Even with Gordon and Humphries committed and Young and Miner soon to commit, I'd love to add Raines to our DB haul. Without Raines, our DB class is still super. Pitt needs Raines so they can have AT LEAST 1 4star commit in their class. If look at the front page of the Pitt Rivals site, you'd think they are landing a top 10 class. Donnelley is spinning it the best he can. Donnelley projects IF they can land Raines, Asamoah, and PJ Bradley, they can finish 52nd based on last years Rivals point totals. Can you believe they are happy with the Duzz for that scrap? LMAO! We'd be going berzerk here.
Can we snatch Raines away from Pitt?
- Thread starter NITTANYJGK
- Start date
All things being equal, (good academic standing etc.) I think PSU has an excellent chance at Raines. However, he would not commit to PSU until after his HS season IMO. Can you imagine the abuse he would take otherwise? I also would not rule out his desire to leave the area and head south.
Would we care as much if he weren't a Quip? I'm not sure. We have a lot of very good corner/safety guys still on the table.
Raines is most likely going to grow into becoming a LB. So is he a 4* LB prospect? I'm not sure. I'd like to get him but it's always a risk with these kids who are kind of tweeners.
Wow, you have a membership to our premium board? Congrats! I guess we don't matter still to you, right?
Anyway, you aren't being truthful. You left out that Pitt will only take 16-17 in this class leaving them 3-4 shy of Rivals stupid 20 man class ranking system. If you are unaware of how it works, look it up and educate yourself. Ryan was pretty clear about it in his post, so I'm sure you're aware.
Pitt is also going to get Raines, multiple people around Aliquippa know it's the worst kept secret in town and he'll likely commit before the season or just after the season in December. Pitt has only missed on 1 Aliquippa player recently and that was Dravon Henry to West Virginia. The pipeline to Pitt is historically strong, and remains that way with Kaezon Pugh and now Raines and they have some very strong D1 prospects in 2019.
Yep, the pipeline from Clairton to pitt WAS strong as well, i.e. before Franklin arrived and Wade was targeted by CJF and his staff. Wade looks pretty good in Blue & White so far.......
Last edited:
What I posted is not from your premium board. It was available in an article off your home page. Get your facts straight, Yinzer. Whether you guys are taking 17 or 25 it doesn't matter if you're taking all 2 and 3 stars. No matter what ranking system is used, bottom line is you're still getting leftovers. Whatcha gonna do if that Aliquippa pipeline breaks like the Woodland Hills and Clairton pipelines broke?
Again, occasionally one gets away. You better hope he can cover better than he raps.
I don't think you can read premium info on the board. But, the fact remains, you care enough to read what we're up too. Ahh, but Pitt has historically gotten 2-3-4 star kids and we put up 341 on the ground against you this year, so those kids Pitt gets can't be that bad, right? The Aliquippa pipeline won't break as long as Coach Z is there. Again, occasionally a kid will go elsewhere. Pitt never had a Woodland Hills pipeline. Occasionally a kid from there will come to Pitt like Pitts and Price...but, by no means is Woodland Hills a pipeline.
You and I both know what is going on with Pitt recruiting. So does Donnelley no matter how he tries to spin it.
I wouldn't. The only reason(s) I want him is that he's a Quip AND it would be hilarious watching the 8 sPitt fans go crazy.
Wait a minute. You are stating that a poster here is reading posts on your board so he is obsessed with Pitt, but here you are posting on the PSU board? Guess that tells us quite a bit about you and your obsession with PSU if you feel the need to post here to defend Nardozo's meager recruiting class. Wonder how many headsets he will go through at Happy Valley.
Last edited:
One more comment to the OP: FYI, I've been banned from your site for a long time. No premium membership. I need you to come on site to give me an update how that stammering, stuttering Nardouche is recruiting in the coming months.
Good thing we didn't recruit him for rapping. What a dumb thing to say, but I guess when you have nothing else to say, you have to go dumb.
Franklin better get Raines on a PSU-themed Wheaties box quickly if he wants to have a shot at him.
I'm going to say something controversial here, but Pitts class is not as bad as some believe here. Now compared to what Franklin is doing, yea its second hand players. Most would be option C, with a few option B guys from Franklin, but that's a testament to what he's doing and not a knock on Pitts committed kids. I think it's brilliant to take two Dematha kids. Get in that program and maybe you can steal a better one down the road. He's got two kids from the 10-20 range in pa and right now he (Narduzzi) should be living there as Franklin and ND target the top 10. Maybe they'll make their splash with Raines, maybe not. If Franklin stays hot with Miner, Young, and Lamb maybe there isn't even room here for him.
In no way am I saying they're doing great but it's not that bad, only when you view it through the lenses of the number 4 class in country.
In no way am I saying they're doing great but it's not that bad, only when you view it through the lenses of the number 4 class in country.
Right now 247 has them as the #42 class in the country. If JF had this class, somebody would send moving vans to his house.
If Franklin had the #42 class, I would help him pack while stoking the fire on his already hot seat.
Even at the worst of the sanctions, did we ever have a class worse than 42? I know we were around there one year.
A
anon_xdc8rmuek44eq
Guest
I actually agree. Michigan State built a solid program on recruiting Midwestern kids with chips on their shoulders that were second or third choice options for Michigan, Notre Dame, and Ohio State and playing up the "you were passed over by all these programs" factor.
Now, what pushed Michigan State from being a solid program into being a conference championship-caliber program, IMO, was influenced by Michigan being historically bad and Ohio State and Penn State being under sanctions.
Pitt is probably never going to be able to compete for the kind of blue chip recruiting talent that the big name programs in the region can on a regular basis unless they bring back the Golden Panthers. But Pitt isn't realistically competing against the Clemsons, Florida States and Miamis in the ACC - they're looking to be the best of the rest.
You also have to compare it to how they're doing against Miami, VT, and the other teams in their division and conference. Sub par seems to be a good term.
Different expectations. They started out awful and have improved as the recruiting season has continued. it's crap compared to ours, as it should be, but how they're trending I think they'll finish higher than 42, and if you look at what they're doing, it's not the worst strategy
They're 11th in the ACC ahead of only Syracuse, WF and Ga Tech. That shouldn't be acceptable to Pitt fans. It shouldn't matter how they do compared to PSU, but it does matter compared to the conference they're in.
I live in the area and I've never thought of Clairton as a Pitt pipeline school. I never understood when their fans said that. Other than the year they took Boyd and two other players, they have missed on more kids than they have gotten. Getting Miles Sanders out of Woodland Hills was a much bigger deal in my opinion. Pitt has done very well at that school missing on Miles and Steve Breaston were big losses for them.
As a Pitt fan, I'm fine with the class.
The rankings system is going to be biased against it because they won't reach the 20 commit threshold. You can say 52nd or whatever we end up at, but it's irrelevant. Because if we would have another 3-4 kids in line with what we have, we would be in the mid-low 30s. Which is a solid, not spectacular, class for us.
We will never out recruit PSU, maybe the occasional year it will be close. It especially won't be close the next year or two with the year you guys had in 2016 (albeit Pitt beat Penn St on the field). There's a post on our free board that explains how recruiting has been much improved under Narduzzi than it was under Chryst. No longer are we recruiting guys with only MAC level offers. We're competing against the VTs, MSUs, and UNCs of the world and getting kids to commit with those offers. So you guys see 3 star and think it's the same, but it's really not. If you think that's just a biased opinion, read the post. Narduzzi has landed kids with about 150 more non-Pitt P5 offers than Chryst did in his 3 years.
Pitt doesn't have the resources of a football factory like PSU. My goal for the program is 8-9 wins a year, with the occasional double digit win year where we can make things interesting. We're not there yet, but Narduzzi has us on an upward trend. This year might be a bit of a down year, I think 7-8 wins is likely with all we have lost on offense and how young our defense is. So I don't expect Pitt to beat PSU this year like I did last year. There's a good chance it won't be close either. But that's why we're going to play the game. If we somehow win, what's the excuse going to be this year? Last year it was "we had a young team and we weren't playing well at the beginning of the year."
If you look close at Narduzzi's recruiting this year, he's actually landing most if not all of his top targets, and all/most of them have good offer sheets. That is why most are pleased with this years class. There's 4-5 players that might/should be set for bumps in the rankings to 4 stars as well, and once we land Raines and Bradley, we will have a handful of 4 stars so that narrative can end. And you may say "well how are all these guys going to get bumped up, not everyone can be a 4 star." They are 5.7 3 stars with good/great offer sheets, it's not hard to envision a few getting a tiny bump to that 4th star.
Penn St had a terrific year last year and in turn are bringing in a great recruiting class. I have a hard time envisioning that they reach the high hopes every Penn State fan has for this year (minimum 10 wins, possibly CFB playoff bound) with the tough games they have. @OSU, @NW, Neb, Mich, @Iowa, Pitt. The others will be cakewalks. It will be interesting to see how you guys follow up last year.
See you September 9th.
The rankings system is going to be biased against it because they won't reach the 20 commit threshold. You can say 52nd or whatever we end up at, but it's irrelevant. Because if we would have another 3-4 kids in line with what we have, we would be in the mid-low 30s. Which is a solid, not spectacular, class for us.
We will never out recruit PSU, maybe the occasional year it will be close. It especially won't be close the next year or two with the year you guys had in 2016 (albeit Pitt beat Penn St on the field). There's a post on our free board that explains how recruiting has been much improved under Narduzzi than it was under Chryst. No longer are we recruiting guys with only MAC level offers. We're competing against the VTs, MSUs, and UNCs of the world and getting kids to commit with those offers. So you guys see 3 star and think it's the same, but it's really not. If you think that's just a biased opinion, read the post. Narduzzi has landed kids with about 150 more non-Pitt P5 offers than Chryst did in his 3 years.
Pitt doesn't have the resources of a football factory like PSU. My goal for the program is 8-9 wins a year, with the occasional double digit win year where we can make things interesting. We're not there yet, but Narduzzi has us on an upward trend. This year might be a bit of a down year, I think 7-8 wins is likely with all we have lost on offense and how young our defense is. So I don't expect Pitt to beat PSU this year like I did last year. There's a good chance it won't be close either. But that's why we're going to play the game. If we somehow win, what's the excuse going to be this year? Last year it was "we had a young team and we weren't playing well at the beginning of the year."
If you look close at Narduzzi's recruiting this year, he's actually landing most if not all of his top targets, and all/most of them have good offer sheets. That is why most are pleased with this years class. There's 4-5 players that might/should be set for bumps in the rankings to 4 stars as well, and once we land Raines and Bradley, we will have a handful of 4 stars so that narrative can end. And you may say "well how are all these guys going to get bumped up, not everyone can be a 4 star." They are 5.7 3 stars with good/great offer sheets, it's not hard to envision a few getting a tiny bump to that 4th star.
Penn St had a terrific year last year and in turn are bringing in a great recruiting class. I have a hard time envisioning that they reach the high hopes every Penn State fan has for this year (minimum 10 wins, possibly CFB playoff bound) with the tough games they have. @OSU, @NW, Neb, Mich, @Iowa, Pitt. The others will be cakewalks. It will be interesting to see how you guys follow up last year.
See you September 9th.
Look, I don't have the built in Pitt hatred because I work there. I also don't care to get into pissing matches on a message board because the games are actually played on the field. That said, Pitt as an athletic department is in shambles. The ACC rescued it from extinction. It generates very few winning programs. It not only lacks attendance, it lacks financial support from it's alumni. Regardless of the commonly held Pitt opinion that Penn State is a bunch of mindless cult followers. We financially support our programs. We produce winners in all of our sports and we attend games. This is why we are head and shoulders above Pitt. And yes, I know Pitt is a different animal. It's an Urban campus. However, at the end of the day, that excuse is also your reality. I don't see how Pitt will ever sustain long term success in athletics across the board for a long period of time. Enjoy Chancellor Gallagher's commitment to trying to turn things around. At some point, reality is going to smack him in the face. And this commitment will end.
It's not Penn State you need to worry about out recruiting, it's the other teams in the ACC...and you're not, plain and simple. Paint the picture any way you want, but you're being out recruited by everyone except Syracuse, WF and Ga Tech. And you've had back to back 8-5 seasons and you're expecting worse than that this year...that's not an upward trend.
I definitely wouldn't say we're getting out recruited by teams like Wake, NC St, Duke, UVA as well. So that puts as right around 7 or 8 in the conference. For Pitt to take that next step, we need to get around 4 and beat out VT, UNC, and Louisville.
I think the upward trend is pretty noticeable and you'd have to have Penn State glasses on to not see it. We no longer lose to the Akrons, Youngstown Sts of the world. We're now capable of beating any team in America on any given week as shown by the Clemson and PSU victories. Rome wasn't built in one day. Narduzzi still does not have his defense yet and his players to fill all of the positions. The ones he has recruited that are playing are very young. Next year and the year after will be years where we improve on the 8-4 record. I'd be satisfied with another 8-4 season this year.
Use the composite rankings, they don't have a threshold. I do think you'll pass some of the ACC pretenders as you pick up people.
I don't think anyone made excuses. But certainly a reason we didn't play as well as later in the year was injuries to the linebacker corps. Which is where we got killed. Injuries happen, you have to be prepared, we weren't.
No. Your top current commit in the composite is #500. There is 0 chance a player ranked 500 at this point is going to the top 300. I honestly have 0 idea who you think is being bumped to 4*s. Even if you finish out with Banks, Asamoah, Raines, Hooker, and maybe an Earlington or someone else who misses out on their current top schools; Raines would still be the only 4* in the class. None of your commits or top targets had the camp cycle necessary to get that kind of bump in the current fluff fest that is recruiting rankings.
And in actuality, recruiting at Pitt isn't as good as it was under Chryst. Pitt has some guys this year that literally no P5 school wants. They took Danielson's teammate with no-stars to make sure that they got Danielson, who has a mediocre offer list. There are a handful that are clearly MAC level players, and their offer sheets reflect that. The offensive line recruits for the last few years have dropped off significantly. Hamlin has developed severe question marks, and is now a safety, and he is nowhere near big enough to play safety. Looks like Ford is not qualified. There are no real linebackers in the pipeline. On and on and on. The only thing that keeps them afloat right now are the remaining offensive linemen from the Chryst era and the graduate transfers they've been scooping up. Even more ominously, they've essentially stopped recruiting the best players in the state except for the occasional western PA kids that can't be ignored.
For Pitt football, winter is coming, to coin a phrase.
For Pitt football, winter is coming, to coin a phrase.
I think 7-5 is more realistic and 6-6 a real possibility this year for Pitt. My guess is Penn State wins by 17 plus points this year but good luck in the ACC.
In what world has recruiting gotten worse? Do you always tend to not think before you type? You have biased opinions, I have facts below. You picked out the only recruit we have without another P5 offer, and then painted our entire class with that same "MAC-level" brush. That's just not fair or accurate, and then you use the phrase "in actuality" like I'm not speaking the truth. Read below. You'll probably say how it's some "Pitt spin" or bias or just resort to insulting my intelligence. But below are facts.
"There was some discussion in the “Big Class” thread about why people are excited about this class so far, whether that excitement is misplaced, and whether Narduzzi’s recruiting is really that much better than what we’ve seen in the past. I keep a spread sheet that shows each recruit we’ve signed from 2013 to present broken down by class.
It shows each recruit’s final Rivals ranking and the number of Power 5 offers, other than Pitt, that each recruit had. As well as each class’s final overall Rivals team ranking and each class’s ranking based on average Rivals rating numerically so that I can see how we compare with and without focusing solely on the top 20 recruits, as Rivals does.
Personally, I place a lot of value on the offer sheet, especially within a star rating, but using both makes the most sense. If recruit A is rated a 5.7 high three star but only has 1 non-Pitt P5 offer and recruit B is rated as a 5.5 but has 8 P5 offers, I tend to think more of recruit B. That’s just me. Nothing against Rivals, but P5 coaches have more at stake and I trust their analysis a little more.
Turning to the numbers, Pat Narduzzi’s recruiting is quantifiably better than Chryst’s in terms of overall class rankings, by average numerical ranking, and more importantly, I’d argue, his classes are substantially better in P5 offers. It doesn’t just feel like recruiting has gotten better, it has.
Chryst’s first full class was 2013. Dorian Johnson, Tyler Boyd, James Conner, etc. The class had 27 recruits and Rivals pegged that class at #35 nationally. Not a bad start. Going by numerical Rivals ranking, the class drops to #51, though, despite Johnson being a 5 Star. 8 were rated as 5.6 or higher. Looking at P5 offers, things don’t get better. In a 27 member class, there were only 75 total non-Pitt P5 offers extended, 28 of which were for DJ and Boyd. 12 of the 27 recruits had zero non-Pitt P5 offers. 2 more only had one other P5 offer. 44% of the class had zero other P5 offers and nine were 2 star recruits.
Chryst’s second full class was 2014. Bookser, Grimm, Chris James, and Jennings were the four 4 stars in this 23 member class. Rivals pegged this class as #44 nationally and the numerical average ranking improves it a little to #41. 9 were rated as 5.6 or higher. In this 23 member class, there were only 78 non-Pitt p5 offers, 52 of which came from the four 4 stars. 8 of the 23 had zero non-Pitt P5 offers and 4 more only had one. 35% of the class had zero non-Pitt P5 offers and four were 2 star recruits.
The 2015 class was the transitional class between Chryst and Narduzzi. It only had 15 members, headlined by 4 stars Jordan Whitehead and Darrin Hall who both committed to Chryst. This class came in at #65 nationally for Rivals overall and improves to #45 when looking at average numerical ranking. 7 were rated as 5.6 or higher. Despite its small size, this class garnered 79 total non-Pitt P5 offers. Of which, 40 came from Stocker, Brightwell, and McKee who committed after Narduzzi took over. 5 of the 15 had zero non-Pitt P5 offers and 2 more only had one. 33% of the class had zero other P5 offers and five were 2 star recruits.
Narduzzi’s first full class, 2016, was headlined by five 4 stars, Damar Hamlin, Amir Watts, Kazeon Pugh, George Hill, and Ruben Flowers. This 24 member class came in at #29 overall in Rivals national rankings and #31 when looking at numerical average rankings. An impressive 16 of 24 were rated as 5.6 or higher and there were 176 total non-Pitt P5 offers extended this class. More than Chryst’s two full classes combined. There were 0 recruits in this class without at least 1 non-Pitt P5 offer and 3 who only had one – MacVittie (LSU), Hargrove (Rutgers), and Ford (Maryland). 0% of this class had no other P5 offers and there were only three 2 star recruits – Weaver (9 P5 offers), Jones (7 P5 offers), and Reynolds (4 P5 offers).
Narduzzi’s second class, 2017, was headlined by 4 stars Ford, Davis, and Reeves. This 23 member class was ranked #38 overall and improved to #30 when looking at numerical average rankings. 10 were rated as 5.6 or higher and this class received 140 total non-Pitt P5 offers. 3 recruits in this class had zero non-Pitt P5 offers, Darian Street, Cam Bright, and the Australian kicker, Christodolou. 5 recruits had only one offer, Butler, Carrigan, Sear, Pinnock, and Drexel. 12% of this class had zero non-Pitt P5 offers and there were only two 2 stars, Owen Drexel and the Aussie.
So far, the current 2018 class, is in line with Narduzzi’s first two. Of the 11 commitments so far, 8 are rated 5.6 or higher and only 5.6 rated DE Palmer does not have at least one other P5 offer. There is only one 2 Star – FB Symonds – and there are 82 non-Pitt P5 offers including, OSU, Georgia, MSU, and PSU. While this class will be small with only 4 or 5 more recruits added, other than size, this class will again be strong.
Comparing Chryst’s two full classes with Narduzzi’s – 153 total non-Pitt P5 offers for Chryst vs Duzz’s 316 for nearly the exact same number of recruits. Narduzzi’s not taking guys who no other P5 coaches wanted the way Chryst did."
I could definitely see this. We lost a ton on offense, meaning our O won't be able to bail out our D as much. Unless our D is very improved, I think we take a slight step back this year as we continue to gather Duzz's players. Our D is too young right now.
