Lapi 'had an idea' it was possible to earn scholarship

The Pitt football program had a few spare scholarships entering fall camp this year. When the numbers work out that way, that sometimes can signal a lesser-known competition happening throughout training camp. This particular battle does not always attract too many headlines, but the walk-ons on the team competing for an open scholarship can be pretty fierce.

If you actually had to put a number on the chances of a walk-on obtaining a scholarship at the moment, it looked like this: the team started the week with 38 walk-on players on its official roster. By my track, Pitt had 82 players on scholarship out of a possible 85 as well, so in other words there were 38 guys hoping to maybe get one of those three spots.

Earlier this week, Nick Lapi got to have that moment every walk-on dreams of having. Like many college football programs traditionally do, Pitt surprised the sophomore linebacker with the news in front of the entire team. It has been a pretty steady rise for Lapi in just his third season and usually these moments are total surprises, but the New Jersey native felt it was attainable heading into camp.

“At the end of spring ball, me and Duzz had a meeting that he does with everyone and we talked about the battle between me and some other guys,” Lapi told the media following practice on Tuesday. "I had an idea.”

His confidence was rewarded in the way of a scholarship after a strong start to Pitt's 2023 camp, though Lapi had the trust of the coaching staff well before it even started. He appeared in all 13 games last season on special teams and even some reps as a backup linebacker. Lapi carried that little taste of playing time into spring ball, and his performance there had him on the radar of being a scholarship candidate.

“Nick Lapi has done an unbelievable job all year last year,” Pat Narduzzi said of the sophomore linebacker. “It was an easy decision to put this guy on scholarship. You saw him on special teams last year. You’re going to see him on defense playing linebacker and he could play probably any of the three positions. He’s athletic, he’s tough, and the guy is dependable.”

Linebacker is expected to be a strength for Pitt this season with seniors Bangally Kamara and Shayne Simon as retuning starters, plus veterans Solomon DeShields and Brandon George also in the fold. There are also three true freshmen who have attracted some attention from the coaches and media this camp. It could have been easy to got lost in the shuffle with a linebacker group like that, but Lapi managed to get the coaches’ attention anyway.

“I definitely see a lot of improvement and I also think things started to really click last spring ball,” Lapi said. “That’s when I started really understanding the defense and feeling more confident in our system.”

The confidence could be tied to his comfort level with his teammates. Lapi is from New Jersey, just like Simon, DeShields, and also redshirt freshman Kyle Louis. When Louis came to Pitt on his official visit back in 2021, Lapi made a point to introduce himself as being from New Jersey which stuck with his younger teammate.

“I remember I came on my official visit and that was the first linebacker I talked to,” Louis recalled. “Automatically it just clicked.”

Aside from sharing that home state connection, as a fellow player in his position room, Louis has seen good things from Lapi's play on the field as well.

“I always felt like he was one of the best linebackers, one of the best proficient linebackers and hard-working linebackers,” Louis said. “He’s more than deserving.”

The first call Lapi made following the news was to his mother, who was more than excited to hear the news.

“I can’t say exactly what she said, she cursed a little bit,” Lapi laughed off that emotional interaction. “She was very happy and couldn’t stop smiling.”

Lapi’s quick ascend from walk-on to scholarship player by his third season was hard to see coming, even in hard-to-predict thing like this. He posted modest numbers as a senior for Northern Highlands High School with 33 tackles in a seven-game shortened COVID senior season and it did not generate much recruiting attention. Once he got to Pitt, Lapi surprised and immediately stood out on Pitt’s scout team, or ‘rocks’ as they call them, going up against the prolific 2021 offense with Kenny Pickett and Jordan Addison.

It helped get him noticed and Lapi still contributes on the scout team, even in his third year.

Pitt has had some success with walk-ons turned scholarship players in recent history. At linebacker specifically, Seun Idowu started 37 games for Pitt from 2016-2018. On some of those same teams, Pitt’s offense featured Jimmy Morrissey who went from a walk-on to eventual seventh round NFL Draft pick as a center.