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From the Desk of Jim Snyder
An update from the Rivals Conference
Late last week over 100 publishers, reporters and recruiting experts gathered in Nashville for Rivals.com’s annual conference. Rivals.com recently moved into space previously occupied by Sun Microsystems. The facility included equipment that Sun Micro Systems no longer needed. Rivals plans to continue to expand into a multi-media service. Extensive use will not only be made of text but audio, pictures and video. As broadband internet service becomes more prevalent and the cost becomes more affordable, Rivals will continue a movement towards a multimedia experience. Subscribers to the Rivals network are already far more likely to have access to broadband service than the general population.
91% of all new subscribers now choose the Ultimate Ticket. Rivals.com is currently offering a special to encourage you to upgrade your service if you do not have the Ultimate Ticket. If you do not have it you should seriously consider taking advantage of this offer. There is not doubt it leads to greater customer satisfaction.
Rivals.com recently commissioned an independent 3rd party to do a study. The results shows that Rivals.com is mentioned 4 times as much as any other recruiting source. The study showed that they were 4 times as likely to be quoted as Tom Lemming who is in second place. Tom Lemming has the ESPN brand giving him a boost.
Navigational hints
Periodically you should stop by the football and basketball databases and click on the tab marked “Offers”. This will give you a quick look at the players Pitt is currently targeting. You can also check the tab marked “Commit List”. This will refresh your memory as to players that have already said, “Pitt is it!” Another nice feature is that you can now easily reference the prospects that signed Letters-of-Intent for the classes of 2004, 2003 and 2002 once you have reviewed the Class of 2005.
For those of you who may be relatively new we suggest you check the “Ticker” from time to time. It is located at the top left hand side of this site. You will usually see from 250 to 280 articles come across the “Ticker” each month. We try to highlight those of particular interest to Pitt fans but occasionally we miss a few.
A little hoops talk
Chris Dokish reported this week that Keith Benjamin has qualified and is in Pittsburgh working out. Ronald Ramon is a solid student that should easily qualify. That leaves John DeGroat. We spoke to his coach, Bryan Joyce, and to be honest did not get straight answers. Classes are over and we asked if he had graduated. We got “mumbo jumbo” for a response. Coach Joyce did repeatedly say he is not concerned about John being eligible this fall. It may be that he needs to take one class or still had not completed work on an existing course. In any event Coach Joyce repeatedly insisted, “He was not worried.” It appears that all three of Coach Dixon recruits will be safely on board this fall.
Football recruiting
Last year the Pitt staff was well on its way to a top 20 recruiting class when the Big East Conference imploded. They lost four players late in the process that had given verbal commitments. In addition they lost James Bryant to Miami on a last minute decision. Had they signed these five they would have landed Pitt’s best class since the 1980’s.
The implosion of the Big East resulted in a lot a negative recruiting including some bad mouthing from coaches from the MAC Conference (largely as a result of their success with wins over Alabama, Maryland, Pitt, Kansas State, Northwestern, Purdue and Iowa State last fall).
Most of the uncertainty surrounding the Big East is now behind them. It appears the Pitt message is being better received than it was at this time last year when rumors were swirling everywhere. Paul Zeise has an article in yesterday’s Post-Gazette on the current recruiting efforts. It is well worth the read.
Mike Gottfried and John Majors often complained about the size of the Pitt summer camps. There was always the implication that the Athletic Department had slipped and allowed the competition to gain the advantage. Summer camps are often a source of revenue for coaches in general. They like to see successful camps because it usually means more money in their pockets. Ohio State, Michigan and Penn State run camps with over 2,000 kids. Obviously very few of these are Division I prospects but still it does help them to get their name out there. I have watched coaches come and go at Pitt for decades and almost all of them have groused about the size of the summer camps. This is not something that has developed in the last ten years. In fact now that summer camps are more common everywhere these days Pitt probably has more players attending now than at anytime that I can recall.
Pitt now has verbal commitments from Johnstown running back LaRod Stephens, Burrell offensive lineman John Brown and Buchtel defensive tackle Marlon Terry. The good news is these players all fill areas of need although they still need more help up front. Pitt still needs to reload at the wide receiver position.
Pitt has a very small senior class and as a result the staff expects a smaller than normal group of recruits this year. They will have a better grasp on that number once you find out just what you have on hand at fall camp.
Locker Room is back
A number of Rivals sites have very popular off topic message boards. The Pantherlair gave it a try some time ago but it became too much to monitor. We will give it another try. The football & basketball boards are generally for the discussion of college sports. If you stray off topic and can no longer find your post please check the Locker Room Board, it may be over there.
Hopefully this will message board will provide a forum for Pitt sport fans to discussion the NFL, NHL, MLB or other subjects nor directly related to college athletics.
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.
From the Desk of Jim Snyder
An update from the Rivals Conference
Late last week over 100 publishers, reporters and recruiting experts gathered in Nashville for Rivals.com’s annual conference. Rivals.com recently moved into space previously occupied by Sun Microsystems. The facility included equipment that Sun Micro Systems no longer needed. Rivals plans to continue to expand into a multi-media service. Extensive use will not only be made of text but audio, pictures and video. As broadband internet service becomes more prevalent and the cost becomes more affordable, Rivals will continue a movement towards a multimedia experience. Subscribers to the Rivals network are already far more likely to have access to broadband service than the general population.
91% of all new subscribers now choose the Ultimate Ticket. Rivals.com is currently offering a special to encourage you to upgrade your service if you do not have the Ultimate Ticket. If you do not have it you should seriously consider taking advantage of this offer. There is not doubt it leads to greater customer satisfaction.
Rivals.com recently commissioned an independent 3rd party to do a study. The results shows that Rivals.com is mentioned 4 times as much as any other recruiting source. The study showed that they were 4 times as likely to be quoted as Tom Lemming who is in second place. Tom Lemming has the ESPN brand giving him a boost.
Navigational hints
Periodically you should stop by the football and basketball databases and click on the tab marked “Offers”. This will give you a quick look at the players Pitt is currently targeting. You can also check the tab marked “Commit List”. This will refresh your memory as to players that have already said, “Pitt is it!” Another nice feature is that you can now easily reference the prospects that signed Letters-of-Intent for the classes of 2004, 2003 and 2002 once you have reviewed the Class of 2005.
For those of you who may be relatively new we suggest you check the “Ticker” from time to time. It is located at the top left hand side of this site. You will usually see from 250 to 280 articles come across the “Ticker” each month. We try to highlight those of particular interest to Pitt fans but occasionally we miss a few.
A little hoops talk
Chris Dokish reported this week that Keith Benjamin has qualified and is in Pittsburgh working out. Ronald Ramon is a solid student that should easily qualify. That leaves John DeGroat. We spoke to his coach, Bryan Joyce, and to be honest did not get straight answers. Classes are over and we asked if he had graduated. We got “mumbo jumbo” for a response. Coach Joyce did repeatedly say he is not concerned about John being eligible this fall. It may be that he needs to take one class or still had not completed work on an existing course. In any event Coach Joyce repeatedly insisted, “He was not worried.” It appears that all three of Coach Dixon recruits will be safely on board this fall.
Football recruiting
Last year the Pitt staff was well on its way to a top 20 recruiting class when the Big East Conference imploded. They lost four players late in the process that had given verbal commitments. In addition they lost James Bryant to Miami on a last minute decision. Had they signed these five they would have landed Pitt’s best class since the 1980’s.
The implosion of the Big East resulted in a lot a negative recruiting including some bad mouthing from coaches from the MAC Conference (largely as a result of their success with wins over Alabama, Maryland, Pitt, Kansas State, Northwestern, Purdue and Iowa State last fall).
Most of the uncertainty surrounding the Big East is now behind them. It appears the Pitt message is being better received than it was at this time last year when rumors were swirling everywhere. Paul Zeise has an article in yesterday’s Post-Gazette on the current recruiting efforts. It is well worth the read.
Mike Gottfried and John Majors often complained about the size of the Pitt summer camps. There was always the implication that the Athletic Department had slipped and allowed the competition to gain the advantage. Summer camps are often a source of revenue for coaches in general. They like to see successful camps because it usually means more money in their pockets. Ohio State, Michigan and Penn State run camps with over 2,000 kids. Obviously very few of these are Division I prospects but still it does help them to get their name out there. I have watched coaches come and go at Pitt for decades and almost all of them have groused about the size of the summer camps. This is not something that has developed in the last ten years. In fact now that summer camps are more common everywhere these days Pitt probably has more players attending now than at anytime that I can recall.
Pitt now has verbal commitments from Johnstown running back LaRod Stephens, Burrell offensive lineman John Brown and Buchtel defensive tackle Marlon Terry. The good news is these players all fill areas of need although they still need more help up front. Pitt still needs to reload at the wide receiver position.
Pitt has a very small senior class and as a result the staff expects a smaller than normal group of recruits this year. They will have a better grasp on that number once you find out just what you have on hand at fall camp.
Locker Room is back
A number of Rivals sites have very popular off topic message boards. The Pantherlair gave it a try some time ago but it became too much to monitor. We will give it another try. The football & basketball boards are generally for the discussion of college sports. If you stray off topic and can no longer find your post please check the Locker Room Board, it may be over there.
Hopefully this will message board will provide a forum for Pitt sport fans to discussion the NFL, NHL, MLB or other subjects nor directly related to college athletics.
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.
