From the desk of Jim Snyder
Pitt signed 19 players in the recruiting Class of 2009. You may sign 25 players but the coaching staff is bumping up against the fact you may only have 85 on scholarship in total. We have heard reports that Pitt may get relieve on three scholarships for medical reasons. Paul Zeise reported in the Post-Gazette this week that John Brown may be one of them.
Pitt once again will not have a large number of seniors this fall. This means that they will not be able to take a full complement of scholarship players again in the Class of 2009.
On most days the Pantherlair has four times as many Pitt fans on its site as its nearest competitor. One days when Panther fans flock to the site that number soars to over five to one as it did on Letter of Intent Day. The same thing happened last night when Ronald Ramon put the dagger into the hearts of Mountaineer fans.
Coach Bill Cherpak tells us his quarterback Zach DeCicco is probably going to go to Slippery Rock. His younger brother Brock already has an offer from Pitt.
In recent years approximately 80 players in the state of Pennsylvania that sign Letters of Intent with Division 1A schools. So far we count 71 high schools that have signed in the Class of 2008. While there some very good players on the high end this class may not have been as deep as some.
Here are players we show signing Division 1A Letters of Intent.
Quarterbacks
1) Tino Sunseri - Pittsburgh Central Catholic (Pitt) (3 stars)
2) Ryan Nassib - Malvern Prep (Syracuse) (2 stars)
Running backs
3) Chris Burns - Wilmington Area (Pitt) (4 stars)
4) Cameron Saddler ? Gateway (Pitt) (4 stars)
5) Eric Reynolds ? Central Bucks South (Boston College) (3 stars)
6) Jared Rains - Hopewell (Cincinnati) (2 stars)
7) Akeem Smith - Bethlehem Liberty (Temple) (2 stars)
Wide receivers
8) Jonathan Baldwin ? Aliquippa (Pitt) (5 stars)
9) Mike Shanahan - Norwin (Pitt) (3 stars)
10) Vaughn Carraway ? Muhlenberg (Temple) (3 stars)
11) Julian Harrell - Bishop McDevitt (Miami of Ohio) (2 stars)
12) Jervin Matthews - Cannon McMillan (Northwestern) (2 stars)
13) T.J. Williams - West Mifflin (Kent State) (2 stars)
14) Jon Pryor ? Gateway- (Eastern Michigan) (2 stars)
Tight End
15) Hubie Graham - West Scranton (Illinois) (4 stars)
16) Quentin Williams ? Central Catholic (Northwestern) (3 stars)
17) Mike Cruz ?Bishop McCort (Pitt) (3 stars)
18) Mark Wedderburn ? (Penn State) (3 stars)
19) Justin Virbitsky ? Lakeland (Pitt) (2 stars)
20) Trevor Behmke ? Conestoga (Miami of Ohio) (2 stars)
Offensive Tackles
21) Lucas Nix (Thomas Jefferson) (Pitt) (4 stars)
22) Corey Lewis ? East Stroudsburg (Illinois) (3 stars)
23) Tyler Sands ? Boyertown (Illinois) (3 stars)
24) R.J. Dill ?Trinity, Camp Hill (Maryland) (3 stars)
25) Mike Farrell ? Shadyside Academy (2 stars)
26) Mitch Straight (Eisenhower) (Akron) (2 stars)
27) Ryan Murray - Edward Bok Technical (Temple) (2 stars)
Offensive guards
28) Ryan Turnley ? Hopewell (Pitt) (2 stars)
29) Steve Caputo ? Unionville (Temple) (2 stars)
30) Wayne Tribue ? Central York (Temple) (2 stars)
Center
31) Matt Stankiewitch ? Schuylkill Haven (Penn State) (3 stars)
Defensive ends
32) Pete Massaro - Marple Newtown (Penn State) (3 stars)
33) Tyler Urban ? Norwin (West Virginia) (3 stars)
34) Kaleb Ramsey ? Laurel Highlands (Boston College) (3 stars)
35) Dan Vaughn ? Central Catholic) (Syracuse) (2 stars)
36) James Harvey - Cochranton (Akron ) (2 stars)
37) Sharid Paulhill - Northeast Catholic (Temple) (2 stars)
38) Neal Huynh ? Altoona (Ohio U) (2 stars)
Defensive tackles
39) Jewhan Edwards - Roman Catholic (Minnesota) (2 stars)
40) Christopher Palmer -St John’s Neumann (West Virginia) (2 stars)
41) Brandon Ware ? Harrisburg (Penn State) (2 stars)
42) Richie Smith ? Penn Argyl (Buffalo) (2 stars)
Linebackers
43) Shayne Hale -Gateway (Pitt) (4 stars)
44) Brandon Beal - Bethlehem Liberty (Florida) (4 stars)
45) Nick Moody ?Roman Catholic (Florida State) (4 stars)
46) Mike Yancich ? Trinity (Penn State) (4 stars)
47) Andrew Sweat ? Trinity (Ohio State) (4 stars)
48) Many Williams? Clairton (Pitt) (3 stars)
49) David Posluszny ?Hopewell (Notre Dame) (3 stars)
50) Alphonso Lewis ? Altoona (Ohio U) (2 stars)
51) Brandon Weaver ?Trinity (Ohio U) (2 stars)
52) Quinten White ? Cardinal Dougherty (Temple (2 stars)
53) Terrelle Anderson ? Central Catholic (Toledo) (2 stars)
Defensive backs
54) Jarred Holley ? Easton (Pitt)(4 stars)
55) Antwuan Reed ? Johnstown (Pitt) (3 stars)
56) Simoni Lawrence ? Valley Forge (Minnesota) (3 stars)
57) Mike Jones ? Bishop McDevitt (Syracuse) (3 stars)
58) Jermaine Robinson ? Brashear- Toledo (3 stars)
59) Chris Hayden-Martin ? Greensburg Central Catholic (Boston College) (3 stars)
60) Marvase Byrd ? McKeesport (Akron) (2 stars)
61) Tyrell Harris ? Bishop McDevitt (Syracuse)(2 stars)
62) Blidi Wreh-Wilson - General McLane (Syracuse) (2 stars)
63) Rontez Miles - Woodland Hills (Kent State) (2 stars)
64) Geoffrey Prather ? Archbishop Carroll (Temple) (2 stars)
65) Tyler Futrell ? Altoona (Ohio U) (2 stars)
Athletes
66) A.J. Alexander ? Altoona (Florida State)(4 stars)
67) Clemente Johnson ? Valley Forge (NC State) (3 stars)
68) Andrew Taglianetti ?Central Catholic (Pitt) (2 stars)
69) Rob Lohr ? Phoenixville (Vanderbilt) (2 stars)
70) Kevin Krobeth- Nazareth Area (Temple) (2 stars)
71) Leon Green ? Gateway (Kent State) (2 stars)
Looking ahead
Rivals.com was recently purchased by Yahoo! Microsoft has now made a $44.6 billion dollar bid to buy Yahoo! On the surface this looks like a good idea to me. Google has a commanding lead as a search engine while Yahoo! has concentrated on building content. I am not sure it is a good idea for society to have only one search engine. It will over the long run result in a distortion of information. It seems to me it is best two have two strong competitors in this area. We will just have to wait and see how these giants battle it out. Yahoo! has about 14,000 employees. Microsoft has about 60,000.
On March 2nd Rivals.com will hold classroom sessions for juniors at the University of Akron. On the same day Student Sports will conduct a Nike combine at the UPMC complex on the Southside. If you know a junior who would like to participate tell them to go to the Student Sports site where they can register. These two events will help us build the database for the Class of 2009.
Before we get there Pitt has a home basketball game with Louisville on Sunday February 24th. I suspect Pitt will held a Junior Day on that date.
I might add they have already held a Nike combine in Phoenix, Arizona. They will hold one at the Miami Dolphin complex this weekend and at the Wide World of Disney complex next weekend. Who knows the next round of Pitt players from Florida may be working out at one of these events.
Last year Pitt started spring football practice on March 17th. We have not seen a date from Pitt yet but you can figure that spring practice will start in mid-March. The Panthers must come out of spring drills knowing who their quarterback is. If the come out of spring drills with coach speak about several players competing for the position we might not see the jump most Pitt fans are expecting. Please pick a quarterback.
Another area to watch will be the attempt to rebuild the offensive line. Pitt graduated Jeff Otah, Mike McGlynn and Chris Vangas so new offensive line coach Tony Wise has his work cut out for him. We might be into fall camp before we have all the answers here.
The Pantherlair will be covering spring camp once again. For those who have been with us for a few years you know Chris Peak along with Tony Greco and Pete Madia will give you the best coverage you will find anywhere.
With the announcement Pitt has lost assistant coach Charlie Partridge to Wisconsin Pitt has now had five coaching slots turnover. They filled one with a young well thought of grad assistant in Jeff Hafley. Coach Wannstedt has also brought in two experienced veterans in offensive line coach Tony Wise and defensive coordinator Phil Bennett. As Chris has been reporting the past couple of weeks former Maryland assistant Bryan Bossard is expected to be named wide receivers coach within the next few days.
I am not sure who the remaining slot will go to but the emphasis will probably be on recruiting not coaching.
Coach Wannstedt has been quoted several times recently as saying if you are not a coordinator you better be able to recruit.
A little bit of churn on a coaching staff is a good thing but I am a big fan of stability. This year they experienced too much turnover. With spring practice only a few weeks away getting his staff in place should now be priority No. 1 for Coach Wannstedt.
Some hoops talk
The Panthers women’s team (18-4) caught a tough break when Marcedes Walker was injured against Rutgers. I think Pitt would have won that game and the following game Rutgers upsets No. 1 Rutgers. Agnus’ team is ranked No. 15 but could easily be in the Top 10 with a little better luck. They are ranked No. 14 in the RPI rankings after beating Seton Hall. They face three very tough games in a row travelling to Notre Dame and West Virginia before returning home to play Connecticut. All three teams are nationally ranked.
Last night’s win at the Pete was huge. Coach Dixon has the Panthers playing great defense but the offense continues to struggle. In their last three games against Villanova, UConn and West Virginia Pitt has given up less than 55 points per game. Simply great defense by the Panthers.
Their offense is another matter. Senior guard Ronald Ramon bailed them out with his three-pointer at the buzzer. DeJuan Blair was 3 for 13 and Keith Benjamin was 4-12 last night.
Pitt got 23 minutes from Brad Wanamaker last night. He scored 7 points but also made several freshmen mistakes. The game goes too fast for all four freshmen at times. If Pitt can pile up enough wins to get into both tournaments their minutes could pay off down the road.
I am not sure I can recall a player taking two free throws and then the referees taking both of the scoreboard. Justice was served. The foul should have been called against West Virginia and not against DeJuan Blair.
I am not sure if you caught Levance Fields sprinting across the floor at the end of the game. He should be ready to go in two weeks.
With the win over WVU Pitt moves up to No. 17 in the RPI rankings.
Every win right now is huge. Pitt plays Providence (13-9) next Tuesday at the Pete. It is another must win game.
Pitt is off this weekend but ESPN has the Big East covered this weekend. Saturday’s Big East schedule includes six conference games and one nonleague matchup and every game will be on one of the ESPN family of networks. ESPN’s GameDay will be in Louisville for the game between the Cardinals and Georgetown. Tipoff is 9 p.m. ET. Earlier in the day, ESPN will carry Marquette at Notre Dame at noon and Georgia Tech at Connecticut at 4 p.m. ESPNU has two games, USF at DePaul at 2 p.m. and Seton Hall at Villanova at 6 p.m. ESPN Classic has Cincinnati at Rutgers, also at 6 p.m. The Big East Game of the Week, produced by ESPN Regional, is Providence at St. John’s at noon.
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.
Pitt signed 19 players in the recruiting Class of 2009. You may sign 25 players but the coaching staff is bumping up against the fact you may only have 85 on scholarship in total. We have heard reports that Pitt may get relieve on three scholarships for medical reasons. Paul Zeise reported in the Post-Gazette this week that John Brown may be one of them.
Pitt once again will not have a large number of seniors this fall. This means that they will not be able to take a full complement of scholarship players again in the Class of 2009.
On most days the Pantherlair has four times as many Pitt fans on its site as its nearest competitor. One days when Panther fans flock to the site that number soars to over five to one as it did on Letter of Intent Day. The same thing happened last night when Ronald Ramon put the dagger into the hearts of Mountaineer fans.
Coach Bill Cherpak tells us his quarterback Zach DeCicco is probably going to go to Slippery Rock. His younger brother Brock already has an offer from Pitt.
In recent years approximately 80 players in the state of Pennsylvania that sign Letters of Intent with Division 1A schools. So far we count 71 high schools that have signed in the Class of 2008. While there some very good players on the high end this class may not have been as deep as some.
Here are players we show signing Division 1A Letters of Intent.
Quarterbacks
1) Tino Sunseri - Pittsburgh Central Catholic (Pitt) (3 stars)
2) Ryan Nassib - Malvern Prep (Syracuse) (2 stars)
Running backs
3) Chris Burns - Wilmington Area (Pitt) (4 stars)
4) Cameron Saddler ? Gateway (Pitt) (4 stars)
5) Eric Reynolds ? Central Bucks South (Boston College) (3 stars)
6) Jared Rains - Hopewell (Cincinnati) (2 stars)
7) Akeem Smith - Bethlehem Liberty (Temple) (2 stars)
Wide receivers
8) Jonathan Baldwin ? Aliquippa (Pitt) (5 stars)
9) Mike Shanahan - Norwin (Pitt) (3 stars)
10) Vaughn Carraway ? Muhlenberg (Temple) (3 stars)
11) Julian Harrell - Bishop McDevitt (Miami of Ohio) (2 stars)
12) Jervin Matthews - Cannon McMillan (Northwestern) (2 stars)
13) T.J. Williams - West Mifflin (Kent State) (2 stars)
14) Jon Pryor ? Gateway- (Eastern Michigan) (2 stars)
Tight End
15) Hubie Graham - West Scranton (Illinois) (4 stars)
16) Quentin Williams ? Central Catholic (Northwestern) (3 stars)
17) Mike Cruz ?Bishop McCort (Pitt) (3 stars)
18) Mark Wedderburn ? (Penn State) (3 stars)
19) Justin Virbitsky ? Lakeland (Pitt) (2 stars)
20) Trevor Behmke ? Conestoga (Miami of Ohio) (2 stars)
Offensive Tackles
21) Lucas Nix (Thomas Jefferson) (Pitt) (4 stars)
22) Corey Lewis ? East Stroudsburg (Illinois) (3 stars)
23) Tyler Sands ? Boyertown (Illinois) (3 stars)
24) R.J. Dill ?Trinity, Camp Hill (Maryland) (3 stars)
25) Mike Farrell ? Shadyside Academy (2 stars)
26) Mitch Straight (Eisenhower) (Akron) (2 stars)
27) Ryan Murray - Edward Bok Technical (Temple) (2 stars)
Offensive guards
28) Ryan Turnley ? Hopewell (Pitt) (2 stars)
29) Steve Caputo ? Unionville (Temple) (2 stars)
30) Wayne Tribue ? Central York (Temple) (2 stars)
Center
31) Matt Stankiewitch ? Schuylkill Haven (Penn State) (3 stars)
Defensive ends
32) Pete Massaro - Marple Newtown (Penn State) (3 stars)
33) Tyler Urban ? Norwin (West Virginia) (3 stars)
34) Kaleb Ramsey ? Laurel Highlands (Boston College) (3 stars)
35) Dan Vaughn ? Central Catholic) (Syracuse) (2 stars)
36) James Harvey - Cochranton (Akron ) (2 stars)
37) Sharid Paulhill - Northeast Catholic (Temple) (2 stars)
38) Neal Huynh ? Altoona (Ohio U) (2 stars)
Defensive tackles
39) Jewhan Edwards - Roman Catholic (Minnesota) (2 stars)
40) Christopher Palmer -St John’s Neumann (West Virginia) (2 stars)
41) Brandon Ware ? Harrisburg (Penn State) (2 stars)
42) Richie Smith ? Penn Argyl (Buffalo) (2 stars)
Linebackers
43) Shayne Hale -Gateway (Pitt) (4 stars)
44) Brandon Beal - Bethlehem Liberty (Florida) (4 stars)
45) Nick Moody ?Roman Catholic (Florida State) (4 stars)
46) Mike Yancich ? Trinity (Penn State) (4 stars)
47) Andrew Sweat ? Trinity (Ohio State) (4 stars)
48) Many Williams? Clairton (Pitt) (3 stars)
49) David Posluszny ?Hopewell (Notre Dame) (3 stars)
50) Alphonso Lewis ? Altoona (Ohio U) (2 stars)
51) Brandon Weaver ?Trinity (Ohio U) (2 stars)
52) Quinten White ? Cardinal Dougherty (Temple (2 stars)
53) Terrelle Anderson ? Central Catholic (Toledo) (2 stars)
Defensive backs
54) Jarred Holley ? Easton (Pitt)(4 stars)
55) Antwuan Reed ? Johnstown (Pitt) (3 stars)
56) Simoni Lawrence ? Valley Forge (Minnesota) (3 stars)
57) Mike Jones ? Bishop McDevitt (Syracuse) (3 stars)
58) Jermaine Robinson ? Brashear- Toledo (3 stars)
59) Chris Hayden-Martin ? Greensburg Central Catholic (Boston College) (3 stars)
60) Marvase Byrd ? McKeesport (Akron) (2 stars)
61) Tyrell Harris ? Bishop McDevitt (Syracuse)(2 stars)
62) Blidi Wreh-Wilson - General McLane (Syracuse) (2 stars)
63) Rontez Miles - Woodland Hills (Kent State) (2 stars)
64) Geoffrey Prather ? Archbishop Carroll (Temple) (2 stars)
65) Tyler Futrell ? Altoona (Ohio U) (2 stars)
Athletes
66) A.J. Alexander ? Altoona (Florida State)(4 stars)
67) Clemente Johnson ? Valley Forge (NC State) (3 stars)
68) Andrew Taglianetti ?Central Catholic (Pitt) (2 stars)
69) Rob Lohr ? Phoenixville (Vanderbilt) (2 stars)
70) Kevin Krobeth- Nazareth Area (Temple) (2 stars)
71) Leon Green ? Gateway (Kent State) (2 stars)
Looking ahead
Rivals.com was recently purchased by Yahoo! Microsoft has now made a $44.6 billion dollar bid to buy Yahoo! On the surface this looks like a good idea to me. Google has a commanding lead as a search engine while Yahoo! has concentrated on building content. I am not sure it is a good idea for society to have only one search engine. It will over the long run result in a distortion of information. It seems to me it is best two have two strong competitors in this area. We will just have to wait and see how these giants battle it out. Yahoo! has about 14,000 employees. Microsoft has about 60,000.
On March 2nd Rivals.com will hold classroom sessions for juniors at the University of Akron. On the same day Student Sports will conduct a Nike combine at the UPMC complex on the Southside. If you know a junior who would like to participate tell them to go to the Student Sports site where they can register. These two events will help us build the database for the Class of 2009.
Before we get there Pitt has a home basketball game with Louisville on Sunday February 24th. I suspect Pitt will held a Junior Day on that date.
I might add they have already held a Nike combine in Phoenix, Arizona. They will hold one at the Miami Dolphin complex this weekend and at the Wide World of Disney complex next weekend. Who knows the next round of Pitt players from Florida may be working out at one of these events.
Last year Pitt started spring football practice on March 17th. We have not seen a date from Pitt yet but you can figure that spring practice will start in mid-March. The Panthers must come out of spring drills knowing who their quarterback is. If the come out of spring drills with coach speak about several players competing for the position we might not see the jump most Pitt fans are expecting. Please pick a quarterback.
Another area to watch will be the attempt to rebuild the offensive line. Pitt graduated Jeff Otah, Mike McGlynn and Chris Vangas so new offensive line coach Tony Wise has his work cut out for him. We might be into fall camp before we have all the answers here.
The Pantherlair will be covering spring camp once again. For those who have been with us for a few years you know Chris Peak along with Tony Greco and Pete Madia will give you the best coverage you will find anywhere.
With the announcement Pitt has lost assistant coach Charlie Partridge to Wisconsin Pitt has now had five coaching slots turnover. They filled one with a young well thought of grad assistant in Jeff Hafley. Coach Wannstedt has also brought in two experienced veterans in offensive line coach Tony Wise and defensive coordinator Phil Bennett. As Chris has been reporting the past couple of weeks former Maryland assistant Bryan Bossard is expected to be named wide receivers coach within the next few days.
I am not sure who the remaining slot will go to but the emphasis will probably be on recruiting not coaching.
Coach Wannstedt has been quoted several times recently as saying if you are not a coordinator you better be able to recruit.
A little bit of churn on a coaching staff is a good thing but I am a big fan of stability. This year they experienced too much turnover. With spring practice only a few weeks away getting his staff in place should now be priority No. 1 for Coach Wannstedt.
Some hoops talk
The Panthers women’s team (18-4) caught a tough break when Marcedes Walker was injured against Rutgers. I think Pitt would have won that game and the following game Rutgers upsets No. 1 Rutgers. Agnus’ team is ranked No. 15 but could easily be in the Top 10 with a little better luck. They are ranked No. 14 in the RPI rankings after beating Seton Hall. They face three very tough games in a row travelling to Notre Dame and West Virginia before returning home to play Connecticut. All three teams are nationally ranked.
Last night’s win at the Pete was huge. Coach Dixon has the Panthers playing great defense but the offense continues to struggle. In their last three games against Villanova, UConn and West Virginia Pitt has given up less than 55 points per game. Simply great defense by the Panthers.
Their offense is another matter. Senior guard Ronald Ramon bailed them out with his three-pointer at the buzzer. DeJuan Blair was 3 for 13 and Keith Benjamin was 4-12 last night.
Pitt got 23 minutes from Brad Wanamaker last night. He scored 7 points but also made several freshmen mistakes. The game goes too fast for all four freshmen at times. If Pitt can pile up enough wins to get into both tournaments their minutes could pay off down the road.
I am not sure I can recall a player taking two free throws and then the referees taking both of the scoreboard. Justice was served. The foul should have been called against West Virginia and not against DeJuan Blair.
I am not sure if you caught Levance Fields sprinting across the floor at the end of the game. He should be ready to go in two weeks.
With the win over WVU Pitt moves up to No. 17 in the RPI rankings.
Every win right now is huge. Pitt plays Providence (13-9) next Tuesday at the Pete. It is another must win game.
Pitt is off this weekend but ESPN has the Big East covered this weekend. Saturday’s Big East schedule includes six conference games and one nonleague matchup and every game will be on one of the ESPN family of networks. ESPN’s GameDay will be in Louisville for the game between the Cardinals and Georgetown. Tipoff is 9 p.m. ET. Earlier in the day, ESPN will carry Marquette at Notre Dame at noon and Georgia Tech at Connecticut at 4 p.m. ESPNU has two games, USF at DePaul at 2 p.m. and Seton Hall at Villanova at 6 p.m. ESPN Classic has Cincinnati at Rutgers, also at 6 p.m. The Big East Game of the Week, produced by ESPN Regional, is Providence at St. John’s at noon.
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.
