The 3-2-1 Column: Reid, FitzSimmons, local DL, best position groups & more
In this week’s 3-2-1 Column, we’re thinking about the news that wasn’t, the news that was, Pat Narduzzi’s best position groups and more.
THREE THINGS WE KNOW
The big news that wasn’t
Ha.
Ha ha.
Ha ha ha ha hahahahahahahahhahahhhahaah.
Seriously?
All that build-up, all that anticipation, all that hype and anxiety and sense of dread (that’s always part of it). All of it led to Thursday, to some unknown, unannounced time on Thursday, and all of it amounted to nothing.
You know, of course, that I am talking about Efton Reid’s commitment that wasn’t. His mother tweeted two weeks ago that the five-star center would announce his commitment on Thursday, April 15.
That was yesterday.
And he didn’t commit. Not to Pitt, not to Ohio State, not to LSU or Florida State or some other school we haven’t even mentioned.
He didn’t commit at all. Once again, the news came from his mother, who tweeted that the “commitment has been postponed.”
And, honestly, I can’t help but laugh. I mean, really, what else is a logical reaction at this point?
No, he didn’t commit to Pitt on Thursday. Because he didn’t commit anywhere, which means this saga hasn’t ended yet. Given all the energy put into agonizing over the news in the last few weeks, I’m not really sure how else you can react.
There’s part of me that wonders what his actual commitment will be like. I know Pitt fans will be over the moon if he picks the Panthers. But if he doesn’t, I wonder if some of the power of the complaints would be sapped a bit because, quite frankly, basically every negative thing that could be said, has been said.
Really, what more do you have to say about the prospect of Reid going somewhere else? The grand implications for the program and the immediate impact on the 2021-22 season were all dissected over and over. Every possible fallout from Reid’s decision has been played out on the message boards.
There was a lot building up to this. And then nothing happened.
I guess no news is better than bad news, right?
One thing I’ve said a few times in the last week or so is that I really didn’t know if Reid himself knew what he was going to do on Thursday. The closest thing we got to actual info in the days leading up to the supposed commitment was that Reid hadn’t made up his mind yet. That’s all we could get, but it seems like it was based on some truth.
So I’m typing this Friday morning, waiting as long as possible to publish, just in case something happens. This first section of the column this week was always going to be about Efton Reid. I just thought it would be about him making a decision. I guess that will have to wait for another column.
A new football commit
Since there wasn’t any hoops recruiting news - at least, nothing that actually happened, although you could say that the absence of news was news itself - I thought we’d talk about some football recruiting news.
A few hours after last week’s 3-2-1 Column published, there was some news when Central Valley defensive tackle Sean Fitzsimmons announced for Pitt.
FitzSimmons is one of the top two defensive line prospects in the WPIAL for the class of 2022 and probably no worse than No. 3 overall in the region. His Power Five offer sheet isn’t overwhelming - Duke, Syracuse and Wake Forest, in addition to Pitt - but his production on the field is: 245 tackles, 103 solo tackles, 62 tackles for loss, 27 sacks and 100 quarterback hurries in the last two seasons (28 games total).
Those are the kinds of numbers that dominant linebackers put up as edge rushers in a 3-4 scheme. But FitzSimmons isn’t a dominant linebacker playing off the edge in a 3-4: he’s a defensive tackle who was so good the last two years that Central Valley’s opponents started game-planning around him.
As Warriors head coach Mark Lyons told me, high school teams don’t tend to game-plan around linemen. Unless it’s some stud defensive end, opposing offenses aren’t usually going to make a plan for a specific guy on the line, and they almost never get that particular about a defensive tackle.
But they did with FitzSimmons.
I think those of us who follow Pitt probably have a slightly greater appreciation for what a really effective pass-rushing defensive tackle can do. We all know the havoc they can wreak because we’ve seen it: we saw Aaron Donald be a demolition man in 2013 and we saw Jaylen Twyman get double-digit sacks in 2019 and for those who remember, we saw Mick Williams make life hell for interior offensive linemen in 2009. Of course, the rest of the country has caught on to Donald’s act in the NFL, but we all saw it a long time ago, so we can speak with a fair amount of authority about the impact a good defensive tackle can have.
I’m not saying Sean FitzSimmons is Aaron Donald, of course. I’m not saying he’s Jaylen Twyman. I’m not saying he’s Mick Williams. I’m saying he’s Sean Fitzsimmons, a play-making defensive tackle who has dominated throughout his high school career and emerged as a top defensive line target for the Pitt coaching staff - in particular, defensive line coach Charlie Partridge, whose opinion ranks high enough in my book that I’m sold on FitzSimmons.
Owning the local linemen
By committing to Pitt, FitzSimmons is continuing a trend of sorts.
The trend is western Pa. defensive linemen committing to Pitt. And yeah, I think there’s enough of a sample size to call it a trend.
It really started in the class of 2018. There were four defensive line prospects from the region who signed with FBS schools that year: Devin Danielson and Noah Palmer from Thomas Jefferson, David Green from Central Catholic and James Gmiter from Bethel Park. Pitt landed Danielson, Palmer and Green but didn't offer Gmiter, who went to West Virginia.
Pitt didn’t offer any western Pa. defensive line prospects in the 2019 class - Solvauhn Moreland and Ahmad Gilbert from Aliquippa both went to FBS schools, but neither had a Pitt offer - but in 2020, the Panthers went after two targets: four-star Westinghouse end Dayon Hayes and three-star Central Catholic tackle Aaron Beatty.
Pitt’s pursuit of Beatty never seemed all that intense, and he signed with North Carolina. But Hayes was a priority from the start and he picked the Panthers over Illinois, Indiana, Maryland, Michigan State, Mississippi State, Nebraska, Ohio State, Penn State, Rutgers, Syracuse, Texas A&M, Virginia Tech, Wake Forest and West Virginia.
That was a huge get for Pitt, and the Panthers followed it with their biggest score of all in the 2021 class: Nahki Johnson, Elliot Donald and Dorien Ford.
Add FitzSimmons from the 2022 class, and Pitt has landed eight of the last nine western Pa. defensive line prospects it has offered.
Really, the 2017 class was the last time Pitt got shut out on defensive line targets locally. That year, Donovan Jeter from Beaver Falls went to Michigan and Kurt Hinish from Central Catholic went to Notre Dame (the Panthers made up for it by signing Jaylen Twyman and Deslin Alexandre).
It’s been a pretty nice run over the last four classes leading into this year, and FitzSimmons has the 2022 class off to a strong start in that area. Now there’s one more piece to add: Perry end Tyreese Fearbry. He’s the top prospect in western Pa. for the 2022 class, a four-star prospect with offers from Arizona State, Auburn, Kentucky, Miami (Fla.), Michigan State, Missouri, Penn State, South Carolina, Syracuse and West Virginia.
That’s healthy competition, but Pitt is in strong shape for Fearbry. If the Panthers can keep him home, then their dominance of local defensive line prospects might be the closest thing to a fence around western Pennsylvania that we've seen in a long time.
TWO QUESTIONS WE HAVE
Could this combination work?
I saw an interesting picture on Twitter this week.
Those are all nice photos, and if you’re not following Katie Meyers on Twitter, you should; she’s one of a growing group of people putting out interesting state-sponsored Pitt content right now, and given the fact that only the highest of security clearances gets you into Pitt practices right now, we’ll take whatever we can get.
Anyway, all four of those pictures are nice, but the one that stood out to me was the third one. That’s the picture of five offensive linemen sitting on the bench at Heinz Field. To wit, we see Carter Warren, Jake Kradel, Owen Drexel, Marcus Minor and Matt Goncalves.
Two tackles on the ends, two guards next to them and a center in the middle.
Sounds like…an offensive line configuration.
Sounds like…a good offensive line configuration.
Sounds like…maybe the best offensive line Pitt has had since 2016.
That 2016 group was talented and experienced, but in the last four seasons, the line hasn’t been consistently effective enough to establish a balanced offensive attack. When I look at those guys sitting on the bench at Heinz Field, though, I think there’s a real chance to see things come together in 2021.
The biggest question mark is Drexel. He’s a redshirt senior who has made one career start and has played in nine total games over the last four seasons. That isn’t much experience, but there have been plenty of positive reviews of Drexel this spring and Pitt will need those to be accurate projections of his ability, since he’ll be taking over a position where the Panthers had a rock-solid foundation for the last four seasons.
If Drexel plays well, though, I like the potential for the rest of the unit.
Minor is the newcomer, but he arrived this offseason after being a multi-year starter at Maryland, where he was the Terrapins’ best guard in 2020, according to Pro Football Focus. He’ll line up at left guard, and on the other side of Drexel is Kradel, who has started 15 games at right guard over the last two seasons.
The tackle spots are really interesting. Of Pitt’s five regular starting linemen last season, Warren ranked behind only Jimmy Morrissey and Bryce Hargrove, according to PFF. But the highest-rated lineman on the team, regardless of snaps, was Goncalves. He stepped into the starting lineup in the Virginia Tech game when Warren and others were sidelined due to COVID protocols. Goncalves played a total of 196 snaps in the final three games and allowed six quarterback pressures - including just one against Clemson.
Also in the mix is Gabe Houy, and Pat Narduzzi actually said on Tuesday that Warren and Houy were ahead in the three-man race for the two tackle spots. If I had to put money on it, I think Warren and Goncalves will be the starters this season - I think that’s probably why Warren has been working at right tackle in recent spring practices.
My overall point is this:
A left-to-right line of Goncalves, Minor, Drexel, Kradel and Warren has a chance to be pretty good. Maybe the best offensive line Narduzzi has had since 2016. And maybe good enough to help the 2021 offense take a real step forward.
What other positions rank high in the Narduzzi tenure?
So I think the offensive line in 2021 has a chance to be Pitt’s best since 2016, but what about the rest of the team? What else stands out in terms of position groups - which ones look like they could be the best Pat Narduzzi has had at Pitt?
I think the easiest one to point to is linebacker. I’ve written about that group in this column and I’ve talked about them on the Panther-Lair Show a bunch of times this spring, and I’m sure I’ll write about them and talk about them plenty more in the months to come. But I’ll say it one more time right here:
This is the best group of linebackers Narduzzi has had at Pitt, and maybe the best group the Panthers have had since the first decade of this century. There’s talent, experience, depth, proven production - all the elements you would want in a position group, and the linebackers have plenty of all of it.
So I would put the linebackers in that category of Narduzzi’s Best.
Who else?
I wonder about the wide receivers. There’s not a lot to go on with that group, but take a second and think back on previous years. Tyler Boyd was obviously a great player in 2015, but his supporting cast was not strong. Jester Weah was a big-play machine and scored 10 touchdowns in 2016, but again, the supporting cast - in terms of actually catching passes - didn’t show much. Weah took a step back in 2017 and Rafael Araujo-Lopes was the leading receiver that year as well as 2018, but he achieved that title by catching a grand total of 80 passes over two seasons.
In 2019, Maurice Ffrench set the Pitt single-season record with 96 receptions, but he averaged less than nine yards per catch. Taysir Mack was a pretty solid No. 2 receiver but he only scored three touchdowns.
Last year, Jordan Addison blew up as a freshman and DJ Turner flashed some talent, but there wasn’t much after them and Turner’s production was limited to just a few games.
Out of that group, then, who are we setting as the standard for a good receiving corps under Narduzzi? The answer is probably 2015, simply on the strength of having Boyd.
This year, Addison is back to lead the group, and I’m willing to say that he’s the best receiver Pitt has had since Boyd; I expect him to be even better this year than he was last year, and that alone puts the 2021 receivers in contention with 2015. I like this year’s supporting cast, too: I think Jaylon Barden can have a breakout season and I think Mack will be looking to finish his career on a high note. Add in guys like Jared Wayne and Shocky Jacques-Louis and Hawaii transfer Melquise Stovall and even a surprise candidate like Will Gipson, and I think this year’s receivers have a chance to be Narduzzi’s best. As long as they, you know, catch the ball.
So I would say the linebackers are above the line, to borrow a phrase from the diplomat Geoff Collins. And I would say the receivers have a real chance to be Narduzzi’s Best and the offensive line can get to No. 2 on that list, at least.
Anybody else?
I suppose you could say quarterback, but given that Kenny Pickett is about to log Year Four as the starter, there’s not a lot to compare (we took a poll on Panther-Lair.com this week, and as of Thursday night, Pickett held a slight lead over 2016 Nate Peterman).
I don’t think you would take this group of running backs over any unit that included James Conner or even the 2018 tandem of Qadree Ollison and Darrin Hall. I like Lucas Krull’s potential, but his proven on-field contributions are well below what Scott Orndoff did in 2016.
I think there’s good talent at defensive end, but they can’t compare to Patrick Jones and Rashad Weaver (at this point). Ditto for the tackles, cornerbacks and safeties: they might be pretty good, but Pitt has had some really good personnel in those spots previously.
ONE PREDICTION
June is gonna be good
The Efton Reid news didn’t come on Thursday, but some other recruiting-related news did.
The NCAA made some news when it approved an end date for the recruiting dead period, and that was significant for a few reasons.
If you follow recruiting, you know the backstory: starting last spring, the NCAA instituted an emergency dead period - which means no in-person recruiting - and since then, the dead period has been extended eight times.
Everyone from coaches to recruits to fans to media has been looking forward to the end of the dead period, and now that end is finally in sight. On June 1, recruits will be permitted to have in-person contact with coaches.
That means recruiting visits can happen again, and if we thought the last few Junes were wild with official visits and commitments, I imagine 2021 will take it to a new level.
And you know what? I can’t wait.
Sure, I’m looking forward to having all kinds of things to write about and content to produce and stories to chase down. That’s always fun. But there’s more to it.
When June kicks into high gear and recruits start visiting schools again - we’ve already confirmed more than 20 official visitors for Pitt - you know what that’s going to feel like?
It’s going to feel normal.
For the last 13 months, all of us have been trying to get back there. Trying to find a way to Return to Normal. There have been steps here and there, like when schools started reopening or some of the loosening restrictions on restaurants and whatnot.
We’re obviously not all the way there yet. But we’re making steps, little moves toward whatever things used to be like in February 2020 and before. And with each step, it gets a little closer.
Having recruits on campus for official visits is going to be a big step in that direction, at least for those of us who spend a lot of time thinking and talking and writing about that stuff. For me and probably for you, the last year of non-visit recruiting has been…weird. Maybe not weirder than the empty stadiums and arenas, but still weird. In some ways, it felt like the recruiting process for the class of 2021 didn’t happen because, in some ways, it didn’t happen. Visits are such a big part of recruiting, and to take them away gutted a significant portion of the process.
This really hit me earlier this week when I was talking to a few of the players who signed with Pitt in the 2021 class. Every spring, we get on the phone with those guys for our Getting to Know Q&A series, and one of the questions we always ask is, “What was your favorite part of the recruiting process?”
Nine times out of 10, the answer has been the same: Visits. Recruits love taking visits. They love getting out and seeing different campuses and different parts of the country. They love spending time with other recruits and college players and college coaches. They love the experience, and most of the guys we’ve talked to over the years have pointed to visits as the highlight of the recruiting process.
This year, though, when I asked that same question to Elliot Donald, the answer was still about visits - and how he didn’t get to take any.
“I missed my favorite part of the process. I had my visits lined up and I was really looking forward to that. My first visit was going to be to LSU on my birthday and I couldn’t wait. That would have been my favorite part of the process. I already knew I was going to Pitt, but I wanted to go out on the visits and experience that.”
Elliot Donald was looking forward to one of the best parts of the recruiting process, and he missed out because he didn’t have a typical recruiting process. It wasn’t normal.
Recruits taking visits in June - that will be normal. More normal than anything that has happened in college sports for the last 13 months.