Pitt Football

Monday Pitt Recruiting Notes

Published

8 years ago

June 6, 2016

Want to start off by thanking everyone for this past weekend. Pittsburgh Sports Now’s webmaster Joe Steigerwald informed me that we set an all-time high for web traffic. In fact, yesterday we had our highest day of traffic since March 21st. Incredible! Thank you again.

Let’s get to recruiting news!

UPDATE (9:40 AM)-
**The mission of the players attending the weekend camp was to make an impression with the Pitt coaches that would hopefully land them a scholarship to Pitt.

Pat Narduzzi and his staff will spend the next few days reviewing the workout tape and then determine if they’ll offer any scholarships. One player that I’m told impressed some people was Philadelphia 2017 cornerback Kenny Bennett.

Bennett is a 6-2 cornerback from Simon Gratz High School and I talked to him last night after the workout.

“I think I showed the Pitt coaches my attention to detail, my work ethic and my attitude”, said Bennett. “I chose to come to camp because they were interested and me. I’ve built a relationship with Coach Conklin and I promised him I would.”

How important would an offer be to Bennett?

“Very important because it’s a prestigious school academically and athletically. A lot of big names came through Pitt like Darrelle Revis, Shady McCoy, and Larry Fitz. I think I’ll let them be the judge of if I deserve a scholarship”, said Bennett.

“I talked to Coach Narduzzi and Coach Conklin. They were basically saying they love my attitude and my work ethic and that I’m a scholarship player.”

Although he’s getting interest from Penn State, Maryland, Wake Forest, Rutgers, Indiana, Virginia and Virginia Tech, Bennett’s only D-1 offer to this point is from Temple.

I expect that to change real quick. Bennett had upcoming trips planned to Penn State, Maryland and Rutgers.

UPDATE (3:18 PM)-
**4-star athlete Jarell White (5-10, 200) confirmed to me that he’ll be making a visit to Pittsburgh soon. White, who’s from Cincinnati, Ohio, says that he’ll visit Pitt next Saturday (June 17th). Prior to that trip, White will visit Louisville on June 10th and then Penn State on June 18th.

“My teammate and I are both going up to visit. Coach Peterson and Coach Harley are both recruiting me. The thing with me is, I’m an athlete and I can play any position so the coaches are undecided right now as to which position they’re recruiting me at”, said White.

UPDATE (4:54 PM)-
**The teammate that White was referring to is TreSean Smith. Both play at LaSalle High School in Cincinnati. Smith (6-3, 180) is a 3-star safety and holds offers from Air Force, Colorado State, Iowa State and Louisville.

UPDATE (7:08 PM)-
**Tomorrow, Pitt will be getting an out of town visitor. Javar Garrett from Carneys Point, New Jersey will make his way to Pittsburgh to check out the Panthers.

Garrett is a 2018 recruit and tells me that Pitt is recruiting him as an outside linebacker. The New Jersey native holds early offers from Indiana, Rutgers and Temple while getting interest from Stanford, Boston College, Maryland, Navy and Louisville.

UPDATE (7:16 PM)-
**Knoch 2017 TE Mac Christy picked up an offer today from Maine. This is Christy’s second offer.

UPDATE (8:31 PM)-
**Some basketball recruiting news. Harry Psaros (@PittGuru) is reporting that 2017 4-star forward Naji Marshall is coming to Pittsburgh soon. Psaros says that Marshall (Greenbelt, Maryland) will visit Kevin Stallings and Pitt this Thursday.

#Pitt basketball will receiver a visit from Eleanor Roosevelt HS (Greenbelt, MD) shooting guard Naji Marshall @ijan3_ on Thursday. #H2P

— Harry G. Psaros (@PittGuru) June 7, 2016

UPDATE (8:40 PM)-
**New Jersey 4-star DT Fred Hansard just issued some recruiting news. The talented defensive tackle announced that he reduced his long list of offers down to 9 schools. They are Florida, Tennessee, Oklahoma, Penn State, Michigan State, Pitt, Rutgers, Alabama and USC. Hansard is a player that the Pitt coaching staff in particular Pat Narduzzi has pursued.