The newest commit, Ryan Turnley, has created a bit of head-scratching over getting a 1-2-star ranking yet have schools like Wisconsin, Louisville and GT being interested. Not to mention being listed in some rankings for top Pennsylvania players.

There is no question that Turnley will be a bit of a project. He’s only been playing football since 8th grade. What the rankings contrasted with the teams that have recruited him reflect is a lot of raw potential. The “kid” is a 6′ 5″ and 295 pounds offensive tackle. Clearly, this is a diamond-in-the-rough type player the Pitt coaches hope to reach. He’s only been a starter at Hopewell for one year.
It helps that Turnley was eager for a Pitt offer.

“Like I said before, I grew up a huge Pittsburgh fan and I told people my whole life that it was my dream to play for the Panthers in college,” Turnley added. “I’ve known Coach (Greg) Gattuso, Coach (Bob) Junko and Coach (Dave) Wannstedt for a long time now and they are all great people. When I went on a visit there this Thursday I was able to sit down and talk with Coach (Paul) Dunn for about an hour and he was a great guy too. They took me around and showed me everything on campus and I liked it even more then I thought I would going down there. I just loved everything about Pittsburgh from the coaches, to the campus to the facilities, it has just always been the dream. I knew I was going to commit there when I left campus on Thursday.”

You look at West Virginia, and their O-line. They have done it with finding players who were overlooked and then developing the potential. Turnley wasn’t being overlooked by coaches and teams, just the recruiting sites because there was very little to go on with him in high school.