Pitt added one more player to the 2025 recruiting class on Signing Day.

Jaylin Brown, a three-star running back from Cardinal Newman in West Palm Beach (Fla.), signed with the Panthers Wednesday after being committed to Louisville for five months.

Brown picked the Cardinals in June after taking official visits to Louisville and Georgia Tech, but he backed off that commitment last month.

“There was a lot of stuff behind the scenes and it was just a place where I didn’t want to be,” Brown told Panther-Lair.com Wednesday morning. “I didn’t see myself there. They made me feel like they didn’t really want me there.”

Louisville’s loss was Pitt’s gain, as running backs coach Lindsay Lamar reached out to Brown almost immediately after news of his decommitment became public. That communication restarted a relationship that began early in 2024 when Pitt offered Brown.

“They were one of the first schools to reach out after I decommitted,” Brown said. “They showed the most love and it just felt like the place to be.

“Coach Lamar reached out; me and him had a great relationship and I had a great relationship with Coach (Kade) Bell, too, before I committed to Louisville, so it was easy to connect back to them.

“They were just telling me they wanted me there and they would be blessed to have me, and I feel blessed to have the opportunity.”

As a senior at Cardinal Newman this past fall, Brown ran for 1,098 yards and 16 touchdowns while averaging 8.3 yards per carry. At 5’11” and 193 pounds, he’s bigger than Pitt’s other two backs in the class - Synkwan Smith and Ja’Kyrian Turner - but he feels like he brings a combination of size and speed to the Panthers’ backfield.

“I would describe myself as a physical back but I think I have great speed, too,” Brown said. "Track helped me with that. I ran a 10.7 in the 100 and a 4.49 in the 40.”

Brown has never visited Pitt, but he hopes to see the campus and city in person this winter. In the meantime, he has been communicating with freshman defensive end Maverick Gracio, who was his teammate at Cardinal Newman in 2023.

“He has told me all about it,” Brown said of Gracio. “He showed me what it’s like on the phone, how the city is and how he fits in it. I think I’ll fit in, too.”

Brown is also looking forward to working with Lamar after seeing the first-year Pitt running backs coach’s success with All-ACC first-team selection Desmond Reid.

“He’s a great coach and I’ve seen the work he does - he had a guy for one year and he was a first-team pick,” Brown said. “He’s got a great personality and he’s a great coach who tells you things honestly. He doesn’t beat around the bush. Thats what I like in a coach.

“They run a great offense with a lot of plays I can see myself doing.”