MORE HEADLINES - FREE COMMITMENT ARTICLE: Parrish finds a 'brotherhood' at Pitt | FREE: Donald's connection to Pitt gets more permanent | Official visit preview: Who is in town this weekend? | FREE: A special honor for Nelms | Four-star WR had Pitt in his top five | Film review: Bangally Kamara | Film review: Solomon DeShields
In this week’s 3-2-1 Column, we’re talking about Pitt’s big week of recruiting, the impact of the commitments, comparisons to last year, Aaron Donald and more.
THREE THINGS WE KNOW
A productive weekend
All the buildup was merited, it seems, as Pitt’s first official visit weekend for the 2020 class was certainly a success. Between securing a strong half-dozen commits and laying some important groundwork with quite a few top targets, it’s hard to find much downside in what played out last weekend.
By the numbers, Pitt hosted 22 recruits for official visits:
- Six defensive backs
- Five linebackers
- Four offensive linemen
- Three defensive linemen
- Two receivers
- Two running backs
Three of those guys - one defensive lineman, one offensive lineman and one receiver - were already committed to Pitt before the weekend. Five more joined the mix over the weekend. And one committed later in the week.
Neither of the two four-star recruits who visited was among the commitments, but the six who did give verbal pledges are priority targets. And there’s a good chance that a few of them will see a bump in their star rating the next time the Rivals.com analysts do a re-ranking.
Like Solomon DeShields, a linebacker from New Jersey who picked Pitt over a host of Power Five offers - schools like Auburn, Iowa State, Kentucky, Michigan State, Missouri, Oregon, Virginia Tech and West Virginia.
If the offer sheet isn’t impressive enough, consider the athlete: 6’2” and 200 pounds, with enough speed to be potentially considered as a receiver but the body type and physicality to play linebacker, particularly in Pitt’s defense where the outside linebackers have to be able to run and cover.
DeShields is a big-time get for Pitt.
So is Bangally Kamara, the first recruit to commit to Pitt during the official visit weekend. He pulled the trigger on Saturday night, and in doing so he turned down offers from Indiana, Iowa State, Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan, Michigan State, Nebraska, Penn State, Purdue, Rutgers and Syracuse - canceling a planned official visit to Michigan in the process.
Kamara is something of a tweener, a 6’2” 193-pounder who could play safety or linebacker - which makes him ideal for Pitt’s “Star” linebacker position. Uncertainty about his projected position may hold his ranking down a bit, but there’s no uncertainty on Pitt’s end: the coaches love him as a linebacker.
The list goes on. Defensive backs Tee Denson and Hunter Sellers join receiver Jaylon Barden, who already committed, as the first returns on Pitt’s heavy investment in recruiting Georgia. Running back Henry Parrish averaged more than 10 yards per carry and put up 2,000 all-purpose yards last season. And Emmanuel Belgrave is a defensive end prospect from Miami.
If Charlie Partridge, whose specialty is the defensive line and his connections are in south Florida, signs off on a defensive end prospect from Miami, then I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt on that one.
And those are just the first six to commit from the weekend. The list will inevitably grow and the class that gets announced on Signing Day in December will have more names from this past weekend on it.
Pitt missed on a few guys from the weekend, of course; two of the visitors have since committed to other schools (offensive lineman Vershon Lee committed to South Carolina and linebacker Jeff Pietrowski committed to Michigan State). But getting things rolling with DeShields, Kamara, Denson, Sellers, Belgrave and Parrish and likely adding from there will do quite nicely.
The second battle
Now for the really tough part:
Holding onto the recruits.
It’s one thing to convince these kids to come on official visits and then seal the deal with a commitment. But that’s far from the finish line. The finish line is in December on Signing Day when things really become official.
And between now and then, Pitt’s coaches have to work just as hard, if not harder, to make sure that all of those commits stay committed.
That’s not hyperbole. Signing Day is six months away on Wednesday, Dec. 18. That’s 181 days for coaches at other schools to target these players, contact these players, visit these players, get these players to take visits and ultimately try to flip their commitments.
Which means the Pitt coaches need to spend the next 181 days recruiting these players just as hard as they did before they committed. All the love they showed when they were trying to convince the recruits to commit - that all has to be replicated for the next 181 days.
Because the other suitors are going to come. A prospect like Solomon DeShields is going to have a lot of direct messages in his inbox and a lot of voices in his ear trying to get him to look around.
Hey, it’s no big deal. Just come out for an official visit. You get five official visits; why not take all five of them? This is a once-in-a-lifetime experience. Make the most of it. We know you’re set with Pitt, but you might as well enjoy this unique experience in the recruiting process.
It’s a convincing pitch - one Pitt has no doubt made to other recruits - and once a school gets a recruit on campus, all bets are off. Kids will swear up and down that they are solid and 100% in their commitments, but if they take another official visit, then you have to raise an eyebrow, because it means there’s a chance, an opening.
We all know how effective official visits can be: coaches put on their best performances, showcasing all that their program and school has to offer. It’s a red-carpet affair and, when it’s effectively executed, a recruit can very easily get swept up in the whole deal.
So coaches get very nervous when a commit decides to take a visit to another school, because now that school can wow the kid. And to make matters more difficult, the players who have committed so far have already taken their official visits, so Pitt isn’t going to have a chance to counter another school’s pitch with a knock-your-socks-off official visit of their own.
What can Pat Narduzzi and his staff do, then, to counter the efforts of coaches who will look to flip the commitments of these players?
The same thing they’ve been doing all along: recruit like crazy.
Whatever you want them to be
Let’s talk about stars for a second, shall we?
Stars are beautiful things. They’re magical. They have inspired mystics, guided sailors and born the wishes of dreamers since the beginning of time.
They have also bewitched fans of college football for just about the same length of time. But the real beauty of stars, the thing that makes us keep crawling back to them year after year, is how they really can be anything we want them to be.
Think your favorite school’s recruits are ranked too low? No problem. Stars don’t matter and there are countless low-ranked players who have turned into All-Pros.
Think your favorite school’s recruits have an impressive ranking? Great. There’s boatloads of evidence to support the notion that more stars tends to equal more success on the field.
You really can have it both ways!
Amazing, isn’t it?
Look: the reality is, it’s better to get higher-ranked recruits. More stars are a good thing. They look really nice on the paper and they are a very convenient, easily-understood shorthand for talking about a recruit.
How’s that kid they got?
Oh, he’s good. Four-star lineman out of Virginia.
It’s quick and easy and immediately means something. It means that recruit is in the upper echelon. He’s not the tip of the spear, but he’s close.
And if that kid isn’t a four-star lineman out of Virginia? If he’s a low-ranked three-star? That’s really not a problem.
He looks really impressive on film. He had some big-time offers. The analysts just didn’t get to see him much. He fits perfect in my school’s scheme.
See how easy that was? And if you’re a Pitt fan, you can pretty easily name-drop Aaron Donald and James Conner and Dion Lewis as three-stars who obviously excelled. And that’s the fun of it: the stars really can be anything you want them to be. They can be an example of how flawed the ranking system is, or they can be evidence of your favorite team’s recruiting prowess.
And here’s a fun addendum to talking about stars: every fanbase in the country is convinced the Rivals.com analysts hate their favorite team. Every one. You may not believe this, but every year you can find fans of schools like Georgia, Alabama, LSU, Texas and Oklahoma - the top-five finishers in the Rivals team recruiting rankings for the 2019 class - claiming that the Rivals.com evaluators are biased against their team.
Georgia and Alabama signed three five-star recruits each. LSU and Oklahoma had four each. Texas had one. Those five teams combined to sign 72 four-star prospects. 87 of the 126 recruits who signed with those five teams were ranked as four-star or five-star prospects. And they still griped. Georgia fans claimed Rivals was biased toward Alabama. Alabama fans claimed Rivals was biased toward Georgia. Everybody thinks Rivals is biased toward Notre Dame (and Notre Dame fans don’t understand why Rivals isn’t more biased toward them).
Ultimately, the stars and rankings are one piece in the puzzle of trying to determine whether or not a recruit is Good. “Will that recruit help my favorite team?” That’s what fans want to know. The best thing to do is to gather all the pertinent information - stars, rankings, offers, stats, measureables, film - and look at all of it.
Start viewing the stars as a piece to the puzzle, an educated guess based on as much information as possible, and I think a lot of the consternation over the topic will fade.
Until the next four-star or five-star recruit commits to Pitt. Then you go and beat your chest over it as much as you want. Scream that one from the rooftops.
TWO QUESTIONS WE HAVE
Is this year better than last year?
There’s no point in making comparisons, but hey: we’re all sitting around talking about Pitt sports, so let’s compare.
We spent the better part of last week building up to the big official visit weekend by previewing the recruits who were visiting but also taking a look back at the official visit weekend that set the precedent. Last year’s visit weekend was something we had never seen:
18 recruits visited. Eight committed on the spot and two more committed down the road (and two of the original eight flipped to other schools, which is why the section of this column titled “The Second Battle” is relevant).
It was a wild weekend that formed the foundation of the 2019 recruiting class. Nearly half of the 19 recruits who signed with Pitt last year visited that weekend, including the four-star quarterback and seven of the 10 prospects rated 5.6 or above on the Rivals.com rating scale.
But how does last year’s haul compare to this year’s?
By the numbers, Pitt got more out of last year’s big visit weekend; like I said, eight of the visitors ended up signing with Pitt, and so far, only six of this year’s visitors have committed. That number should grow, potentially matching the eight from the 2019 class.
The centerpiece of last year’s visit weekend was Davis Beville, the quarterback who finished the cycle as a four-star recruit and the No. 11 pro-style quarterback prospect in the nation. The weekend also produced Florida running backs Daniel Carter and Vincent Davis; Carter was a four-star at the time of his visit but dropped and both backs finished as 5.7 three-stars (5.7 the highest Rivals rating for a three-star prospect; the next step - 5.8 - brings a fourth star).
Brandon Hill also committed that weekend, and he’s got a chance to be one of the top overall players from the class. Defensive ends Bryce Nelms and DeAndre Jules and tight end Jason Collier rounded out the eight signings from the June visit weekend.
This year, there aren’t any four-star recruits on Pitt’s commitment list (not yet, at least), but there’s a whole lot of intrigue and potential. I’ve already stood on the table for DeShields and Kamara, and Parrish is a huge producer who named the offensive player of the year in Florida’s top level of football by the Miami Herald.
Nothing to sneeze at there.
If Pitt holds onto those three guys and they don’t bomb out on their senior seasons, I think this year’s official visit commits have a chance to be even better than last year’s. And I think they’ll get the rankings bumps to back that up.
Plus, there’s another element that’s going to have to be considered:
10 more kids are on campus this weekend.
Is this weekend even better?
Last weekend’s visit list was impressive. There were some really good recruits, including those who committed and a bunch more who are still on the board. It was a good weekend for Pitt, from landing the commitments to just getting some of those guys interested enough to visit.
But this weekend…this is something different.
We’ve got 10 confirmed official visitors, and four of them are four-star prospects. And not just any four-star prospects. We’re talking about the No. 10 offensive tackle prospect in the nation, a four-star lineman who just so happened to decommit from Penn State last week. We’re talking about the No. 14 safety prospect in the nation, who could also play cornerback and is using his first and only official visit of the summer on a trip to Pitt.
And we’re talking about a four-star receiver - the second to visit Pitt in as many weeks - and a four-star defensive tackle.
Those four alone are worth price of admission.
Except those four are not alone. We’re going Popeil here.
But wait. There’s more.
Like two local recruits who are arguably Pitt’s top targets in Western Pa. for this class. That would be Westinghouse defensive end Dayon Hayes (who some will tell you is the best prospect in the state) and Woodland Hills tight end Josh Rawlings (and we all know how much Pitt needs tight ends).
Throw in another receiver, another defensive back, a linebacker and another defensive lineman, and you’ve got Pitt’s official visit lined up with 10 targets of high interest. The haul this weekend produces could rival the last two June visit weekends - this year and last year - combined.
Now, some of these guys are probably not going to commit this weekend. National recruits like Aaryn Parks and Jahvante Royal are premier prospects, guys who can afford to take more visits and likely will do just that.
But if Pitt can grab Hayes and Rawlings, either this weekend or in the days after the visit, and lay a strong foundation with the other recruits who are on campus, the potential starts going sky high.
Before we get too far ahead of ourselves - or is it already too late for that? - the coaches have to keep working, of course. But they’ve taken a pretty big step to get these recruits on campus in the first place. It’s a process, and at this stage of the game, Narduzzi and company are excelling with the 2020 class.
JUST ONE MORE THING
As good as it gets
On Wednesday night, Pitt formally dedicated the new Aaron Donald Football Performance Center at the Panthers’ South Side facility. The dedication comes after Donald made a “seven-figure” commitment, and it puts his name on the entire first floor of the football program’s building.
That means the weight room, the locker room and the trainers’ room are all part of the Aaron Donald Football Performance Center.
It’s a solid recognition of Donald’s big-time donation - the most ever by a Pitt football letterman - but there’s more important recognition at play here:
Simply put, Pitt needs to associate itself with Aaron Donald as much as possible because Donald is, for lack of a better term, perfect.
I try to avoid hyperbole as much as I can. I try to keep perspective and not overstate things. But I honesty can’t think of a better ambassador for Pitt football. I think if you had the Pitt coaches and Pitt fundraisers draw up an ideal “face” for the program, it would probably look like Aaron Donald:
Humble. Hard-working. A hometown kid who stayed home and still comes home. Someone who says Pitt is important to him and genuinely means it.
It’s almost too perfect. Pitt gets to associate itself with a player who might be the best overall in the NFL right now (and he’s certainly in the running for that distinction since he’s definitely the best at his position and probably the best defensive player); having that player represent Pitt on a national stage is huge on a lot of fronts.
But Donald being who he is makes it even better. He is a talented player, of course, but he has separated himself by working tirelessly and without end. He worked like crazy at Penn Hills. He worked like crazy at Pitt. And he’s still working like crazy with the Los Angeles Rams. He’s at the top of his profession and he’s keeping himself there through his hard work.
That’s exactly the role model Pitt wants for its student-athletes, and it’s exactly the image Pitt longs to put forth for itself.
Without being too clichéd, if there’s a “Pitt way,” Aaron Donald epitomizes it.
And to top it all off, he’s a Pitt football alum who proudly presents himself as such. The Panthers have produced plenty of premier NFL players in the last two decades, but none has represented Pitt like Donald has. Darrelle Revis and Larry Fitzgerald and LeSean McCoy repped Pitt proudly in the NFL, but Donald is the new standard. Donald is laying down the path that future Pitt alums should follow.
That’s what Pitt needs: successful alums who carry the Pitt brand with them. Pitt needs to be able to associate itself with top NFL players, but it also needs those players to carry their end of the association, too.
To borrow a phrase that the coaches love to use, Aaron Donald is a Pitt man. Pitt needs a few more of them at his level.
