From the desk of Jim Snyder
New and improved
We have been advised by Rivals.com that they have beefed up their development staff. Over the next six months there will be a number of new features added to improve the look and feel of the network. A big emphasis will be put of improving the navigational features. The Rivals network often produces over 450 pieces of content per day so navigational features are important to wade your way through content. These upgrades will be phased in with one or two being added each month.
Panther basketball team bounces back
The Panthers’ basketball team is 16-1 after beating Syracuse earlier this week. Tomorrow they face Marquette Golden Eagles at the Pete. The Panthers are one of seven Big East teams in the Top 25 this week. This is the first time in the league’s history they have had seven teams ranked. There are few nights you can relax in league play. Marquette is 15-5 overall and 5-2 in conference play. They have beaten DePaul, Notre Dame and UConn so this is not a team you want to overlook. Last week their senior forward Steve Novak (6’ 10”) was named Big East player of the week. He averaged 26 points per game last week and hit the game winner against Notre Dame with one second left. He is a big man than can shoot from the perimeter so someone (Levon Kendal) will have to go out and guard him on the perimeter.
Pitt starts a very tough five-game stretch, which includes trips to No. 1 ranked Connecticut and red-hot Georgetown. Holding home court advantage this weekend is critical at this point of the season with four very tough road games still to play.
The Big East Conference
The Big East has seven teams in the AP Top 25. We felt before the season they could get eight teams into the NCAA tournament. Now we are not so sure they won’t get nine. If they do they will get a larger cut of an enormous financial pie.
The Big East Tournament in New York is soldout. Scalpers at the hotel across the street from Madison Square Garden could also have a very good year.
Rivals.com Junior Day
Rivals will sponsor nine Junior Days around the country this spring. The closest one to Western PA will be at the University of Akron on February 25th. The timing is bad because Pitt will have a Junior Day the same Day. It is a 2-hour classroom session, which runs from 1:00 PM until 3:00 PM. It might make a long day but prospects could easily make both events. If you know a legitimate Division I prospect that might be interested there is more info pinned at the top of the Football message board.
A little off topic
The Pittsburgh Steelers have enjoyed a 30-year run where they have been very competitive. As a result they have replaced the Dallas Cowboys as America’s team. We often see 10,000 or more Steeler fans at most road games. They usually generate big TV numbers around the country. This week they are so hot their jerseys and hats are out selling the local NFL team in many cities around the country. Despite this we have had a couple of posters lately post about the lack of respect for the Steelers by the media. They are obviously fans thinking with their hearts and not their heads.
Drop the “e” please
An article appeared in the Miami Herald this week regarding the official visit of Audie Augustin to the University of Pittsburgh. He has appeared in the database of most services with an “e” on the end of his name for the last ten 10 or 11 months. We called his coach who said, “We knew it was wrong in your database but we were just so happy he was ranked in the Florida Top 100 we didn’t say anything.” Apparently even high school coach like to see their players ranked as high as possible.
Coach Ratkevich said that Augustin was visiting just Pitt and NC State but that Connecticut, Rutgers, South Florida and Michigan State coaches all put on late pushes for a visit. He said the UConn assistant coach graduated from his high school and it was very tough telling him that Audie had no interest in the Huskies. He said Pitt got a visit because of coach Dave Wannstedt.
Covering Pitt football and basketball
The Pantherlair usually has at least one reporter at every Pitt press conference. We bring you articles about the Pitt coaches and players. In the past 30 days we had an interview with Coach Wannstedt and one with Coach Dixon. We also had one this past week with Joe Lombardi. I hope you caught Tony Greco’s article on Joe Lombardi. It was a good one and gives a little better look at a coach that often don’t get a lot of publicity. We have also recently bought you interviews with Aaron Gray and Keith Benjamin. I thought Benjamin’s article was particularly good. We have at least one reporter at press conference after every home football and basketball game. This past year we have also managed to cover some home games for the Pitt’s women’s basketball team and the men’s baseball team. We hope to continue that practice.
Herb Pope
Jerry Myer’s recent article had Herb Pope making statements about what position he plays in college. Here is my read. Early on Rivals Hoops had Herb listed as a center. He was 6’ 9” and only a sophomore. Once they looked at him a couple of more times on the AAU circuit they wrote, “Pope is definitely not a center.” When you are his height there is a tendency to put the big man underneath the hoop. That is clearly not where Herb sees his future. He occasionally looks like a “point center” that Princeton uses in their offense. They put their center at the top of the key and he becomes primary passer to cutters. Right now I do not make too big a deal over his statements about position although it would be a good idea to recruit other big men so he does not feel he will be required to play out of position.
Ratings and rankings
It really does not matter what rating service you want to use they say that if Pitt closes out their recruiting season, as we all hope, they will have their best class in 20 years. No matter what service you want to use Pitt will easily have the best class in the Big East. If they can put another class or two together that looks anything like this one Pitt should win a BCS berth and we should all end up going to the Orange Bowl, Sugar Bowl or Rose Bowl and that is a very good thing.
In some ways however, recruiting is about filling needs. Pitt has tried to bring in three quarterbacks and three defensive ends because the felt they had to fill a need.
Some football recruiting updates
This week Tony Greco had an article on offensive guard Chris Jacobson from Keystone Oaks this week. We hope you caught it. As indicated in our War Room last week he will be the first Pitt commit in the Class of 2007. It appears the coaches (high school and college) simply are waiting until the seniors have their day next week as they sign Letters of Intent.
Letter of Intent Day is the first Wednesday in February. This year that happens to fall on February 1st. Many coaches have been out making in-school or in-home visits this week. On Sunday we will have a Quiet Period and on Monday and Tuesday we enter a “Dead Period”. The NCAA has put the rules in effect so a recruit as a few minutes to reflect before signing the binding Letter of Intent. In the “good old days” legend has it that Pitt hid Mike Ditka in a hotel so Penn State could not find him. The new rules cut down on this type of activity.
Eric Rodemoyer changing his mind and committing to WVU is disappointing but not totally out of leftfield. You will recall after he committed to Pitt he and his mother visited Morgantown together. He reaffirmed his commitment to Pitt at that time. Last week in the War Room we told you we were hearing reports out of Morgantown that WVU was making another run at him. It is tough replacing any prospect at this late date so it stinks.
One player we tend to forget about is offensive lineman Kevin Hughes. He enrolled at Pitt last September as a part-time student and went on scholarship the first of the year. He has been working out at the UPMC complex on the Southside for several months and will be available for spring practice. Pitt has also recruited guards Scott Corson and Joe Thomas plus tackle Jeff Otah.
Tamarcus Porter who had given Pitt a verbal commitment visited Wake Forest this past weekend. Coach Foster at Pahokee indicated he had been trying to keep Coach Partridge updated and that a real battle was shaping up between Pitt and Wake Forest. He acknowledged a similar thing happened with Alphonso Smith two years ago. Coach Foster said he and Coach Wannstedt had had gone round and round. He said, “Right now you would think I am on his staff.” I took this to mean there had been a couple of tense verbal exchanges. It is not over as I write this column but this is certainly not a good turn of events.
Defensive back Aaron Berry committed to Pitt this week which is very good news. I got to watch him at the Nike Camp. He is not the biggest guy but he is very competitive. He always wanted to be lined up against the very best wide receivers. His commitment is very good news.
Yesterday afternoon Chris Peak posted on Between Fifth and Forbes that he had talked to the coach at Coral Glades High School. Coach Nottage indicated that defensive end Greg Romeus had all but committed to Pitt but asked that we hold up until Coach Partridge had a chance to meet with his family. Last night about five minutes after Coach Partridge left his him we rang him up as a commit. Please see out article on the Ticker. Romeus is truly a sleeper. Greg only played one year of varsity football. He attended a brand new high school and it was the first year the school played varsity football.
We got to watch some game video of Valley Forge this past week. Jeff Otah plays strong side tackle flipping from the right side to the left side depending on the formation. As you would expect he is one big dude. We have sent the video to Rivals. You should see a few clips sometime next week. Former Akron Buchtel star Bryan Williams is also on the tape. He makes a couple of nifty runs and scores a touchdown and sets up another. He plays most at safety during the game but they gave him a few carries. Valley Forge played West Point Prep in the game film I watched.
Duquesne’s Elijah Fields was scheduled to meet with the Pitt coaches last night. He is scheduled to decide by Monday. Fields has it down to Pitt and Penn State.
Defensive end McKenzie Mathews is visiting Syracuse this weekend. CBA is located in Syracuse so this looks like a quick trip. Last year Syracuse landed WR Lavar Lobdell from CBA late. However, this should come down to Pitt and Michigan. Mathews hope to make decision on Sunday.
Coming attractions
Chris Peak has an interview with Pitt basketball player Keith Benjamin today. Benjamin missed a big chunk of his senior year in high school with a high ankle sprain. He was slowed again last year by ankle problems. After two injury riddled years he seems slowly to be coming into his own.
Chris also has an article today on offensive lineman Joe Thomas from Lakewood St Edward’s. With the Rodemoyer decommit we thought it might be a good idea to circle back on Joe Thomas.
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.
New and improved
We have been advised by Rivals.com that they have beefed up their development staff. Over the next six months there will be a number of new features added to improve the look and feel of the network. A big emphasis will be put of improving the navigational features. The Rivals network often produces over 450 pieces of content per day so navigational features are important to wade your way through content. These upgrades will be phased in with one or two being added each month.
Panther basketball team bounces back
The Panthers’ basketball team is 16-1 after beating Syracuse earlier this week. Tomorrow they face Marquette Golden Eagles at the Pete. The Panthers are one of seven Big East teams in the Top 25 this week. This is the first time in the league’s history they have had seven teams ranked. There are few nights you can relax in league play. Marquette is 15-5 overall and 5-2 in conference play. They have beaten DePaul, Notre Dame and UConn so this is not a team you want to overlook. Last week their senior forward Steve Novak (6’ 10”) was named Big East player of the week. He averaged 26 points per game last week and hit the game winner against Notre Dame with one second left. He is a big man than can shoot from the perimeter so someone (Levon Kendal) will have to go out and guard him on the perimeter.
Pitt starts a very tough five-game stretch, which includes trips to No. 1 ranked Connecticut and red-hot Georgetown. Holding home court advantage this weekend is critical at this point of the season with four very tough road games still to play.
The Big East Conference
The Big East has seven teams in the AP Top 25. We felt before the season they could get eight teams into the NCAA tournament. Now we are not so sure they won’t get nine. If they do they will get a larger cut of an enormous financial pie.
The Big East Tournament in New York is soldout. Scalpers at the hotel across the street from Madison Square Garden could also have a very good year.
Rivals.com Junior Day
Rivals will sponsor nine Junior Days around the country this spring. The closest one to Western PA will be at the University of Akron on February 25th. The timing is bad because Pitt will have a Junior Day the same Day. It is a 2-hour classroom session, which runs from 1:00 PM until 3:00 PM. It might make a long day but prospects could easily make both events. If you know a legitimate Division I prospect that might be interested there is more info pinned at the top of the Football message board.
A little off topic
The Pittsburgh Steelers have enjoyed a 30-year run where they have been very competitive. As a result they have replaced the Dallas Cowboys as America’s team. We often see 10,000 or more Steeler fans at most road games. They usually generate big TV numbers around the country. This week they are so hot their jerseys and hats are out selling the local NFL team in many cities around the country. Despite this we have had a couple of posters lately post about the lack of respect for the Steelers by the media. They are obviously fans thinking with their hearts and not their heads.
Drop the “e” please
An article appeared in the Miami Herald this week regarding the official visit of Audie Augustin to the University of Pittsburgh. He has appeared in the database of most services with an “e” on the end of his name for the last ten 10 or 11 months. We called his coach who said, “We knew it was wrong in your database but we were just so happy he was ranked in the Florida Top 100 we didn’t say anything.” Apparently even high school coach like to see their players ranked as high as possible.
Coach Ratkevich said that Augustin was visiting just Pitt and NC State but that Connecticut, Rutgers, South Florida and Michigan State coaches all put on late pushes for a visit. He said the UConn assistant coach graduated from his high school and it was very tough telling him that Audie had no interest in the Huskies. He said Pitt got a visit because of coach Dave Wannstedt.
Covering Pitt football and basketball
The Pantherlair usually has at least one reporter at every Pitt press conference. We bring you articles about the Pitt coaches and players. In the past 30 days we had an interview with Coach Wannstedt and one with Coach Dixon. We also had one this past week with Joe Lombardi. I hope you caught Tony Greco’s article on Joe Lombardi. It was a good one and gives a little better look at a coach that often don’t get a lot of publicity. We have also recently bought you interviews with Aaron Gray and Keith Benjamin. I thought Benjamin’s article was particularly good. We have at least one reporter at press conference after every home football and basketball game. This past year we have also managed to cover some home games for the Pitt’s women’s basketball team and the men’s baseball team. We hope to continue that practice.
Herb Pope
Jerry Myer’s recent article had Herb Pope making statements about what position he plays in college. Here is my read. Early on Rivals Hoops had Herb listed as a center. He was 6’ 9” and only a sophomore. Once they looked at him a couple of more times on the AAU circuit they wrote, “Pope is definitely not a center.” When you are his height there is a tendency to put the big man underneath the hoop. That is clearly not where Herb sees his future. He occasionally looks like a “point center” that Princeton uses in their offense. They put their center at the top of the key and he becomes primary passer to cutters. Right now I do not make too big a deal over his statements about position although it would be a good idea to recruit other big men so he does not feel he will be required to play out of position.
Ratings and rankings
It really does not matter what rating service you want to use they say that if Pitt closes out their recruiting season, as we all hope, they will have their best class in 20 years. No matter what service you want to use Pitt will easily have the best class in the Big East. If they can put another class or two together that looks anything like this one Pitt should win a BCS berth and we should all end up going to the Orange Bowl, Sugar Bowl or Rose Bowl and that is a very good thing.
In some ways however, recruiting is about filling needs. Pitt has tried to bring in three quarterbacks and three defensive ends because the felt they had to fill a need.
Some football recruiting updates
This week Tony Greco had an article on offensive guard Chris Jacobson from Keystone Oaks this week. We hope you caught it. As indicated in our War Room last week he will be the first Pitt commit in the Class of 2007. It appears the coaches (high school and college) simply are waiting until the seniors have their day next week as they sign Letters of Intent.
Letter of Intent Day is the first Wednesday in February. This year that happens to fall on February 1st. Many coaches have been out making in-school or in-home visits this week. On Sunday we will have a Quiet Period and on Monday and Tuesday we enter a “Dead Period”. The NCAA has put the rules in effect so a recruit as a few minutes to reflect before signing the binding Letter of Intent. In the “good old days” legend has it that Pitt hid Mike Ditka in a hotel so Penn State could not find him. The new rules cut down on this type of activity.
Eric Rodemoyer changing his mind and committing to WVU is disappointing but not totally out of leftfield. You will recall after he committed to Pitt he and his mother visited Morgantown together. He reaffirmed his commitment to Pitt at that time. Last week in the War Room we told you we were hearing reports out of Morgantown that WVU was making another run at him. It is tough replacing any prospect at this late date so it stinks.
One player we tend to forget about is offensive lineman Kevin Hughes. He enrolled at Pitt last September as a part-time student and went on scholarship the first of the year. He has been working out at the UPMC complex on the Southside for several months and will be available for spring practice. Pitt has also recruited guards Scott Corson and Joe Thomas plus tackle Jeff Otah.
Tamarcus Porter who had given Pitt a verbal commitment visited Wake Forest this past weekend. Coach Foster at Pahokee indicated he had been trying to keep Coach Partridge updated and that a real battle was shaping up between Pitt and Wake Forest. He acknowledged a similar thing happened with Alphonso Smith two years ago. Coach Foster said he and Coach Wannstedt had had gone round and round. He said, “Right now you would think I am on his staff.” I took this to mean there had been a couple of tense verbal exchanges. It is not over as I write this column but this is certainly not a good turn of events.
Defensive back Aaron Berry committed to Pitt this week which is very good news. I got to watch him at the Nike Camp. He is not the biggest guy but he is very competitive. He always wanted to be lined up against the very best wide receivers. His commitment is very good news.
Yesterday afternoon Chris Peak posted on Between Fifth and Forbes that he had talked to the coach at Coral Glades High School. Coach Nottage indicated that defensive end Greg Romeus had all but committed to Pitt but asked that we hold up until Coach Partridge had a chance to meet with his family. Last night about five minutes after Coach Partridge left his him we rang him up as a commit. Please see out article on the Ticker. Romeus is truly a sleeper. Greg only played one year of varsity football. He attended a brand new high school and it was the first year the school played varsity football.
We got to watch some game video of Valley Forge this past week. Jeff Otah plays strong side tackle flipping from the right side to the left side depending on the formation. As you would expect he is one big dude. We have sent the video to Rivals. You should see a few clips sometime next week. Former Akron Buchtel star Bryan Williams is also on the tape. He makes a couple of nifty runs and scores a touchdown and sets up another. He plays most at safety during the game but they gave him a few carries. Valley Forge played West Point Prep in the game film I watched.
Duquesne’s Elijah Fields was scheduled to meet with the Pitt coaches last night. He is scheduled to decide by Monday. Fields has it down to Pitt and Penn State.
Defensive end McKenzie Mathews is visiting Syracuse this weekend. CBA is located in Syracuse so this looks like a quick trip. Last year Syracuse landed WR Lavar Lobdell from CBA late. However, this should come down to Pitt and Michigan. Mathews hope to make decision on Sunday.
Coming attractions
Chris Peak has an interview with Pitt basketball player Keith Benjamin today. Benjamin missed a big chunk of his senior year in high school with a high ankle sprain. He was slowed again last year by ankle problems. After two injury riddled years he seems slowly to be coming into his own.
Chris also has an article today on offensive lineman Joe Thomas from Lakewood St Edward’s. With the Rodemoyer decommit we thought it might be a good idea to circle back on Joe Thomas.
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.
