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Wow... didnt take Bates long to pull a kid out of Texas

And some idiots on this board on other threads are trash talking the commitment because of his offer sheet, they need to grow up. Other than to leave the message board they have no offer sheet at all. This is a good get HCPN good job

The kid is an absolute BALLHAWK. 10 ints the past 2 season. Not that fast or big, but great quickness. I honestly think we found a diamond in the rough. It's also great to keep building relationships and getting players from the football hotbeds, FLA and TX.
 
And some idiots on this board on other threads are trash talking the commitment because of his offer sheet, they need to grow up. Other than to leave the message board they have no offer sheet at all. This is a good get HCPN good job
Same guys who posted about Aaron Donald and James Conner’s offer sheets too.
 
And some idiots on this board on other threads are trash talking the commitment because of his offer sheet, they need to grow up. Other than to leave the message board they have no offer sheet at all. This is a good get HCPN good job

He was a high 3* with some exceptional measurables, who had previously committed to Wash St. I think most would agree that Wash St and Mike Leach had a helluva year. Tough to diss Leach's judgement.
 
A 1* kid from Florida or Texas is like a 15* kid from WPIAL.
Probably the first time I agreed with you but there's always time for a first.

We have to get away from thinking the WPIAL is the answer because it isn't.

Players from TX, FL, GA, SC, VA, etc play consistent tough competition all season long and because of the nicer weather tend to play football all year long in some way like going to camps or clinics when Eastern kids are shoveling driveways.

Kids from those states have alot competition winning jobs on their teams which helps keep them at a high level.

"it's five o'clock somewhere"
Signed: Mr Buffett
Go Pitt & CSU Rams!
 
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Probably the first time I agreed with you but there's always time for a first.

We have to get away from thinking the WPIAL is the answer because it isn't.

Players from TX, FL, GA, SC, VA, etc play consistent tough competition all season long and because of the nicer weather tend to play football all year long in some way like going to camps or clinics when Eastern kids are shoveling driveways.

Kids from those states have alot competition winning jobs on their teams which helps keep them at a high level.

"it's five o'clock somewhere"
Signed: Mr Buffett
Go Pitt & CSU Rams!

We need the WPIAL/PA to be the foundation of our recruiting efforts. That is where we need to get our blue chip recruits from, our own backyard. There isn't a successful program in the country that doesn't effectively recruit in its own backyard. But it is also important to have the TX, FLA pipeline to supplement recruits from our region.
 
I'm not saying Pitt's recruiting is on fire, but why is it that every kid who signs with Pitt is scrutinized on his offer sheet by people who have never actually seen him play?
Probably because we can't get 4 star players anymore. Therefore, when all we get is three stars, we have to use their offers as a basis for comparison as to wether or not they were deemed decent players by other P5 schools.
 
We need the WPIAL/PA to be the foundation of our recruiting efforts. That is where we need to get our blue chip recruits from, our own backyard. There isn't a successful program in the country that doesn't effectively recruit in its own backyard. But it is also important to have the TX, FLA pipeline to supplement recruits from our region.
The reason other programs recruit key players from their backyard is because the have a bigger more lucrative backyard.

How about reversing this historical trend and develope a pipeline from the states with more football talent and supplement recruiting locally.

Keeping up with change is important and so it finding HS talent to recruit that's more than a bus ride away.

As far as talent goes the the WPIAL is trending down and it's difficult to get the top recruits so Pitt settles on mid to low WPIAL talent which is often a "bust."

"it's five o'clock somewhere"
Signed: Mr Buffett
Go Pitt & CSU Rams!
 
The offer sheet may not be the best, but he is a 3 star joining a fairly large group
of CB's.We have some experienced guys back, so we can easily give him time to
develop. Nards gets a lot of criticism for his poor pass coverage here, but he's now
getting HIS kinda players at that position. We all saw what he did at MSU with
players like this. I expect improvement at the position with more experience now, and
a guy like this is a good gamble. If he doesn't pan out, we do have the numbers now.
 
We have plenty of top players in the WPIAL but for some reason(s) they have little interest in us right now. Putting some winning seasons together would fix that.
 
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We had to recruit a less desirable player when they backed off brents ....or he decided on Louisville. Let's stop with the fluffing.

This is a bit of a reach.

That said....I hope his best football is in front of him.
 
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A 1* kid from Florida or Texas is like a 15* kid from WPIAL.
Yep just look at all of the highly regarded 4-5 star WPIAL/Pittsburgh kids that turned into college busts over the last 5-6 years.
Bisnowaty
Whitehead
Montae Nicholson
Dravon Henry
Demetrious Cox
Tyler Boyd
Lucas Nix
Bookser
Chase Winovich
Dorian Johnson
Miles Sanders
Rushel Shell (even with the mixed results, clearly had talent)

Sure, there have been a few busts (McKenzie), but the successes far outnumber them. A 4-star is a 4-star no matter where he's from. The grass isn't always greener.

Edit: I love how your initial post is the definition of reading what you want to read. I read it and immediately read sarcasm, others read it and took it as vindication of their opinion.
 
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Yep just look at all of the highly regarded 4-5 star WPIAL/Pittsburgh kids that turned into college busts over the last 5-6 years.
Bisnowaty
Whitehead
Montae Nicholson
Dravon Henry
Demetrious Cox
Tyler Boyd
Lucas Nix
Bookser
Chase Winovich
Dorian Johnson
Miles Sanders
Rushel Shell (even with the mixed results, clearly had talent)

Sure, there have been a few busts (McKenzie), but the successes far outnumber them. A 4-star is a 4-star no matter where he's from. The grass isn't always greener.

Exactly.

Look. I hope this kid is great. I hope he's better than Revis. I hope every 3* Pitt gets turns out to be THE BEST. But the reality is, Pitt will not be a successful program if it continues to miss out on elite WPIAL talent.

Sure, poach a kid from Florida or Texas. But Pitt will always be a distant fall back option for kids from these areas after the elite talent is picked over by the local schools and the national powerhouses.

The only trope I find more annoying here than "A 3* in Florida is like a 5* in WPIAL" is the trend of saying whatever new coach/AD/chancellor "Gets it" because they put a stripe on the pants or something.
 
Probably because we can't get 4 star players anymore. Therefore, when all we get is three stars, we have to use their offers as a basis for comparison as to wether or not they were deemed decent players by other P5 schools.

It just logically makes sense.
None of us are scouts. And the person saying, "I like his tape," is not a scout. There's really no such thing as a bad highlight tape.
So because we are idiots, we logically look towards those objective measures that seem to have a high correlation with talent.
The two strongest measures are stars and offer sheet.
Anybody that doesn't put a ton of value into these two measures, is just being irrational.
 
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The reason other programs recruit key players from their backyard is because the have a bigger more lucrative backyard.

How about reversing this historical trend and develope a pipeline from the states with more football talent and supplement recruiting locally.

Because there's only a few programs in the country that can do that. Most everybody's 4* and 5* players are going to come from the local geographic region. That has to form the talent core of your class. Then you supplement it with a few far away studs. But if you're having to do the opposite, there's no future in that.
Instead what you end up doing is supplementing local 4* and 5* players with 3* players. And I know the "a 3* in FL is like a 4* in PA" is a popular meme, but it's simply not true. Stars matters, regardless of state.
 
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We need the WPIAL/PA to be the foundation of our recruiting efforts. That is where we need to get our blue chip recruits from, our own backyard. There isn't a successful program in the country that doesn't effectively recruit in its own backyard. But it is also important to have the TX, FLA pipeline to supplement recruits from our region.

West Virginia
 
Yep just look at all of the highly regarded 4-5 star WPIAL/Pittsburgh kids that turned into college busts over the last 5-6 years.
Bisnowaty
Whitehead
Montae Nicholson
Dravon Henry
Demetrious Cox
Tyler Boyd
Lucas Nix
Bookser
Chase Winovich
Dorian Johnson
Miles Sanders
Rushel Shell (even with the mixed results, clearly had talent)

Sure, there have been a few busts (McKenzie), but the successes far outnumber them. A 4-star is a 4-star no matter where he's from. The grass isn't always greener.

Edit: I love how your initial post is the definition of reading what you want to read. I read it and immediately read sarcasm, others read it and took it as vindication of their opinion.

Shai McKenzie was always on injured. Not Sure it's fair to say he was a bust

Chris burns otoh was a bust
 
Depends on your definition of successful. They have only finished in the top 25 once in the past 5 seasons (#18) and they actually do a good of recruiting the state of West Virginia.

Yeah, I don't see how anybody would consider them a "successful" program. They are basically good for about 5 losses every year.
Now in their defense, their geographic region doesn't offer them a ton of talent. So they are forced to go into FL and these areas and get the 3* players that would be "4*" players if they were in WV.
 
Yep just look at all of the highly regarded 4-5 star WPIAL/Pittsburgh kids that turned into college busts over the last 5-6 years.
Bisnowaty
Whitehead
Montae Nicholson
Dravon Henry
Demetrious Cox
Tyler Boyd
Lucas Nix
Bookser
Chase Winovich
Dorian Johnson
Miles Sanders
Rushel Shell (even with the mixed results, clearly had talent)

Sure, there have been a few busts (McKenzie), but the successes far outnumber them. A 4-star is a 4-star no matter where he's from. The grass isn't always greener.

Edit: I love how your initial post is the definition of reading what you want to read. I read it and immediately read sarcasm, others read it and took it as vindication of their opinion.
There are a lot of 4/5 stars in the area that have come out and underperformed. Then on the flip side you had a lot of guys who were undervalued and ended playing in the NFL. It isn’t a clear cut argument in either direction.
 
There are a lot of 4/5 stars in the area that have come out and underperformed. Then on the flip side you had a lot of guys who were undervalued and ended playing in the NFL. It isn’t a clear cut argument in either direction.

It is clear cut. At least in terms of, "is their a correlation between star ranking and performance." It couldn't be anymore clear cut.
 
Local Recruiting Was The Topic - We can compare if you’d like.

You think the strong correlation of the star system collapses in PA, or a particular part of PA, compared to other states?
Do you have an explanation as to why the state/area would uniquely render the star system so useless?
 
While Duzz is dominating the region what does he do for his next trick? Goes out and gets the HOTTEST young recruiter and wallah, what happens next? We start dominating nationwide now. Screw dominating the state like recent times, lets go out and get the big fish in the big ponds. Point in case FL and TX. Can't wait for the more surprises on signing day this Wednesday!!!! Which you know the puppet master HCPN has a few up his sleeves for Panther Nation!!!! HAIL!!!!!!!!!!
 
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You think the strong correlation of the star system collapses in PA, or a particular part of PA, compared to other states?
Do you have an explanation as to why the state/area would uniquely render the star system so useless?
Barry Church
Gino Gradkowski
Bruce Gradkowski
Darrelle Revis
Sean Lee
Ray Ventrone
Ross Ventrone
Marc Bulger
Will Clarke
John Wetzel
Brandon Fusco
Rontez Miles
Eric Kush
Pat McAfee
Don Barclay
James Conner
Jesse James
Mike Logan
Jason Taylor
Quinton Jefferson
Lou Polite
Shawntae Spencer
Kevan Barlow
Reggie Wells
Aaron Donald
Tyrique Jarrett
 
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The issue here isn't whether over a near 20 year time period, there are going to be 3* or lower players that made the NFL. Nobody argues the star system is 100% accurate. What the numbers show is that it is accurate to a very high degree.
In response to that, some seem to be making a "region" argument. The star system is inaccurate in PA or western PA. Meaning the 4* and 5* players have a higher bust rate compared to other areas. So going to Texas and getting a middle of the road 3* that Mike Leach wanted is better.
I'm just curious: 1. is there any evidence for this? 2. What would be theory behind the star system not being accurate in Western PA?
A list of 25ish players over 20ish years does nothing to answer any of those questions.
 
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$5 says all the "Stars don't matter" people would become the biggest chest thumpers for the validity of star rankings if Pitt suddenly started landing a bunch of 4 and 5* kids.
 
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The issue here isn't whether over a near 20 year time period, there are going to be 3* or lower players that made the NFL. Nobody argues the star system is 100% accurate. What the numbers show is that it is accurate to a very high degree.
In response to that, some seem to be making a "region" argument. The star system is inaccurate in PA or western PA. Meaning the 4* and 5* players have a higher bust rate compared to other areas. So going to Texas and getting a middle of the road 3* that Mike Leach wanted is better.
I'm just curious: 1. is there any evidence for this? 2. What would be theory behind the star system not being accurate in Western PA?
A list of 25ish players over 20ish years does nothing to answer any of those questions.

It is actually more accurate in 2018 than it has ever been. You have high quality video easily shared on every prospect. There are national camps all summer where the top prospects from every state compete against each other. You have advanced standardized athletic testing so you can compare measurables on every prospect.
 
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