Pitt lands four-star DB from Florida

Pitt had a busy Saturday afternoon with six commitments happening all before noon. One of the six is Jahvante Royal, a 6’3” 180-pound defensive back out of St. Thomas Aquinas High School in Fort Lauderdale (Fla). Royal is a four-star recruit, and is ranked 229th in the Rivals.com Top 250 rankings.

Royal is also graded as the 14th ranked safety in the country, and checks in as the 34th best recruit in the talent-rich state of Florida. He chose Pitt over an offer sheet of 25 schools. It’s a list that included in-state schools like Florida and Florida State, along with Georgia, Penn State, and more.

In 2018, Royal helped St. Thomas Aquinas to a 13-2 record and a berth in the Florida Class-7A state title game. He is now the second member of that team to commit to Pitt, as incoming 2019 recruit Daniel Carter also hails from Aquinas.

Royal instantly becomes the top recruit in Pitt’s 2020 recruiting class. He is now the third defensive back to join the class joining Georgia cornerbacks Tee Denson and Hunter Sellers. He is now the sixth member of this class from the state of Florida, joining Henry Parrish, Samuel Williams, Emmanuel Belgrave, Timothy Brown, and Aydin Henningham.

The six commitments this day should also help clear things up on where things go from here for Pitt’s recruiting heading into the fall. With only 14 seniors on the roster, Pitt is nearing the end of it’s recruiting class, and will now focus on maintaining who it has landed. In the class of 2019, Pitt also had a big recruiting month but failed to hang onto every single recruit. Look for the Pitt coaches to remain active on the guys they have landed over the past seven days, and an added emphasis on retaining the recruits.