It's all about Signing Day in this week's 3-2-1 Column, as we're looking at a number of storylines surrounding Pitt's recruiting class and transfers.
THREE THINGS WE KNOW
The defensive line is reloaded
There are always a lot of things to note and observe on Signing Day. When teams are adding that many players to the roster - and missing out on some, too - there are bound to be a lot of storylines to talk about.
With Pitt’s 2024 recruiting class, as well as the surrounding acquisitions from the transfer portal, there’s one big one that stands out to me:
The rebuilding of the defensive line room
I just can’t get over what Charlie Partridge has done with that room in one offseason.
Pitt signed five defensive linemen in the 2024 recruiting class: ends Sincere Edwards, Zachary Crothers and Ty Yuhas (who could play end or tackle) and tackles Jahsear Whittington and Francis Brewu (who came down to the wire). And then the Panthers added three more linemen from the transfer portal: Clemson end David Ojiegbe, Kansas State end Nate Matlack and Indiana tackle Nick James.
That’s eight total additions to the defensive line room - nearly doubling the size of Partridge’s returning roster.
The defensive line at Pitt, a clear strength of the team over the last five years, took some major hits in the last two offseasons. After the 2022 season, the Panthers lost ends Haba Baldonado, John Morgan and Deslin Alexandre and tackle Calijah Kancey. This offseason, four defensive tackles left (super seniors Devin Danielson, Tyler Bentley and David Green were out of eligibility and DeAndre Jules transferred to South Carolina) as well as one end (Samuel Okunlola transferred to Colorado).
So you’re looking at nine defensive linemen leaving the roster over the last two offseasons. Meanwhile, Pitt only added three linemen last year and three the year before, so the numbers needed some balancing.
And they got it this year.
Now, instead of having three defensive tackles entering the 2024 season, Pitt will have at least six and possibly seven or eight if Yuhas and/or Moritz Schmoranzer move to tackle. And the defensive end group grew from seven returning players to at least 11.
That’s a rebuild. If nothing else, it adds bodies. But I think Pitt brought in more than bodies on the defensive line this offseason.
Edwards, Whittington and Brewu are all four-star prospects; I don’t think those are inflated rankings. Crothers might be one of the real sleepers in this class after he put up 22.5 tackles for loss and 13 sacks on a team that allowed one touchdown in its final seven games. And two of the transfers - Ojiegbe and James - are former four-star prospects, while Matlack had solid production (4 sacks, 7.5 TFL) in a defensive scheme at K-State that didn’t feature the ends as pass-rushers.
So if you add all of those guys to the current roster, you get a two-deep that will have Dayon Hayes, Bam Brima, Nate Temple, David Ojiegbe and Nate Matlack as veteran ends and Nick James, Elliot Donald, Sean FitzSimmons and Isaiah Neal as veteran tackles.
Granted, that tackle room could still use a little more help, but I think the ceiling is high for FitzSimmons and Neal, and maybe Brewu and/or Whittington get out there and help this season.
Either way, the defensive line room has gone from paltry and thin to having adequate numbers with personnel that seems like it has a chance to be an upgrade over what they had a year ago.
That’s a good offseason haul for Partridge, who probably isn’t completely done adding guys ahead of 2024.
The linebackers are reloaded
Let’s talk about another defensive position that needed some numbers.
Pat Narduzzi kind of bristled at my suggestion on Wednesday that the linebacker room had been rebuilt over the last two classes but…the linebacker room was rebuilt over the last two classes.
Consider the recruiting prior to the class of 2023 (the one that signed last year).
In 2020, Pitt signed two linebackers: Bangally Kamara and Solomon DeShields
In 2021, Pitt signed one linebacker: Preston Lavant
In 2022, Pitt signed two linebackers: Kyle Louis and Marquan Pope
Signing five guys over three classes is not nearly enough to man a position that requires three players on the field at all times. And you don’t need a history lesson to know what’s left of that five-man group entering 2024.
Kamara went to the portal this offseason. Lavant went two years ago. And Pope was medically disqualified after he enrolled in January 2022.
That leaves two guys on the 2024 roster - DeShields and Louis - from those three recruiting classes.
That’s a problemo.
But the last two recruiting classes have provided a solution. The 2023 class brought Jordan Bass, Rasheem Biles and Braylan Lovelace to the roster. All three played this season and made some solid contributions. Lovelace had a scoop-and-score at Virginia Tech, while Biles blocked two punts and Bass played more than 100 defensive snaps.
Now the coaches added three more linebackers with the 2024 class. Cameron Lindsey is the headliner of the group as a four-star prospect from Aliquippa who was responsible for the first undefeated state championship season in Quip history (a factoid I still can’t get my head around; how has that never happened before?!). Jeremiah Marcelin is about as close as you can get to being a four-star prospect and he was a key piece in a near-perfect season at Miami Norland. And Davin Brewton is a tackling machine - literally, he had 132 tackles this year - from Red Bank Catholic in New Jersey.
Bass, Biles, Lovelace, Lindsey, Marcelin and Brewton.
That’s one hell of a haul at linebacker over two classes. And whether Narduzzi wants to say it or not, the coaches rebuilt the linebacker room with those six guys.
Now, we’ll see how players develop and who pans out and who transfers and all of that. Inevitably, not all six of those players will be starters and top-line contributors for Pitt.
But they sure do look good right now, and I’m willing to bet that the foundation of the linebackers for the next few years is in pretty good hands with that not-so-dirty half-dozen.
C.R.E.A.M.
No, we’re not going to get any coolness points for knowing a 30-year-old hip-hop reference. Nor did we need recruiting and the transfer portal to remind us of the poignancy of that phrase.
But it was true when Method Man said it in 1993, and it’s true again today:
Cash rules everything around me
That’s a reality of life, of course, but the last few weeks of transfer portal action in college football has really hammered the point home.
The reality of the transfer portal right now, is that cash really does seem to be the primary motivation behind so much of what’s happening this offseason. Whether it’s the choice of school or the decision to go into the portal in the first place, NIL enticements are driving so many of the moves that players are making.
And all of the things that used to matter - things like relationships and development and playing time and environment - they all seem secondary to the bag (do we get coolness points for that one?).
Look, I don’t begrudge anybody the opportunity to get paid for their work. I’m a big fan of getting paid for work. If you’re good at something and somebody benefits from you doing it, why would you do it for free?
I can’t hold that against anybody.
But when we’re hearing of players saying things like, “Look, I know this coach can help develop me and we’ve got this relationship but here’s what I need to get” - I don’t know, I just wonder if the players are making the best decisions.
In the short term, yes, they’re making the best decisions and taking the biggest offer. But I don’t know if that’s always the best option for the long term, particularly when we’re talking about veteran players who have been working with a coach or staff for two or three or four or even five years only to turn around and enter the portal for a better NIL opportunity.
And I’m not talking about Pitt specifically here; I’m not talking about any school specifically. I’m talking about all of them, because they’re all impacted by it. Every school in the country can tell stories of veteran players saying some version of what I paraphrased two paragraphs ago.
Or young players saying it.
Or recruits saying it.
And there’s one thing motivating them all.
Maybe not all of them. In some cases, guys are transferring because they’re not getting playing time or because they experienced a coaching change or something along those lines. Transferring makes sense in those situations, and while NIL will play a factor in determining where those players end up, the decision to transfer was motivated by something other than money.
In a whole lot of other situations, though, guys are leaving sure things - a defined role, an opening for playing time, established relationships with coaches, etc. - and the only clear motivation is what Randy Moss said 18 years ago:
Straight cash, homie.
Everything you saw on Signing Day, every surprise, every flip, every move that was made - it all came from the same source.
I won’t say it’s wrong. I won’t even say it’s sad. And I won’t say it’s the end of college football.
What I will say is, when money is the primary motivation behind a decision, it can overshadow other factors that might end up being pretty important.
Maybe those lessons will be learned. Maybe they won’t. Either way, Method Man’s immortal observation that cash rules everything about me - C.R.E.A.M. - is as relevant today as it was 30 years ago.
TWO QUESTIONS WE HAVE
Did the super seniors jam up the defensive tackle room?
I talked earlier about the numbers issues on the defensive line, but let’s look a little closer at why those numbers are what they are.
Because I wonder if there’s a specific cause.
The super seniors.
I thought it was a nice idea back in 2020 when the NCAA decided that anybody who was on a roster in that ill-fated year could get a free year of eligibility. It seemed like a perfectly fine way to make up for a nearly-impossible situation.
But even as far back as 2021, coaches were talking about how that might not have been the best plan, because it threw a real wrench into roster construction.
At first, it was okay. The NCAA lifted the 85-man scholarship limit for 2021, so everybody could come back and nobody had to leave and everybody was happy. But then the number went back down to 85, and things got hairy.
Coaches typically plan rosters out a decent amount in advance. They know (roughly) who they’ll have each year, who they’ll lose each year and where they’ll have to add players each year in order to maintain continuity and balance at all the positions. Inevitably, you’ll end up with deep years and thin years, but coaches try to manage it as well as they can.
So when the NCAA created this exemption, it created a disruption to the roster management plans. Players could come back for an extra year, and that’s great, but in doing so, they took a scholarship spot and lowered the number of new players the coaches could bring in each year.
Which brings me to Pitt’s defensive line. And specifically, the defensive tackles.
In 2018, Pitt signed three tackles: Tyler Bentley, Devin Danielson and David Green. The coaches followed that by signing two in 2019: Calijah Kancey and DeAndre Jules. Five over two classes is a pretty solid target, and maybe it allowed the coaches to feel like they could get away without signing any in 2020.
That’s okay because they could make up for it in the ensuing years, right? Well…
Pitt signed two tackles in the 2021 class (local prospects Elliot Donald and Dorien Ford). That was a good start. But then they signed one in 2022 (Sean FitzSimmons). And one in 2023 (Isaiah Neal).
That’s four defensive tackles over three classes, and now you’ve got problems.
So my question is this: if Bentley, Danielson and Green don’t have an extra year of eligibility waiting for them, thus eating up three scholarships through the 2023 season, does Pitt sign more than four defensive tackles in those three classes?
It’s not like the coaches really tried for many other tackles in those classes. They were happy with Donald and Ford in the 2021 class. FitzSimmons was the only defensive tackle to take an official visit in the 2022 class. And Neal was the only tackle to take an official visit in the 2023 class.
They offered other tackles, but those were really the only guys they pursued, and I can’t help but wonder if it was because there was that big Bentley/Danielson/Green logjam.
You can only commit so many scholarships to one position, and those guys ate up three of them for a long time.
Now Pitt is past that era and the coaches are clearly restocking the numbers. But I would really love to know how much the presence of Bentley, Danielson and Green affected the recruiting priorities.
Is the jump from FCS to the ACC too big?
Pitt has nine transfers committed at this point, and while Clemson, Indiana, Oregon State, Nebraska, Kansas State and N.C. State were the schools of origin for some of them, the Panthers are also bringing in a few transfers from below the Power Five level.
Most notably, they’re bringing in a pair of FCS skill players in running back Desmond Reid and receiver Censere Lee.
Both are coming to Pitt from Western Carolina, where the obvious connection is new Pitt offensive coordinator Kade Bell. Under Bell’s watch, Reid was the only running back in the Southern Conference to average more than 100 rushing yards per game and he put up more than 2,000 all-purpose yards over the last two seasons, while Lee was one of the top receivers in the SoCon.
The highlight tapes of Reid and Lee are fun to watch. There’s no question about that. Nor is there any question about the numbers they put up. They’re impressive.
The question, if we need one, is about how the play of Reid and Lee will translate as they move up not just one level, but several.
FCS to FBS is a leap. FCS to Power Five is an even bigger leap. And that’s what those two will be looking to do when they join Pitt’s roster for the spring semester.
Now, I’ll be the first to admit that there are good players everywhere. FCS guys are having success in the NFL, let alone transfers who moved to FBS programs all over the country.
But what is realistic to expect from those two as they look to make plays in the ACC?
By my count from what I can find online, there were 18 FCS players who transferred into the ACC last offseason.
Not all of them were running backs or receivers, but as far as I can tell, only two of those 18 finished among the ACC’s top 25 in rushing or receiving - and they were both at Virginia Tech, incidentally. Bayshul Tuten transferred from North Carolina A&T and rushed for 727 yards and eight touchdowns on 155 carries, while Da’Quan Felton went to Blacksburg from Norfolk State and led the Hokies with 38 receptions for 667 yards and eight scores.
That’s all.
Now, that’s not to say that transfers didn’t have an impact in the ACC this season. 11 of the conference’s top 25 rushers - including five quarterbacks - were transfers (either last offseason or previously). And nine of the league’s top 25 receivers were transfers (including Pitt’s Bub Means).
But only Tuten and Felton came from FCS programs.
That doesn’t mean that Reid and Lee can’t do it; it just means that there’s not exactly a lot of precedent for it.
So we’ll see how they do. They’re certainly talented players, but there are some size concerns, which could be relevant as they transition into ACC games. They’re also joining position groups that are thin but not completely bereft of talent. Pitt’s leaders in rushing and receptions from 2023 are both back in 2024, so Reid and Lee aren’t exactly going to be counted on to step into those roles.
Still, if Kade Bell believes those guys can play and Pat Narduzzi believes in Bell, then they’re worth a shot.
ONE PREDICTION
This will go down as one of Narduzzi’s best classes
We’ve been predicting it since the summer, and now that the class is signed, we’ll say it again:
The recruiting class of 2024 will go down as one of Pat Narduzzi’s best classes.
There’s a good debate to be had about which class has been Narduzzi’s best - 2020 is a pretty good one - and I won’t go so far as to say that this year’s class will take the top spot. But I think it’s a really good class and one that will be a big part of the foundation for the next few years.
The main reason I think that is because of the linemen. I already talked a lot about the defensive line prospects in this class, and I think that group can be really good. But the offensive line is getting a major influx from this class, too, with five players coming in on that side of the ball.
It’s always tough to project linemen, of course. I’ve said before that I think offensive line is maybe the most difficult position to project when you are looking at high school players and trying to imagine what they’ll be in two, three, four or five years.
But I think Caleb Holmes is one of the best offensive line prospects Pitt has signed under Narduzzi, and that’s a great start. I like Moritz Schmoranzer a lot, too (although he could end up moving to the defensive line). And there’s plenty to like about Adham Abouraya, Mason Lindsay and Jiavani Cooley.
If you’re looking for a recruiting class to form some kind of foundation, loading up on linemen is a good way to do it. As such, Pitt’s class of 2024 is bringing 10 players to the trenches.
Working out from the line of scrimmage, I really like this group of linebackers. I talked about them earlier, but I think that signing Lindsey, Marcelin and Brewton after getting Bass, Biles and Lovelace really builds the foundation for years to come.
So even if we just look at linemen and linebackers, we’re talking about 13 of the 19 recruits who signed with Pitt on Wednesday. That’s a huge chunk of the class, and my optimism about this group’s future is largely based on how those players project.
We’ll see what happens with the three offensive skill guys; Juelz Goff looks like a win at running back, and then development will be key for Julian Dugger and Cameron Monteiro.
And at defensive back, it looks like another standard Narduzzi class: a bunch of physical, athletic DB’s who could play corner or safety.
I think it’s just a really good class overall - the kind of class that can build a foundation.
This summer, I predicted in a 3-2-1 Column that Pitt would sign six four-star prospects in the class of 2024. They didn’t quite get there; only four of the recruits are four-stars. But if you include David Ojiegbe and Nick James as former four-stars, then I kind of hit it, right?
