From the desk of Jim Snyder
Nike Training Camps this weekend
Nike Training Camps will be held this Saturday at State College, Pa. and again on Sunday at Piscataway, New Jersey. There will be no testing at State College and it is during an Evaluation Period so we expect a large turnout of college coaches. We understand Pitt plans to send several coaches. Most of the top prospects from Western Pa should be familiar to our subscribers by now. This camp helps fill out the resumes of players from central and eastern Pennsylvania plus players from Maryland and the Washington D.C. area.
The camp at Rutgers traditionally has a smaller turnout but with the Scarlet Knights on a roll the turnout could be a little larger this year. A couple of players that Pitt is recruiting will be at Rutgers because they have track meets on Saturday.
There is also an Elite 11 regional quarterback camp at State College this weekend.
New and improved
There is a new module on the top right hand side of the Home Page. It will list the most recent videos that have been put in the system. It will also give you a list of the most watched videos on the Pantherlair. This feature will take a little time to build accurate data. Hopefully this will give you another tool for highlighting videos you may have missed.
Some hoops thoughts
Tony Greco of the Pantherlair is from Pittsburgh and graduated from Pitt but in another lifetime he worked in the sports information department at the University of Virginia. Coach Tom Herrion was an assistant to Coach Pete Gillen at that time so Tony knows him. Herrion has the reputation of being a very good recruiter. We hope you caught Tony’s interview with Coach Herrion. He looks like a solid replacement for Mike Rice.
Herrion spent a good deal of time on the Pantherlair late last week before he was finally offered the job.
Georgetown assistant coach Sydney Johnson was recently named the head coach at Princeton so John Thompson has an opening on his staff. Reportedly David Cox is interviewing for the opening which has resulted from Johnson’s departure. As you are aware Cox has ties to the DC Assault AAU basketball program although to date it has not resulted in Pitt landing a player from this program. It seems to me that the resurgence of the Georgetown basketball program plus the fact that Maryland still has a strong program may make it very hard to sneak the top players out of DC area. A number of other ACC schools also hit this area hard.
Rivals.com released their Top 150 basketball prospects for 2008 this past week based on observations made during the April AAU Evaluation Period. It will be updated again after the July Evaluation Period. Jerry Meyer of Rivals.com spoke about the process on Rivals Radio this week. Nasir Robinson has a four-star rating. It is unlikely he will move up until he develops a jump shot. As Chris Peak reported in an interview with Travon Woodall he played injured this past month. Maybe he will be healthy for the July Evaluation Period. It is hard to see him moving up too far when he plays for St. Antony’s. He is not the high scorer and is not really their point guard. Mike Rosario is the high scorer for St. Anthony’s. He is also listed in the Top 150 and is headed to Rutgers. Woodall is playing in one of the top programs in the country. He plays against the best competition. I would not be too concerned about his ranking.
It looks like the NCAA will move the three-point line back next season. The Pitt system has never really relied heavily on the three-point shot so it should not have much of an impact on Coach Dixon’s style of play. Former West Virginia coach John Beilein on the other hand may have to make some adjustments.
Forward Eloy Vargas will be playing in a tournament in Atlanta with Team Breakdown this weekend. Justin Young from Rivals.com will be reporting on this tournament.
Post spring training observations
Louisville’s head coach Steve Kragthorpe has gotten a lot of high praise early from the media. Sometimes when you read the hype it sounds like some think the Cardinals may have upgraded the staff with the departure of Bobby Petrino. There is no doubt Coach Petrino is a very good X’s and O’s guy but some seem to think Coach Kragthorpe style is better suited for the college game. We will see. With quarterback Brian Brohm returning the Cardinals should be ranked in the top 15 to start the season.
We hope you read Olin Buchanan’s spring wrap up article. He reports that South Florida quarterback Matt Grothe was arrested. It appears he was tending bar and has been accused of serving alcohol to minors. If this had happened in State College the charges would be dropped within a week (tops). We will have to see how the folks in Tampa handle this one. Grothe is one of the rising stars in the Big East Conference. Some think the Bulls will be the surprise team in the Big East this fall and are headed for a Top 25 ranking. They have both West Virginia and Louisville at home this year. (Note: There are some good photos with Buchanan’s article so please check them out. There is a link for the Between Fifth & Forbes Board).
Buchanan also had some good observations on Hawaii. Many schools historically scheduled the Rainbows figuring they would get an extra “W” plus it was like taking your players to a bowl game. Coach June Jones has quarterback Colt Brennan throwing the ball all over the field and schools do not want any part of Hawaii right now. They are fun to watch but may not be fun to play right now.
We had more senior video of Shariff Harris this week. He did not play running back as a junior so the more senior video you see the better. The question is with LaRod Stephens-Howling and Kevin Collier returning and LeSean McCoy on the way will Harris remain at running back?
Chris cleaned up our depth chart this week. Check it out. This is how things will look going into fall camp. The incoming freshman will get a chance early to see if they are ready to challenge for spot on this chart. Is junior college transfer Tommie Duhart healthy and in shape to challenge for a spot up front? Will LB Steve Dell and DT Mick Williams be healthy enough to challenge someone?
Pitt opens with Eastern Michigan and Grambling. This might make it easier to give the newcomers a longer look. On offense you have to figure QB Pat Bostick, LeSean McCoy and Chris Jacobson will get long looks. On defense all linebackers will get a long look.
Football recruiting roundup
Recruiting in Pennsylvania has been difficult for Pitt in recent years. Not only have they had to fight of Penn State but Notre Dame, Michigan and Ohio State often recruit in Pennsylvania. Once Rivals.com made Terrelle Pryor the No. 1 prospect in the country it brought many other schools into the state including Florida, Florida State, and Miami. Many of them have apparently concluded while they are in the Keystone State looking at Pryor they might as well check out a few others players. Several players are getting out of state offers because of Terrelle Pryor.
A top six for Pryor should be Pitt, Penn State, Ohio State, West Virginia, Florida and Texas. Pitt is pitching him hard and Coach Dixon has been a big part of the pitch in how he might be able to play both sports in college. The consensus is football will be his primary sport but he would like to play basketball once the football season is over.
Most schools want to bring one quarterback in every year and Pitt does too. At some point they will need to get a read on just where they stand with Pryor so they can look elsewhere if he is not the one. Notre Dame came to the conclusion the odds were against him heading to South Bend and grabbed a quarterback from California. Miami took one out of Texas this week. Others will eventually do the same.
Linebacker is an area of need for Pitt. Montour’s Christian Wilson, Trinity’s Andrew Sweat and Gateway’s Shayne Hale are all being heavily recruited. Of these three the one I would hate to see get away is Shayne Hale. Right now it looks like he wants to go out of state. He was thought to be an Ohio State lean but Michigan has now offered his cousin Cameron Saddler. They have both said they would like to go to school together if possible. This might have Michigan and Virginia at the head of the pack.
Chris Peak interviewed Lucas Nix this week. My guess is he will decide once the May Evaluation Period is over (maybe sometime in June). We still think he is a heavy Pitt lean. Pitt has said they will take three offensive linemen this year but so far Nix is the only one with an offer. Chris Peak has an article on Averin Collier today. My guess is he will wait for a while before he makes a decision.
We had a report Pitt offered Isaiah Pead out of Columbus, Ohio. We interviewed him and he said Pitt would offer once he met with Coach Wannstedt. We are not sure just when that might happen so we have removed this verbal offer from his database temporarily. Pead is listed in the database as a running back but we think Pitt is looking at him as a defensive back.
We also had a report that Pitt had offered defensive back Ronald Hobby out of Maryland. We spoke to his high school coach and to Hobby who both confirmed Pitt had offered but a “birdie” said there is nothing in writing at this time. It is best we simply monitor Hobby and Pead at this time. College coaches are visiting high schools at this time of year. Some go overboard in expressing their interest in a player. It is part of the process.
There has not been much coverage so far on Will Hill out of St. Peter’s High School in New Jersey despite the fact that he is a Top 100 player. We spoke to his father this week. He said they are not giving out interviews for the next six weeks so his son can concentrate on school and taking his SAT exams.
Sometime ago I mentioned that my brother knew Bret Shugarts from their days at IUP. He is the father of J.B. Shugarts who has committed to Ohio State. He sent me an e-mail this week to say Shugarts is trying to recruit Pryor to follow him to Ohio State. The advantage of getting early commitments is they can sometimes help you to recruit.
Last week in the War Room we reported on a linebacker out of Washington DC by the name of Cameron Johnson. The Rivals network had been reporting on him as a basketball prospect. He plays for the DC Assault. He has picked up five football offers recently and it appears football will be his sport. Chris Peak reported on him yesterday.
Chris Peak and Tony Greco are headed to the Nike Camp this weekend along with a contingent of Rivals reporters.
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.
This post was edited on 5/11 9:20 AM by Chris Peakif(GetAdminCookie() != 0) {document.write(' (Revisions[/URL])');}
Nike Training Camps this weekend
Nike Training Camps will be held this Saturday at State College, Pa. and again on Sunday at Piscataway, New Jersey. There will be no testing at State College and it is during an Evaluation Period so we expect a large turnout of college coaches. We understand Pitt plans to send several coaches. Most of the top prospects from Western Pa should be familiar to our subscribers by now. This camp helps fill out the resumes of players from central and eastern Pennsylvania plus players from Maryland and the Washington D.C. area.
The camp at Rutgers traditionally has a smaller turnout but with the Scarlet Knights on a roll the turnout could be a little larger this year. A couple of players that Pitt is recruiting will be at Rutgers because they have track meets on Saturday.
There is also an Elite 11 regional quarterback camp at State College this weekend.
New and improved
There is a new module on the top right hand side of the Home Page. It will list the most recent videos that have been put in the system. It will also give you a list of the most watched videos on the Pantherlair. This feature will take a little time to build accurate data. Hopefully this will give you another tool for highlighting videos you may have missed.
Some hoops thoughts
Tony Greco of the Pantherlair is from Pittsburgh and graduated from Pitt but in another lifetime he worked in the sports information department at the University of Virginia. Coach Tom Herrion was an assistant to Coach Pete Gillen at that time so Tony knows him. Herrion has the reputation of being a very good recruiter. We hope you caught Tony’s interview with Coach Herrion. He looks like a solid replacement for Mike Rice.
Herrion spent a good deal of time on the Pantherlair late last week before he was finally offered the job.
Georgetown assistant coach Sydney Johnson was recently named the head coach at Princeton so John Thompson has an opening on his staff. Reportedly David Cox is interviewing for the opening which has resulted from Johnson’s departure. As you are aware Cox has ties to the DC Assault AAU basketball program although to date it has not resulted in Pitt landing a player from this program. It seems to me that the resurgence of the Georgetown basketball program plus the fact that Maryland still has a strong program may make it very hard to sneak the top players out of DC area. A number of other ACC schools also hit this area hard.
Rivals.com released their Top 150 basketball prospects for 2008 this past week based on observations made during the April AAU Evaluation Period. It will be updated again after the July Evaluation Period. Jerry Meyer of Rivals.com spoke about the process on Rivals Radio this week. Nasir Robinson has a four-star rating. It is unlikely he will move up until he develops a jump shot. As Chris Peak reported in an interview with Travon Woodall he played injured this past month. Maybe he will be healthy for the July Evaluation Period. It is hard to see him moving up too far when he plays for St. Antony’s. He is not the high scorer and is not really their point guard. Mike Rosario is the high scorer for St. Anthony’s. He is also listed in the Top 150 and is headed to Rutgers. Woodall is playing in one of the top programs in the country. He plays against the best competition. I would not be too concerned about his ranking.
It looks like the NCAA will move the three-point line back next season. The Pitt system has never really relied heavily on the three-point shot so it should not have much of an impact on Coach Dixon’s style of play. Former West Virginia coach John Beilein on the other hand may have to make some adjustments.
Forward Eloy Vargas will be playing in a tournament in Atlanta with Team Breakdown this weekend. Justin Young from Rivals.com will be reporting on this tournament.
Post spring training observations
Louisville’s head coach Steve Kragthorpe has gotten a lot of high praise early from the media. Sometimes when you read the hype it sounds like some think the Cardinals may have upgraded the staff with the departure of Bobby Petrino. There is no doubt Coach Petrino is a very good X’s and O’s guy but some seem to think Coach Kragthorpe style is better suited for the college game. We will see. With quarterback Brian Brohm returning the Cardinals should be ranked in the top 15 to start the season.
We hope you read Olin Buchanan’s spring wrap up article. He reports that South Florida quarterback Matt Grothe was arrested. It appears he was tending bar and has been accused of serving alcohol to minors. If this had happened in State College the charges would be dropped within a week (tops). We will have to see how the folks in Tampa handle this one. Grothe is one of the rising stars in the Big East Conference. Some think the Bulls will be the surprise team in the Big East this fall and are headed for a Top 25 ranking. They have both West Virginia and Louisville at home this year. (Note: There are some good photos with Buchanan’s article so please check them out. There is a link for the Between Fifth & Forbes Board).
Buchanan also had some good observations on Hawaii. Many schools historically scheduled the Rainbows figuring they would get an extra “W” plus it was like taking your players to a bowl game. Coach June Jones has quarterback Colt Brennan throwing the ball all over the field and schools do not want any part of Hawaii right now. They are fun to watch but may not be fun to play right now.
We had more senior video of Shariff Harris this week. He did not play running back as a junior so the more senior video you see the better. The question is with LaRod Stephens-Howling and Kevin Collier returning and LeSean McCoy on the way will Harris remain at running back?
Chris cleaned up our depth chart this week. Check it out. This is how things will look going into fall camp. The incoming freshman will get a chance early to see if they are ready to challenge for spot on this chart. Is junior college transfer Tommie Duhart healthy and in shape to challenge for a spot up front? Will LB Steve Dell and DT Mick Williams be healthy enough to challenge someone?
Pitt opens with Eastern Michigan and Grambling. This might make it easier to give the newcomers a longer look. On offense you have to figure QB Pat Bostick, LeSean McCoy and Chris Jacobson will get long looks. On defense all linebackers will get a long look.
Football recruiting roundup
Recruiting in Pennsylvania has been difficult for Pitt in recent years. Not only have they had to fight of Penn State but Notre Dame, Michigan and Ohio State often recruit in Pennsylvania. Once Rivals.com made Terrelle Pryor the No. 1 prospect in the country it brought many other schools into the state including Florida, Florida State, and Miami. Many of them have apparently concluded while they are in the Keystone State looking at Pryor they might as well check out a few others players. Several players are getting out of state offers because of Terrelle Pryor.
A top six for Pryor should be Pitt, Penn State, Ohio State, West Virginia, Florida and Texas. Pitt is pitching him hard and Coach Dixon has been a big part of the pitch in how he might be able to play both sports in college. The consensus is football will be his primary sport but he would like to play basketball once the football season is over.
Most schools want to bring one quarterback in every year and Pitt does too. At some point they will need to get a read on just where they stand with Pryor so they can look elsewhere if he is not the one. Notre Dame came to the conclusion the odds were against him heading to South Bend and grabbed a quarterback from California. Miami took one out of Texas this week. Others will eventually do the same.
Linebacker is an area of need for Pitt. Montour’s Christian Wilson, Trinity’s Andrew Sweat and Gateway’s Shayne Hale are all being heavily recruited. Of these three the one I would hate to see get away is Shayne Hale. Right now it looks like he wants to go out of state. He was thought to be an Ohio State lean but Michigan has now offered his cousin Cameron Saddler. They have both said they would like to go to school together if possible. This might have Michigan and Virginia at the head of the pack.
Chris Peak interviewed Lucas Nix this week. My guess is he will decide once the May Evaluation Period is over (maybe sometime in June). We still think he is a heavy Pitt lean. Pitt has said they will take three offensive linemen this year but so far Nix is the only one with an offer. Chris Peak has an article on Averin Collier today. My guess is he will wait for a while before he makes a decision.
We had a report Pitt offered Isaiah Pead out of Columbus, Ohio. We interviewed him and he said Pitt would offer once he met with Coach Wannstedt. We are not sure just when that might happen so we have removed this verbal offer from his database temporarily. Pead is listed in the database as a running back but we think Pitt is looking at him as a defensive back.
We also had a report that Pitt had offered defensive back Ronald Hobby out of Maryland. We spoke to his high school coach and to Hobby who both confirmed Pitt had offered but a “birdie” said there is nothing in writing at this time. It is best we simply monitor Hobby and Pead at this time. College coaches are visiting high schools at this time of year. Some go overboard in expressing their interest in a player. It is part of the process.
There has not been much coverage so far on Will Hill out of St. Peter’s High School in New Jersey despite the fact that he is a Top 100 player. We spoke to his father this week. He said they are not giving out interviews for the next six weeks so his son can concentrate on school and taking his SAT exams.
Sometime ago I mentioned that my brother knew Bret Shugarts from their days at IUP. He is the father of J.B. Shugarts who has committed to Ohio State. He sent me an e-mail this week to say Shugarts is trying to recruit Pryor to follow him to Ohio State. The advantage of getting early commitments is they can sometimes help you to recruit.
Last week in the War Room we reported on a linebacker out of Washington DC by the name of Cameron Johnson. The Rivals network had been reporting on him as a basketball prospect. He plays for the DC Assault. He has picked up five football offers recently and it appears football will be his sport. Chris Peak reported on him yesterday.
Chris Peak and Tony Greco are headed to the Nike Camp this weekend along with a contingent of Rivals reporters.
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.
This post was edited on 5/11 9:20 AM by Chris Peakif(GetAdminCookie() != 0) {document.write(' (Revisions[/URL])');}
