From the desk of Jim Snyder
The annual yearbooks are in the mail
The 192 page Rivals.com annual Recruiting Yearbooks will be mailed on Monday. Please allow five days for delivery if you are an annual subscriber. A large number of subscribers have convert to an annual subscription over the past several weeks. If you are still a monthly subscriber please call Customer Service at 1-866-2-Rivals. There is still time to get a free yearbook.
We have seen a nice growth in subscriptions lately. We would like to take all of the credit but going 6-2 in football helps and being picked to win the Big East in basketball also helps. In addition the entire network continues to see significant growth. We did hear a rumor this past week they we went by a couple of ACC schools and that made us happy.
Fan Fest this weekend
Pitt will hold their annual Fan Fest on Saturday at the “Pete”. Doors will open at 2:30 pm and the event will last until 6:00 pm. The men’s and women’s basketball teams will hold scrimmages. The Big East coaches picked Pitt to finish first this year with Georgetown a very close second. The media had the Hoyas in first place and the Panthers right behind them. There are about 9 teams which should battle it out for first round byes in the Big East tournament.
The strength of this Pitt team should be its depth. Pitt often used a 9-10 man rotation last year. There is no reason to believe you won’t see more of the same this season.
As a general rule I am not a big believer in redshirting basketball players but this year it might be a good idea. Gilbert Brown is still recovering from a bout with mononucleosis. Allan Wallace graduated from high school when he was only 17 and is very young. It is hard to see either one of these getting a lot of minutes this year. It might be best to redshirt them.
There are reports that a number of basketball recruits for the Classes 2008 and 2009 may attend Fan Fest. If you are going keep your eyes peeled for some very tall young men. The Pantherlair will have reporters there. We will have an article up on guard Anthony Crater today. He is scheduled to come to Fan Fest although Pitt does not seem high on his list right now. Hopefully he shows up and Pitt moves up.
The Pitt coaching staff evaluated a number of junior college players and decided they wanted Cassin Diggs. I saw video of a game in which he scored 22 points. I liked what I saw. I think he will help Pitt a lot. It is possible that next year Pitt could return Sam Young, Terrell Biggs, Levance Fields, Keith Benjamin, Mike Cook and Ronald Ramon. Cassin Diggs should buy them time to allow incoming freshman center Gary McGhee (6’ 10”) time to mature. Hopefully the Rivals editing crew won’t wait too long so you can judge for yourself.
Pitt has been in the Big East tournament championship game five of the last six years. If the experts are right they could be back in the finals once again.
A few thoughts on the Rutgers game
We were probably all guilty of under estimating Rutgers. The Scarlet Knights (7-0) have been down for so long our memories have a hard time accepting their recent accomplishments.
You could see the disappointment in Coach Wannstedt face in the post-game press conference. Pitt was totally out played for about 50 minutes but still had a chance to win it. You often win games like this when you are playing at home. Pitt had just scored. The crowd was behind them. On one play the sophomore running back Ray Rice changed the complexion of the game. Good players make often make big plays.
Rutgers is No. 3 in the country in scoring defense and No. 2 in the country in yards allowed. These are the kind of stats that you might expect from a young coach that was once on Dave Wannstedt’s staff. It is the kind of number Coach Wannstedt hopes the Panther achieve down the road. If you look closely at the Rutgers’ schedule it is not impossible that they will be 11-0 when they play West Virginia in Morgantown in early December.
We have said it before and we will say it again. Pitt is two years away from where alums would like them to be. The Pitt team will be better next year but they have a brutal road schedule so it might not show up in the win column. Right now the job is to scratch out a couple of more wins. Hope you get to 8-2 going into the West Virginia/Louisville games. Who knows maybe Pitt come up with a big effort and pulls an upset or two?
Coach Wannstedt is fond of saying he only has a dozen seniors. I am not sure where he gets that number but two of them are former walk-ons (Joe Villani and Joe DelSardo). The junior class is equally small. This is a young team with a lot of players out for the year with injuries. It is more than capable of looking good one week and struggling the next week.
Headed for Tampa
I am headed for Tampa late next week for a mini-vacation so we will not have a War Room article next week. One of the great things about having South Florida in the conference is fans that follow teams in the Northeast can take a little down time in Florida in early November.
We do have a ton of great content coming at you this weekend. Hopefully you read Chris Peake’s article (Behind the scenes with Chris LaSalla). He has a couple of more you should love. We also have a few recruiting articles and some practice photos plus a lot more. Despite the off week by the football team we have a lot of Pitt coverage for you.
Pitt recruiting summary
The Pitt coaching staff was out visiting high schools early this week. Coach Wannstedt indicated in an interview he took a private plane to New York and Washington, DC. You have to assume the New York trip was to visit Milford Academy to check on LeSean McCoy and Aundre Wright and perhaps a few others (maybe linebacker Jermaine Pierce). The trip to DC had to be to see defensive end Tony Tucker. Tucker is scheduled to visit Pitt in early December.
Coach Wannstedt said they would also send four assistant to Florida a day early next week to call on high schools in Florida. These four will recruit the day the football team is flying to Tampa to play South Florida. The staff hit some Florida high schools this week. They will call on the balance late next week.
There are some that feel Pitt may have dropped back in the recruiting of Cameron Heyward. I guess it is never over until it’s over but we did not like they way the tribute to his father came down last week. It was almost if no one knew if he was coming until late and then he just seemed to pop in and pop out.
We got a call from the Michigan site asking us if we were planning on covering theToney Clemons press conference today. We simply told them we had no plans. We would be there if we thought Pitt was still in the picture but all signs seem to say he is headed to Michigan.
Last week Pitt had five players in from Florida for the Rutgers game. They all seemed to have a good visit. Xavier Stinson finally got to see Pittsburgh even though he had committed earlier in the month. We spoke to him this week and he acknowledged that he still had some work to do in the classroom. He seemed determined to get it done. Qualifying is based on a sliding scale. There is still time to pull up your GPA and your SAT scores. I think you get three more chances to take the SAT this school year. One of his teammates Eain Smith has told one of the Rivals reporters that Pitt and Nebraska are now on the top of his list. He told him this after our interview with him which we view as good news.
I thought Pitt was the leader for offensive tackleBranden Curry before he visited and I think Pitt helped themselves with the visit. I am still not sure why he did not commit on the spot. I seem to recall his coach told me Florida State had gotten involved recently. Maybe he wants to see where he stands with them.
Pitt has commitments from five offensive line candidates but has continued to recruit in this area. In addition to Curry, Perry’s Cameron Holland is a possibility now that the North Carolina coach has stepped down and guard Joel McCloud is also a possibility.
Dave Wannstedt said in an interview this week that Pitt will take 25 players in the Class of 2007. It is sometimes tough to follow his math so I am not even going to try. We will let others worry about grayshirts and kickers and which class they count against. We will go with his 25 for the time being.
Hopefully you saw the article on Bo Williams on the Ticker. His fullback Jim Maitland now has an offer from Pitt and North Carolina State. Maitland has been offered as a “linebacker” prospect in what can be called the Bo factor. At least four players from Northeast High School are now scheduled to visit Pittsburgh December 8th. You can find the Visit List by pulling down the Football Recruiting tab on the Home Page. Tony will have an article on Maitland today. Tony reports he thought he heard him singing “Hail to Pitt!”
We will also have an article on defensive Jabaal Sheard today. He told us he will visit December 2nd. He told another Rivals reporter he would visit on December 8th. We will sort out later which date is correct but the important thing is he is planning on heading to Pittsburgh in early December.
We think defensive end Adewale Ojomo came to Pittsburgh a heavy Miami lean. He had a great visit and Pitt is now near the top of his list. This should get down to Pitt and Miami. Will Larry Coker survive the chaos in South Florida?
Earlier this week we had an article on Tyson Butler from Fort Myers, Florida. He has scheduled a trip to Pitt in early December and in his words, “Pitt is recruiting me the hardest”. I like Pitt’s chances in this one.
Before we head for the recruiting stretch run we have put a list of possible targets together. We will assume that Wanny’s math is better than my wife’s. Here is a list we would like to see:
1) Bo Williams or LeSean McCoy - RB
2) Matt Clements or Derek Moye-WR
3) Branden Curry- OT
4) Tony Tucker-DE
5) Adewale Ojomo or Jabaal Sheard DE
6) Brandon Lindsey-LB
7) Tristan Roberts –LB
8) Ronnie Thorton-LB
9) Tyson Butler- Athlete
10) Moe Williams-Athlete
11) Da’Von Moore-DB
Anyone you want to add to this list?
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 annual yearbooks are in the mail
The 192 page Rivals.com annual Recruiting Yearbooks will be mailed on Monday. Please allow five days for delivery if you are an annual subscriber. A large number of subscribers have convert to an annual subscription over the past several weeks. If you are still a monthly subscriber please call Customer Service at 1-866-2-Rivals. There is still time to get a free yearbook.
We have seen a nice growth in subscriptions lately. We would like to take all of the credit but going 6-2 in football helps and being picked to win the Big East in basketball also helps. In addition the entire network continues to see significant growth. We did hear a rumor this past week they we went by a couple of ACC schools and that made us happy.
Fan Fest this weekend
Pitt will hold their annual Fan Fest on Saturday at the “Pete”. Doors will open at 2:30 pm and the event will last until 6:00 pm. The men’s and women’s basketball teams will hold scrimmages. The Big East coaches picked Pitt to finish first this year with Georgetown a very close second. The media had the Hoyas in first place and the Panthers right behind them. There are about 9 teams which should battle it out for first round byes in the Big East tournament.
The strength of this Pitt team should be its depth. Pitt often used a 9-10 man rotation last year. There is no reason to believe you won’t see more of the same this season.
As a general rule I am not a big believer in redshirting basketball players but this year it might be a good idea. Gilbert Brown is still recovering from a bout with mononucleosis. Allan Wallace graduated from high school when he was only 17 and is very young. It is hard to see either one of these getting a lot of minutes this year. It might be best to redshirt them.
There are reports that a number of basketball recruits for the Classes 2008 and 2009 may attend Fan Fest. If you are going keep your eyes peeled for some very tall young men. The Pantherlair will have reporters there. We will have an article up on guard Anthony Crater today. He is scheduled to come to Fan Fest although Pitt does not seem high on his list right now. Hopefully he shows up and Pitt moves up.
The Pitt coaching staff evaluated a number of junior college players and decided they wanted Cassin Diggs. I saw video of a game in which he scored 22 points. I liked what I saw. I think he will help Pitt a lot. It is possible that next year Pitt could return Sam Young, Terrell Biggs, Levance Fields, Keith Benjamin, Mike Cook and Ronald Ramon. Cassin Diggs should buy them time to allow incoming freshman center Gary McGhee (6’ 10”) time to mature. Hopefully the Rivals editing crew won’t wait too long so you can judge for yourself.
Pitt has been in the Big East tournament championship game five of the last six years. If the experts are right they could be back in the finals once again.
A few thoughts on the Rutgers game
We were probably all guilty of under estimating Rutgers. The Scarlet Knights (7-0) have been down for so long our memories have a hard time accepting their recent accomplishments.
You could see the disappointment in Coach Wannstedt face in the post-game press conference. Pitt was totally out played for about 50 minutes but still had a chance to win it. You often win games like this when you are playing at home. Pitt had just scored. The crowd was behind them. On one play the sophomore running back Ray Rice changed the complexion of the game. Good players make often make big plays.
Rutgers is No. 3 in the country in scoring defense and No. 2 in the country in yards allowed. These are the kind of stats that you might expect from a young coach that was once on Dave Wannstedt’s staff. It is the kind of number Coach Wannstedt hopes the Panther achieve down the road. If you look closely at the Rutgers’ schedule it is not impossible that they will be 11-0 when they play West Virginia in Morgantown in early December.
We have said it before and we will say it again. Pitt is two years away from where alums would like them to be. The Pitt team will be better next year but they have a brutal road schedule so it might not show up in the win column. Right now the job is to scratch out a couple of more wins. Hope you get to 8-2 going into the West Virginia/Louisville games. Who knows maybe Pitt come up with a big effort and pulls an upset or two?
Coach Wannstedt is fond of saying he only has a dozen seniors. I am not sure where he gets that number but two of them are former walk-ons (Joe Villani and Joe DelSardo). The junior class is equally small. This is a young team with a lot of players out for the year with injuries. It is more than capable of looking good one week and struggling the next week.
Headed for Tampa
I am headed for Tampa late next week for a mini-vacation so we will not have a War Room article next week. One of the great things about having South Florida in the conference is fans that follow teams in the Northeast can take a little down time in Florida in early November.
We do have a ton of great content coming at you this weekend. Hopefully you read Chris Peake’s article (Behind the scenes with Chris LaSalla). He has a couple of more you should love. We also have a few recruiting articles and some practice photos plus a lot more. Despite the off week by the football team we have a lot of Pitt coverage for you.
Pitt recruiting summary
The Pitt coaching staff was out visiting high schools early this week. Coach Wannstedt indicated in an interview he took a private plane to New York and Washington, DC. You have to assume the New York trip was to visit Milford Academy to check on LeSean McCoy and Aundre Wright and perhaps a few others (maybe linebacker Jermaine Pierce). The trip to DC had to be to see defensive end Tony Tucker. Tucker is scheduled to visit Pitt in early December.
Coach Wannstedt said they would also send four assistant to Florida a day early next week to call on high schools in Florida. These four will recruit the day the football team is flying to Tampa to play South Florida. The staff hit some Florida high schools this week. They will call on the balance late next week.
There are some that feel Pitt may have dropped back in the recruiting of Cameron Heyward. I guess it is never over until it’s over but we did not like they way the tribute to his father came down last week. It was almost if no one knew if he was coming until late and then he just seemed to pop in and pop out.
We got a call from the Michigan site asking us if we were planning on covering theToney Clemons press conference today. We simply told them we had no plans. We would be there if we thought Pitt was still in the picture but all signs seem to say he is headed to Michigan.
Last week Pitt had five players in from Florida for the Rutgers game. They all seemed to have a good visit. Xavier Stinson finally got to see Pittsburgh even though he had committed earlier in the month. We spoke to him this week and he acknowledged that he still had some work to do in the classroom. He seemed determined to get it done. Qualifying is based on a sliding scale. There is still time to pull up your GPA and your SAT scores. I think you get three more chances to take the SAT this school year. One of his teammates Eain Smith has told one of the Rivals reporters that Pitt and Nebraska are now on the top of his list. He told him this after our interview with him which we view as good news.
I thought Pitt was the leader for offensive tackleBranden Curry before he visited and I think Pitt helped themselves with the visit. I am still not sure why he did not commit on the spot. I seem to recall his coach told me Florida State had gotten involved recently. Maybe he wants to see where he stands with them.
Pitt has commitments from five offensive line candidates but has continued to recruit in this area. In addition to Curry, Perry’s Cameron Holland is a possibility now that the North Carolina coach has stepped down and guard Joel McCloud is also a possibility.
Dave Wannstedt said in an interview this week that Pitt will take 25 players in the Class of 2007. It is sometimes tough to follow his math so I am not even going to try. We will let others worry about grayshirts and kickers and which class they count against. We will go with his 25 for the time being.
Hopefully you saw the article on Bo Williams on the Ticker. His fullback Jim Maitland now has an offer from Pitt and North Carolina State. Maitland has been offered as a “linebacker” prospect in what can be called the Bo factor. At least four players from Northeast High School are now scheduled to visit Pittsburgh December 8th. You can find the Visit List by pulling down the Football Recruiting tab on the Home Page. Tony will have an article on Maitland today. Tony reports he thought he heard him singing “Hail to Pitt!”
We will also have an article on defensive Jabaal Sheard today. He told us he will visit December 2nd. He told another Rivals reporter he would visit on December 8th. We will sort out later which date is correct but the important thing is he is planning on heading to Pittsburgh in early December.
We think defensive end Adewale Ojomo came to Pittsburgh a heavy Miami lean. He had a great visit and Pitt is now near the top of his list. This should get down to Pitt and Miami. Will Larry Coker survive the chaos in South Florida?
Earlier this week we had an article on Tyson Butler from Fort Myers, Florida. He has scheduled a trip to Pitt in early December and in his words, “Pitt is recruiting me the hardest”. I like Pitt’s chances in this one.
Before we head for the recruiting stretch run we have put a list of possible targets together. We will assume that Wanny’s math is better than my wife’s. Here is a list we would like to see:
1) Bo Williams or LeSean McCoy - RB
2) Matt Clements or Derek Moye-WR
3) Branden Curry- OT
4) Tony Tucker-DE
5) Adewale Ojomo or Jabaal Sheard DE
6) Brandon Lindsey-LB
7) Tristan Roberts –LB
8) Ronnie Thorton-LB
9) Tyson Butler- Athlete
10) Moe Williams-Athlete
11) Da’Von Moore-DB
Anyone you want to add to this list?
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.
