Back at the end of June, I made a couple passing mentions of how Ohio State had pulled in some of the top WPIAL talent in this recruiting cycle. Not surprisingly, there was a story on that issue.
Since Trinity graduate Andrew Sweat verbally committed to Ohio State in May 2007, four other WPIAL recruits — former Jeannette quarterback Terrelle Pryor, Jeannette running back Jordan Hall, Gateway linebacker Dorian Bell and Gateway receiver Corey Brown — followed his lead.
Again, it isn’t the volume, but the quality. The Terrelle Pryor commit in April had a significant impact. Even though he goes in as a 2008 recruit, his drawn out decision-making went on 2 months past NLI Day. But, this has as much to do with it as anything.
“When you look at elite programs in the country, there are four right now: Ohio State, USC, Florida and LSU,” Gateway coach Terry Smith said. “Ohio State is the closest to Western Pennsylvania, and Pa. kids tend to stay close to home.”
That actually applies to most recruits, not just the ones in Pennsylvania.
This isn’t to say that Ohio State will now be a regular force in Western PA to contend with recruiting. Outside teams tend to go in cycles.
Just a few years back, it was Michigan that was the major national interloper. Then they faded. With DickRod now there, they might be a factor once more.
Short-term it can be frustrating and bothersome. Long-term, I’m not as worried.
On a shallow sports-fan level, I rejoice in their failures, especially if they totally spurned Pitt during recruiting (aka Nick “Bluto Blutarsky” Marmo — what a completely worthless piece of excrement, his only value to society will be when his corpse decomposes to fertilize the soil he’s buried in).
But on the human level, I hope these guys got some kind of meaningful degree while tagging along in their street clothes during games. I don’t relish seeing them end up back in WPA rotting on welfare or written up in the legal dockets of the local rags for some unfortunate arrest. “I remember that guy, he thought he was going to light it up at Ohio State, but there were 6 Parade All Americans ahead of him and he never saw the field.”
I ain’t blaming someone like Pryor, who probably is a can’t-miss anywhere (well, except PSU, where he’d be totally misused), for leaving. Just saying that the other WPA kids who were well-regarded, but definitely not superstars, should look past the stars in their eyes and think about how they could become real legends by staying local and getting honest chances to be great players at Pitt, rather than languish on the bottom of the depth chart at a Miami or Michigan. I don’t necessarily advocate negative recruiting, and our staff probably is loathe to even mention those programs on the recruiting trail. But this kind of thing is worth noting.
Hopefully the young man is not going through too much trouble but he’s a local kid. Could we see him in the blue and gold? He would be a great addition.