. The Steelers figure to get plenty of national attention over the next several years. Dave Wannstedt has 10 years experience as a coach in the NFL. It seems to us that a very good recruiting pitch can be put together highlighting Wannstedt’s experience, the success of the Pittsburgh Steelers and the facilities, which they share. In short the sales pitch might go “I know how I can get you to the point that you have a shot at working next door.”
Bowls, the BCS and a new coach
This week we had posts in the Between Fifth and Forbes Board that you may have missed. We would like to recap them because they are very important to Pitt and the Big East Conference.
The BCS coalition announced that the Big East could count Louisville in this year’s standings. Louisville finished 10th in the BCS standings this year. The rule has been you had to average a top twelve finish over a three-year period. This ruling means the Big East will remain qualified. They are scheduled to change the formula going forward but it figures to be some variation of the old formula. It looks like Big East Commissioner Mike Tranghese has done a good job selling this one.
Gridiron Sage posted an article he found on the bowl payouts. If I read this right Pitt will take in more money from this year’s bowl revenue than any other school in America. This is in part because there are only seven (7) schools in the Big East this year. Other conferences must spread the money over 11 or 12 teams. The Big East also uses a weighted formula while most of the conferences spread the money in equal shares. Pitt should take in over $5+ million. Pitt winning 6 of their last 7 games meant a very big payday for the school.
We spoke to the ticket office this week. Pitt was obligated to “buy” 12,000 tickets. It looks like Utah fans bought many of them. The net result is Pitt will not have to eat the cost. They have held a few back for season ticket holders and Panther Club members in case you are still debating a last minute trip to the Fiesta Bowl. The help by the Utes fans in selling tickets means Pitt will actually get to keep all the bowl money.
Pitt did a good job of keeping the coaching search within closed circles. As a result it made it very difficult for the media to report on the search. You will never know for sure but our sources tell us that Jeff Long would probably have promoted Paul Rhoads had Dave Wannstedt not re-entered the picture. Two years ago I would have told you Paul Rhoads would have been a lock. He is a bright, energetic and well-liked young coach. The stars just did not align for Paul Rhoads this time around.
Walt Harris has already interviewed several members of the Pitt staff about joining him at Stanford. Dave Wannstedt indicated at his press conference that he too would like to keep a number of members of the existing staff. The first order of business is for Dave to recruit coaches. Once he has a few of them on board he can turn his attentions to recruiting prospects in early January. The good news for the existing staff, which did a good job getting Pitt to a BCS bowl, is that many of them will end up with jobs either at Pitt or at Stanford.
Rivals Radio is on the Way
In January Rivals.com will launch a new radio service, which will air from 10:00 AM to Noon EST Monday through Friday. This program will be carried via satellite on the Sirius service on XM-radio. In addition you will also be able to hear it on the Internet if you have the Ultimate Ticket. It will be hosted by veteran talk show host Bill King and Rivals’ Bobby Burton. These two have been reporting on football recruiting for many years. If this doesn’t ruin productivity in America nothing will. You will be able to post on the message boards while listening to the radio show. America is a wonderful country.
Rivals.com continues to run two marketing promotions. One encourages Ultimate Ticket subscribers to convert to an annual subscription. The other tries to convert those with the old team subscription to upgrade to the Ultimate Ticket. Both campaigns have been a huge success nationwide and in fact they have been so successful that the old team ticket will be phased out sometime in 2005. Over the past four months 97% of all subscriptions sold nationally have been for the Ultimate Ticket. It is your best value for the money. Please call Customer Service for all the details at 1-866-2-Rivals.
Merry Christmas
The staff at the Pantherlair hopes that all of you have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Years. Here is hoping for a win in the Fiesta Bowl and that a couple of big 6’ 5” 300 pound offensive linemen show up in the stocking of Dave Wannstedt.
We will be in Phoenix next weekend for the Fiesta Bowl so there will be no War Room next Friday. The coaching staff will also be in Phoenix next week and we are in a “Dead Period” so there should be no hard recruiting news going on while we are in Arizona. If we can find an Internet connection we will try to pass along any info we come across in Phoenix on the Between Fifth & Forbes Message Board.
Recruiting will heat up again in January after the bowl game. It should also be very interesting to watch Dave Wannstedt and his new staff put together the Class of 2006 next year.
Merry Christmas!!!
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.
This post was edited on 12/24 8:51 AM by Jim Pantherlairif(GetAdminCookie() != 0) {document.write(' (Revisions[/URL])');}
This post was edited on 12/26 3:57 PM by Jim Pantherlairif(GetAdminCookie() != 0) {document.write(' (Revisions[/URL])');}
