Hayes picks Pitt
It is no secret that Dayon Hayes was towards the top of Pitt’s wishlist as far as 2020 recruits go, and on Saturday morning Pitt got their man. Hayes opted to stay home and commit to Pitt following an official visit to the school over the weekend he announced on twitter Sunday evening. It marked the fourth time he was on campus in 2019, and he finally opted to make the call to commit to Pitt.
Hayes is a 6’3” and 250-pound defensive end from Westinghouse High School in the Pittsburgh City League. He becomes the first City League prospect to commit to Pitt since Therran Coleman did in the class of 2016.
Hayes’ recruitment is one of the more interesting ones in recent memory as he went from a relatively unknown prospect to one of the top defensive linemen in the Northeast in a matter of months. He visited Pitt back on February 2nd for the team’s Junior Day, and earned his first power-five offer from his hometown program.
Things took a turn for Hayes in April, as he added offers from Penn State, Nebraska, West Virginia, Ohio State in a five day stretch. He eventually added additional offers from Texas A&M, Mississippi State, Michigan State, and Virginia Tech just weeks later.
Hayes’ surge of offers also reflected in the Rivals.com rankings. He went from unranked in the state of Pennsylvania, to being the third-best recruit in the state in latest round of updates. He is also the top-rated defensive linemen in the state and the 21st-ranked weakside defensive end in the nation.
Hayes becomes the third defensive end in the class joining Florida prospects Samuel Williams and Emmanuel Belgrave. He is also the first player from the state of Pennsylvania in the class as well.
His commitment, along with the other five from Saturday help clear up Pitt’s recruiting situation heading into the fall. Pitt’s class is already at 15 members, and with 14 seniors on the roster for next season, it means the recruiting efforts are getting towards the end and it is not even the end of June yet.
Pitt is now up to 12 commitments for this month alone, giving the program another big month of June following up a strong showing in the class of 2019. The focus now will be is to hang onto what they have landed. Pitt’s big month of June last year resulted in a few de-commitments along the way, so the staff will need to put an added emphasis on keeping the players it has landed the past two weekends.