From the Desk of Jim Snyder
Never stop recruiting
Pitt basketball coach Jamie Dixon is fond of saying you never really stop recruiting. You never know when a scholarship might open up. Coach Dixon has three prospects signed to Letters of Intent and a fourth that has verbally committed. The news a week ago of Dante Milligan transferring to UMass opens up another slot.
Rumors persist this should be the last year for Chris Taft and many speculate it may also be the last for Carl Krauser (Carl has said he will decide after the season is over).
NCAA Rules have been changed so you no longer have limitations on the numbers that can be recruited in any one year. Louisville has commitments from eight (8) players for the Class of 2005. I used to think this was a bad idea. Coaches need to be concerned with class balance. In today’s world, a coach must first worry about winning and keeping his job. I now think if you can sign a player you believe can help then it's best to do it. There is no sense saving it for the next coach. This is a long winded of saying, who knows, Pitt might sign three more players this spring?
Letter of Intent day has come and gone
Mike White indicated in a column this last week, Dave Wannstedt is out mending fences. He has been visiting schools in the Pittsburgh area that have promising juniors. Dave Wannstedt has started to recruit for the Class of 2006 and we will start reporting on them. One high school coach tells us Coach Wannstedt indicated he already has offered 6-7 juniors in Western PA.
Pitt has recruited fairly well in Florida in recent years. We sure don’t expect that to stop. Coach Wannstedt has said he would like to take approximately a half dozen players each year out of Florida. Dave worked 6 years for the Miami Dolphins. He also coached another 3 years with the Miami Hurricanes. Pittsburgh may be home but Miami is his second home.
Last week in the War Room, we joked we needed “Carnac the Magnificent” to help us understand how in the world Pitt was getting all these scholarships. We subsequently learned offensive lineman Kevin Hughes has been asked to take a “grayshirt” and start in January of 2006. Pitt also decided not to sign Shawn Simmons from New Brunswick, NJ and Marlon Terry because of academic concerns.
I had to listen to an earful from Coach John Quinn who was upset over being notified late in the process, making it difficult to place his player. He quoted Pitt AD Jeff Long as saying Pitt would honor their commitments. He reads the Rivals network and was quoting SAT scores to show that Pitt took kids that may not be in better shape academically than his player. Coach John Quinn has a very successful program that pumps out Division 1 prospects on a fairly regular base. He produced 4-star wide receiver Dwayne Jarrett who plays for Southern Cal and he heads up the Central Jersey Coaching Association. In addition he was Central Jersey Coach of the Year in 2003. He will get over it but it will take a while. If I had to guess, look for Simmons to show up on the Rutgers roster, if he qualifies.
I also spoke to Coach Mark Guandolo of Chaminade-Madonna in South Florida on Letter of Intent Day. He sent Gus Mustakas to Pitt. He is originally from the Beaver Falls area and went to Blackhawk High School. He said, “I could tell immediately by your accent you were from Pittsburgh.” We then discussed Dave Wannstedt and both agreed he sounds like a guy that never set foot outside of Pittsburgh. We both got a good laugh.
Coach Guandolo has a record of 155-50. His team was in the 2A semi-finals in 2002 and again in 2004. They also won the state title in 2003. This would be a very good program to create a pipeline to. In 2003, the Florida Sports Writers Association voted his team the best in the state of Florida regardless of classification. Gus Mustakas’ team has lost 3 games in three years (Pitt achieved this accomplishment in the Jackie Sherrill era).
Pitt finished No. 40 in the Rivals rankings. The ranking was typical of Coach Harris's efforts the past three years. Pitt was No. 48 last year, No. 34 in 2002 and number 39 in 2003. Typically, recruiting suffers with a late change in the head coach's position however Wannstedt did a great job holding onto the verbal commitments while pursuing others on the "established" Pitt recruiting list. Coach Wannstedt did a good job in a little more than five weeks.
Welcome to the Internet World
Shortly after Dave Wannstedt was named head coach of the Pitt Panthers football team one of our readers asked, “What does Dave Wannstedt think of the Pantherlair?” Keep in mind, Dave has been away from college football for 16 years and Al Gore had not yet invented the Internet (a little political humor) when Dave was last coaching in the college ranks. Rivals did not exist and the Pantherlair did not exist. Coach Wannstedt said on his first day, the biggest change since he last coached in college was changes in recruiting. He cited the relatively new NCAA limitations on recruiting and the limited number of contacts you now have with the prospect. The Internet has also changed recruiting. Players have more info and so do coaches.
More stars please
We were talking to a “birdie” on the Southside who said, “I can understand where they might have gotten some of those two star ratings but somebody missed the boat on wide receiver Oderick Turner.” The birdie suggested the Rivals ratings experts should go back into the video room on this one. (More stars please).
A week before Letter of Intent Day, Coach Wannstedt and Coach Partridge moved to plan “B” in their search for another quarterback prospect and visited the home of Miami Central quarterback Dennis Brown. Harry Psaros was finishing a phone interview for the Pantherlair when Coach Wannstedt entered the home and Brown put him on the phone so he could say hello to Harry. Keep this in mind, the Pantherlair was interviewing Dennis Brown before Coach Wannstedt had ever met the kid. Welcome to the Internet world!
In the past 60 days (December and January) the Pantherlair has had over 8.6 million page views. This is up approximately 27% over a year ago. We experienced a similar growth in paid subscriptions and we thank you for your support. Some of this growth is simply the natural progression of the Pantherlair and the Rivals network but there is no doubt some of this is the result of a renewed interest in Pitt football generated by the hiring of Dave Wannstedt.
Odds and ends and getting back to work
DT_Panther is trying to get a group of Pitt fans together to watch the Syracuse game at the Rock Bottom Restaurant on Monday February 14th. Last year he had 80 Pitt fans. He needs to guarantee 75 to reserve the room. If you are interested send him an e-mail at DTPitt@Pantherlair.com. See the top of the basketball message board for more info.
We get lots and lots of rumors. Sometimes where there is smoke, there is fire. Other times it is just a bad rumor. It often takes time to filter out the good from the bad. Some posters insisted Coach Paul Rhoads would go to Auburn as their new defensive coordinator but the Tigers announced this week that Coach David Gibbs would join them from the Denver Broncos. We had other posters insist Coach Urban Myers had lured running back (and Pitt commit) Conredge Collins to Florida. Marky Billson did a good job dispelling that rumor for the Pantherlair. Always keep in mind readers are posting under “handles”. They may be bringing great info to the site or they just may be repeating a bad rumor.
And finally, Pitt Head Coach Dave Wannstedt is already recruiting juniors and has made at least half a dozen offers. The Pantherlair already has about 50 juniors in the 2006 database and there will be a lot more before we are done. It looks like about 75 players signed Division 1 Letters of Intent in Pennsylvania this year which is not bad when you consider many thought this would be a down year.
Just remember this, Dave Wannstedt won’t stop recruiting and the Pantherlair won’t stop reporting. Stay with the Pantherlair, Rivals.com and Rivals Radio. The next 12 months promises to be a lot of fun. The future looks bright for Pitt fans!
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 2/4 9:40 AM by Jim Pantherlairif(GetAdminCookie() != 0) {document.write(' (Revisions[/URL])');}
Never stop recruiting
Pitt basketball coach Jamie Dixon is fond of saying you never really stop recruiting. You never know when a scholarship might open up. Coach Dixon has three prospects signed to Letters of Intent and a fourth that has verbally committed. The news a week ago of Dante Milligan transferring to UMass opens up another slot.
Rumors persist this should be the last year for Chris Taft and many speculate it may also be the last for Carl Krauser (Carl has said he will decide after the season is over).
NCAA Rules have been changed so you no longer have limitations on the numbers that can be recruited in any one year. Louisville has commitments from eight (8) players for the Class of 2005. I used to think this was a bad idea. Coaches need to be concerned with class balance. In today’s world, a coach must first worry about winning and keeping his job. I now think if you can sign a player you believe can help then it's best to do it. There is no sense saving it for the next coach. This is a long winded of saying, who knows, Pitt might sign three more players this spring?
Letter of Intent day has come and gone
Mike White indicated in a column this last week, Dave Wannstedt is out mending fences. He has been visiting schools in the Pittsburgh area that have promising juniors. Dave Wannstedt has started to recruit for the Class of 2006 and we will start reporting on them. One high school coach tells us Coach Wannstedt indicated he already has offered 6-7 juniors in Western PA.
Pitt has recruited fairly well in Florida in recent years. We sure don’t expect that to stop. Coach Wannstedt has said he would like to take approximately a half dozen players each year out of Florida. Dave worked 6 years for the Miami Dolphins. He also coached another 3 years with the Miami Hurricanes. Pittsburgh may be home but Miami is his second home.
Last week in the War Room, we joked we needed “Carnac the Magnificent” to help us understand how in the world Pitt was getting all these scholarships. We subsequently learned offensive lineman Kevin Hughes has been asked to take a “grayshirt” and start in January of 2006. Pitt also decided not to sign Shawn Simmons from New Brunswick, NJ and Marlon Terry because of academic concerns.
I had to listen to an earful from Coach John Quinn who was upset over being notified late in the process, making it difficult to place his player. He quoted Pitt AD Jeff Long as saying Pitt would honor their commitments. He reads the Rivals network and was quoting SAT scores to show that Pitt took kids that may not be in better shape academically than his player. Coach John Quinn has a very successful program that pumps out Division 1 prospects on a fairly regular base. He produced 4-star wide receiver Dwayne Jarrett who plays for Southern Cal and he heads up the Central Jersey Coaching Association. In addition he was Central Jersey Coach of the Year in 2003. He will get over it but it will take a while. If I had to guess, look for Simmons to show up on the Rutgers roster, if he qualifies.
I also spoke to Coach Mark Guandolo of Chaminade-Madonna in South Florida on Letter of Intent Day. He sent Gus Mustakas to Pitt. He is originally from the Beaver Falls area and went to Blackhawk High School. He said, “I could tell immediately by your accent you were from Pittsburgh.” We then discussed Dave Wannstedt and both agreed he sounds like a guy that never set foot outside of Pittsburgh. We both got a good laugh.
Coach Guandolo has a record of 155-50. His team was in the 2A semi-finals in 2002 and again in 2004. They also won the state title in 2003. This would be a very good program to create a pipeline to. In 2003, the Florida Sports Writers Association voted his team the best in the state of Florida regardless of classification. Gus Mustakas’ team has lost 3 games in three years (Pitt achieved this accomplishment in the Jackie Sherrill era).
Pitt finished No. 40 in the Rivals rankings. The ranking was typical of Coach Harris's efforts the past three years. Pitt was No. 48 last year, No. 34 in 2002 and number 39 in 2003. Typically, recruiting suffers with a late change in the head coach's position however Wannstedt did a great job holding onto the verbal commitments while pursuing others on the "established" Pitt recruiting list. Coach Wannstedt did a good job in a little more than five weeks.
Welcome to the Internet World
Shortly after Dave Wannstedt was named head coach of the Pitt Panthers football team one of our readers asked, “What does Dave Wannstedt think of the Pantherlair?” Keep in mind, Dave has been away from college football for 16 years and Al Gore had not yet invented the Internet (a little political humor) when Dave was last coaching in the college ranks. Rivals did not exist and the Pantherlair did not exist. Coach Wannstedt said on his first day, the biggest change since he last coached in college was changes in recruiting. He cited the relatively new NCAA limitations on recruiting and the limited number of contacts you now have with the prospect. The Internet has also changed recruiting. Players have more info and so do coaches.
More stars please
We were talking to a “birdie” on the Southside who said, “I can understand where they might have gotten some of those two star ratings but somebody missed the boat on wide receiver Oderick Turner.” The birdie suggested the Rivals ratings experts should go back into the video room on this one. (More stars please).
A week before Letter of Intent Day, Coach Wannstedt and Coach Partridge moved to plan “B” in their search for another quarterback prospect and visited the home of Miami Central quarterback Dennis Brown. Harry Psaros was finishing a phone interview for the Pantherlair when Coach Wannstedt entered the home and Brown put him on the phone so he could say hello to Harry. Keep this in mind, the Pantherlair was interviewing Dennis Brown before Coach Wannstedt had ever met the kid. Welcome to the Internet world!
In the past 60 days (December and January) the Pantherlair has had over 8.6 million page views. This is up approximately 27% over a year ago. We experienced a similar growth in paid subscriptions and we thank you for your support. Some of this growth is simply the natural progression of the Pantherlair and the Rivals network but there is no doubt some of this is the result of a renewed interest in Pitt football generated by the hiring of Dave Wannstedt.
Odds and ends and getting back to work
DT_Panther is trying to get a group of Pitt fans together to watch the Syracuse game at the Rock Bottom Restaurant on Monday February 14th. Last year he had 80 Pitt fans. He needs to guarantee 75 to reserve the room. If you are interested send him an e-mail at DTPitt@Pantherlair.com. See the top of the basketball message board for more info.
We get lots and lots of rumors. Sometimes where there is smoke, there is fire. Other times it is just a bad rumor. It often takes time to filter out the good from the bad. Some posters insisted Coach Paul Rhoads would go to Auburn as their new defensive coordinator but the Tigers announced this week that Coach David Gibbs would join them from the Denver Broncos. We had other posters insist Coach Urban Myers had lured running back (and Pitt commit) Conredge Collins to Florida. Marky Billson did a good job dispelling that rumor for the Pantherlair. Always keep in mind readers are posting under “handles”. They may be bringing great info to the site or they just may be repeating a bad rumor.
And finally, Pitt Head Coach Dave Wannstedt is already recruiting juniors and has made at least half a dozen offers. The Pantherlair already has about 50 juniors in the 2006 database and there will be a lot more before we are done. It looks like about 75 players signed Division 1 Letters of Intent in Pennsylvania this year which is not bad when you consider many thought this would be a down year.
Just remember this, Dave Wannstedt won’t stop recruiting and the Pantherlair won’t stop reporting. Stay with the Pantherlair, Rivals.com and Rivals Radio. The next 12 months promises to be a lot of fun. The future looks bright for Pitt fans!
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 2/4 9:40 AM by Jim Pantherlairif(GetAdminCookie() != 0) {document.write(' (Revisions[/URL])');}
