Tallandier is "attached to Pitt"
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A lot of June commitments come as the result of visits. Recruits get on campus - often for the first time - and the final piece of the puzzle falls into place.
Judson Tallandier didn’t need that piece of the puzzle. He already had it put together.
“I felt like right now was the right time to make the decision,” Tallandier told Panther-Lair.com. So on Friday afternoon, he called Pitt head coach Pat Narduzzi and gave his word:
He wanted to be a Panther.
“It was Coach Narduzzi’s resume that stood out to me, with him being a defensive coach, and I feel like their defense fits me in everything they do,” Tallandier said. “I’m real cool with Coach (Andre) Powell, who is my recruiter, and Coach (Renaldo) Hill, the DB’s coach and I really talk to all the staff. I get texts from all of them and they all sent me hand-written letters.
“Those letters came [on Thursday] and it really hit me. I had been close with the whole staff, but them sending those letters showed me how much they really like me. So I told my mom that was where I wanted to be.”
Tallandier is a three-star cornerback prospect from Hyattsville (Md.) DeMatha, and he picked the Panthers out of 15 offers, a list that includes Arizona, Boston College, Georgia, Kentucky, Maryland, Minnesota, N.C. State, Purdue, Rutgers, Syracuse, Wake Forest, Buffalo, Florida Atlantic and Temple.
Pitt was the second school to offer Tallandier, and his most recent came this week when Georgia offered on Tuesday. Tallandier said he considered giving the Bulldogs a look; he thought he might check out Athens while visiting family in Atlanta later this month. But he scrapped those plans.
“There’s just something about Pitt,” he said. “I visited other schools, I talked to other schools and I don’t know; I’m just attached to Pitt.”
Tallandier has felt that attachment since Pitt offered him last September and again on his visit this spring. He thinks he was “80-85%” on Pitt until this past week.
“It was always slowly progressing,” he said. “[Thursday] night was when it got to 100%. So I woke up and talked to my mom and dad and decided to call Coach Narduzzi.
“I think he was at a golf outing or something, so I texted him and asked him if I could give him a call. He asked me if it was important and if it could wait or if it couldn’t wait because I wanted to commit. I told him it couldn’t wait and I was ready. He said to call him right then. He was pretty excited.”
At 6’2” and 185 pounds, Tallandier is a bigger cornerback prospect who sees a good fit in the Panthers’ defensive scheme.
“They play press man and cover-four, and I think my abilities fit that well,” he said. “It’s a defense that is built for me to make plays.”
Tallandier is Pitt’s second commitment this week, joining Butler lineman Jake Kradel, who committed to the Panthers on Tuesday. Pitt now has five commits in the class of 2018: Tallandier, Kradel, Thomas Jefferson defensive end Noah Palmer, Montvale (NJ) St. Joseph’s quarterback Nick Patti and Cambridge (Mass.) Buckingham Browne & Nichols tight end/H-back Jay Symonds.