RECRUITING HEATS UP

OK, so will everyone take a step away from the ledge now?  Today, Pitt picked up its 12^th commit today with TE Brian O’Neill from Delaware.  After an epic panic attack by the Pitt fan base (I know, I know…that never happens) about the number of commits Pitt had (1 at the time), the Panthers picked up 11 pledges to suit up for Pitt football over the last week.  So, we move on to a whole new stage of panic by Pitt fans…the quality of the recruits.

Before we get to that, there are two recruits who really caught my eye.  The first one is obvious.  That would be the much sought after offensive lineman from Bethal Park High School in the south hills of Pittsburgh, Mike Grimm.  Grimm is simply a beast and with Connor Hayes gives Pitt two big offensive line recruits to go along with who Paul Chryst and company brought in last year.  If you have read this blog from the beginning, you know that I am an offensive line guy.  I was raised with the Steelers imposing their will on other teams and wearing them down over the course of a game and that is a style of football that will work in any conference with any opponent if you are good at it. It does so much for your team.  You can control the game, wear down an opposing team, frustrate them, put pressure on their offense, hide weaknesses in your own defense by keeping them off the field and fresh, etc.  The list goes on and on, so I love the mass of humanity (pardon the WWE phrase) that Pitt is building up front on offense.

The second recruit that I am thrilled about is Staunton, VA’s Mike Herndon.  He’s being picked up as a defensive lineman and I think he will thrive.  He’s 6’4, 323 pounds and is…A MIDDLE LINEBACKER IN HIGH SCHOOL! Did you get that?  Yea, so he’s pretty nimble and has some instincts to go along with his size.

Now, onto the quality of recruits…one thing I heard more than once was people bitching about the type of offers these kids were getting in addition to the Pitt offer.  Most of the kids were not exactly holding offers from the big boys of college football.  Who cares?  If it’s not one thing, it’s another with Pitt’s fan base. It is only June…what…do you think that the Michigan’s, Ohio State’s, and others are done handing out scholarship offers??  No!  Just because Pitt offered them first, doesn’t mean others weren’t going to follow.  There were a number of high school kids that were offered by Pitt first for this recruiting class and then blew up on the national radar with offers. 

The next thing I will say about this is that Paul Chryst comes from a coaching staff that was never in the top 20 for recruiting classes and was widely successful.  As a matter of fact, teams are consistently proving recruiting services wrong these days. Sure it is frustrating to lose out on some of the bigger recruits.  No one likes that, but for every Larry Fitzgerald success story, there is also a Darelle Revis and Antonio Bryant (lower recruited players who not only went on to great Pitt careers, but were great right away as true freshmen).  It happens all the time.

So, before you totally freak out, please go to Pitt Blather and look at this terrific rundown on how Wisconsin recruited and then remind yourself that when Paul Chryst was there, the Badgers turned in a record of 70-21. I’m not saying that it will definitely happen at Pitt as well, but maybe we can give HCPC a few years before saying his style of recruiting does not work.