Aliquippa is expecting big things from Brandon Lindsey. They like to have their boys from ‘da Quip getting attention and they love to make it some sort of geographic lineage.

Lindsey, 22, has strong family bloodlines. His father, John, played major-college basketball at Memphis. His brother, Willie, played major college football at Northwestern.

Lindsey comes from a strong high school football program that has produced five first-round picks in the NFL Draft — Mike Ditka (1961), Sean Gilbert (1992), Ty Law (1995), Darrelle Revis (2007) and former Pitt teammate Jonathan Baldwin (2011).

“It’s a little too early to start thinking about the NFL Draft, but really, it’s not too far away,” Lindsey said. “This is my last year (at Pitt), and I know it’s going to happen. What round I get drafted … it all depends on what I do on the field this season.”

The successes should be celebrated. In an area like Aliquippa that has no shortage of problems, you want to point to the people that do something. That take advantage of their opportunities.

Then there is Monroe Weekley.

Big things were expected of him when he was recruited.

Weekley led Aliquippa High School to a 2000 WPIAL Class AA football championship and was one of the nation’s most sought-after college recruits in 2001, receiving offers from Miami, Michigan, Notre Dame and Wisconsin before selecting Pitt.

Unfortunately the linebacker was dismissed from the team in May 2002 by Walt Harris for “behavior unbecoming of the football program.” He went to Kansas, before being booted from their squad in 2003.

As if it wasn’t enough of a fall from grace that he is now a “what if,” now, he is facing a murder charge.

Monroe Weekley III, 28, of 717 Washington St., Aliquippa, is charged with killing 24-year-old Rashawn Cameron with a single gunshot to the head in what police said was an attempted robbery turned homicide.

Cameron, whose last known address was 902 Glenwood Ave., went to a house at 308 Cooper St. late  Nov. 20 or early  Nov. 21 with other people who knew the residents there, according to Sgt. Steven L. Roberts.

Sometime early Nov. 21, Cameron was fatally shot in the back of the head behind his left ear. His body was discovered on a couch around 11:30 a.m. when a resident of the house woke up and went downstairs.

…

Weekley turned himself in to city police shortly after noon Monday on the advice of an attorney. He was arraigned before District Judge James DiBenedetto and held in the Beaver County Jail without bond, court records show.

For whatever reason, this is the second person from the Walt Harris era who was kicked off the team and then faced murder chargers. The first was Steven Walker back in 2005. Walker was a 2004 recruit, who didn’t make it through a year at Pitt before being kicked off the team and out of school. No one was that innocent in the Walker case. Sadly, I suspect it will be almost as gray in this case.