This is one of my favorite parts of the signing day. The day after, when the stories are published of the kids signing their Letter of Intent to attend college on scholarship. It is one of the biggest days, and a day of pride.
For Jaryd Jones-Smith there is more than a little sadness to his day since his father recently passed.
Jones, 58, died on Dec. 22 after a battle with brain tumors.
“It’s been pretty hard on him, because he and his dad were very close. He wanted his dad to be a part of his signing day,” said Jones-Smith’s mother, Shirley Smith. Smith and Jones were not married.
Jones-Smith said his father would be “extremely happy” with Pittsburgh, a decision the senior made less than a month after his father’s passing.
…
One of Jones-Smith’s last memories shared with both parents was the Burrs’ Senior Night in November, just a few weeks before his father was hospitalized.
While Jones-Smith was a key cog on West’s offensive and defensive lines, his father cheered loudly from the stands. After the game, the three posed for a picture together on the field – the last photograph of Jones-Smith and his parents.
“He was always there for me, especially with football,” Jones-Smith said.
Sorry, it’s a little dusty in here.
Changing gears, Reggie Green is eager and excited. And perhaps given to hyperbole.
“I really fell in love with the area,” Green said. “The coaching staff is really good.
“Whenever I saw the campus I fell in love with it. While I was up there, they
played Virginia Tech and that was the game where they upset Virginia Tech. The
atmosphere that I saw and the way everyone got into it was a really big factor.”Green had scholarship offers from Boston College, Rutgers, North Carolina State and Michigan State, among others.
“I just want to leave a legacy of always working hard,” Green said. “I want everyone to know
that I’d die on the field for my teammates. … I left it all on the field every time, so I can’t regret anything after that.”
Um, It’s okay Reggie. Last thing football needs is anyone dying on the field.
For Chris Blewitt, it seems like a mere formality.
“I’ve been committed since June or July last year, so it seems like I’ve always been a Pitt Panther,” Blewitt said Wednesday morning. “Now it’s official.”
This story includes a picture of Blewitt signing with his parents. You can just see the happiness in the parents at the idea of having to help on $40-60,000 in college tuition.
Jeremiah Taleni took part in an island-wide signing day event.
Dorian Johnson kept his simple and quiet.
One newspaper reporter was there to chronicle the day, and only two photographers showed up — Dorian Johnson’s Aunt Erica and a guy from Leopard Tales, the student newspaper.
Johnson signed his Pitt letter of intent Wednesday morning in a small conference room with no fanfare, not even a microphone.
“I wasn’t really feeling all that,” said Johnson, while sharing the moment with teammate and fellow bookend tackle Collin Woss, who signed with Mercyhurst.
Hopefully there will be some more stories found in the next couple of days.
http://twitter.com/PantherLair/statuses/299686437408890880
“The report about #Pitt coach Paul Chryst promoting 2 current assistants to co-defensive coordinators is not true.”
WHAT dumb ass move that would be.
thanks Wbb i all most had a stroke hope criss is right.
which means it might be and if it is i will have a
heart attack.
neither man has enough experience house or harring
Just watched the entire Chryst interview when he detailed and personalized each recruit that signed on Wednesday. The thing that came through above everything else, was just an unabashed honesty on how he goes through the process of selecting and offering his recruits.
Not to say that Coach Chryst wouldn’t roll out the red carpet and embelish the situation a bit for a prime star recruit if the opportunity presented itself, but at this point in his head coaching career, I find it is really getting difficult NOT to like this quirky guy from Wisconsin.
I have to say, that after having to endure the less than sincere Fraud Graham tenure where everything was always “the best ever” and a high octane, explosive atmosphere was simply the way things were supposed to be naturally, unrelated to the actual circumstances, Paul Chryst’s “oh sucks”, kind of down home attitudes, by contrast, I find simply endearing. This guy seems like such a perfect fit for this blue collar, shot and a beer Steel City, cause we know sincerity when we see it.
Chryst spoke of family values, and of the influences that those very people had in helping their loved ones make the right choice in the most important decision of their young lives.
His sincerity in relating to how the various recruits came together during their official visits to the University, verged on being a bit too naive, but somehow Chryst made it come through as actually authentic. Am I just reading way too much into this guy’s dialogue, or is he really a throw back to a forgotten time in history when integrety and moral values meant something and the all mighty dollar wasn’t the exclusive determinator of somesome’s success????
The only thing I know for sure at this point is, that I like this guy.
However, I am not going to believe it until it happens, there are just too many better options and the ACC is in the BCS.
although I still have to stick to the point of view that at this time whatever decision he makes we have to give him some room and benefit of the doubt…
yeah, watching the interview of him direct is really enlightening to see what this guy is like direct.
What a contrast to that last guy.
I don’t know how we could apply this, but your quote reminded me of this one!! ha ha
love the quotes fellas!! who cares if they apply?
I’ll scream if they take Engram from us
http://twitter.com/ShaiMcKenzie_/status/299712342797742080/photo/1
I think anybody who is realistic about the relative position of Pitt football in the scheme of things should be happy (i.e. not a football factory)
That said, it’s a shame we had to go through all this just to kinda get back to square one.
I still think Peterson should be shown the door, having screwed up the marquee sport to such a degree at a major D1 school yet again. The botched Wannstedt firing, the Haywood and Graham fiascoes, and the fact his hand had to be forced to preclude yet another disaster (Cristobal).
Yes, some of what happened wasn’t his fault, but it all was his responsibility. That’s the way management and leadership works. And we lost 2+ valuable years because of the way SP did his job.
Sorry to be negative at an otherwise happy time.
Didn’t want to be wrong on the spelling of the name of the guy in a post where I’m trashing him. 
Tractor trailer driver delivering an order: “this rain is so cold, running down my back and neck, I’d rather have the two feet of snow!”.
ME: “ya, and you’re out of your friggin’ mind!”.
LOL!!!
That which doesn’t kill us, makes us stronger.”
Another favorite of mine, is from Aristotle:
“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then is not an act, but a habit”
Best quote of all time. When Philip of Macedonia, told the Spartans that if he had enter southern Greece to make war on Sparta, he would destroy the city and sell the women and children into slavery
The Spartans replied: “If”
Just remember Pgh Dad’s immortal words “Yinz kids don’t drink the mint ginger ale – that’s for company”
“Nobody loves me but my mother, and she might be jiving me too” — BB King
“No, psychotics kill for no reason, I kill for money” — John Cusack (hired assassin) to Minnie Driver in ‘Grosse Pointe Blank’
“Leave the gun, take the cannoli” — from ‘GF1′
“Everyone cries for peace on earth, but just as soon as we win this war” – Moses Allison from ‘Everybody Cries for Mercy’
“We don’t need no stinking badges” – from ‘The Treasure of the Sierra Madre’
“I remember the time we lost our corkscrew, we had to live on food and water” – W.C. Fields
“Religion is the opiate of the masses” – Karl Marx
“I will not join any country club that would have me as a member” – Groucho Marx
You wanna throw up here, or you wanna throw up in the car? Groundhog Day
“Leave the gun take the cannoli.”
and
“We don’t need no stinking badges.”
“I’m sorry, but Thursday night I re-arrange my sock drawer”
there are many good DC out there that need a job
archer for one larry coyer todd oralando ekco
what he is really saying is if he cant get one
cheap enough are AD SUCKS if you want to win you have to pay a good DC is paid 425.ooo a year
but pitt wont pay you watch we will be fucked i just know it.
“If you have a choice between truth and legend, print the legend” – from ‘The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance’ … (this one was for Chas)
“I say hurl. If you blow chunks and she comes back, she’s yours. But if you spew and she bolts, then it was never meant to be.” – Wayne Campbell from ‘Wayne’s World’
there is archer who all ready said the job is
some thing he would think abought he likes pittsburgh.
there is todd orlando back up plan my ass
think abought it he is really saying pitt
does not want to pay to get a good one
come on we are in the ACC with the big boys
do the right thing pay what you have to.
“I am serious, and don’t call me Shirley.”
– Airplane
leaving memories that become legend.
Legend fades to myth.
The Eye of the WORLD.
FATHER the sleeper has Awakend
Muad Dib Dune
“One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics, is that you end up being governed by your inferiors.”
The heart has it’s beaches, it’s homeland and thoughts of it’s own.
Wake now, discover that you are the song that the mornin brings,
But the heart has it’s seasons, it’s evenins and songs of it’s own.
But doing that you break out in tears
Please don’t be sad if it was a straight mind you had
We wouldn’t have known you all these years
Sherlock Holmes
When you come to a fork in the road, take it.
Yogi Berra
But face it .. for the most part in the past 25 years out west, Arizona is the new UCLA
“Look him straight in the eye, shake your fist right in his face, then at the same time, quickly kick him as hard as you can in his nut sack” Quote by Dr. Tom when instructing his Son how to get the third grade bully off his back. (worked like a charm by the way)
Tray Woodall said he wanted to feed the big guy becaus he kne how aggressive he wanted to be. Woodall said it fired him up when he saw the cutout in the crowd.
