From the desk of Jim Snyder
The Travel Guide
Rivals.com is schedule to release a new feature this coming week designed to help college football fans on road trips. If you are traveling to Virginia, Michigan State, Louisville or Rutgers this year it might help you out on things to see on your road trip. If you travel to Morgantown you are on your own. Hopefully this new feature will be fun and informative at the same time.
Rivals.com picks West Virginia No. 2 in the country
Rivals.com has West Virginia playing Southern Cal for the national championship in their preseason predictions. The Mountaineers have road trips to Maryland, Rutgers and South Florida. WVU has Pitt, Louisville and Mississippi State at home.
There are question marks about the West Virginia defense but if they get any kind of help from Noel Devine they may score every time they have the ball barring turnovers or penalties. If Steve Slaton, Pat White and Noel Devine stay healthy the WVU offense will have speed, speed and more speed.
Some think the Big East could get two BCS berth this year. For that to happen West Virginia would probably have to go unbeaten and Louisville would have to go 11-1 with a close loss in Morgantown. There are other scenarios were the Big East could get two berths but I think this is their best shot. Should that happen Big East commissioner Mike Tranghese would be hard to live with.
On the other hand the articles this week on possible Big 10/11 expansion are a cause for concern. The new Big Ten television network is trying to charge cable operators $1.10 per month if there is a Big Ten school in your state and $.10 per month if there is no Big Ten School in your state. Adding a school in another state with a large population might make sense. These articles suggest Syracuse or Rutgers are under consideration. If the Big Ten expands I think they will target Rutgers. It is a state school similar to most Big Ten schools. It might also get a boost for cable carriage from their local politicians. You could probably add $25 million in revenue annually from New Jersey cable operators. Comcast is headquartered in Philadelphia and has a significant operation in New Jersey.
Fall camp is just around the corner
We did not like reading that Dan Matha will need shoulder surgery. Matha probably figured to redshirt this year but he will lose valuable practice time. Pitt graduates tackles Mike McGlynn and Jeff Otah after this season. You would love for him to be in a position to challenge for a tackle spot next fall. This will set certainly set him back a bit.
In a little more than a week Pitt will start fall camp. We hear LeSean McCoy has impressed folks on the Southside. He will play a significant role in the Pitt offense this fall. He has been catching the ball well in drills. I can hardly wait him for McCoy to be turned lose in a scrimmage.
Pat Bostick has also been impressing folks with his ability to understand the Pitt offense. Bostick is listed in the media guide at 230 pounds. He reported to Pitt at 238 pounds but we hear Buddy Morris now has him at 218 pounds. I do not think Bostick will be redshirted this year. I am still not sure he will open the season against Eastern Michigan but we will see.
If Dorin Dickerson stays healthy we expect Dorin Dickerson, Shane Murray and Scott McKillop to be your starting linebackers. Shayne Murray is getting very high marks for his understanding of the game. Dickerson is getting very high praise for his speed and athleticism. Dickerson has the potential to be the best of the three if he stays healthy.
Dave Wannstedt indicated at Media Day that if St Edward’s Kyle Hubbard wanted out of his scholarship to play basketball they would give him a release. It was implied that would not give him a release to play football elsewhere. Our sources say its looks like this will play out with Hubbard being given a release to play basketball at Cleveland State. As we indicated last week this should open the doors to lineman Wayne Jones (6’ 2” 315). Instead of a greyshirt they could put Jones on scholarship in September.
We were saddened to read this past week that Tyler Tkach’s brother had passed away at age 25. Coach Tkack was always a pleasure to talk to when Pitt was recruiting Tyler. It is tough for parents to lose a child. My mother has passed away but she always said she did not care how long she lived but did not want to out live any of her children. Our prayers and thoughts go out at the Tkach family.
In case you missed it yesterday our sources say senior defensive end Joe Clermond tested negative for marijuana use. At the time they arrested the five young men they found marijuana in the car last weekend. It was not Clermond’s car. They did not find and drugs on him and now he has passed the drug test. Our sources say it may take some time for the legal system to deal with this matter but it should go away for Joe over time.
Chris Peak has interviewed Conor Lee and Brian Kaiser. He has a three part series on what it is like to walk-on at a major college program.
Two-deep chart and rosters
We have updated our depth chart based on the one released by Pitt in their media guide. We have also updated the Pitt football roster. It should give you a good handle on the scholarship players the coaching staff will have available this fall. The heights and weights are based on the figures released by Pitt. Go to the roster and do a sort by position. Much of the fun over the next several weeks will be speculating on the incoming Class of 2007. Which ones will crack the two-deep chart? Which players can expect to see some playing time this fall?
Media Day Central
You will find links on our Home Page or on the Between Fifth & Forbes message board to Media Day Central. Rivals.com has been churning out articles on all of the BCS conferences. You might want to check the Media Central link to see if there is an article that might interest you. The Big Ten has theirs early next week. There are already reports up on the other BCS conferences.
The Rivals Minute
Rivals.com has started a new feature titled the Rivals Minute. Ashley Russell will host a one minute video recap of some of the items going on that day. It runs on the Rivals Football national page. We will try to link many of these reports on the Between Fifth & Forbes message board.
Ashley’s mother is a songwriter so she has a show biz background. At a recent conference for publishers they recognized several sites for their efforts this past year. The publishers that won awards got their picture taken with Ashley which many thought was better reward than the plaque they received.
Hoops talk
This past week Justin Young, Jerry Meyers and Mike Pegram have filled a series of reports from the AAU tournaments in Las Vegas. It was nifty reading that Travon Woodall stole the ball in overtime and then dropped in free throws to lead his team to a victory. Rutger’s commit Mike Rosario is his team’s leading scorer but I like Woodall a lot. He tends to be overshadowed by Rosario but he is a solid player. It should be fun following St Anthony’s this year.
I did not like reading AAU coach Brione Gillion saying that Eloy Vargas may wait until the late signing period. I don’t like any delays in Vargas making a decision. This sounds like he wants a perfect situation for early playing time. It would be hard making a favorable projection at Pitt. Any incoming freshman in the Class of 2008 might have to battle Sam Young, Tyrell Biggs, Dejuan Blair, Cassin Diggs, Gary McGhee and/or Gilbert Brown up front for playing time. Reports out of Las Vegas have Coach Dixon looking at Quintrell Thomas (6’ 8”), Allan Chaney (6’ 8”) and Troy Gillenwater (6’ 8”). I have no doubt there are others the coaching staff is looking at.
We were shocked to hear of the death of Wake Forest coach Skip Prosser. He was a native of Carnegie and a life long Steelers fan. I came across one report that indicated he used to travel to Baltimore a lot with hopes of seeing a Steelers game at a bar. He came very close to becoming the Pitt basketball coach when Ben Howland left. Coach Prosser was well on his way to landing the best recruiting class of his career when he passed away. He has verbal commitments from three five-star players. His passing is a sad story.
Recruiting roundup
This week we reported on Dublin Coffman quarterback Zack Stoudt. He now has offers from Pitt, Bowling Green and Eastern Michigan. Possibly the Pitt roster which has a true freshman quarterback in Pat Bostick and two redshirt freshmen quarterback bothers him. In any event he is in no hurry to jump on a Pitt offer. Pitt may have to look elsewhere for a quarterback.
We also reported on Dublin Coffman linebacker Steve Gardiner this week. This looks like it will get down to Pitt and Northwestern. His girl friend goes to Vanderbilt. One could argue that it is similar school to Northwestern. I don’t like the fact that Zack Stoudt might influence his decision.
We also had an article on the Ticker on quarterback Brian Taaffe. He is the son of Coach Charlie Taaffe who spent a year on Dave Wannstedt’s staff so maybe he will make his way into the quarterback mix.
Kiski’s Area quarterback Josh Vick met with the Pitt coaches this week. They have not offered but they will continue to follow his progress this fall. We will have an article later today.
Star Jackson was at the Elite 11 quarterback camp this week. We have had a numerous reports this week on him this week including some video. I do not like Pitt’s chances in this one but we will continue to monitor him. One of his coaches has a West Virginia connection so do not rule out the Mountaineers.
We spoke to A. J. Alexander from Altoona. After decommitting from Florida State he named Penn State, Florida State, Tennessee, West Virginia and Virginia Tech as his top five. He told me the only reason that he listed those five is that is those five that have stayed in touch. He said he has not heard from Pitt in sometime. Not sure why Pitt backed off. Perhaps they thought he was leaning to Penn State.
Hopefully you saw Chris Peak’s post on tight end Nic DiLillo getting an offer from Ohio State. He reportedly told the Buckeyes no thanks. He wants to be a Panther. We will continue to monitor the situation.
Brandon Beachum and Taylor Hill from Youngstown Cardinal Mooney are set to announce this weekend. Neither has shown any interest in Pitt in recent weeks but at least it will allow us to clear them off our Big Board.
Thomas Jefferson is at the Hoover passing camp in Alabama this weekend. Rivals analyst JC Shurburtt will be there covering it for you. Coach Novak took his Woodland Hills team there a few years ago. His team had another commitment one year and Coach Novak passed the baton to his protégé Bill Cherpak who has been taking TJ there ever since. Lucas Nix will play center although he told me he is trying to talk Coach Cherpak at using him at tight end for a few plays.
We had another article on the Ticker this week on DE Jake Stoller from the University school near Cleveland. As we reported a week ago this should get down to Pitt and Wisconsin. Last week I reported I had a cousin who played baseball at Pitt in the ‘50’s and later coached baseball at the University School. I was talking to his brother in-law this past weekend and he told me he is still playing on a softball team at age 74. I guess he never got playing baseball out of his system.
We still like Pitt’s chances with Averin Collier and Jonathan Baldwin. Collier should commit this summer but I think Baldwin will take longer.
Ronald Hobby is scheduled to visit Pitt today. The Pitt coaches first saw him at the Elite Camp in New Jersey. They saw him again at the Nike Camp in State College in May. He then attended Pitt’s summer camp in June. We have written about him on several occasions. He always claimed an oral offer. We think he will get his written offer today.
This is the third tip to Pittsburgh this year for Hobby. He is coming with his parents and we think there is a very good chance he will commit to Pitt this weekend. He had a hand injury a year ago and missed several games. As a result he was not high on the recruiting radar. The Pitt coaches had an opportunity to watch him workout on three separate occasions so you will have to trust their judgment. He sounds like a nice young man with a bubbly personality.
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.
The Travel Guide
Rivals.com is schedule to release a new feature this coming week designed to help college football fans on road trips. If you are traveling to Virginia, Michigan State, Louisville or Rutgers this year it might help you out on things to see on your road trip. If you travel to Morgantown you are on your own. Hopefully this new feature will be fun and informative at the same time.
Rivals.com picks West Virginia No. 2 in the country
Rivals.com has West Virginia playing Southern Cal for the national championship in their preseason predictions. The Mountaineers have road trips to Maryland, Rutgers and South Florida. WVU has Pitt, Louisville and Mississippi State at home.
There are question marks about the West Virginia defense but if they get any kind of help from Noel Devine they may score every time they have the ball barring turnovers or penalties. If Steve Slaton, Pat White and Noel Devine stay healthy the WVU offense will have speed, speed and more speed.
Some think the Big East could get two BCS berth this year. For that to happen West Virginia would probably have to go unbeaten and Louisville would have to go 11-1 with a close loss in Morgantown. There are other scenarios were the Big East could get two berths but I think this is their best shot. Should that happen Big East commissioner Mike Tranghese would be hard to live with.
On the other hand the articles this week on possible Big 10/11 expansion are a cause for concern. The new Big Ten television network is trying to charge cable operators $1.10 per month if there is a Big Ten school in your state and $.10 per month if there is no Big Ten School in your state. Adding a school in another state with a large population might make sense. These articles suggest Syracuse or Rutgers are under consideration. If the Big Ten expands I think they will target Rutgers. It is a state school similar to most Big Ten schools. It might also get a boost for cable carriage from their local politicians. You could probably add $25 million in revenue annually from New Jersey cable operators. Comcast is headquartered in Philadelphia and has a significant operation in New Jersey.
Fall camp is just around the corner
We did not like reading that Dan Matha will need shoulder surgery. Matha probably figured to redshirt this year but he will lose valuable practice time. Pitt graduates tackles Mike McGlynn and Jeff Otah after this season. You would love for him to be in a position to challenge for a tackle spot next fall. This will set certainly set him back a bit.
In a little more than a week Pitt will start fall camp. We hear LeSean McCoy has impressed folks on the Southside. He will play a significant role in the Pitt offense this fall. He has been catching the ball well in drills. I can hardly wait him for McCoy to be turned lose in a scrimmage.
Pat Bostick has also been impressing folks with his ability to understand the Pitt offense. Bostick is listed in the media guide at 230 pounds. He reported to Pitt at 238 pounds but we hear Buddy Morris now has him at 218 pounds. I do not think Bostick will be redshirted this year. I am still not sure he will open the season against Eastern Michigan but we will see.
If Dorin Dickerson stays healthy we expect Dorin Dickerson, Shane Murray and Scott McKillop to be your starting linebackers. Shayne Murray is getting very high marks for his understanding of the game. Dickerson is getting very high praise for his speed and athleticism. Dickerson has the potential to be the best of the three if he stays healthy.
Dave Wannstedt indicated at Media Day that if St Edward’s Kyle Hubbard wanted out of his scholarship to play basketball they would give him a release. It was implied that would not give him a release to play football elsewhere. Our sources say its looks like this will play out with Hubbard being given a release to play basketball at Cleveland State. As we indicated last week this should open the doors to lineman Wayne Jones (6’ 2” 315). Instead of a greyshirt they could put Jones on scholarship in September.
We were saddened to read this past week that Tyler Tkach’s brother had passed away at age 25. Coach Tkack was always a pleasure to talk to when Pitt was recruiting Tyler. It is tough for parents to lose a child. My mother has passed away but she always said she did not care how long she lived but did not want to out live any of her children. Our prayers and thoughts go out at the Tkach family.
In case you missed it yesterday our sources say senior defensive end Joe Clermond tested negative for marijuana use. At the time they arrested the five young men they found marijuana in the car last weekend. It was not Clermond’s car. They did not find and drugs on him and now he has passed the drug test. Our sources say it may take some time for the legal system to deal with this matter but it should go away for Joe over time.
Chris Peak has interviewed Conor Lee and Brian Kaiser. He has a three part series on what it is like to walk-on at a major college program.
Two-deep chart and rosters
We have updated our depth chart based on the one released by Pitt in their media guide. We have also updated the Pitt football roster. It should give you a good handle on the scholarship players the coaching staff will have available this fall. The heights and weights are based on the figures released by Pitt. Go to the roster and do a sort by position. Much of the fun over the next several weeks will be speculating on the incoming Class of 2007. Which ones will crack the two-deep chart? Which players can expect to see some playing time this fall?
Media Day Central
You will find links on our Home Page or on the Between Fifth & Forbes message board to Media Day Central. Rivals.com has been churning out articles on all of the BCS conferences. You might want to check the Media Central link to see if there is an article that might interest you. The Big Ten has theirs early next week. There are already reports up on the other BCS conferences.
The Rivals Minute
Rivals.com has started a new feature titled the Rivals Minute. Ashley Russell will host a one minute video recap of some of the items going on that day. It runs on the Rivals Football national page. We will try to link many of these reports on the Between Fifth & Forbes message board.
Ashley’s mother is a songwriter so she has a show biz background. At a recent conference for publishers they recognized several sites for their efforts this past year. The publishers that won awards got their picture taken with Ashley which many thought was better reward than the plaque they received.
Hoops talk
This past week Justin Young, Jerry Meyers and Mike Pegram have filled a series of reports from the AAU tournaments in Las Vegas. It was nifty reading that Travon Woodall stole the ball in overtime and then dropped in free throws to lead his team to a victory. Rutger’s commit Mike Rosario is his team’s leading scorer but I like Woodall a lot. He tends to be overshadowed by Rosario but he is a solid player. It should be fun following St Anthony’s this year.
I did not like reading AAU coach Brione Gillion saying that Eloy Vargas may wait until the late signing period. I don’t like any delays in Vargas making a decision. This sounds like he wants a perfect situation for early playing time. It would be hard making a favorable projection at Pitt. Any incoming freshman in the Class of 2008 might have to battle Sam Young, Tyrell Biggs, Dejuan Blair, Cassin Diggs, Gary McGhee and/or Gilbert Brown up front for playing time. Reports out of Las Vegas have Coach Dixon looking at Quintrell Thomas (6’ 8”), Allan Chaney (6’ 8”) and Troy Gillenwater (6’ 8”). I have no doubt there are others the coaching staff is looking at.
We were shocked to hear of the death of Wake Forest coach Skip Prosser. He was a native of Carnegie and a life long Steelers fan. I came across one report that indicated he used to travel to Baltimore a lot with hopes of seeing a Steelers game at a bar. He came very close to becoming the Pitt basketball coach when Ben Howland left. Coach Prosser was well on his way to landing the best recruiting class of his career when he passed away. He has verbal commitments from three five-star players. His passing is a sad story.
Recruiting roundup
This week we reported on Dublin Coffman quarterback Zack Stoudt. He now has offers from Pitt, Bowling Green and Eastern Michigan. Possibly the Pitt roster which has a true freshman quarterback in Pat Bostick and two redshirt freshmen quarterback bothers him. In any event he is in no hurry to jump on a Pitt offer. Pitt may have to look elsewhere for a quarterback.
We also reported on Dublin Coffman linebacker Steve Gardiner this week. This looks like it will get down to Pitt and Northwestern. His girl friend goes to Vanderbilt. One could argue that it is similar school to Northwestern. I don’t like the fact that Zack Stoudt might influence his decision.
We also had an article on the Ticker on quarterback Brian Taaffe. He is the son of Coach Charlie Taaffe who spent a year on Dave Wannstedt’s staff so maybe he will make his way into the quarterback mix.
Kiski’s Area quarterback Josh Vick met with the Pitt coaches this week. They have not offered but they will continue to follow his progress this fall. We will have an article later today.
Star Jackson was at the Elite 11 quarterback camp this week. We have had a numerous reports this week on him this week including some video. I do not like Pitt’s chances in this one but we will continue to monitor him. One of his coaches has a West Virginia connection so do not rule out the Mountaineers.
We spoke to A. J. Alexander from Altoona. After decommitting from Florida State he named Penn State, Florida State, Tennessee, West Virginia and Virginia Tech as his top five. He told me the only reason that he listed those five is that is those five that have stayed in touch. He said he has not heard from Pitt in sometime. Not sure why Pitt backed off. Perhaps they thought he was leaning to Penn State.
Hopefully you saw Chris Peak’s post on tight end Nic DiLillo getting an offer from Ohio State. He reportedly told the Buckeyes no thanks. He wants to be a Panther. We will continue to monitor the situation.
Brandon Beachum and Taylor Hill from Youngstown Cardinal Mooney are set to announce this weekend. Neither has shown any interest in Pitt in recent weeks but at least it will allow us to clear them off our Big Board.
Thomas Jefferson is at the Hoover passing camp in Alabama this weekend. Rivals analyst JC Shurburtt will be there covering it for you. Coach Novak took his Woodland Hills team there a few years ago. His team had another commitment one year and Coach Novak passed the baton to his protégé Bill Cherpak who has been taking TJ there ever since. Lucas Nix will play center although he told me he is trying to talk Coach Cherpak at using him at tight end for a few plays.
We had another article on the Ticker this week on DE Jake Stoller from the University school near Cleveland. As we reported a week ago this should get down to Pitt and Wisconsin. Last week I reported I had a cousin who played baseball at Pitt in the ‘50’s and later coached baseball at the University School. I was talking to his brother in-law this past weekend and he told me he is still playing on a softball team at age 74. I guess he never got playing baseball out of his system.
We still like Pitt’s chances with Averin Collier and Jonathan Baldwin. Collier should commit this summer but I think Baldwin will take longer.
Ronald Hobby is scheduled to visit Pitt today. The Pitt coaches first saw him at the Elite Camp in New Jersey. They saw him again at the Nike Camp in State College in May. He then attended Pitt’s summer camp in June. We have written about him on several occasions. He always claimed an oral offer. We think he will get his written offer today.
This is the third tip to Pittsburgh this year for Hobby. He is coming with his parents and we think there is a very good chance he will commit to Pitt this weekend. He had a hand injury a year ago and missed several games. As a result he was not high on the recruiting radar. The Pitt coaches had an opportunity to watch him workout on three separate occasions so you will have to trust their judgment. He sounds like a nice young man with a bubbly personality.
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.
