Beatty gets another one for Pitt
In the 40-year history of the Abe Goldblatt All-Tidewater Player of the Year award, only three players have won it twice and Chris Beatty is directly connected to two of them.
In 2005, the No. 1 recruit in the country, Percy Harvin, was named Player of the Year for the second time after an exceptional senior season at Landstown, where Beatty was the head coach.
This past year, Lake Taylor running back Malik Newton got the award for the second year in a row, and on Tuesday he committed to Pitt, where his lead recruiter was none other than Chris Beatty.
The commitment marked another Beatty success in recruiting Virginia for Pitt, as the Panthers’ second-year receivers coach has landed four commitments from his native area so far in the class of 2021, with Newton joining Booker T. Washington running back Rodney Hammond, Ocean Lakes receiver Myles Alston and Phoebus defensive end Trevion Stevenson.
“He was a big part of it,” Newton told Panther-Lair.com. “He would call and text every day. We would talk all the time about non-football stuff, football stuff, school stuff. We would FaceTime almost every day. He showed how much Pitt wanted me.
“He knows where we come from, so we would just talk about home and stuff. It got me more comfortable talking to him. We would talk for hours and it was like, ‘Okay, he really wants me. I see where he’s coming from.’”
In addition to being another score for Beatty, Newton is also a big-time addition to the Panthers’ running back room. He ranks among the top 20 running back prospects in the nation and chose the Panthers over offers from Clemson, Louisville, Maryland, Nebraska, North Carolina, Penn State, Purdue, South Carolina, Syracuse, Tennessee, Texas A&M, Virginia, Virginia Tech and West Virginia.
With an offer sheet like that, Newton was fully intent on playing out the recruiting process into June, at least. But the COVID-19 pandemic changed those plans.
"At first, I was like, I’ll take official visits in June. Then everything started getting canceled. They were talking about the season and it just made me do research on all of the schools. I looked up all the rosters and the history they have. I looked up a lot of things with my family."
Newton visited Pitt last spring and has seen his interest in the Panthers rise since then. But he said that a conversation with head coach Pat Narduzzi this spring put him over the edge on committing to Pitt.
“I’ve probably known for about a month,” he said. “Me and my family were talking to Coach Narduzzi and we talked for about two hours. We were talking about everything and he talked to me about the recruiting process and a about education and everything, I was like, just amazed. I was like, this is where I want to be. This is where I want to go. My family supported my decision.”
Newton added that another conversation with Narduzzi was important in his decision, since isn’t just a standout on the gridiron; he also stars for the Titans’ baseball team, playing outfield and shortstop. He’s hoping for a chance to play both sports when he gets to college, and Narduzzi laid out a plan that he liked.
“They gave me a good [idea] of how I could do both sports. I would sit out (baseball) my first year and see how I keep my grades up, and then my second year I could go ahead and do both. If not, I wouldn’t worry about playing baseball at all; I would be going straight for football.
“I was like, okay, that’s reasonable. Other schools were telling me, ‘Yeah, you can do both’ - just saying stuff. He gave me a really logical answer.”
With Newton on board, Pitt has 13 commitments for the class of 2021. In addition to the four Virginia recruits, the Panthers also have commitments from West Mifflin defensive end Nahki Johnson, Detroit offensive linemen Terrence Enos and Brandon Honorable, Massillon (Oh.) Washington offensive lineman Terrence Rankl, Fort Lauderdale (Fla.) St. Thomas Aquinas offensive lineman Marco Fugar, Austin (Tex.) Lake Travis quarterback Nate Yarnell, Imhotep safety Javon Mcintyre, Hyattsville (Md.) DeMatha receiver Jaden Bradley and Cordele (Ga.) Crisp County linebacker Preston Lavant.