Marquan Pope would talk to his parents at the beginning of the recruiting process and naturally they wanted to keep him close to home for college, or within a drivable distance so they could get to games easily. He was given an eight hour window from his house in Denton (TX). Pope took an official to visit to Pitt over the weekend, and he and his parents relented on those parameters during dinner the one night.

“I had no intentions of going super far, but after going down to Pittsburgh me and my dad kind of looked at each other at dinner and I was just like, ‘This is far, but it’s so worth it,” Pope told Panther-Lair.com after making his college decision over the weekend.

Pope did not even make it to the end of his official visit before telling the coaches. He told them on Saturday night he wanted to commit to Pitt, and kicked off a weekend of five commitments for the program.

“It was a dream come true,” Pope said of the moment he made his intentions known to the coaches. “Like my heart was racing and I was nervous because this was my dream as a little kid. I always wanted to go D1 and I worked my butt off for years and years and for it to finally happen and for me to tell Coach Narduzzi and Coach Manalac I was committing, no words can describe the emotions I was feeling.”

Really, it was the relationships he developed with the Pitt coaches over the course of the past two months that led him to this point. He said he felt wanted by the coaches, and appreciated that their conversations even would go beyond football. After meeting them in-person over the weekend, he knew Pitt was where he wanted to be.

“When I met these coaches in-person for the first time I felt loved and wanted,” Pope explained about his decision. "Even by the players I met when I was down there, I was just in awe of about how much I loved this place and how much they loved me. Most of it what it came down to was the relationships I built with them and the love they gave me the past two months, it’s been amazing.”

Aside from being taken in immediately by the coaches and players alike, Pope also enjoyed the whole experience in Pittsburgh. He was the first to commit this weekend, followed by Camden Brown, Che Nwabuko, Ja’Kavion Nonar, and Cole Mitchell. Pope admitted he pushed them a little, but said he didn’t have to do too much recruiting to get those other guys in the fold.

“I gave a little nudges here and there, but a lot of the players that ended up committing, they loved it before I said anything,” Pope said. “The thing about Pittsburgh is I was caught off guard how beautiful that place is and just how wonderful the whole city was in general and just how the football facilities and people, everything was just so great. It took me back for a surprise, and I know it took all these other players back for a surprise and that’s why I believe they ultimately committed, because Pittsburgh is the place to be. I loved it there, and apparently a lot of other players did too.”

Pope is a successful player for Guyer High School, checking in as a solid 6’1” and 206-pound defender. He recorded 59 tackles and three interceptions as a junior playing a hybrid safety role for his team. The Texas native is expected to be shifted to play outside linebacker for Pitt, a role he is embracing already.

“I’m super excited,” Pope said of playing linebacker in college. “Honestly being blessed with a coach like Coach Manalac to coach me at linebacker it just gets me really fired up because I never played linebacker before, I’ve kind of played a hybrid safety/linebacker where I’m at now, but never a true linebacker so I’m excited to learn and develop and try to get after it.”