Today is National Drink Beer Day. As such, it might explain the headline in the Post-Gazette in proclaiming: “Recruit Report: Buckeyes are poaching on Pitt’s turf.”
The first thought at seeing that headline, “Oh, crap, Meyer got Dorian Johnson!” Then when you read it, you realize that it is merely an article noting that Ohio State is trying to recruit top players out of Western Pennsylvania, including Johnson and Robert Foster.
Because that has never happened before Urban Meyer showed up in Columbus. Jim Tressel totally ignored top players in the area. The only competition in Western PA came from Penn State and West Virginia. This is something totally new.
Oh, wait. The article even notes that this is not exactly new.
If the Pitt football program is to land a few of the top players in the WPIAL this season, it looks like its top competition might come from Ohio State.
Ohio State has signed nine players from the WPIAL since 2004, and recent recruiting news shows the Buckeyes again are in the hunt for a few top players in the district.
Central Valley’s Robert Foster, ranked among the top receivers in the country, has narrowed his list of colleges to three — Pitt, Ohio State and Alabama.
Belle Vernon offensive lineman Dorian Johnson had said before the season that Pitt and Ohio State were his top choices, but now he is considering Virginia Tech, too.
Now if the article had gone with a headline like “Buckeyes are trying to poach on Pitt’s turf,” or “Buckeyes emerge as top challenge to Pitt for local recruits,” it would have actually jibed with the story.
Since it is just a quick portion of a local recruiting article, it doesn’t get into the obvious issue. That Ohio State probably will be the biggest challenge to Pitt for keeping the best local talent over the next few years, while Penn State deals with its crippling sanctions.
Instead, a crappily written headline feeds gets people annoyed and feeds the paranoia that the P-G is anti-Pitt.
Pitt never had a monopoly on WPA recruiting. None of this is really news until Pitt totally strikes out on the top WPA talent; which is why program stability and winning sooner rather than later is imperative.
Off of the top of my head, I can think of Terelle Pryor, Corey Brown & Dorian Bell.
Read a little closer… Chas is being sarcastic about the article…
I jumped right to what you said… but after further reading I see the point Chas was making..
Mike White… duh!!! OSU has been recruiting wpial for years…
I actually feel sorry for the guy, but good God is he stupid.
Back in the 60’s I remember IC as the brew that could grow hair on your toenails!!
He is a Pitt commit with 4.35 speed but only a 2 star — maybe Chryst and company do have a pretty good eye for talent
Time to start building momentum for the next game.
Spent time in Columbus this last week and it is common knowledge that OSU may be in trouble if the NCAA digs into the program just a little bit. One of the big supporters was spouting off about cars for players and the like. Will be interesting if the NCAA looks closer at the chimbukwe’s of the world. Urban is a rule stretcher and breaker. Just a matter of time.
made up number…
never did a combine… and didn’t run track..
Whatever … he is fast
Brumbaugh connected with Challingsworth again late in the first half for a 30-yard touchdown.
“My first thought was I overthrew him,” Brumbaugh said. “But it’s hard to overthrow a guy with 4.3 speed
Read more: link to post-gazette.com
And then there’s special teams, where Challingsworth is, well, special. He uses his excellent speed — he’s been clocked at 4.4 in the 40-yard dash — to be a constant scoring threat in the return game. He blocked six extra points and three punts last year. And, oh yeah, he was the best punter in the Class AA Century Conference.
Read more: link to post-gazette.com
4.3 – 4.35 – 4.4 – 4.43 ….. whatever? He is quick!
show me his electronically timed 40!! there is none.
and quick is different than fast…
I’ve said Shell has quick feet but not fast!!
What a joke, no defense at all. Both DC’s should be fired this evening, maybe their entire staffs with them. 13 TD passes, 1400 offensive yds. lol
Pitt’s D held the hoopies below 30 points. Believe we were the last team to do so. Keith Patterson must have been some sort of genius.
yet while these guys were being recuited, our great Athletic Director cut the recruiting budget in 09 resulting in just one FL recruit in 09 class and no FL recruits on 010 class(and we all know how good FL has been to Pitt in years prior.) I would hope that since we are now ACC, (1) the budget will be inceased and (2) we will hit FL and surrounding pretty hard
In the meantime, he can focus on 20 HS in wpial and train the coaches on how to develop football players!!
and… don’t forget about the speed and conditioning aspect of things!!
Hopefully we can recruit nationally! But how is it that RMU can get CA players when their budget, I suppose, is nowhere close to PITT’s? How do they do it and not us? I agree, get the local kids and win…..thus the rest of the FBS recruited kids may take notice. BTW the running back for Bobby Mo was from CA and was pretty impressive, the kid had some mojo!
There is still local quality …. there just isn’t not anywhere the quantity there used to be like a few decades ago
He stinks!!!!!
Nebraska knew what it was doing when they fired him.
Pitt needs to show him the door: not Dan Mason.
