From the desk of Jim Snyder
Rivals Conference
Today will be an abbreviated War Room in large part because Rivals.com is holding its annual conference on Thursday and Friday of this week. Rivals.com is scheduled to have over 130 publishers together for meetings in Nashville. I think this is about the fifth year for these meetings. Hopefully many in attendance will learn a few new tricks to help make the entire network better.
New and improved
Over the next few months Rivals is scheduled to totally revamp the look and feel of the Rivals network. They have always considered themselves a leader in this area and they hope to push the envelope and widen the margin. There will be upgrades to the message boards, the high school prospect database, the college player’s database and the Home Page. Some will be apparent within a few weeks while others will take a few months. They have a team of approximate two dozen technical staff members working on it.
A Rivals Top 100 prospect
We spoke to Joe Haden this week in an attempt to cleanup his profile in the Rivals database. When he started to name his top schools he mentioned Florida first and Pitt second. He now wants to be a wide receiver so this may swing a little bit on how Pitt does with a few of the local wide receivers. We asked Joe about Maryland. This would be his hometown school. He told me to take them out of his database. It sure looks like the fence has holes in it in Maryland. It also tells you he is prepared to go away to college. This guys dad has appears to have a big influence and Pitt is now one of the closest schools to him among those that he is considering. Pitt will have plenty of competition on this one.
Rivals top 250
Rivals.com released their Top 250 earlier this week. So far the Pitt coaching staff has offered scholarships to 9 of the Top 100 players and at least 19 of the Top 250 players. Pitt, like most colleges, recruits on a regional basis so there is a limit to how many Pitt would recruit in any one year.
Plan “B”
Pitt has offered fullback Henry Hynoski from Southern Columbia. If they are not successful with Hynoski they might turn to Devan Johnson who we featured yesterday. He plays tight end for Coach George Novak at Woodland Hills but most schools are looking at him as a fullback. He is now 6’ 2” tall and now weighs 235 pounds. Devan is the half-brother of former Panther running back Kevan Barlow. He has returned kickoffs and punts at Woodland Hills. Check out his video. He will camp at Pitt this weekend.
Pitt holds summer camps
This weekend Pitt will hold their summer camp at the UPMC complex. Next week they will hold a passing camp. This will give Pitt coaches a chance to look at a number of players working out. This past two weeks we have introduced a half dozen players that have recently received scholarship offers. You can expect several more prospects to pick up offer in the next couple of weeks.
Looking for linemen
Penn State has told a number of recruits they have a limited number of scholarships this year and may pass out as few as 16 scholarships. They have also said they took several offensive lineman last year limiting their ability to offer this year. If this is true Pitt should be able to fill their needs up front on the offensive line this year. One source said DW said he was not worried about their ability to fill their needs up front. This could be a partial reason why. He felt they were in on enough quality kids they would get their share. He felt Chris Jacobson was the best OL candidate in the state.
An update on Jordan Mabin
I spoke with Mabin’s father late this week. Nordonia’s Jordan Mabin will be at the Pitt camp on Friday. Not sure if he will workout. The plan was to stop at Pitt on Friday and then go on to watch the Big 33 game in Hershey on Saturday. Now that Mabin’s cousin, Dorin Dickerson, is injured he was unsure if they would still make the trip to see the Big 33 game. Apparently the Mabin’s and Dickerson’s have attended the last three Big 33 games together.
The Big East and the networks
The Big East now has deals with CBS in basketball and with ABC/ESPN for football and basketball. Don’t forget down the road Notre Dame has agreed to play four Big East teams each year. This guarantees conference exposure on NBC. It looks like the conference will get plenty of network exposure in their new deals and more money.
Its only a verbal commitment
I have no idea what Perry’s Jared Williams was thinking about when he went camping in Morgantown. Guys with only one offer should be very careful. You can never be sure a better deal is going to come your way. We are still showing a Pitt offer in the database but a very brief communiqué from the Southside suggests this could be a case of don’t let the door hit you on the way out. I hope this does not affect the relationship with Perry High School but you never know how these things play themselves out.
Nearing some hoops decisions
Pitt center Aaron Gray will decide this weekend if he will stay in the NBA draft or return to Pitt. Pitt should be in the top ten or very close to it with plenty of network coverage next fall if Gray returns. Pitt should still field a representative team without him but they would obviously have a few more challenges inside.
Pitt should also find out within the next few days where they stand with forward Dan Werner. Based on my conversation with the coaches and others that have talked to the father this has come down to Florida, Kentucky and Pitt. It is pretty fancy company in this battle. Maybe the fact that Mike Rice was recruiting him at St. Joseph’s will help? We should know soon.
One more top 250 football prospect
Over the past 10 days we have introduced you to a half dozen recruits that Pitt recently made offers to. We have also been interviewing a number of players that we think will attend the Pitt summer camp. One of the players we failed to make connections with is Nick Jenkins. He is a defensive tackle out of Damascus, Maryland and is a Rivals Top 250 selection. He has interest in the Panthers. Check him out in the football database.
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.
Rivals Conference
Today will be an abbreviated War Room in large part because Rivals.com is holding its annual conference on Thursday and Friday of this week. Rivals.com is scheduled to have over 130 publishers together for meetings in Nashville. I think this is about the fifth year for these meetings. Hopefully many in attendance will learn a few new tricks to help make the entire network better.
New and improved
Over the next few months Rivals is scheduled to totally revamp the look and feel of the Rivals network. They have always considered themselves a leader in this area and they hope to push the envelope and widen the margin. There will be upgrades to the message boards, the high school prospect database, the college player’s database and the Home Page. Some will be apparent within a few weeks while others will take a few months. They have a team of approximate two dozen technical staff members working on it.
A Rivals Top 100 prospect
We spoke to Joe Haden this week in an attempt to cleanup his profile in the Rivals database. When he started to name his top schools he mentioned Florida first and Pitt second. He now wants to be a wide receiver so this may swing a little bit on how Pitt does with a few of the local wide receivers. We asked Joe about Maryland. This would be his hometown school. He told me to take them out of his database. It sure looks like the fence has holes in it in Maryland. It also tells you he is prepared to go away to college. This guys dad has appears to have a big influence and Pitt is now one of the closest schools to him among those that he is considering. Pitt will have plenty of competition on this one.
Rivals top 250
Rivals.com released their Top 250 earlier this week. So far the Pitt coaching staff has offered scholarships to 9 of the Top 100 players and at least 19 of the Top 250 players. Pitt, like most colleges, recruits on a regional basis so there is a limit to how many Pitt would recruit in any one year.
Plan “B”
Pitt has offered fullback Henry Hynoski from Southern Columbia. If they are not successful with Hynoski they might turn to Devan Johnson who we featured yesterday. He plays tight end for Coach George Novak at Woodland Hills but most schools are looking at him as a fullback. He is now 6’ 2” tall and now weighs 235 pounds. Devan is the half-brother of former Panther running back Kevan Barlow. He has returned kickoffs and punts at Woodland Hills. Check out his video. He will camp at Pitt this weekend.
Pitt holds summer camps
This weekend Pitt will hold their summer camp at the UPMC complex. Next week they will hold a passing camp. This will give Pitt coaches a chance to look at a number of players working out. This past two weeks we have introduced a half dozen players that have recently received scholarship offers. You can expect several more prospects to pick up offer in the next couple of weeks.
Looking for linemen
Penn State has told a number of recruits they have a limited number of scholarships this year and may pass out as few as 16 scholarships. They have also said they took several offensive lineman last year limiting their ability to offer this year. If this is true Pitt should be able to fill their needs up front on the offensive line this year. One source said DW said he was not worried about their ability to fill their needs up front. This could be a partial reason why. He felt they were in on enough quality kids they would get their share. He felt Chris Jacobson was the best OL candidate in the state.
An update on Jordan Mabin
I spoke with Mabin’s father late this week. Nordonia’s Jordan Mabin will be at the Pitt camp on Friday. Not sure if he will workout. The plan was to stop at Pitt on Friday and then go on to watch the Big 33 game in Hershey on Saturday. Now that Mabin’s cousin, Dorin Dickerson, is injured he was unsure if they would still make the trip to see the Big 33 game. Apparently the Mabin’s and Dickerson’s have attended the last three Big 33 games together.
The Big East and the networks
The Big East now has deals with CBS in basketball and with ABC/ESPN for football and basketball. Don’t forget down the road Notre Dame has agreed to play four Big East teams each year. This guarantees conference exposure on NBC. It looks like the conference will get plenty of network exposure in their new deals and more money.
Its only a verbal commitment
I have no idea what Perry’s Jared Williams was thinking about when he went camping in Morgantown. Guys with only one offer should be very careful. You can never be sure a better deal is going to come your way. We are still showing a Pitt offer in the database but a very brief communiqué from the Southside suggests this could be a case of don’t let the door hit you on the way out. I hope this does not affect the relationship with Perry High School but you never know how these things play themselves out.
Nearing some hoops decisions
Pitt center Aaron Gray will decide this weekend if he will stay in the NBA draft or return to Pitt. Pitt should be in the top ten or very close to it with plenty of network coverage next fall if Gray returns. Pitt should still field a representative team without him but they would obviously have a few more challenges inside.
Pitt should also find out within the next few days where they stand with forward Dan Werner. Based on my conversation with the coaches and others that have talked to the father this has come down to Florida, Kentucky and Pitt. It is pretty fancy company in this battle. Maybe the fact that Mike Rice was recruiting him at St. Joseph’s will help? We should know soon.
One more top 250 football prospect
Over the past 10 days we have introduced you to a half dozen recruits that Pitt recently made offers to. We have also been interviewing a number of players that we think will attend the Pitt summer camp. One of the players we failed to make connections with is Nick Jenkins. He is a defensive tackle out of Damascus, Maryland and is a Rivals Top 250 selection. He has interest in the Panthers. Check him out in the football database.
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.
