Mike Cruz seemed like he was more than excited to play for Pitt when he verbally committed at the beginning of April.
“Pitt’s been my dream school,†Cruz said. “It’s always been my favorite school.”
Don’t be too quick to picture him in a Panthers jersey though, since he’s backed out of his verbal.
Johnstown Bishop McCort junior tight end Mike Cruz has reneged on his verbal commitment to Pitt and will reopen his college recruitment.
“Unfortunately, I did,†Cruz said. “I think I rushed my decision.â€
The 6-foot-4, 260-pound Cruz was the second player from the Class of 2008 to pick the Panthers. Verbal commitments are non-binding until prospects sign a binding national letter of intent in February.
For more on Cruz, here are other posts about him on Pitt Blather.
Cruz said the atmosphere at Pitt’s Blue-Gold Game, which drew a crowd of only 2,103 to Heinz Field on April 14, caused him to reconsider and look at other programs.
“It was kind of an 80-20 thing,” Cruz said, “80 percent wanting to keep my options open and 20 percent seeing that they really don’t have a great fan base.”
OUCH!
But that’s me…
This jagoff from MD decommitted from his UMD verbal signed with PSU and now he might transfer back to College Park, MD.
I’m not angry at kids for expecting and dreaming because if you have the talent then it SHOULD be your job to lose, regardless of how many all-Americans are ahead of you. Dreaming is what makes the college game different from the NFL, and why we love the college game so much. But when you open your mouth and bring down a program because their wasn’t enough asses on bleachers then I have a problem. This may not be a big deal to the casual PITT fan but to the hardcore fans like most of us it feels like a stranger bad mouthed our family and we still showed love(Wanny saying we wanted him even after the fact). Sorry if I am ranting and being a bit harsh but I haven’t posted in a while and have some backed up “angry goo”.
Cruz, apologize to the players first and then walk your ass to Akron and compete with your big brother for the back-up tight end job your whole career there. *lights a cigarette and waves*
…..I rant because I love
Chris, thanks for saying what needs to be said. If Pitt fans want this to be a “big time” program, then Pitt fans have to show up at the stadium on game day. Win or lose, a full house will help recruiting. I can’t stand the “win and I’ll show up” fans. I said this here before (and got pounded for it), but I’m going to say it again: While PSU was enjoying four losing seasons (out of five), they still averaged over 100,000 butts in the seats. Their play clearly removed them from the elite of college football, yet the perception is still there that they are an elite program. Why is that? Could it because their fan base is so strong? I don’t care why it’s strong (such as they have nothing else to do), the fact is their fan base is impressive….on TV, to recruits, and in person if you have ever been there. We don’t even have to sell out…If we could just get 50,000 per game to show up, and have the ones who do show up stay in their seats and watch the damn game, we would be OK. In the alternative, we could just change our home jersey color to the same shade of yellow as the seats at the stadium!
You can read what I feel about the whole situation in the above article. Basically to sum it up. Cruz burnt a bridge just like his brother. How he handled the situation of wanting to look around exposes some character issues (committing only to turn around in a only a small time interval to change your mind). Cruz is not the typical-TE mold Pitt wants at the position (no offensive threat. Cruz most likely does not have a Pitt offer anymore. Pitt is better off putting the full press on Graham, Williams, and DiLillo, all who meet what we are looking for at the position.
