INKED: DT Tyler Bentley signs with Pitt

Tyler Bentley became the 12th player to sign with Pitt’s football program in the 2018 recruiting class on the early National Signing Day, joining his classmates signing today in the class at Pitt. Bentley is a three-star defensive tackle from West Chester (Ohio) Lakota West in the Cincinnati area and a physically impressive 6-foot-3, 298-pound prospect. Here’s a brief look back at his journey as a recruit and his history with Pitt:

First mention on Rivals: Bentley first popped up on the recruiting radar well into his recruitment, during the spring of his junior season. The Ohio defensive tackle visited Kentucky for a junior day, at which point he'd already held offers from Power Five programs like Kentucky, Louisville, Maryland, and West Virginia, along with several other Group of Five offers. Just a few weeks later, by mid-March, Bentley named a top seven of Kentucky, Louisville, Tennessee, Wisconsin, West Virginia, Minnesota, and Indiana. After that, Bentley's recruitment never slowed down and he continued to add Power Five offers. Programs like Florida, Alabama, Michigan State, LSU, and Georgia extended offers to Bentley throughout the late spring and summer.

Bentley commits to Kentucky: Despite his laundry list of offers from many of the country's top programs, the 2018 Ohio defensive tackle settled down and committed to Kentucky in mid-August after taking visits to several programs, including Tennessee, Florida, Ohio State, and Kentucky. Of course, this wouldn't be the end of his story.

Bentley takes an official visit to Pitt: After being committed to Kentucky for several, Bentley's consistent maintained contact in recruiting with the coaching staff from Pitt resulted in plans to take an official visit. On December 1st, Bentley finally got to see Pitt's campus: “The relationships [with Pitt's coaches] are great. Spending time with them in person, I really get to find out who they are as people and what their values are on things,” Bentley detailed. “We clicked on a lot of things and they just can’t wait until I get there to get some real work in and get to a national championship.”

Bentley flips to Pitt: Bentley's visit to Pitt and clear admiration for the Panthers program caused a rift with the Kentucky coaching staff. Shortly after visiting, Bentley chose to decommit from Kentucky. His decommitment was followed by a brief official visit to Louisville on December 8th, his final recruiting trip before deciding to commit to Pitt on Monday, December 11th.

In his words: "The thing that made Pitt the choice is that they care about their players. I talked to several players and it seems like the coaches really do care about them. They’re always trying to help you get better in life and in football. I felt like that was important because some places that I went, there wasn’t that connection there,” Bentley said. “With the connection, I knew for sure that I could be in a position where I could see myself succeeding. Really like the life after football, that was a big component as well. Seeing Pitt alumni do good around the world is great and that could be me one day. It’s going to be me one day.”

Bentley's impact: "The Lakota (Ohio) West product has the size and physical make-up to play either defensive tackle role in Pitt's defense and his ultimate positional deployment could be a product of how he takes to the strength and conditioning program. I think it's more likely that Bentley grows into a run-stuffing one-technique defensive tackle than it is that he's slimmed down into a pass-rushing specialist, but he has the versatility so that Charlie Partridge could mold him as he sees fit. Bentley doesn't have an elite first step, but the former Kentucky commit does excel at using his hands and superior strength to discard blocks and make plays on the football. He plays low and with leverage and plays gap-sound, disciplined football, a critical skill for young linemen to develop if they want to play early." Read here for more details on what Bentley brings to the table for Pitt.