War Room January 13th
From the desk of Jim Snyder
A little hoops talk
Prior to the start of the season we wrote that the Pitt basketball team was not getting much love by the national experts in their preseason basketball predictions. We wrote at the time we thought this basketball team would surprise a few people. We liked their depth and thought they could make a return trip to the NCAA tournament. The Panthers are now 13-0 after beating DePaul 73-65 at the Pete last night. It was a nice win after being down 13 points. The Panthers are one of only three undefeated teams in the country. They made a big very jump up in the polls this past week. If the beat Louisville on Sunday they could jump again. Beating the Cardinals on the road, however, will be no easy feat.
One of our colleagues is fond of saying they will probably beat a few teams you figure they have no business beating but they may lose a couple you figure they should win. This team is very good but probably not perfect as their unbeaten record suggests. They are young and they should continue to get better.
If the Panthers can play .500 ball the rest of the way they should be in the NCAA tournament. They are clearly better than most folks gave them credit for. We still love their depth. They usually play hard and they are fun to watch. They sometime go into scoring droughts that make some games closer than you would like. They face a big test in Louisville on Sunday. We will make the trip and report to you upon our return. (How did I know when I booked this trip the Steelers would be playing at the same time?)
Chris Peak not only was the beat reporter for the Pantherlair covering Pitt last night but he also covered DePaul for one of the Chicago newspapers.
Dinners and luncheons
Pitt held its annual awards banquet last Friday. They took a few football recruits to the dinner, which was sparsely attended. It appears that Pitt limited the invitation list to a number of high-end contributors. The date had to me moved several times to accommodate a number of individuals and few even knew the event was being held until the last minute. It appears that Pitt will try to pick a date certain going forward and try to build it up to something that can draw a thousand or so Pitt supporters.
Navigational hints
Over the past several months we have picked up quite a few new subscribers and as a result we like to pass out navigational hints from time to time. In the upper left hand side of this site there is a link called Recruiting HQ. It is often particularly useful this time of year. It has a lot of info and it also allows you to toggle between sites to see how other schools are doing at landing recruits. Check out Recruiting HQ.
Greg Lee, Rashad Jennings and others
Coach Dave Wannstedt made arrangements to have Chris Peak interview him by phone earlier this week while he was at attending the coaching convention in Dallas week. I am not sure about the timing of this interview but clearly Coach Wannstedt wanted to make the point that several players had left the program and that they left for various reasons. Coach Wannstedt seemed comfortable with most of the players exiting but was clearly not happy with Greg Lee’s agent. He also made the point that a few others may leave the program between now and the start of training camp. Hopefully you had a chance to read Chris Peak’s article.
Football recruiting heads for the home stretch
Letter of Intent Day is February 1st (the first Wednesday in February). Pitt has 21 verbal commitments. You can only give 25 players scholarships each year but if things fall Pitt’s way we hear rumblings they might take 26 or 27 and work out the details later. It is always possible one or two might not qualify and if they all do qualify you always have “grayshirt” options.
It is our understanding that Pitt will not have any prospects in this weekend but will have several in the weekend of January 20th.
The Pitt staff will spend a lot of time baby-sitting the 21 commits to make sure they stay on board. We were talking to the coach at North Broward Prep. He told us a number of high visibility schools were taking late runs at quarterback [/B]Dexter Davidson[/B]. Schools lose out on players that commit elsewhere or have players leave the program (ie. Greg Lee and Rashad Jennings) and their needs change. Coaches start coveting their neighbors recruits. Coach Dixon assured us Dexter Davidson is still firmly committed to Pitt. He also said he sent a wide receiver to Georgia this past year that he had hoped Pitt would have recruited.
We will lay out again where we think Pitt is headed going down the stretch. Keeping in mind that nothing is a sure think but death and taxes. When you are dealing with teenagers it also throws a certain amount of unpredictability into the equation.
Our sources indicate Pitt still feels they have a good chance of landing quarterback Thaddeus Lewis from Miami Hialeah Lakes. Lewis is scheduled to visit South Florida this weekend and Duke next week. South Florida probably represents the biggest threat.
The departure of Greg Lee, Terrell Allen and Allen Richardson has Pitt in the market for “athletes”. Quite frankly we think Pitt has a better than 50/50 chances of signing Aaron Berry, Elijah Field and [/B]Tamarcus Porter[/B]. We reported on the Between Fifth & Forbes board we think Porter is waiting for a Miami offer. If the Miami offer does not come Pitt has a chance of walking off with two or even three players out of this group. Pitt will also have wide receiver Aundre Wright from Perry and wide receiver [/B]Lance Jeter[/B] from Beaver Falls in for visits the weekend of January 20th. These two do not have offers. Pitt appears to be waiting to see where they stand with Fields, Berry and Porter. Last weekend they had defensive back Andy Dorcely from Florida is for a visit. He also does not have an offer and he also appears to be waiting for Berry, Fields and Porter logjam to unfold.
We reported this week that Pitt is trying to get placekicker Daniel Hutchins to visit on January 20th. They do not have a scholarship to offer a kicker this year and want him to walk-on. As you are aware punter Dave Brytus transferred to Pitt from Purdue. He has to sit out a year. Pitt is recruiting Hutchins as a placekicker.
The Pitt staff is recruiting four defensive ends. Geno Atkins and [/B]McKenzie Mathews[/B] have already visited Pitt and are visiting other schools this month. Audie Augustine from Oakland Park, Florida is scheduled to visit Pitt on January 20th. Pitt has also had defensive end Blake Smith in for a visit. Smith does not have an offer and is waiting while Pitt sorts out where they stand with Atkins, Mathews and Augustine. When I talked to Atkins after his visit to Pitt last weekend he was very enthusiastic about his trip to Pitt. He will visit both Auburn and Georgia this weekend. We are moving into a holiday weekend, which enables Atkins to visit both schools. Mathews told a reporter this week that Pitt and Michigan are his current leaders.
Tonight Trinity’s Andy Miller will make his announcement. His mother told me it looked like he was headed to Indiana when “the three local schools all offered” (Pitt, West Virginia and Ohio State). Andy told me he had never really been to Oakland prior to this past weekend. He liked what he saw and was very enthusiastic about his visit to Pitt when we last talked. Hopefully the visit will carry the day. One of our contacts on the Southside asked me where Andy would be going within the last 48 hours. They will not be happy if he holds a press conference in their own backyard and does not pick Pitt. This should be down to Pitt and Ohio State. We will report to you when he makes his public announcement.
Pitt is going up against some football heavyweights going down the stretch. They are battling a number of Big Ten schools including Ohio State and Michigan. They are also battling SEC heavyweights like Georgia and Auburn. Cross your fingers the Pitt staff get their fair share in the last couple of weeks.
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.
This post was edited on 1/13 1:04 PM by Jim Pantherlairif(GetAdminCookie() != 0) {document.write(' (Revisions[/URL])');}
From the desk of Jim Snyder
A little hoops talk
Prior to the start of the season we wrote that the Pitt basketball team was not getting much love by the national experts in their preseason basketball predictions. We wrote at the time we thought this basketball team would surprise a few people. We liked their depth and thought they could make a return trip to the NCAA tournament. The Panthers are now 13-0 after beating DePaul 73-65 at the Pete last night. It was a nice win after being down 13 points. The Panthers are one of only three undefeated teams in the country. They made a big very jump up in the polls this past week. If the beat Louisville on Sunday they could jump again. Beating the Cardinals on the road, however, will be no easy feat.
One of our colleagues is fond of saying they will probably beat a few teams you figure they have no business beating but they may lose a couple you figure they should win. This team is very good but probably not perfect as their unbeaten record suggests. They are young and they should continue to get better.
If the Panthers can play .500 ball the rest of the way they should be in the NCAA tournament. They are clearly better than most folks gave them credit for. We still love their depth. They usually play hard and they are fun to watch. They sometime go into scoring droughts that make some games closer than you would like. They face a big test in Louisville on Sunday. We will make the trip and report to you upon our return. (How did I know when I booked this trip the Steelers would be playing at the same time?)
Chris Peak not only was the beat reporter for the Pantherlair covering Pitt last night but he also covered DePaul for one of the Chicago newspapers.
Dinners and luncheons
Pitt held its annual awards banquet last Friday. They took a few football recruits to the dinner, which was sparsely attended. It appears that Pitt limited the invitation list to a number of high-end contributors. The date had to me moved several times to accommodate a number of individuals and few even knew the event was being held until the last minute. It appears that Pitt will try to pick a date certain going forward and try to build it up to something that can draw a thousand or so Pitt supporters.
Navigational hints
Over the past several months we have picked up quite a few new subscribers and as a result we like to pass out navigational hints from time to time. In the upper left hand side of this site there is a link called Recruiting HQ. It is often particularly useful this time of year. It has a lot of info and it also allows you to toggle between sites to see how other schools are doing at landing recruits. Check out Recruiting HQ.
Greg Lee, Rashad Jennings and others
Coach Dave Wannstedt made arrangements to have Chris Peak interview him by phone earlier this week while he was at attending the coaching convention in Dallas week. I am not sure about the timing of this interview but clearly Coach Wannstedt wanted to make the point that several players had left the program and that they left for various reasons. Coach Wannstedt seemed comfortable with most of the players exiting but was clearly not happy with Greg Lee’s agent. He also made the point that a few others may leave the program between now and the start of training camp. Hopefully you had a chance to read Chris Peak’s article.
Football recruiting heads for the home stretch
Letter of Intent Day is February 1st (the first Wednesday in February). Pitt has 21 verbal commitments. You can only give 25 players scholarships each year but if things fall Pitt’s way we hear rumblings they might take 26 or 27 and work out the details later. It is always possible one or two might not qualify and if they all do qualify you always have “grayshirt” options.
It is our understanding that Pitt will not have any prospects in this weekend but will have several in the weekend of January 20th.
The Pitt staff will spend a lot of time baby-sitting the 21 commits to make sure they stay on board. We were talking to the coach at North Broward Prep. He told us a number of high visibility schools were taking late runs at quarterback [/B]Dexter Davidson[/B]. Schools lose out on players that commit elsewhere or have players leave the program (ie. Greg Lee and Rashad Jennings) and their needs change. Coaches start coveting their neighbors recruits. Coach Dixon assured us Dexter Davidson is still firmly committed to Pitt. He also said he sent a wide receiver to Georgia this past year that he had hoped Pitt would have recruited.
We will lay out again where we think Pitt is headed going down the stretch. Keeping in mind that nothing is a sure think but death and taxes. When you are dealing with teenagers it also throws a certain amount of unpredictability into the equation.
Our sources indicate Pitt still feels they have a good chance of landing quarterback Thaddeus Lewis from Miami Hialeah Lakes. Lewis is scheduled to visit South Florida this weekend and Duke next week. South Florida probably represents the biggest threat.
The departure of Greg Lee, Terrell Allen and Allen Richardson has Pitt in the market for “athletes”. Quite frankly we think Pitt has a better than 50/50 chances of signing Aaron Berry, Elijah Field and [/B]Tamarcus Porter[/B]. We reported on the Between Fifth & Forbes board we think Porter is waiting for a Miami offer. If the Miami offer does not come Pitt has a chance of walking off with two or even three players out of this group. Pitt will also have wide receiver Aundre Wright from Perry and wide receiver [/B]Lance Jeter[/B] from Beaver Falls in for visits the weekend of January 20th. These two do not have offers. Pitt appears to be waiting to see where they stand with Fields, Berry and Porter. Last weekend they had defensive back Andy Dorcely from Florida is for a visit. He also does not have an offer and he also appears to be waiting for Berry, Fields and Porter logjam to unfold.
We reported this week that Pitt is trying to get placekicker Daniel Hutchins to visit on January 20th. They do not have a scholarship to offer a kicker this year and want him to walk-on. As you are aware punter Dave Brytus transferred to Pitt from Purdue. He has to sit out a year. Pitt is recruiting Hutchins as a placekicker.
The Pitt staff is recruiting four defensive ends. Geno Atkins and [/B]McKenzie Mathews[/B] have already visited Pitt and are visiting other schools this month. Audie Augustine from Oakland Park, Florida is scheduled to visit Pitt on January 20th. Pitt has also had defensive end Blake Smith in for a visit. Smith does not have an offer and is waiting while Pitt sorts out where they stand with Atkins, Mathews and Augustine. When I talked to Atkins after his visit to Pitt last weekend he was very enthusiastic about his trip to Pitt. He will visit both Auburn and Georgia this weekend. We are moving into a holiday weekend, which enables Atkins to visit both schools. Mathews told a reporter this week that Pitt and Michigan are his current leaders.
Tonight Trinity’s Andy Miller will make his announcement. His mother told me it looked like he was headed to Indiana when “the three local schools all offered” (Pitt, West Virginia and Ohio State). Andy told me he had never really been to Oakland prior to this past weekend. He liked what he saw and was very enthusiastic about his visit to Pitt when we last talked. Hopefully the visit will carry the day. One of our contacts on the Southside asked me where Andy would be going within the last 48 hours. They will not be happy if he holds a press conference in their own backyard and does not pick Pitt. This should be down to Pitt and Ohio State. We will report to you when he makes his public announcement.
Pitt is going up against some football heavyweights going down the stretch. They are battling a number of Big Ten schools including Ohio State and Michigan. They are also battling SEC heavyweights like Georgia and Auburn. Cross your fingers the Pitt staff get their fair share in the last couple of weeks.
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.
This post was edited on 1/13 1:04 PM by Jim Pantherlairif(GetAdminCookie() != 0) {document.write(' (Revisions[/URL])');}
