Four-star OL Ryan Baer commits to Pitt

Pitt picked up a commitment today from Ryan Baer, a 6'8" and 331-pound offensive tackle out of Eastlake, Ohio. Baer is graded as a four-star prospect by Rivals.com, and checks in as the 31st ranked tackle prospect nationally. Baer also is ranked as the tenth-best prospect in the state of Ohio.

Baer chose Pitt over his four other finalists: Illinois, Kentucky, Michigan State, and Virginia. In addition to those four programs, the four-star linemen also held offers from Baylor, Duke, Indiana, Minnesota, Notre Dame, Purdue, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia Tech, and West Virginia.

Baer took four official visits in the month of June, to his four other finalists. He visited Pitt unofficially back on June 15th for a one-day visit, and clearly that left a last impression on him. The Pitt coaching staff will likely bring in Baer for his official visit to Pitt sometime after the season and ahead of the December signing period.

Pitt has long been in the conversation with Baer as he picked up an offer from Pitt assistant coach Archie Collins back in April of 2020. His recruitment trended towards both Kentucky and Michigan State in recent months, but Pitt was in the background picking up momentum and the staff was able to win over the imposing offensive line prospect out of Ohio.

Baer becomes Pitt's first four-star recruit in the class of 2020. In fact, he is the first four-star offensive linemen to commit to the program since Alex Bookser pledged to the program in the class of 2014.

Pitt now has 13 commitments in the class overall following today's commitment. The Panthers now have four spots devoted to the offensive line in this class. Baer joins an offensive line class that also features Bradley Mann, Isaiah Montgomery, and Ja'Kavion Nonar.