From the desk of Jim Snyder
The Rivals Recruiting Yearbook will be shipped November 14th. It is available to annual subscription subscribers. It is supposedly much better than last years issue. The size has increased from 144 pages last year to 192 pages this year. It is not only bigger but better.
Rivals will launch a national basketball page later this month. The new site is currently in beta testing. As soon as the bugs are worked out it will be released. There are a number of other upgrades to the network in the system that will be rolled out over the next six months.
If you have not stopped by the Center Court at the Pete message board this week Chris Peak has the stats up from the Fan Fest scrimmage plus two photo galleries.
Pitt has verbal commitment from West Allegheny’s Dorin Dickerson and Gateway’s Aaron Smith. Both players are projected to play wide receiver at Pitt next fall. For a while we thought they were out of the market for another wide receiver but maybe Greg Lee caught their attention with the remark that he might enter the NFL draft next year. In any event Pitt has two wide receivers lined up for official visits. Wide receiver Jamar Howard (6’ 5” 200) from Cincinnati Woodrow will visit next week for the UConn game and Darrelle Davis (6’ 4” 200) from Dade City Florida is visiting on December 2nd.
We spoke this week to Cincinnati Woodrow Coach “Doc” Gamble this week. Coach Gamble told us that Jamar Howard transferred in the middle of the basketball season from a school in our conference. “The coaches at his old school were not happy and would not give us video. He would have made offers early in the process if we had video to send out to colleges. “He is unbelievable. He is also one of the best basketball players in Cincinnati. We just throw him short hitches and watch him go. He finished the year with 58 catches for 708 yards and 10 touchdowns.
“Doc” Gamble went on to say. “We finished our year at 6-4. We lost 3 games in the final seconds. We will have 6 or 7 players sign Division 1 Letters Of Intent. I told our players that it will be our day when you all sign Letters of Intent. The players tease me that they will blame the coach for losing four games. Pitt told me they were not really looking to take another wide receiver but when they saw him on video they said he was simply too good to pass up. He will probably visit Pitt, West Virginia, Iowa, Purdue and Illinois.”
We spoke to Johnstown Coach Bob Acurio. He told us that offensive lineman Mike Kush is playing as well as anyone on his team right now but most of the interest is coming from the MAC Conference. He is visiting Toledo and Youngstown.
Our “birdies say that Pitt is probably going to take 21 or 22 players this year. In addition they may grayshirt one or two players depending on how they finish. We are not sure who they would grayshirt but Baldwin’s Justin Hargrove is an obvious candidate. We reported on Between Fifth and Forbes message board that the doctors have told him he could play next year but any time you suffer a head injury it might be best to give your injury all the time it needs to assure it does not happen again. Pitt already has 19 verbal commitments so there might not be many scholarships left to give. Hanging on to the ones you have might be the biggest challenge. We reported last week that Joe Thomas and Ricky Gary continue to be recruited by other schools. West Virginia seems to be testing the resolve of a number of local players.
Keep checking the “official visit” list. You seldom sign anyone that is unwilling to spend one of their visits on you. We still think Pitt is still in the hunt with Tamarcus Porter, offensive lineman Jeff Otah, Elijah Fields, quarterback Thaddeus Lewis, defensive lineman Gene Atkins, defensive lineman Jared Martin and defensive end McKenzie Mathews. In the case of Mathews he made an unsolicited phone call to Harry to tell him he had received a visit from Dave Wannstedt so he might be interested in Pitt than some think.
We hear rumors that they are also still looking a couple of local players including one from the city league. A number of schools are testing the resolve of Pitt recruits but we hear Pitt is also testing a few that have committed elsewhere.
This time of year you must either go head to head with other BCS schools for recruits or you must find sleepers. JUCO Lowell Robinson might fall into this category. Wide receiver Jamar Howard from Cincinnati is no longer a sleeper but might be considered as someone that benefited from a big senior season.
Jeremy Crabtree e-mailed me today to say that Pitt remains the leader for offensive tackle Jeff Otah. He has dropped Maryland and Michigan State from consideration but that Oklahoma is now in the hunt for the big guy.
Harry talked to Clarence Bailey of Lackawanna Junior College. Pitt is now offering him a scholarship. He asked Harry to call back. He is pondering if Pitt will get a visit. At last count he had already scheduled visit to two other schools.
Jamie Dixon has forward Tyler Smith in for a visit this weekend. Many schools are chasing him. They are hoping he does not sign early. The early signing period for basketball starts next week. Pitt hoops fans should cross their fingers he has a great visit and then signs on the dotted line next week. This four-star prospect would be a great pick up for the Pitt basketball program.
Ramblings from Louisville
First let me say that Papa John Stadium is a terrific college venue. The sight lines are great. There isn’t a bad seat in the house. They also know how to move traffic after the game. They should send the Pittsburgh police force to Louisville for a lesson on how to move a crowd.
The only negative is that beer is too readily available. That might sound like a strange complaint but there were a few Pitt fans that let the beer do their talking. There was one bonehead that blasted Pitt players despite the fact that he was surrounded by their parents. It was an ugly scene. Not sure the bonehead cared.
Louisville is a great edition to the new Big East Conference. They will be more than just competitive in both football and basketball. The will get better in football as time goes on and they aren't bad right now.
The best team won Thursday night in Louisville. The Cards dominated every stat. They have more first downs, more total yards, more time of possession and most importantly more points. If you are going to beat a 3-touchdown favorite on the road you had better do everything right (or almost everything). Pitt did not. Special teams play in the first quarter bordered on the absurd. Fumbles, penalties and bad snaps from center put Pitt in an early hole. Quarterback Brian Brohm, tailback Michael Bush and defensive end Elvis Dumeral all gave Pitt problems. Louisville did not punt once at Papa John Stadium Thursday and that stat might tell you all you need to know.
Coach Wannstedt needs to hit the recruiting trail to try and upgrade the talent level while hoping some of the young players benefit from the playing time.
We will try to get some photos from the Louisville trip up later this weekend.
The Pitt football program started the season with high hopes. It turns out there is more work to be done that most folks thought. Quite frankly probably more than Coach Wannstedt thought.
As Pitt prepares to open the season a quite optimism is building about Pitt basketball. I am starting to think they may be better than the experts think. Pitt had some nice early wins last year. I am not so sure the experts are allowing the late season fade to obscure the talent level at Pitt right now. A NCAA bid might be a good goal for this year with a chance for a serious move up the polls a distinct possibility for next year.
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 11/4 8:03 PM by Jim Pantherlairif(GetAdminCookie() != 0) {document.write(' (Revisions[/URL])');}
The Rivals Recruiting Yearbook will be shipped November 14th. It is available to annual subscription subscribers. It is supposedly much better than last years issue. The size has increased from 144 pages last year to 192 pages this year. It is not only bigger but better.
Rivals will launch a national basketball page later this month. The new site is currently in beta testing. As soon as the bugs are worked out it will be released. There are a number of other upgrades to the network in the system that will be rolled out over the next six months.
If you have not stopped by the Center Court at the Pete message board this week Chris Peak has the stats up from the Fan Fest scrimmage plus two photo galleries.
Pitt has verbal commitment from West Allegheny’s Dorin Dickerson and Gateway’s Aaron Smith. Both players are projected to play wide receiver at Pitt next fall. For a while we thought they were out of the market for another wide receiver but maybe Greg Lee caught their attention with the remark that he might enter the NFL draft next year. In any event Pitt has two wide receivers lined up for official visits. Wide receiver Jamar Howard (6’ 5” 200) from Cincinnati Woodrow will visit next week for the UConn game and Darrelle Davis (6’ 4” 200) from Dade City Florida is visiting on December 2nd.
We spoke this week to Cincinnati Woodrow Coach “Doc” Gamble this week. Coach Gamble told us that Jamar Howard transferred in the middle of the basketball season from a school in our conference. “The coaches at his old school were not happy and would not give us video. He would have made offers early in the process if we had video to send out to colleges. “He is unbelievable. He is also one of the best basketball players in Cincinnati. We just throw him short hitches and watch him go. He finished the year with 58 catches for 708 yards and 10 touchdowns.
“Doc” Gamble went on to say. “We finished our year at 6-4. We lost 3 games in the final seconds. We will have 6 or 7 players sign Division 1 Letters Of Intent. I told our players that it will be our day when you all sign Letters of Intent. The players tease me that they will blame the coach for losing four games. Pitt told me they were not really looking to take another wide receiver but when they saw him on video they said he was simply too good to pass up. He will probably visit Pitt, West Virginia, Iowa, Purdue and Illinois.”
We spoke to Johnstown Coach Bob Acurio. He told us that offensive lineman Mike Kush is playing as well as anyone on his team right now but most of the interest is coming from the MAC Conference. He is visiting Toledo and Youngstown.
Our “birdies say that Pitt is probably going to take 21 or 22 players this year. In addition they may grayshirt one or two players depending on how they finish. We are not sure who they would grayshirt but Baldwin’s Justin Hargrove is an obvious candidate. We reported on Between Fifth and Forbes message board that the doctors have told him he could play next year but any time you suffer a head injury it might be best to give your injury all the time it needs to assure it does not happen again. Pitt already has 19 verbal commitments so there might not be many scholarships left to give. Hanging on to the ones you have might be the biggest challenge. We reported last week that Joe Thomas and Ricky Gary continue to be recruited by other schools. West Virginia seems to be testing the resolve of a number of local players.
Keep checking the “official visit” list. You seldom sign anyone that is unwilling to spend one of their visits on you. We still think Pitt is still in the hunt with Tamarcus Porter, offensive lineman Jeff Otah, Elijah Fields, quarterback Thaddeus Lewis, defensive lineman Gene Atkins, defensive lineman Jared Martin and defensive end McKenzie Mathews. In the case of Mathews he made an unsolicited phone call to Harry to tell him he had received a visit from Dave Wannstedt so he might be interested in Pitt than some think.
We hear rumors that they are also still looking a couple of local players including one from the city league. A number of schools are testing the resolve of Pitt recruits but we hear Pitt is also testing a few that have committed elsewhere.
This time of year you must either go head to head with other BCS schools for recruits or you must find sleepers. JUCO Lowell Robinson might fall into this category. Wide receiver Jamar Howard from Cincinnati is no longer a sleeper but might be considered as someone that benefited from a big senior season.
Jeremy Crabtree e-mailed me today to say that Pitt remains the leader for offensive tackle Jeff Otah. He has dropped Maryland and Michigan State from consideration but that Oklahoma is now in the hunt for the big guy.
Harry talked to Clarence Bailey of Lackawanna Junior College. Pitt is now offering him a scholarship. He asked Harry to call back. He is pondering if Pitt will get a visit. At last count he had already scheduled visit to two other schools.
Jamie Dixon has forward Tyler Smith in for a visit this weekend. Many schools are chasing him. They are hoping he does not sign early. The early signing period for basketball starts next week. Pitt hoops fans should cross their fingers he has a great visit and then signs on the dotted line next week. This four-star prospect would be a great pick up for the Pitt basketball program.
Ramblings from Louisville
First let me say that Papa John Stadium is a terrific college venue. The sight lines are great. There isn’t a bad seat in the house. They also know how to move traffic after the game. They should send the Pittsburgh police force to Louisville for a lesson on how to move a crowd.
The only negative is that beer is too readily available. That might sound like a strange complaint but there were a few Pitt fans that let the beer do their talking. There was one bonehead that blasted Pitt players despite the fact that he was surrounded by their parents. It was an ugly scene. Not sure the bonehead cared.
Louisville is a great edition to the new Big East Conference. They will be more than just competitive in both football and basketball. The will get better in football as time goes on and they aren't bad right now.
The best team won Thursday night in Louisville. The Cards dominated every stat. They have more first downs, more total yards, more time of possession and most importantly more points. If you are going to beat a 3-touchdown favorite on the road you had better do everything right (or almost everything). Pitt did not. Special teams play in the first quarter bordered on the absurd. Fumbles, penalties and bad snaps from center put Pitt in an early hole. Quarterback Brian Brohm, tailback Michael Bush and defensive end Elvis Dumeral all gave Pitt problems. Louisville did not punt once at Papa John Stadium Thursday and that stat might tell you all you need to know.
Coach Wannstedt needs to hit the recruiting trail to try and upgrade the talent level while hoping some of the young players benefit from the playing time.
We will try to get some photos from the Louisville trip up later this weekend.
The Pitt football program started the season with high hopes. It turns out there is more work to be done that most folks thought. Quite frankly probably more than Coach Wannstedt thought.
As Pitt prepares to open the season a quite optimism is building about Pitt basketball. I am starting to think they may be better than the experts think. Pitt had some nice early wins last year. I am not so sure the experts are allowing the late season fade to obscure the talent level at Pitt right now. A NCAA bid might be a good goal for this year with a chance for a serious move up the polls a distinct possibility for next year.
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 11/4 8:03 PM by Jim Pantherlairif(GetAdminCookie() != 0) {document.write(' (Revisions[/URL])');}
