I realize Indiana is not exactly a hotbed of football recruiting talent. Check that. I realize Indiana is not a hotbed. It’s a flatland of emptiness and boredom you drive through as quickly as possible to get to Chicago — or anywhere else. (With apologies to Gary McGhee.)
Still, more than 40 years since Pitt got a football recruit from that state? Who knew?
Pitt received a verbal commitment from Plymouth (Ind.) Offensive lineman Dan Samuelson Tuesday. Samuelson, 6-6, 295, chose the Panthers over offers from Minnesota, Northwestern, Illinois and Wake Forest.
If he does indeed sign with the Panthers, he is believed to be Pitt’s first scholarship player from the state of Indiana in at least 42 years.
Years of losing in South Bend didn’t make it easier to recruit there. [Hmm. Just went over the history. Since 197o, Pitt is 6-11 at Notre Dame, but only 4-11 at home in the same period. So much for that theory.]
Dan Samuelson — and if he’s not a hockey player, he has to be an offensive lineman with that name — is a consensus 3-star recruit across all the sites (other than ESPN.com which doesn’t have an evealuation on him). His size is listed at 6-5 on all the sites and the weight is listed from 280-295.
It’s another big body for the recruiting class. Something of a trend, as Trib beat writer, Jerry DiPaola tweeted yesterday. Not exactly shocking. Coach Chryst wants big guys on the lines and that includes the tight ends
As for the recruitment, well even in Indiana they can toss out the FraudGraham slap.
Plymouth coach John Baron described Samuelson as “a very physical run blocker.”
Samuelson also enjoyed his meetings with coach Paul Chryst and line coach Jim Hueber, Baron said.
“It didn’t seem like Pitt (coaches) were a bunch of car salesmen,” said Baron, who had a hour-long telephone conversation with Chryst. “The other schools seemed like car salesmen, wheelers and dealers.”
Those fine mid-western sensibilities.
According to this report (Insider subs) Michigan State and Penn State were also showing interest.
Here’s a little more on his recruitment and style of play:
“He’s a very physical run blocker,” Plymouth High School coach John Barron said of Samuelson. “Not only was his size what attracted a lot of people, but his length attracted people. He has long legs, long arms, and he moves real well. He’s a guy we can pull and trap with. We can run power behind him.
“Dan is the type of kid who fits what we do at Plymouth, but certainly is a fit for major colleges. Even though we don’t throw a lot, he can play tackle and block that real athletic edge player. I think that’s what people project him to be.”
…
“This was a big day for my family and I, my head coach and our school,” Samuelson said. “It was a pretty good day.“Pitt has been in contact with me for a long time. I hear from them almost every day, either through Facebook or letters that they send to me.”
The Panthers are moving from the Big East to the ACC.
“It’s pretty important to be the first class of Pitt football moving into the ACC,” Samuelson said.
“We have a big goal to try and be powerful in that conference. We need a lot of talent to finish out our team. We obviously have a lot of work to do. It’s pretty special that we’ll be the first ones to compete in the ACC.”
Guess the move to the ACC isn’t a hindrance for mid-west recruiting. Samuelson is also a solid student according to the story.
A lot of people were mistakenly questioning Chryst’s quiet demeanor as a negative when it comes to recruiting. Here it’s already showing itself to be a postive.
Wait till the fall when it gets down to football and people get a look at the product he puts on the field and starts racking up a few wins.
“… Samuelson is in the minority. I can cite many examples of prospects saying they haven’t heard a lot from Pitt or didn’t even know they were offered. “Passive” may not be the right word, but at the very least they seem to be concentrating on a certain few. If they get those few and end up with a very good class then their approach would have worked. Time will tell.”
Really, there were only 5 posts ahead of you, people are thinking we landed the next Anthony Munoz???
I’m not sure, but I think Chryst has 4 or 5 guys now around 6’5″, 6’6″ 290lbs he has recruited.
We may have a few down there now as juniors or seniors this size, but, we’ve had guys this big, as recruits or freshmen recently?? Ok, maybe we have, I could easily be wrong.
If we have them just laying around there down in Oakland, hopefully Chryst can mold them.
For being his first 5 or 6 months at a new program, I’d say he’s brought in some pretty big dudes as high school seniors.
Doing this without the local high school coaches even knowing him, nor the senior players having anything to look at as a product, with him being a head coach.
I’d say there is some reason, for some optimism for Pitt football, and the future of Pitt football!!
You don’t happen to be a troll, are ya???
Well, the staff obviously has a different idea of what they want.
Samuelson is a case in point. Chryst obviously was targeting this guy since he was at Wisconsin and no one in PGH even knew about the kid.
I think we’ll see this more often than not with this recruiting staff this year especially. PITT has obviously contacted the big name players early and often (Foster, Johnson) but they have their own “Big Board” of recruits that they will concentrate on whether the media or internet pundits agree with it or not.
Remember, these staff coaches don’t give a damn about recruiting stars – they want what they want regardless of how publicized the kid has been.
So I’m trying to let them know how things are being perceived whether or not perception is reality.
I want the program to succeed and the more information they have the better.
That said, it may be just easier to send the principals in the football program emails. That is why they publish the addresses.
Here are the contact #s and addresses:
link to pittsburghpanthers.com
Plus, another way to get the word up to people at PITT is to attend pre & post game tailgates at the Spring game and/or regular season games. Guys like Pat Bostick, Jr are readily accessible and want to know what the pulse of the fans is like. I know Bostick may sound like a young guy for this but he’s not only in the broadcast booth for PITT but is also the Assistant Director of Development for the Panther Club and is attached to PITT’s media Relations department with E. J. Borghetti and all of those guys have the AD’s ear.
As do player’s parents and alumni players who show up at these things.
Never got a response, even though I spent about 3 hours hosting him during an Alumni event.
And I refuse to take it personally (although some would argue that I should).
Once, I got a personal response. (very easy to tell the difference.)
I must say, all three times I did get a response.
Try again I guess. Maybe with Reed’s updated link??
LET’S GO, RANGERS!
If the kid can play and move some bodies out, it’s all good!
I’m trying to keep football talk alive here guys.. 🙂
I think if we pick up a few corners and a solid QB (a grinder who we can work up for a few years to be a good secondary QB) I will be very content with the 2013 recruiting class.