The Pitt coaches have been spending a lot of time in Florida over the last two weeks, and Wednesday was another busy day in the Sunshine State. Here’s the rundown:
- Tim Salem had an important visit with three-star Deerfield Beach defensive end Deslin Alexandre; the N.C. State commit was debating an official visit to Pitt, and on Tuesday, he decided to visit this weekend.
This weekend was the last available weekend for Alexandre, who plans to enroll in January. For now he is standing by his commitment to the Wolfpack, but Pitt has had his attention for awhile, and getting the final official visit before he enrolls is a good move for the Panthers.
- Salem and linebackers coach Rob Harley also visited with cornerback prospect Anthony Johnson. Like Alexandre, Johnson is committed to a school in the ACC Atlantic Division - Louisville. Also like Alexandre, Johnson seems to have taken quite a liking to Pitt despite his current commitment. The coaches will keep working on him until his official visit to Pitt on Jan. 20.
- Wide receivers coach Kevin Sherman was in Florida as well and had a couple visits. One was with receiver commit Dontavius Butler; the other was with a new name: Vero Beach receiver Michael Smith.
Smith is very intriguing. He’s 6’2” and 205 pounds and has an offer sheet that includes FAMU, TN-Martin, UConn, UMass, Indiana and FIU along with Pitt. That’s not very impressive, but his performance this season was: 67 receptions, 1,561 yards and 24 touchdowns. And he did that in his first year of getting real playing time.
The film certainly looks good:
And that film is probably going to lead more schools to get in the mix. Pitt is hoping they can shorten that process before it even gets started, as Smith will be on campus this weekend for an official visit. He’s got an official visit scheduled to FIU in January, but it’s more notable to watch what happens with Tennessee, as Butch Jones’ staff has been showing interest lately.
So the goal this weekend will be to convince Smith that Pitt is the place for him and that he doesn’t want to go anywhere else. Thus far, Sherman has done a good job of presenting a lot of information about the Panthers and Smith likes what he has heard.
- There’s this question: Is Smith’s offer related to the change of direction with D’Jaundrae Edwards? After all, Smith got his offer over the weekend, which is roughly the same timeframe during which Salem called Edwards to say Pitt couldn’t take him as a midyear enrollee.
I don’t know if there’s a connection, but I did manage to touch base with Edwards in light of his announcement Tuesday night that he won’t be enrolling early after all. He says he changed his mind on the early enrollment because he still has two visits to take and won’t be able to fit them both in this weekend, especially since his sister graduates from college on Friday. That said, he’s still trying to work with some schools on setting up a Saturday-Sunday visit this weekend in the hopes of pulling off the midyear enrollment after all.
So yeah, there is some gray area there, from Edwards’ intentions to Pitt’s rationale (it sounds like a couple other schools have balked at taking Edwards as a midyear enrollee as well; that may or may not be connected to Pitt’s reasoning). Whatever happens from here on out with Edwards, it sounds like Pitt probably won’t be in the mix.
- Speaking of gray area, I got in touch with a few people around the recruitment of Wyoming Seminary defensive tackle Kyree Campbell on Wednesday, and that didn’t really clear anything up. He is still hoping to visit Penn State this weekend, but that’s not set in stone - in fact, there isn’t much in his recruitment that is set in stone.
One person I talked to said that Campbell is very intent on taking all five official visits and on enrolling in January. But those two things cannot both happen, since Campbell has not taken any official visits yet and this weekend is the last opportunity to take one before he would have to enroll.
And what’s more is that Wyoming Seminary - a prep school - operates on trimesters; the fall trimester ended in mid-November and the winter trimester started Nov. 28. Campbell’s coach at Wyoming Seminary told me Campbell made the Dean’s List for the fall trimester and has all of his academic issues taken care of; that’s obviously a good thing. But he is also currently taking classes in the winter trimester, which runs until Feb. 24.
So if I had to guess, Kyree Campbell probably isn’t enrolling in college until the summer. If that’s the case, then he’ll have time to visit all four of his finalists: Pitt, Penn State, Temple and James Madison.
Of course, all of that extra time might motivate some other schools to jump into the fray.
- Now that those digressions out of the way, back to Wednesday’s visits. Defensive line coach Tom Sims was also in Florida on Wednesday and spent time with four-star defensive end Guy Thomas. Thomas is committed to Nebraska but he’s got four official visits scheduled: Maryland this weekend, Louisville on Jan. 13, Pitt on Jan. 20 and Nebraska on Jan. 27.
Thomas is keeping quiet as he moves through this part of his recruitment, but Pitt has obviously made a positive impression.
- And another committed recruit who got a visit on Wednesday was Philadelphia cornerback Kenny Bennett. Defensive coordinator Josh Conklin visited Bennett, who is committed to Maryland and visited the Terrapins last weekend. Bennett has talked about potentially visiting Pitt this coming weekend, but as of Wednesday night, he told me no visit was scheduled.
Bennett has said since before he committed that he would take all five official visits, but if he stays home this weekend, he will only have three weekends in January for his other visits. Pitt should get one of them (assuming he doesn’t change his plans and visit Pitt this weekend after all).
- Running backs coach Andre Powell was in Atlanta on Wednesday for a visit with Pitt legacy target Connor Heyward. Heyward visited Michigan State this past weekend but told me he won’t be taking any visits this coming weekend, so his official visit to Pitt will have to be in January.
- Friday probably won’t see too many in-home visits as the coaches get ready to host the weekend’s official visitors, so Thursday will be the finish to the week. So far, we’ve confirmed scheduled visits with commits Cam Bright, Darian Street, Owen Drexel (and probably Carter Warren) and Todd Sibley, as well as defensive end target Zion Debose. We’ll post more news throughout the day.
- Tim Salem had an important visit with three-star Deerfield Beach defensive end Deslin Alexandre; the N.C. State commit was debating an official visit to Pitt, and on Tuesday, he decided to visit this weekend.
This weekend was the last available weekend for Alexandre, who plans to enroll in January. For now he is standing by his commitment to the Wolfpack, but Pitt has had his attention for awhile, and getting the final official visit before he enrolls is a good move for the Panthers.
- Salem and linebackers coach Rob Harley also visited with cornerback prospect Anthony Johnson. Like Alexandre, Johnson is committed to a school in the ACC Atlantic Division - Louisville. Also like Alexandre, Johnson seems to have taken quite a liking to Pitt despite his current commitment. The coaches will keep working on him until his official visit to Pitt on Jan. 20.
- Wide receivers coach Kevin Sherman was in Florida as well and had a couple visits. One was with receiver commit Dontavius Butler; the other was with a new name: Vero Beach receiver Michael Smith.
Smith is very intriguing. He’s 6’2” and 205 pounds and has an offer sheet that includes FAMU, TN-Martin, UConn, UMass, Indiana and FIU along with Pitt. That’s not very impressive, but his performance this season was: 67 receptions, 1,561 yards and 24 touchdowns. And he did that in his first year of getting real playing time.
The film certainly looks good:
And that film is probably going to lead more schools to get in the mix. Pitt is hoping they can shorten that process before it even gets started, as Smith will be on campus this weekend for an official visit. He’s got an official visit scheduled to FIU in January, but it’s more notable to watch what happens with Tennessee, as Butch Jones’ staff has been showing interest lately.
So the goal this weekend will be to convince Smith that Pitt is the place for him and that he doesn’t want to go anywhere else. Thus far, Sherman has done a good job of presenting a lot of information about the Panthers and Smith likes what he has heard.
- There’s this question: Is Smith’s offer related to the change of direction with D’Jaundrae Edwards? After all, Smith got his offer over the weekend, which is roughly the same timeframe during which Salem called Edwards to say Pitt couldn’t take him as a midyear enrollee.
I don’t know if there’s a connection, but I did manage to touch base with Edwards in light of his announcement Tuesday night that he won’t be enrolling early after all. He says he changed his mind on the early enrollment because he still has two visits to take and won’t be able to fit them both in this weekend, especially since his sister graduates from college on Friday. That said, he’s still trying to work with some schools on setting up a Saturday-Sunday visit this weekend in the hopes of pulling off the midyear enrollment after all.
So yeah, there is some gray area there, from Edwards’ intentions to Pitt’s rationale (it sounds like a couple other schools have balked at taking Edwards as a midyear enrollee as well; that may or may not be connected to Pitt’s reasoning). Whatever happens from here on out with Edwards, it sounds like Pitt probably won’t be in the mix.
- Speaking of gray area, I got in touch with a few people around the recruitment of Wyoming Seminary defensive tackle Kyree Campbell on Wednesday, and that didn’t really clear anything up. He is still hoping to visit Penn State this weekend, but that’s not set in stone - in fact, there isn’t much in his recruitment that is set in stone.
One person I talked to said that Campbell is very intent on taking all five official visits and on enrolling in January. But those two things cannot both happen, since Campbell has not taken any official visits yet and this weekend is the last opportunity to take one before he would have to enroll.
And what’s more is that Wyoming Seminary - a prep school - operates on trimesters; the fall trimester ended in mid-November and the winter trimester started Nov. 28. Campbell’s coach at Wyoming Seminary told me Campbell made the Dean’s List for the fall trimester and has all of his academic issues taken care of; that’s obviously a good thing. But he is also currently taking classes in the winter trimester, which runs until Feb. 24.
So if I had to guess, Kyree Campbell probably isn’t enrolling in college until the summer. If that’s the case, then he’ll have time to visit all four of his finalists: Pitt, Penn State, Temple and James Madison.
Of course, all of that extra time might motivate some other schools to jump into the fray.
- Now that those digressions out of the way, back to Wednesday’s visits. Defensive line coach Tom Sims was also in Florida on Wednesday and spent time with four-star defensive end Guy Thomas. Thomas is committed to Nebraska but he’s got four official visits scheduled: Maryland this weekend, Louisville on Jan. 13, Pitt on Jan. 20 and Nebraska on Jan. 27.
Thomas is keeping quiet as he moves through this part of his recruitment, but Pitt has obviously made a positive impression.
- And another committed recruit who got a visit on Wednesday was Philadelphia cornerback Kenny Bennett. Defensive coordinator Josh Conklin visited Bennett, who is committed to Maryland and visited the Terrapins last weekend. Bennett has talked about potentially visiting Pitt this coming weekend, but as of Wednesday night, he told me no visit was scheduled.
Bennett has said since before he committed that he would take all five official visits, but if he stays home this weekend, he will only have three weekends in January for his other visits. Pitt should get one of them (assuming he doesn’t change his plans and visit Pitt this weekend after all).
- Running backs coach Andre Powell was in Atlanta on Wednesday for a visit with Pitt legacy target Connor Heyward. Heyward visited Michigan State this past weekend but told me he won’t be taking any visits this coming weekend, so his official visit to Pitt will have to be in January.
- Friday probably won’t see too many in-home visits as the coaches get ready to host the weekend’s official visitors, so Thursday will be the finish to the week. So far, we’ve confirmed scheduled visits with commits Cam Bright, Darian Street, Owen Drexel (and probably Carter Warren) and Todd Sibley, as well as defensive end target Zion Debose. We’ll post more news throughout the day.
