Holmes picked Pitt because 'everything fit'
Pitt added one of its top offensive line targets from the class of 2024 today when Fairburn (Fa.) Creekside guard Caleb Holmes announced for the Panthers.
Holmes, who ranks as a top-15 guard prospect in the class, picked Pitt over offers from Auburn, Boston College, Cincinnati, Florida State, Georgia Tech, LSU, Louisville, Maryland, Mississippi State, Missouri, Oklahoma and UCF, among others.
He had planned to take an official visit to Auburn, but his visit to Pitt last weekend sealed the deal before he could take another trip.
“People ask me, ‘Why commit when it’s only your first visit?’” Holmes told Panther-Lair.com. “My honest response was, I didn’t have a reason not to. Everything I saw, everything I heard, everything I felt, the way people reacted to me, the way I reacted to people - everything fit.”
After leaving campus, Holmes called his Pitt visit “flawless,” and told Panther-Lair.com that his experience while in town exceeded his expectations.
“I knew that Pitt was a top-tier college and a prestigious education and a winning program; I knew that and expected it,” he said after his visit. “But actually getting to the city and seeing everything with my own eyes, that’s when you combine all of those things with the resources that the players have - how they’re right next to the Steelers and sharing the same field and everything, how the Life Skills program is, the strength and conditioning program and everything. And then you talk to Coach Duzz and the thing that’s most important to him at Pitt is relationships.’
“So you combine this wholesome environment with the relationships, and it’s just an amazing experience.”
Beyond the experience of spending two days at Pitt, Holmes has other connections to the Panthers. Redshirt junior cornerback Rashad Battle and freshman offensive lineman BJ Williams are both alums of Creekside.
“I already have two brothers there,” Holmes said. “I watched Rashad play in middle school and I played next to BJ last year when I was a junior and he was a senior.
“That’s a legendary football player and we played right next to each other. I was the left guard and he was my left tackle and he was just special.”
Williams, who enrolled at Pitt in January, has since moved to center, but Holmes is still looking forward to playing next to his former teammate when the two are reunited with the Panthers next season.
Williams also gave Holmes an inside look at what life is like as a student-athlete in the Pitt football program.
“I was getting a lot of insight on Pitt from talking to him,” Holmes said. “I asked him stuff like, ‘What is Pitt really about?’ His responses were completely honest and all positive. He didn’t have a single complaint about the school, and I got up there and neither did I.
“I don’t like using the word ‘Perfect,’ but it was as close as I have seen with my own eyes.”