From the desk of Jim Snyder
Bowl Pick’em game
Rivals.com has a new Pick’em game. It is based on picking winners in this year’s bowl games. Rivals.com is giving away a 50 inch television set to the winner. They are also giving away $100 gift certificates to the next nine. See the post on the top of the Between Fifth and Forbes or Football message boards for details. Please get your picks in today.
Regular season Top 10
Here are the top ten from the regular season Pick’em game from the Pantherlair The top three were all subscribers and had their subscriptions extended by six months. Picking winners is never easy when the home team is having a disappointing season. Congratulations to our winners.
1) UPS123
2) Panth#1
3) GT74
4) Chanceman
5) MtLeboPanther
6) KingMissle
7) Little77
8) Last Call
9) Jim Pantherlair
10) Choppers
Big East has new deal with ISP Sports
The Big East has a new deal with ISP sports. It starts next summer and runs through the 2012-13 school year. ISP will promote and market the league's championships, radio networks and other properties. ISP Sports already controls the marketing rights for four Big East members: Pittsburgh, Villanova, Syracuse and Cincinnati. They also hold the rights to the ACC and MAC Conferences. The Big East gets guaranteed monies plus a percentage above a certain threshold. I am not sure exactly where this is headed but I think you will see more radio coverage for the Big East. ISP built a new radio network, which distributed an eight-game ACC football package that included the league’s championship game this season and plans to expand it to 13 to 15 games next year.
More Nike Camp coverage will be coming your way
Rivals.com has entered into a new multi-year agreement with Student Sports which gives them continued exclusive rights at the Nike Training Camps and Combines. These camps have set the industry standard in recent years. It also gives Rivals.com rights to expanded SPARQ ratings. In addition the new agreement also gives Rivals.com exclusive rights to the Elite 11 quarterback camps for the first time. Good news for our subscribers.
Another agreement to expand coverage
Rivals.com has also entered into and agreement with MSNBC.com and will be providing them with recruiting information.
Big East versus the ACC
There are still a few games to be played but the Big East has more than held their own against the ACC this year. In early season matchups the Big East leads 6-2.
Maryland 92, St. John's 60
Marquette 73, Duke 62
Providence 73, Boston College 64
Pittsburgh 88, Florida State 66
Duke 61, Georgetown 52
Notre Dame 81, Maryland 74
West Virginia 71, NC State 60
DePaul 78, Wake Forest 63
A tough road ahead
The Pitt basketball team is unbeaten at 10-0 and ranked No. 2 in both polls. They are ranked No.9 in the RPI ratings. It has been a relatively slow week for college basketball with many schools taking final exams. That is about to change. Pitt will start a very difficult three game stretch at Wisconsin (10-1) this Saturday at Noon. The game will be televised nationally on ESPN.
Next Thursday Pitt plays Oklahoma State (11-0) in Oklahoma City in a game televised on ESPN2. They then return home to play Dayton (8-1) Saturday night at the “Pete”.
All three of these teams are in the Top 50 in the RPI rankings. Wisconsin is ranked No. 25, Oklahoma State is No. 16 and Dayton is ranked No. 44. Pitt’s strength of schedule is about to get a big boost. If Pitt wins 2 of out 3 you will know they are headed for a big year. If they should happen to sweep you can really start dreaming. They figure to be underdogs in the first two.
2008 prospects with offers from Pitt
We are coming into the home stretch for the 2007 recruiting season but the Pitt coaching staff is already hard at work on the 2008 prospects. You can find a list of players in the database. Just go to Offers and then toggle the year to 2008. For those of you that are not familiar yet with navigating the database we thought we would give you a snapshot of prospects that have early Pitt offers.
A.J. Alexander (5’ 10” 163) Athlete, Altoona
Jonathan Baldwin (6’ 6” 215) TE Aliquippa
Brandon Beachum (6’ 1” 220) LB Youngstown, Ohio
Averin Collier (5’ 11” 195) RB/WR Churchville, NY
Mike Cruz (6’ 4” 255) TE Johnstown Bishop McCort
Nic DiLillo (6’ 5” 225) TE Madison, Ohio
Josh Haden DB/RB (5’ 7” 190) Ft. Washington, MD
Shayne Hale (6’ 3” 218) LB Gateway HS
Jared Holley (6’ 1” 180) Easton, Pa.
Leon Mackey (6’ 5” 250) DE Wilmington, DE
Lucas Nix (6’5 270) OL Thomas Jefferson
Emanuel Perez (6’ 2” 210) DE Miramar, Florida
David Posluzny (6’ 0” 206) LB Hopewell
Terrelle Pryor (6’ 6” 220) QB Jeannette
Antwuan Reed (5’ 9” 170) RB/DB Johnstown (Pitt commit)
Cameron Sadler (5’ 6” 155) Athlete, Gateway HS
Marcus Sales (6’ 1” 180) WR Syracuse, New York
J.B. Shurgarts (6’ 7” 290) OL Klein, Texas
Andrew Sweat (6’ 2” 225) LB Trinity HS
Ed Tinker (6’ 2” 160) WR Pittsburgh Brashear
Mark Wedderburn (6’ 7” 225) TE Philadelphia
In addition it appears Leon Green from West Mifflin HS and Kaleb Ramsey from Laurel Highlands may have verbal offers. We had articles this week on juniors Nic DiLillo and J.B. Shugarts.
It is a small world after all
Walt Disney might have been right. This past week I received an unsolicited e-mail from Bret Shugarts. He is the father of highly recruited offensive lineman J.B. Shugarts who we reported on yesterday. It turns out Bret Shugarts knows my brother from his days at IUP. The Shugarts family eventually moved to the Houston area as did my brother and they renewed their relationship in Texas. My brother had mentioned my involvement with the Pitt site sometime ago. The father was hanging out on the Pantherlair recently so he dropped me an e-mail. His son might end up being the most highly recruited lineman in the country. The competition will be fierce. He already has 17 offers. That should climb to 50 or so. I would think Texas, Texas A&M and LSU will be there in the end. This leaves Pitt, Southern Cal and about 45 other schools to battle it out for the remaining slots. I had a good talk with both the father and the son. They sound like folks from Western Pa. He is a nice kid who just loves football. Please see the Ticker if you missed the article yesterday.
Just give me a few guys named Williams
Pitt now has 18 verbal commitments after three players who visited last weekend committed earlier this week. Aliquippa linebacker Brandon Lindsey, Pennridge linebacker Tristan Roberts and Shariff Harris from St Peter’s in New Jersey all got on board.
Mike White in the PG reported Shariff Harris did not play on offense last year. He was correct. Harris played football as a freshman and sophomore at Marist High School and gained 1,000 yards as a sophomore. He transferred to St Peter’s and played linebacker as a junior. He suffered a high ankle sprain in the seventh game which ended his season. He returned to the running back position as a senior when he gained approximately 1,600 yards. Not sure what position he will play in college but if you are 6’ 2” and run the 40 in 4.4 seconds they will find a place for you.
This time of year recruiting becomes like a game of musical chairs. There are only so many slots and becomes as guessing game between recruits and coaches. Sometimes it is best not to be left standing when the music stops. Things change quickly this time of year. It reminds you of the commercial that touts “life comes at you fast”.
Coach Wannstedt has said recently Pitt will sign approximately 23 players. He is our wish list to fill the remaining slots.
Bo Williams or LeSean McCoy
Moe Williams
Greg Williams
Tony Tucker
Tyson Butler
Thomas Jefferson’s Chris Drager could work his way on to our list. He is now tentatively scheduled to visit Pitt on January 12th. Pitt will host a group that weekend including a number that have already committed. Safety Jordan Bernstine is now scheduled to visit this weekend. He is from Des Moines, Iowa and a heavy Iowa lean but you never know. Getting them to visit is half the battle. He would also be a candidate to make our remaining five.
This weekend Bo Williams and Jordan Bernstine will visit Pittsburgh. It appears Pitt did not want to entertain a lot of recruits because school is out on the holiday break and the players will not be around and the campus will appear dead. Bo and Jordan hope to decide this month so it might have been now or never. Bo Williams has declared that Florida, Florida State and Nebraska are perfect tens. It is hard to see any school getting a player to leave his state when he likes two in-state schools. However, Bo Williams claimed to have 74 offers and Pitt is still standing with only four left.
LeSean McCoy is hoping to start college in January. We do not think that is going to happen. The Penn State site had an article on McCoy this week. At the bottom it they had a disclaimer about his academic status. This disclaimer just about sums it up. It is tough enough sometimes follow their athletic progress but the academic side is very, very difficult. He is not crazy about Milford but our guess right now is he could be headed for another semester in the boondocks.
As an aside let me say early in the recruiting process we reported Maurice Williams as “Mo” Williams but a Pitt staffer told us it was “Moe” Williams. We are easy to get a long with so we changed it. We were telling this story to Moe the other day. He got a got a big laugh over Pitt changing his name. He didn’t seem to mind so we figured he might be a Pitt lean.
I spoke to Greg Williams yesterday and we expect him to commit to Pitt sometime today.
And finally I was talking to coach Jeff Leicker at Coffeyville Community college. He acknowledged that Florida is still making overtures to Tommie Duhart about visiting in January. He said he was going to try to get a hold of Florida over the holidays and get the things squashed. He said everyone should be doing the right thing. (Which means Duhart should be honoring his commitment to Pitt).
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.
Bowl Pick’em game
Rivals.com has a new Pick’em game. It is based on picking winners in this year’s bowl games. Rivals.com is giving away a 50 inch television set to the winner. They are also giving away $100 gift certificates to the next nine. See the post on the top of the Between Fifth and Forbes or Football message boards for details. Please get your picks in today.
Regular season Top 10
Here are the top ten from the regular season Pick’em game from the Pantherlair The top three were all subscribers and had their subscriptions extended by six months. Picking winners is never easy when the home team is having a disappointing season. Congratulations to our winners.
1) UPS123
2) Panth#1
3) GT74
4) Chanceman
5) MtLeboPanther
6) KingMissle
7) Little77
8) Last Call
9) Jim Pantherlair
10) Choppers
Big East has new deal with ISP Sports
The Big East has a new deal with ISP sports. It starts next summer and runs through the 2012-13 school year. ISP will promote and market the league's championships, radio networks and other properties. ISP Sports already controls the marketing rights for four Big East members: Pittsburgh, Villanova, Syracuse and Cincinnati. They also hold the rights to the ACC and MAC Conferences. The Big East gets guaranteed monies plus a percentage above a certain threshold. I am not sure exactly where this is headed but I think you will see more radio coverage for the Big East. ISP built a new radio network, which distributed an eight-game ACC football package that included the league’s championship game this season and plans to expand it to 13 to 15 games next year.
More Nike Camp coverage will be coming your way
Rivals.com has entered into a new multi-year agreement with Student Sports which gives them continued exclusive rights at the Nike Training Camps and Combines. These camps have set the industry standard in recent years. It also gives Rivals.com rights to expanded SPARQ ratings. In addition the new agreement also gives Rivals.com exclusive rights to the Elite 11 quarterback camps for the first time. Good news for our subscribers.
Another agreement to expand coverage
Rivals.com has also entered into and agreement with MSNBC.com and will be providing them with recruiting information.
Big East versus the ACC
There are still a few games to be played but the Big East has more than held their own against the ACC this year. In early season matchups the Big East leads 6-2.
Maryland 92, St. John's 60
Marquette 73, Duke 62
Providence 73, Boston College 64
Pittsburgh 88, Florida State 66
Duke 61, Georgetown 52
Notre Dame 81, Maryland 74
West Virginia 71, NC State 60
DePaul 78, Wake Forest 63
A tough road ahead
The Pitt basketball team is unbeaten at 10-0 and ranked No. 2 in both polls. They are ranked No.9 in the RPI ratings. It has been a relatively slow week for college basketball with many schools taking final exams. That is about to change. Pitt will start a very difficult three game stretch at Wisconsin (10-1) this Saturday at Noon. The game will be televised nationally on ESPN.
Next Thursday Pitt plays Oklahoma State (11-0) in Oklahoma City in a game televised on ESPN2. They then return home to play Dayton (8-1) Saturday night at the “Pete”.
All three of these teams are in the Top 50 in the RPI rankings. Wisconsin is ranked No. 25, Oklahoma State is No. 16 and Dayton is ranked No. 44. Pitt’s strength of schedule is about to get a big boost. If Pitt wins 2 of out 3 you will know they are headed for a big year. If they should happen to sweep you can really start dreaming. They figure to be underdogs in the first two.
2008 prospects with offers from Pitt
We are coming into the home stretch for the 2007 recruiting season but the Pitt coaching staff is already hard at work on the 2008 prospects. You can find a list of players in the database. Just go to Offers and then toggle the year to 2008. For those of you that are not familiar yet with navigating the database we thought we would give you a snapshot of prospects that have early Pitt offers.
A.J. Alexander (5’ 10” 163) Athlete, Altoona
Jonathan Baldwin (6’ 6” 215) TE Aliquippa
Brandon Beachum (6’ 1” 220) LB Youngstown, Ohio
Averin Collier (5’ 11” 195) RB/WR Churchville, NY
Mike Cruz (6’ 4” 255) TE Johnstown Bishop McCort
Nic DiLillo (6’ 5” 225) TE Madison, Ohio
Josh Haden DB/RB (5’ 7” 190) Ft. Washington, MD
Shayne Hale (6’ 3” 218) LB Gateway HS
Jared Holley (6’ 1” 180) Easton, Pa.
Leon Mackey (6’ 5” 250) DE Wilmington, DE
Lucas Nix (6’5 270) OL Thomas Jefferson
Emanuel Perez (6’ 2” 210) DE Miramar, Florida
David Posluzny (6’ 0” 206) LB Hopewell
Terrelle Pryor (6’ 6” 220) QB Jeannette
Antwuan Reed (5’ 9” 170) RB/DB Johnstown (Pitt commit)
Cameron Sadler (5’ 6” 155) Athlete, Gateway HS
Marcus Sales (6’ 1” 180) WR Syracuse, New York
J.B. Shurgarts (6’ 7” 290) OL Klein, Texas
Andrew Sweat (6’ 2” 225) LB Trinity HS
Ed Tinker (6’ 2” 160) WR Pittsburgh Brashear
Mark Wedderburn (6’ 7” 225) TE Philadelphia
In addition it appears Leon Green from West Mifflin HS and Kaleb Ramsey from Laurel Highlands may have verbal offers. We had articles this week on juniors Nic DiLillo and J.B. Shugarts.
It is a small world after all
Walt Disney might have been right. This past week I received an unsolicited e-mail from Bret Shugarts. He is the father of highly recruited offensive lineman J.B. Shugarts who we reported on yesterday. It turns out Bret Shugarts knows my brother from his days at IUP. The Shugarts family eventually moved to the Houston area as did my brother and they renewed their relationship in Texas. My brother had mentioned my involvement with the Pitt site sometime ago. The father was hanging out on the Pantherlair recently so he dropped me an e-mail. His son might end up being the most highly recruited lineman in the country. The competition will be fierce. He already has 17 offers. That should climb to 50 or so. I would think Texas, Texas A&M and LSU will be there in the end. This leaves Pitt, Southern Cal and about 45 other schools to battle it out for the remaining slots. I had a good talk with both the father and the son. They sound like folks from Western Pa. He is a nice kid who just loves football. Please see the Ticker if you missed the article yesterday.
Just give me a few guys named Williams
Pitt now has 18 verbal commitments after three players who visited last weekend committed earlier this week. Aliquippa linebacker Brandon Lindsey, Pennridge linebacker Tristan Roberts and Shariff Harris from St Peter’s in New Jersey all got on board.
Mike White in the PG reported Shariff Harris did not play on offense last year. He was correct. Harris played football as a freshman and sophomore at Marist High School and gained 1,000 yards as a sophomore. He transferred to St Peter’s and played linebacker as a junior. He suffered a high ankle sprain in the seventh game which ended his season. He returned to the running back position as a senior when he gained approximately 1,600 yards. Not sure what position he will play in college but if you are 6’ 2” and run the 40 in 4.4 seconds they will find a place for you.
This time of year recruiting becomes like a game of musical chairs. There are only so many slots and becomes as guessing game between recruits and coaches. Sometimes it is best not to be left standing when the music stops. Things change quickly this time of year. It reminds you of the commercial that touts “life comes at you fast”.
Coach Wannstedt has said recently Pitt will sign approximately 23 players. He is our wish list to fill the remaining slots.
Bo Williams or LeSean McCoy
Moe Williams
Greg Williams
Tony Tucker
Tyson Butler
Thomas Jefferson’s Chris Drager could work his way on to our list. He is now tentatively scheduled to visit Pitt on January 12th. Pitt will host a group that weekend including a number that have already committed. Safety Jordan Bernstine is now scheduled to visit this weekend. He is from Des Moines, Iowa and a heavy Iowa lean but you never know. Getting them to visit is half the battle. He would also be a candidate to make our remaining five.
This weekend Bo Williams and Jordan Bernstine will visit Pittsburgh. It appears Pitt did not want to entertain a lot of recruits because school is out on the holiday break and the players will not be around and the campus will appear dead. Bo and Jordan hope to decide this month so it might have been now or never. Bo Williams has declared that Florida, Florida State and Nebraska are perfect tens. It is hard to see any school getting a player to leave his state when he likes two in-state schools. However, Bo Williams claimed to have 74 offers and Pitt is still standing with only four left.
LeSean McCoy is hoping to start college in January. We do not think that is going to happen. The Penn State site had an article on McCoy this week. At the bottom it they had a disclaimer about his academic status. This disclaimer just about sums it up. It is tough enough sometimes follow their athletic progress but the academic side is very, very difficult. He is not crazy about Milford but our guess right now is he could be headed for another semester in the boondocks.
As an aside let me say early in the recruiting process we reported Maurice Williams as “Mo” Williams but a Pitt staffer told us it was “Moe” Williams. We are easy to get a long with so we changed it. We were telling this story to Moe the other day. He got a got a big laugh over Pitt changing his name. He didn’t seem to mind so we figured he might be a Pitt lean.
I spoke to Greg Williams yesterday and we expect him to commit to Pitt sometime today.
And finally I was talking to coach Jeff Leicker at Coffeyville Community college. He acknowledged that Florida is still making overtures to Tommie Duhart about visiting in January. He said he was going to try to get a hold of Florida over the holidays and get the things squashed. He said everyone should be doing the right thing. (Which means Duhart should be honoring his commitment to Pitt).
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.
