I like it,,,,a lot.

while it’s great to flip recruits from a B1G team, it just seems too easy.

link to pittsburgh.rivals.com

wow this kid is huge….6’7″ 335 lbs in high school. lol

wonder if he plays bball.

link to 247sports.com

Another good addition – liking the size and athleticism of these OL recruits. Don’t feel bad for Rutgers after they took our recruits after DW left and since they just went after our commitment from NJ. This coaching staff knows how to close deals!!! I need to hire them for my global business development team! Love it. H2P. See you at the bowl game!

Wow, who needs the WPIAL when you have the state of NJ. This is what happens with coaching changes. Great job by the Pitt staff.

I guess I was wrong about Narduzzi not recruiting Hogs. 6’7 335.

NICE!! 6’7″, 335 lbs. I’m gonna have to switch from Dewars to “Beefeaters”!! Dare I dream about “Smashmouth football”??!!

Hope all you RB recruits out there are paying attention!! A great back can’t make a mediocre line look good, BUT a great OL can make an average RB look great!

Outstanding. Absolutely love it. Welcome Justin, and Hail to Pitt!

Bulldozer O-line. Both George Hill and Henry Miller announcing Friday, fingers crossed.

Since were stealing RU commits, I really like Solomon Manning. Monster hitting LB with speed and a Pitt offer.

This guy is the #1 OL Recruit in the state of NY. Narduzzi is proving that he can recruit. This trend will continue and pick up speed.

link to twitter.com

Domino effect in Piscataway perhaps.

Send a Pitt Charter plane quick !

Fuel up and get the BatPlane on the tarmac !

6’7″ 335lb growing 18 yr old.. Get him in the weight room and PBJ sandwiches @ 3 am..that is the kinda RoadGrader I’m talkin bout !!!

Please, please, please, quit comparing our recruiting class with that of penn state. Uncle already! Penn state has a solid top ten recruiting class, they win! This year.

But make no mistake about it, Narduzzi is going to bring in a solid class this year. And you ain’t seen nothing yet. Keep pumping up Pitt football Mr. Ford, your class will be awesome!

Torpedo the Middies! Hail to Pitt!

Pitt has got verbals from 3 guys they hosted this weekend. Two more that visited, and arguably the two most talented both set to announce Friday.

George Hill a 4 star RB/CB and former Ohio St commit and Henry Miller DB/Athlete. If they both say Pitt is it, it will have been a ridiculously successful weekend.

Keep the Pat Signals coming…

It’s great to flip these Rutgers commits but wins have to follow. Rutgers won jack squat with the recruits they took when DW was fired.

@@@@@@

The momentum continues!!

Beat Navy!!!

This is pretty fun to watch.

I like this kid – he listens to his mother!!!

Butgers can continue to chop WOOD.

I’ve heard on hear people complain that we’re not getting enough 4 star or 5 star guys from this staff

give me a 3 star kid that HCPN coaches up any day!!

Franklin’s first class at PSU (2014) was #24. Pitt should end up just under #30 this year in PN’s first year.

Everyone points to 2017 for Pitt which would correspond with Franklin’s class this year. Pitt’s trending just fine in that regard.

You can win with a roster of mostly 3 star kids. Especially if the staff can maximize their production.

But you need some studs too. Especially if you wanna win championships. Look at how instantly Boyd and Whitehead were difference makers. Would love to see them land Hill and Hamlin. Hudson too for that matter, although he is least likely.

Think Hill goes MSU. Not real sure on Hamlin. Think Pitt’s chances are less than I did a few months ago.

My Opinion…..!?!? A recruiting class of 3 stars well coached ( Pitt )………. will always beat a recruit class of 5 stars with mediocre coaching ( Pedophile U ) where it counts on the field !!

Go Pitt…………

A Rutgers 247 guy picked Henry Miller to Pitt earlier this evening. They usually pile on a kid right before an announcement when the word gets out.

Takes an avg 3.5 star class to win NC’s unless supurdly coached. Need higher stars. Look at the top four in the championship. All had stud classes over four years except the Spartans and they aren’t favored to win. They are well coached however. No two stars. Focus on three and fours and pitt will do fine. Five stars are few and far between. Dog is doing just fine. Next year will be make or break. Franklin gets all the four stars in EPA, jersey and Maryland but coaches them down to two stars. Not worried.

Keith – my thoughts exactly! I want HCPN and staff to get kids with abilities he thinks will fit his system. I trust that this staff can get them playing the type of ball HCPN visualizes for this team.

About the only things they can’t teach are speed and length….and length may/can come along during the stay at Pitt. If they can recruit (fast) potential (and develop it) these first critical years, then the talent will come here shortly!

Looks like Jonah Morris is visiting in Jan.

I think we get miller, lose out on Hill.

16 recruits. How many left?

It’s good to see the recruiting pick up the way it has.

@BJ, I’m greedy I want both! And Alexander!!

Mike Vuk says we could get another RU flip. Guessing Reynolds hoping for Rene’

The dairy college can get all the 4 and 5 stars they want. They will Never win a championship as long as Urb is at OSU and Harb is at Michigan, let alone Dantonio at MSU. They will always be 3-4th in their division. How long have they been in that division and how many times have they won it?

With 3 OL and some DL we need to finish this class in the defensive backfield and add a nice WR. Watched film of Z. Williams as a TE. He had trouble getting down the field speed wise, but he caught everything and reminded me of a slower eric green. He will be a nice Tackle.

Morgan is the same size a Jarryd Jones burger smith. Now if he can get leverage and block. Nice pick up Duzzi.

I’m not sure what all the excitement is about. Rivals had this kid rated a 2 star this year with Illinois being the only other major competition for his services.—We better hope Narduzzi can coach up these less than highly rated kids.

link to post-gazette.com

This may rile up part of Blather Nation but your favorite college is undergoing research that may promote the further ‘wussification of America’

@wbb Being a former ahtlete who had my “bell rung” on

Ironically, arguably Pitt’s most famous athlete has been diagnosed with CTE .. and as per recent remarks here, he doesn’t look so good

actually Dorsett has been diagnosed with ‘signs’ of CTE since, right now, the only 100% confirmation is with a post-mortem brain exam. Note that two NFLers, Junior Seau and Dave Duerson, were both diagnosed after their suicides.

@wbb Being a former ahtlete who had my “bell rung” on quite a few occassions and a medical professional I am looking at this whole concussion thing with a more synical point of view..big corporate medicine smells the money. Too many years of ball being played without helmets, leather helmets, riding bikes without helmets..millions upon millions of us played the game, took our lumps, went back into the game when the fog cleared and functioned in society. No missing 3 games in a 9 game high school season, no $3500 MRI or expensive office visit to the MD now an employee of a hospital who can charge double + facility fee compared to the private practioner who stood on our sideline mostly as a volunteer, no $60,000 athletic trainer on the sideline either owned by the big medical corp or tax-payer funded school employee.
I believe in player safety as much as anyone but the more I see the word $ports Medicine, BTW that term was coined by Dr. Fred Allman, an orthopedic surgeon, in Atlanta Ga in the mid-seventies ffor marketing purposes, the more synical I get.

Biggest problem in football IMO, these guys are way too large and way too strong physically and that is the bottom line in this concussion discussion. You can’t make knees and brains stronger no matter how much you can bench or how many PBJ’s you can eat. Force x’s Mass= Acceleration and that’s what get you hurt and that’s why we watch. Need more slow white guys…This is a good discussion topic but I am a skeptic as I see our local school symptems being exploited by a big medical corporation trying to control the $ports Medicine all in the name of improving the safety of the game and their bottom line.

above symtems=systems. Would like to see research relating CTE to Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s ALS, steroid use, genetic prediposition..the public is lead to believe “I played football therefore I have CTE” I don’t think it’s that simple.Too many play contact sports and too few develop CTE but the names are high profile, there is big money at stake..but I am all for it if better helmets are developed and rules are changes to protect the head an neck.

I don’t see how any sort of research in this area hurts anything. Are we supposed to turn a blind eye to this? There is a bar close by where I live that used to give free drinks & meals to ex-Baltimore Colt players. When I moved here in 1998 they were mostly players from the 50, – 70s in there and it was walking into a freak show. Half of them couldn’t hardly walk without shuffling and most of the slurred their words… and no it wasn’t because of booze.

For years Big Tobacco fought the growing evidence that their product was killing people and look at what is happening now – way, way less smokers and a longer life for those who quit.

I don’t want to see football go the way of the dinosaur but I get pretty frustrated when the referees administer the rules that are put in in place specifically to mitigate these problems – purposeful helmet to helmet hits, spearing, etc… – and the fans cry like babies when their players get flagged for it.

Here are some that were already enacted and are being…

Football

Recent years have seen stricter enforcement of existing rules and numerous rule changes at the professional, college and high school level, all designed, at least in theory, to reduce the risk of concussion and long-term injury, such as chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), including:

moving kickoffs from the 30- to 35-yard line in the NFL (which data suggests has reduced concussions on kickoffs by 50%);
banning the wedge on kickoffs;

prohibiting helmet-to-helmet contact and helmet-first hits on defenseless players above the shoulders (NFL, NCAA);

penalizing players who lower their heads and expose the crown of their helmets to make a tackle (NFL);

stiffening the penalty for so-called “targeting fouls,” including targeting and initiating contact with the crown of the helmet, targeting and initiating contact to the head or neck area of a defenseless opponent with the helmet, forearm, elbow or shoulder (while already illegal, the penalty has been stiffened to include automatic ejection plus the 15-yard penalty. (NCAA)

subjecting players to the risk of being ejected from the game for a launch (leaving his feet to attack an opponent by an upward and forward thrust of the body to make contact in the head or neck area); a crouch (followed by an upward and forward thrust to attack with contact at the head or neck area); leading (with helmet, forearm, fist, hand or elbow to attack with contact at the head or neck area); or lowering (the head before attacking by initiating contact with the crown of the helmet)(NCAA).

a 2012 NFHS rule requiring that a player whose helmet comes off during play to sit out at least one play, which is intended to encourage coaches and equipment managers to make sure helmets fit properly (poorly fitted or helmets with improperly inflated air bladders increases the risk of concussion and more serious brain trauma, say the authors of a recent scientific paper); and

2013 NFHS rule penalizing football players who intentionally make contact with the head of a player whose helmet has come off during play.

Like it or not sometimes reality rears its ugly head and I think that is what we are seeing with CTE and the only way to deal with that is to 1) ignore it completely which is criminal in the younger leagues… or 2) study the hell out of it and come up with livable solutions.

Change is going to happen in this sport whether we like it or not.

Here is a great article on the subject with some very good ideas IMO.

link to sbnation.com

The NFL is enacting these changes proactively and that’s a good thing for the players long term health. No worries football is an American institution that will still be around long after all of us are dead & buried.

The sports that really are in danger of disappearing are boxing and ultimate fighting sports where the object is to knock your opponent out.

That was me, and others, on here who said we need some more blue chip recruits if we want to compete for championships on a regular basis. While I said this is fun to watch I meant the rapidity with the recruiting ‘gets’ not so much the quality. I’m not over the top happy about getting average ballplayers and jumping up and down just because they flipped from an old BE rival.

If these kids were flipping from OSU, PSU or UM then I’d feel a bit better but I don’t see very many players in this recruiting class so far that are head and shoulders above anyone else we have on the roster. I know, look at the offers the kids are getting – but getting a recruit that is offered by schools at the same level or below as Pitt just isn’t heartwarming.

We Pitt fans keep telling ourselves that we can have a winning program with a bunch of talented 3* kids and, yes, one or two programs consistently do that.

Not Pitt though – at least I don’t think so.

It is no coincidence that DW did this in recruiting before he got the only decent stretch of winning season’s Pitt has had since 1983 or so (Rivals.com):

’05 – 0 5* and 1 4*

’06 – 2 5* and 9 4*

’07 – 3 5* and 8 4*

’08 – 3 5* and 4 4*

’09 – 0 5* and 5 4*

’10 – 1 5* and 5 4*

That is nine 5* and 34 4* kids during his tenure. That is what Pitt needs to really get a consistent and strong program.

Compare that to the last six years since DW left and I’m including this unfinished class:

1 5* and 16 4*… and we have a 33-33 record since DW left including ’16.

Getting one or two 4* kids and the rest 3*, 2* or non-rated recruits isn’t going to help much especially with a HC that is growing into the job. Believe it or not Jim Chaney leaving after one year didn’t do Pitt any favors in the perception of stability we are trying to build or in recruiting.

So, I’m not overly excited about a group of kids who seem to cut from exactly the same cloth as the kids Graham and Chryst were getting each season. Some 3* kids can really rise and do exceptionally well and so can a few 2* guys… but almost every consistently successful program brings in the big guns on either side of the ball.

We need to really close out this class with some bombshell blue chip kids IMO.

I posted this early this morning on the last thread:

You are right – we need more skilled players. So far we have verbals from two higher rated guys – WR Ruben Flowers at 6’4? 191lbs is a 4 star recruit who is rated by Rivals as the #51st WR in this class and RB Chawntez Moss who is rated as the #34th RB.
Pitt also picked up TE Chris Clark (transfer from UCLA) who was the #1 rated TE in the nation in last year’s recruiting class.

The other skilled player is the QB MacVitte who is an unranked 3 star sleeper at 6’4? 230lbs. He can run and gun, but has only one year under center so far.

The cupboard is not bare, but I agree that we need more quality going forward at the skilled positions.

Keep in mind, we don’t lose many on offense this year – Artie & JP to graduation and possibly T.Boyd to the NFL.

There are still some skilled and highly rated recruits that Pitt is in the mix for –

BigB, Seriously?

What bigger money hungry corporation is there than the mother fucking NFL which not only benefits from obscene television contracts and merchandising … but gets taxpayers everywhere to fund the building of its stadiums which primarily benefits its billionaire owners??

Stars are on a sliding scale, there are low three’s and high. Bombshells- Hendrix-4stars, Clark-4stars, Peterman-4stars, Whitehead-4stars, Hall-4stars, Flowers-4stars, Pugh-4stars. Maybe still to come Hill-4stars, Alexander-4stars, Hamlin-4stars, plus a bunch of high 3’s still in play.

wbb totally agree with you on the NFL numero uno money-making monopoly (and needing to protect their business}…you brought up a great topic that there is so much to talk about..new thread just posted..maybe a thread could be devoted to CTE/concussion during the slow period.. I would like to see what the Blatherites think..gues the movie about CTE is airing soon..

It wasn’t my intention to start a discussion, I just wanted to point out that Pitt was beginning CTE research. Wouldn’t have mentioned it if it was another school.

I have been consulting in the CTE space in the big10 for about 4 years now. The research is remarkable and the protocols that we put in place before a recruit even steps foot on a practice field, court, floor, etc. are very advanced. The technology keeps improving and you either use the technology advancements to help recruiting (which is being done with parents) or you fall behind. As an aside, the docs are contracted out and it is relatively inexpensive.

The issue that most don’t understand is that the insurance companies no longer cover concussions under their liability programs. This creates an un-insurable or self-insured risk and requires that colleges and the nfl mitigate this as much as possible. So, it’s not about the medical folks making the money. The insurance companies dictate the behavior. If you don’t have the best strategic thinkers in the insurance and risk space, the exposure to the university and nfl skyrockets.