Emmanuel Taylor had a pretty good idea going into this weekend that he could be leaving his official visit committed to Pitt. It was the only official visit he planned and Taylor was quick to make a decision and actually committed Friday night before the visit had even been completed. The 6-2 and 200-pound linebacker from Virginia just knew he was where he wanted to be.
“It was because of the connection I have with my linebackers coach, Coach (Ryan) Manalac,” Taylor told Panther-Lair.com. “He’s a great coach and he made sure I felt like I was at home. The players are really genuine and they actually make you feel like you’re at home and they love you and welcome you in automatically.”
Taylor recorded 130 tackles, 28 TFLS, and eight sacks as a junior for Green Run High School. He helped lead his team to a 12-1 record. The three-star prospect plays an aggressive brand of football and sees a fit personally in Pitt’s attacking 4-3 defense.
Taylor believes that’s exactly what led Manalac to showing a serious interest in him.
“You know, they have an aggressive defense and (Manalac) had seen my tape and I’m a really aggressive dude, definitely not scared of contact and that’s what they really loved about me,” said Taylor. “He just said, ‘trust the process’. That’s all he said, because of the season they had last year. He just wants me to have faith in them as well as they have faith in me.”
The visit also afforded him to spend more time with Pitt head coach Pat Narduzzi. Taylor was in town for a spring practice earlier this year, but got more one on one time with the Panthers’ head coach on this visit.
“He was straightforward with it,” Taylor said of his conversations with Narduzzi. “He was non-pressuring and he made sure that the decision was based on me.”
Taylor got a good feel for the football side of things on his unofficial visit in the spring. Over the weekend, he got to see more about what the city and school has to offer as well.
“The landscape is really what stood out,” Taylor said of the visit itself. “The campus is the city, literally, and that’s what fell in love with, everything out there is just beautiful, that’s what I loved about the school.”
Taylor was one of four players to commit on this visit. He is joined by wide receiver Kha’leal Sterling and offensive linemen Torian Chester, with one more needing to announce.
“We shared a lot of connections and bonds,” Taylor said of spending time with the other recruits. “We got along very well.”
Taylor held additional offers from Duke, Virginia Tech, Coastal Carolina, East Carolina, Liberty, Old Dominion, and Temple.
