TJ Bradley, JUCO OT, loved his visit to Pitt

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Scranton (Pa.) Lackawanna Community College seems to have another star recruit on their hands in offensive tackle TJ Bradley, a 2018 prospect who originally hails from Leesburg (Va.). Bradley, who will be a redshirt sophomore whenever he enrolls at the college of his choice, has a lengthy list of high-profile offers to choose from. Schools like Pitt, Penn State, Virginia Tech, West Virginia, Maryland, and several others have extended scholarships to Bradley. An unofficial visit to Pitt on Saturday, June 3rd was the third of the spring for Bradley.

“That was my very first time at Pitt and my first time in Pittsburgh actually,” Bradley said. “I loved the campus. The campus was like a mini-city and it had a lot of people moving and going on during the summer. There were a lot of events. I told them that I loved the city there and that I definitely have to come back.”

Pat Narduzzi made sure to sit down for a lengthy one-on-one session with Bradley while he was on campus and the head coach did his best to persuade the big offensive tackle on teaming up at the Power Five level with his Lackawanna teammate, Chase Brown.

“I talked to the head coach and he was telling me about the need for tackles and all of the stuff that me and Chase Brown could do there. I was thanking him for the offer and I was telling him that I may actually put my commitment earlier,” Bradley said. “We were just talking for a little bit and seeing if we saw eye-to-eye and stuff like that.”

Bradley, who checks in at 6-foot-7 and 288 pounds, would be a fearsome duo alongside his teammate Brown, who’s a standout offensive tackle in his own right and has an impressive frame at 6-foot-6 and 310 pounds. The duo share offers from Pitt, Minnesota, Virginia Tech, Cincinnati, and TCU.

“[Chase Brown and I] talked about it. We’re both just trying to focus on our next season and he’s also getting recruited a lot. We kind of deal with it with each other because we know we’ve got a lot of hard work in front of us,” Bradley said. “That would probably make our jobs easier if we were to go to a school together. We would have that bond, so it would go by faster. We’ll see. It might end up like that, but Chase might go Big 12 and I might go Big 10 and we could end up in different conferences. You never know, we’ll just see.”

Regardless of whether it would be alongside Brown or on his lonesome, Bradley is intrigued by the prospect of continuing his college career at Pitt.

“I could most definitely [see myself playing there],” said Bradley. “It’s a very successful school and they train right next to the Pittsburgh Steelers. You can clearly see where hard work gets you, every day. That’s the ultimate goal for most football players and I think seeing that every day can inspire most players. That’s the only school in the country that has that accessible to them.”

Pitt is among the schools speaking most frequently with Bradley during this stage of his recruitment, but they’re certainly not alone.

“I do talk to Pitt a lot, I also talk to Minnesota, Penn State, and West Virginia a lot,” Bradley said. “It’s a lot of ACC and Big Ten schools that talk to me the most. The ones that think I’m most likely to commit to them, they seem to talk to me the most.”

Bradley continues to work through his recruiting process with a series of unofficial visits and continued contact with coaches. Although he had planned to take his recruitment well into the fall before enrolling early in January 2018 at the college of his choice, Bradley is considering accelerating that process.

“I was telling earlier reporters that I was going to do Thanksgiving, but I’m going to do earlier than that because I want to stop focusing on the recruitment so much,” Bradley explained. “My season is about to come up at my school and I want to focus on that more. I might do it earlier, I might not, we’ll see. I’ve just got to keep taking these unofficials and see where it takes me.

“So far, I’ve been to Maryland, Penn State, and now Pitt. I’m bringing my mom back to Maryland because it’s close to my house and I want to take her to see it a little bit. I want to plan one to West Virginia. I went up there for their spring game, but I have to get back for a visit. I’m going to do my local visits, like Virginia Tech and all my local schools. The schools that are like across the country, I might take officials, so we’ll see how it plays out this summer.”

With so many schools courting him during his high-profile recruitment, Bradley has honed in a set of criteria that have helped him discern the signal from the noise.

“I want a school that I could get comfortable with really fast like I did at Lackawanna. I guess I’ll know the feeling when I go there, but it’s a really tough decision right now. Each school, I like in a different way,” Bradley said. “Here at Pitt, I like that it’s blue collar and I love the city. Out of all of the cities that I’ve been to, this college means a lot to this city and I can see that. I really like that. It’s just really tough because each school has different things that I like about it. I’ve just got to find the school that I really fit into and I can enjoy and always come back to for memories and stuff like that.”

With a long battery of visits remaining on his schedule, Bradley won’t be making a decision at any point this month, but the star offensive tackle’s recruitment bears watching moving forward for Pitt fans. Stay tuned for further updates on Bradley on Panther-Lair.com and the Rivals.com network.