Schmoranzer picks Pitt

Moritz Schmoranzer made one big move two years ago when he left Germany to play football at North Cross School in Roanoke (Va.).

Schmoranzer’s next big move will be to Pittsburgh, as the 2024 offensive line prospect announced Friday that he committed to Pitt.

“I would say the general feeling I had about the school,” Schmoranzer told Panther-Lair.com. “It’s a great academic school for what I want to do and I like the coaching staff a lot. I like the head coach and the offensive line coach and all the assistant coaches, and where I came from in Germany, it’s similar to Pittsburgh.”

Schmoranzer came to the United States two years ago after being born and raised “in a little village 45 minutes outside of Nuremberg,” he said. He settled in Roanoke (Va.) after looking for an opportunity to play American football.

But he didn’t arrive as the fully-grown offensive line prospect he is today. In fact, he was playing a different position and weighed roughly 100 pounds less than he currently does.

“I didn’t start playing tackle football until I got here,” he said. “I played flag football in Germany and then right before I came here in the summer I started working on some tackle drills.

“There’s an organization that helps European players get to the U.S. I put two videos out on Twitter and a guy hit me up and said that some American high schools would like me at my size.

“I was 6’4” and 180 pounds at that point, just playing receiver. That was early 2021, and I played receiver my first year in Roanoke but then last year I moved to the O-line. I got here in 2021 and gained a few pounds; I think I was 225 at the end of the season. Then over the summer I went to camps for linemen and gained another 15 or 20 pounds and I was 240 start of junior season. I’ve just been growing from there.”

Now Schmoranzer has grown into a 6’4” 280-pound lineman, and his size, athleticism and potential drew scholarship offers from Miami (Fla.), Virginia, Virginia Tech, Wake Forest and West Virginia, among others. Pitt wasn’t an early suitor for the German native, but when the Panthers got involved with him at the beginning of May, they were intriguing enough to compel him to visit.

Just getting that first visit was a success in and of itself. Two weeks before Pitt offered, Schmoranzer announced that his top two schools were Virginia Tech and Wake Forest, and he intended to commit to one of those two schools after taking unofficial visits to each in the first week of May.

Conveniently, Schmoranzer’s parents were in town from Germany to join him on those visits, so they also accompanied him on his first trip to Pitt.

“My parents were here to visit Virginia Tech and Wake Forest because those were my top two and I was going to visit them and then commit,” he said. “But then Pitt offered and I thought I would want to visit so I took them up there and they liked it a lot.

“It’s crazy because I was about to commit to Wake Forest, and then Pitt came in and I took a look at them. They just came off two good seasons and I was like, I might want to visit there. So I went there with the mindset of just taking a look at it, just showing my parents how visits are and that kind of thing, and I was like, ‘Oh, I like it here.’ So I decided to take my time and take my official visits.”

So Schmoranzer delayed his planned commitment and took official visits. He went to Virginia Tech first and then followed that with official visits to West Virginia, Miami (Fla.) and, on the final visit weekend of June, Pitt.

Among other things, that last official visit gave Schmoranzer to further connect with Pitt offensive line coach Dave Borbely.

"He’s a great guy and a great coach. He knows his stuff and it shows. The running back last year broke every record, and if that happens, the O-line has to be pretty damn good. That just shows how good Coach Borbely is. He’s a great teacher and he really knows how to teach and develop you.”

While Schmoranzer’s parents weren’t able to attend the Pitt official visit with him, he said they were pleased with his decision to become a Panther.

“They were happy that I am going to Pitt. They don’t know the recruiting process and how it goes, what it is, but I told them a lot and they understand and they want the best for me, so they let me choose. But in the end with Pitt, they were pretty happy about that.”

Of course, making decisions on his own has become standard operating procedure for Schmoranzer, who has been living away from his parents since he moved to Virginia two summers ago.

“My parents are still back home, but I didn’t have a lot of time to feel homesick when I got here because I got here and the next day we started two-a-days. There was too much going on to worry about that.

“Plus, I love it here and I want to stay here as long as I can. If you have that, you don’t feel homesick.”

Schmoranzer is the fifth offensive line prospect to commit to Pitt in the class of 2024, joining Caleb Holmes, Adham Abouraya, Mason Lindsay and Jiavani Cooley.