Beatty breaks down the WRs and Virginia recruits

Pitt wide receivers coach Chris Beatty was instrumental in helping land four players from the state of Virginia in Pitt’s 2021 recruiting class. He also played a hand in landing a few players at his own position. Beatty spoke to the media on signing day and here is a rundown of what he had to say.

Obviously Naquan Brown was committed elsewhere for a while. How quickly did things come about to get back in contact with him?
Beatty: I stayed in contact with him for most of the recruiting period. Shoot, I think I had offered him at the other place I was at too, so it was one of those things. We’ve had a long relationship, so when things kind of went a different way there, I wanted to try to be there to pick up the pieces and it happened pretty quick after that.

You are from Virginia and coached down there, do you have a first name basis with a lot of the coaches down there? Is that part of the reason you are able to take some of these kids from Virginia and Virginia Tech?
Beatty: I think so. Recruiting is relationships, that’s what it is. Obviously I know a lot of those coaches really well. Everywhere I’ve been I’ve always tried to recruit down there, that’s home for me. So that’s an area of the country that’s got great football and they’ve got great coaches too. I understand that. I respect that and I think they know that I do, so they always want to send me guys and I’m happy to have them when we can get them.

How much has continuity in the staff helped in recruiting especially in the past couple of years here?
Beatty: I think it helps and I mean it’s always good to have the same people. So like I said earlier, recruiting is relationships and so longer you can develop those relationships and over the more time that you have to do it, gives you more of a chance to be successful in recruiting and anything else too. Because you know kind of what you’re getting into, you kind of know how the other people think and what people really think of you over time as opposed to something that just happened overnight. So I think all those things go together, continuity is a big deal.

Does Jaden Bradley bring some different that maybe you didn’t have last year aside from just this pure physical size?
Beatty: Yea I think when you start putting together what your recruiting board, what your room wants to look like - I want to be as fast as we can. I thought we added some speed last year with Jordan (Addison) and Jaylon (Barden). The first thing we wanted to do this year was to try to get somebody to go with Jared (Wayne) and somebody in that kind of mold, and so he was one of the guys I targeted early as far as recruiting goes and as a staff we felt like he would be a good fit. He does give us something different in that room, particularly with we got last year with the speed guys that we got. He’s a different element.

With someone like Jaden, he played quarterback growing up and he’s kind of new to receiver. He didn’t have a season, so what kind of advantages or disadvantages does that have? Are you able to shake some habits with him or just start with new ones with him?
Beatty: I have always liked recruiting quarterbacks, no matter what position I’m recruiting them for. Because I think those guys are more cerebral, they’ve had to think the game through, so you know you’re getting somebody that has seen a bigger picture then just: hey I run the post on this. He understands, OK this is how a route concept is put together, so football is slowed down a little bit for quarterbacks more so than other positions. So I’ve always liked recruiting quarterbacks at receiver, or DB, or wherever. So I do think he’s got some ability that hasn’t been tapped yet and so I kind of like not having to break some habits, but I also know the people that have worked with him really well. Coach Fred and the guys at DeMatha, they’ve done a great job with him. He sends me videos and stuff to check him out, so you get a chance to see what he does. Obviously they post everything nowadays (laughs) so you get a chance to see how he’s developed over the last year. So I’m really excited to be able to work with him and for his future.

Is there a receiver on the roster that you kind of liken to what Myles (Alston) does best?
Beatty: I think he’s got a little bit of Tre Tipton in him. He’s a long strider, but he’s got quick feet. He’s got really good length, because I think he’s 6’1”. I’ve seen him listed several different heights - he’s all of 6’1” with really long arms. So that length is something that’s important and gives him a chance to separate. He’s more of a glider than a flat-out burner, but he does a nice job of transitioning in and out of his routes. So hopefully I think he can be a healthy Tre Tipton, as opposed to some of the injuries that Tre’s had to endure.

Assuming you have a happy group of receivers on the squad based off of last night’s news. What does that do for these guys having Kenny Pickett back next year?
Beatty: That’s huge. I mean that’s the biggest signee of the class right there. He’s our leader and the confidence that Kenny brings is immense, I mean you can tell that from the time when he’s not out on the field. So the receiver room is happy about it. The O-line room is happy about it. The whole building is happy about, because I think he makes us a better team, clearly.

Has DJ Turner told you what he is doing? Any chance that he returns for next year?
Beatty: We’ve discussed it. We’ve talked at length about it for really over the last week. So I’ll let him go through his process that he needs to go through to figure out what he wants to do. We’ve been in contact, I’ve actually talked to him maybe an hour ago, two hours ago. So he’s still in the process of mulling over his decision. I think Kenny, he’s really your best recruiter right now, people have confidence in him. So we’ll see where that goes. I don’t want to comment one way or another as far as what way he’s leaning.