Beville on his commitment, Pitt, recruiting and more

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Davis Beville didn’t need to hear the sales pitch, and Pat Narduzzi knew it. So when the Pitt head coach had the Greenville (S.C) quarterback prospect in his office Sunday morning, he didn’t need to dive into it again.

Instead, Narduzzi started talking to Beville about Pitt and the program and the education, reiterating the various talking points that coaches fall back on to make their case in front of a top recruiting target.

Somewhere along the way, Beville interjected.

“He was talking and I cut him off,” Beville told Panther-Lair.com. “I said, ‘Coach, I’m ready.’”

With that, Pitt landed its quarterback for the 2019 recruiting class, as the No. 18 pro-style prospect in the nation and the No. 5 recruit in the state of South Carolina picked the Panthers. Beville was sure of his decision when he walked into Narduzzi’s office Sunday morning, but that wasn’t necessarily the case before he arrived on campus two days earlier.

“I came to the visit thinking I love this place already but I might want to go to some other places to compare,” he said. “But I got there and absolutely felt like I was at home. It built throughout the whole weekend; the whole picture just filled out and I felt right about it.

“One of the big things was how genuine the people are; you can see it in each and every player and the whole staff. There’s a brotherhood. The culture is changing and they’re on the rise.”

A key theme in the weekend visit was “culture” - specifically, the culture change that Narduzzi, the rest of his staff and the players on the team see happening in the Pitt program.

“The coaches said that one of the big things is that everybody was recruited by this staff, so everybody fits what they’re trying to accomplish,” Beville said. “So I could see how all the players are bonding and they all have a common goal.”

Not least among that group is Kenny Pickett, the sophomore quarterback who enters the summer as Pitt’s leader on offense and the team as a whole. The Pitt coaches tabbed Pickett for the all-important responsibility of hosting Beville for his visit.

“It was really fun; we had a blast,” Beville said. “He’s really genuine and you can see how hard he works and he’s definitely going to be good person to learn from.

“He talked about the culture change; that was the big thing. They’re out here to win championships and they’ve got the platform to do it. All they have to do is get through the Coastal, win the ACC championship and make the playoffs.”

At 6’6” and 202 pounds, Beville is an intriguing quarterback prospect. He’s got the arm of a drop-back pocket passer but he’s also got impressive mobility rushing for nearly 400 yards and five touchdowns last season in addition to his 2,530 passing yards and 38 passing touchdowns.

As such, Pitt offensive coordinator Shawn Watson is looking forward to getting Beville into the Panthers’ offense.

“We talked about the basics of the offense and how I’d fit and talked about my abilities,” Beville said of Watson. “He said that my ability to make plays was one of the big things, especially with my size. And he said I’m a smart kid; those were two of the big things that he said.

“He’s a great coach and a great person. I’m definitely looking forward to learning from him.”

Now that he is committed, Beville plans to go to work on the recruiting trail. He was one of 18 recruits to visit Pitt over the weekend, and while eight of the other 17 committed, there are still plenty of targets on the board that he’ll be pursuing.

“I definitely want as many people as I can to join the fam’,” Beville said. “Darrell Harding is one of the guys I’d love to have; every quarterback wants a big target like that. And the tight ends - ‘Big Nik’ (Nikolas Ognenovic) and Jason (Collier), both of those guys would be some pretty big targets and I’d like to get them.”