From the Desk of Jim Snyder
Numbers can be a funny thing
I guess the big question is - Where is Pitt getting all of these scholarships? It beats me. In tribute to Johnny Carson I can only say, “Carnac the Magnificent” knows the answer to this question.
Our understanding early in the recruiting process was that this would be a small class with Pitt having few fifth year seniors. Later our sources told us the number looked like 17-18. Pitt AD Jeff Long explained at his press conference that he was not in a rush to hire a new head coach because Pitt would have a small incoming class. Later, once Coach Wannstedt was hired, he seemed to slightly revise the number upward. We now count 20 players that have made verbal commitments plus the 3 that enrolled in January (Bokor, Jennings and Dell). It sure would not surprise us at this point to see a couple of more added to the list before it is over. If they get many more than that I need to take a class in this new math.
The coaches may know that a current player or two may be be transferring or is in academic trouble. They may also be gambling that not all of the prospects will qualify. They do not need to worry about the 85-scholarship limitation until August. A lot of things can happen between now and then. The staff can also control the number by “gray-shirting” a player or two or by simply not inviting a fifth-year player back. It appears they have a tentative plan or at least I hope they do.
What a week!
The past week has been a big one for Pitt. As this article is written, Pitt has landed tight end John Pelusi of Central Catholic, defensive lineman C.J. Brown, Gus Mustakas of Chaminade-Maddona in Florida and running back Conredge Collins. You will notice three Floridians from this weeks commitments.
After watching the video Conredge Collins look like a fullback to us. Let us know what you think. Is he a tailback or a fullback?
Signing C. J Davis could help Pitt land junior Dorin Dickerson from West Allegheny. He is a blue chip stud.
Pitt will have at least three players in for official visits this weekend and maybe more. C. J. Davis from West Allegheny and Marlon Terry from Akron Buchtel have already committed and are scheduled to make their visits. In addition, Miami Central quarterback Dennis Brown is scheduled to come north and we learned yesterday that Seton-LaSalle’s Bill Stull may also visit. Dave Wannstedt and Coach Dunn visited with the Stull family this past week trying to make up lost ground. We will have to watch this one closely this weekend. Bill Stull had committed to Kentucky and knows Coach Dunn from that recruiting process. He is a big fan of Coach Dunn. Pitt had not recruited Bill Stull. Coach Harris simply thought they should look elsewhere. Coach Wannstedt told the family this week he could not undo the fact Pitt has ignored him for the last few months and tried to turn a new page. Are there enough scholarships to go around? It is too bad “Carnac the Magnificent” is still not with us to answer these questions. I miss him already.
Bill Stull has already given Kentucky a verbal. The upside for Stull is that he will come out of this mess with a scholarship either to Kentucky or Pitt. It would be a lot more fun if it were Pitt. Stayed tuned. It should all sort itself by the time the weekend is over. If he visits my guess is he will be coming to Pitt.
Cedric McGee visits Illinois this weekend. He is down to Pitt and Illinois. Ron Zook is a terrific recruiter. We will see how this one goes. Partridge versus Zook....it should be a good one.
Letter of Intent
Letter of Intent Day is next Wednesday (February 2nd). We enter into a Dead Period on Sunday to allow recruits time to think before faxing their papers to college recruiters around the country. Coaches are permitted to talk to recruits on campus this weekend and then, it is over. College recruiters will be waiting nervously around the fax machines on Wednesday hoping to get signed Letters of Intent of all those that verbally committed. There are often a few surprises.
Approximately 2,300 players will sign Letters of Intent next week with Division I schools. Rivals.com will try and get them all into the football database in less than 24 hours and with a little bit of luck by midnight on Wednesday.
I hope you have had a chance to visit our Recruiting HQ. One neat feature is that you can now toggle easily from school to school to see how other schools have done. Neat new feature.
Sizing up the new class
So how does this class look? Pretty much like Pitt classes of the past four years so far. The Class of 2005 is currently ranked No. 38. The Class of 2004 was ranked No. 48, after the Big East imploded. The Class of 2003 was ranked No. 34 and the Class of 2002 was ranked No. 39. In brief, this looks a lot like the classes of the past few years however Dave Wannstedt and his staff are to be congratulated for a job well done. Many schools that switch coaches have one down year. Pitt has managed to avoid any back slide.
The big move often comes once the staff has been on board a year. The second and third classes are usually their best. Bill Callahan is cleaning up this year at Nebraska despite a mediocre year on the field. Nebraska currently has the No. 2 recruiting class in the country. Maybe Dave Wannstedt and his staff will pull off a big class next year. He certainly will be fun to follow in the coming year.
Will Rhoads travel the roads to Auburn?
There have been persistent reports that Paul Rhoads will leave for Auburn after Letter of Intent Day. To tell you the truth I have no idea if the rumor is true or not. Auburn tried to hire Coach Rhoads a few years ago and Pitt gave him a substantial raise to keep him. As a general rule, assistant coaches are under contract through the spring. The system is set up so that colleges recruit players first and then after Letter of Intent Day they recruit coaches. I am sure you will see many, many assistants across the country switching jobs after Letter of Intent Day. It is done this way so the recruiting process is not disrupted.
When Walt Harris decided to go to Stanford, Pitt AD Jeff Long put Paul Rhoads in charge of Pitt’s recruiting efforts and even after Dave Wannstedt was on board, he remained very active in this area. It would be very damaging to Pitt’s recruiting efforts to have premature rumors running around. We were told that Coach Rhoads had not yet been contact by Auburn. We will just have to be patient to see how this one plays out. We reported about 10 days ago that a “birdie” had stopped by to say that Auburn had NOT YET contacted Paul Rhoads. The birdie is a trusted one but we will have to follow this one as it plays out, if in fact, there is a play to watch.
Quite frankly, Coach Rhoads should seriously consider Auburn if offered. They were ranked No. 2 in the country this year and are having another big recruiting class. Their recruiting class was ranked No. 9 in the country, the last time I looked. Auburn coordinators often end up with head coaching jobs. This is almost a no-brainer if offered. We’ll have to wait several days to see if there are any further movements on the Pitt staff.
Even servers need some help
When we indicate that a player has committed to a school it often takes a while for it to update every report. Some are updated every few hours while others are updated every 24 hours. This is done so the system is not brought to its knees at this time of year. It would slow down your response time. If Pitt gets a new commit please be patient. All reports will eventually be updated. It should not take longer than 24 hours.
Gold has its privileges
Check out Rivals Radio. You can be sure there will be a lot of recruiting talk next week as players from around the country make decisions. The producer of Rivals Radio has talked to Pitt about Dave Wannstedt being a guest. Coach Wannstedt has asked that he not be scheduled until things slow down so he can concentrate on recruiting. Hopefully he will find time in the next few weeks. On Letter of Intent day, Rivals Radio will be on from 10AM until 2:00 PM and from 6:00 PM until 9:00 PM. That is seven hours of recruiting talk. Corporations around the country will learn to dread Rivals Radio and LOI.
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.
Numbers can be a funny thing
I guess the big question is - Where is Pitt getting all of these scholarships? It beats me. In tribute to Johnny Carson I can only say, “Carnac the Magnificent” knows the answer to this question.
Our understanding early in the recruiting process was that this would be a small class with Pitt having few fifth year seniors. Later our sources told us the number looked like 17-18. Pitt AD Jeff Long explained at his press conference that he was not in a rush to hire a new head coach because Pitt would have a small incoming class. Later, once Coach Wannstedt was hired, he seemed to slightly revise the number upward. We now count 20 players that have made verbal commitments plus the 3 that enrolled in January (Bokor, Jennings and Dell). It sure would not surprise us at this point to see a couple of more added to the list before it is over. If they get many more than that I need to take a class in this new math.
The coaches may know that a current player or two may be be transferring or is in academic trouble. They may also be gambling that not all of the prospects will qualify. They do not need to worry about the 85-scholarship limitation until August. A lot of things can happen between now and then. The staff can also control the number by “gray-shirting” a player or two or by simply not inviting a fifth-year player back. It appears they have a tentative plan or at least I hope they do.
What a week!
The past week has been a big one for Pitt. As this article is written, Pitt has landed tight end John Pelusi of Central Catholic, defensive lineman C.J. Brown, Gus Mustakas of Chaminade-Maddona in Florida and running back Conredge Collins. You will notice three Floridians from this weeks commitments.
After watching the video Conredge Collins look like a fullback to us. Let us know what you think. Is he a tailback or a fullback?
Signing C. J Davis could help Pitt land junior Dorin Dickerson from West Allegheny. He is a blue chip stud.
Pitt will have at least three players in for official visits this weekend and maybe more. C. J. Davis from West Allegheny and Marlon Terry from Akron Buchtel have already committed and are scheduled to make their visits. In addition, Miami Central quarterback Dennis Brown is scheduled to come north and we learned yesterday that Seton-LaSalle’s Bill Stull may also visit. Dave Wannstedt and Coach Dunn visited with the Stull family this past week trying to make up lost ground. We will have to watch this one closely this weekend. Bill Stull had committed to Kentucky and knows Coach Dunn from that recruiting process. He is a big fan of Coach Dunn. Pitt had not recruited Bill Stull. Coach Harris simply thought they should look elsewhere. Coach Wannstedt told the family this week he could not undo the fact Pitt has ignored him for the last few months and tried to turn a new page. Are there enough scholarships to go around? It is too bad “Carnac the Magnificent” is still not with us to answer these questions. I miss him already.
Bill Stull has already given Kentucky a verbal. The upside for Stull is that he will come out of this mess with a scholarship either to Kentucky or Pitt. It would be a lot more fun if it were Pitt. Stayed tuned. It should all sort itself by the time the weekend is over. If he visits my guess is he will be coming to Pitt.
Cedric McGee visits Illinois this weekend. He is down to Pitt and Illinois. Ron Zook is a terrific recruiter. We will see how this one goes. Partridge versus Zook....it should be a good one.
Letter of Intent
Letter of Intent Day is next Wednesday (February 2nd). We enter into a Dead Period on Sunday to allow recruits time to think before faxing their papers to college recruiters around the country. Coaches are permitted to talk to recruits on campus this weekend and then, it is over. College recruiters will be waiting nervously around the fax machines on Wednesday hoping to get signed Letters of Intent of all those that verbally committed. There are often a few surprises.
Approximately 2,300 players will sign Letters of Intent next week with Division I schools. Rivals.com will try and get them all into the football database in less than 24 hours and with a little bit of luck by midnight on Wednesday.
I hope you have had a chance to visit our Recruiting HQ. One neat feature is that you can now toggle easily from school to school to see how other schools have done. Neat new feature.
Sizing up the new class
So how does this class look? Pretty much like Pitt classes of the past four years so far. The Class of 2005 is currently ranked No. 38. The Class of 2004 was ranked No. 48, after the Big East imploded. The Class of 2003 was ranked No. 34 and the Class of 2002 was ranked No. 39. In brief, this looks a lot like the classes of the past few years however Dave Wannstedt and his staff are to be congratulated for a job well done. Many schools that switch coaches have one down year. Pitt has managed to avoid any back slide.
The big move often comes once the staff has been on board a year. The second and third classes are usually their best. Bill Callahan is cleaning up this year at Nebraska despite a mediocre year on the field. Nebraska currently has the No. 2 recruiting class in the country. Maybe Dave Wannstedt and his staff will pull off a big class next year. He certainly will be fun to follow in the coming year.
Will Rhoads travel the roads to Auburn?
There have been persistent reports that Paul Rhoads will leave for Auburn after Letter of Intent Day. To tell you the truth I have no idea if the rumor is true or not. Auburn tried to hire Coach Rhoads a few years ago and Pitt gave him a substantial raise to keep him. As a general rule, assistant coaches are under contract through the spring. The system is set up so that colleges recruit players first and then after Letter of Intent Day they recruit coaches. I am sure you will see many, many assistants across the country switching jobs after Letter of Intent Day. It is done this way so the recruiting process is not disrupted.
When Walt Harris decided to go to Stanford, Pitt AD Jeff Long put Paul Rhoads in charge of Pitt’s recruiting efforts and even after Dave Wannstedt was on board, he remained very active in this area. It would be very damaging to Pitt’s recruiting efforts to have premature rumors running around. We were told that Coach Rhoads had not yet been contact by Auburn. We will just have to be patient to see how this one plays out. We reported about 10 days ago that a “birdie” had stopped by to say that Auburn had NOT YET contacted Paul Rhoads. The birdie is a trusted one but we will have to follow this one as it plays out, if in fact, there is a play to watch.
Quite frankly, Coach Rhoads should seriously consider Auburn if offered. They were ranked No. 2 in the country this year and are having another big recruiting class. Their recruiting class was ranked No. 9 in the country, the last time I looked. Auburn coordinators often end up with head coaching jobs. This is almost a no-brainer if offered. We’ll have to wait several days to see if there are any further movements on the Pitt staff.
Even servers need some help
When we indicate that a player has committed to a school it often takes a while for it to update every report. Some are updated every few hours while others are updated every 24 hours. This is done so the system is not brought to its knees at this time of year. It would slow down your response time. If Pitt gets a new commit please be patient. All reports will eventually be updated. It should not take longer than 24 hours.
Gold has its privileges
Check out Rivals Radio. You can be sure there will be a lot of recruiting talk next week as players from around the country make decisions. The producer of Rivals Radio has talked to Pitt about Dave Wannstedt being a guest. Coach Wannstedt has asked that he not be scheduled until things slow down so he can concentrate on recruiting. Hopefully he will find time in the next few weeks. On Letter of Intent day, Rivals Radio will be on from 10AM until 2:00 PM and from 6:00 PM until 9:00 PM. That is seven hours of recruiting talk. Corporations around the country will learn to dread Rivals Radio and LOI.
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.
