Pitt FB Recruiting
Looking Ahead to Pitt Football’s 2019 Recruiting Class
If you’re a fan of college football recruiting, the good things is that there’s never really an off-day.
Yesterday, Pat Narduzzi and Pitt wrapped up their recruiting for the Class of 2018 and likely were in the offices earlier this morning working on high school juniors and 2019.
Here are some things to keep in mind as we here at PSN start our coverage of Pitt’s recruiting for the Class of 2019.
How many scholarships will Pitt have to offer?
Unofficially, they will be graduating 17 players this coming season and they’ll no doubt also have players transfer or leave the team. So, it’s safe to safe that Pitt will be looking to add in the neighborhood of 20-22 players over the next year.
Here are the players that are scheduled to graduate after this season: Alex Bookser, Stefano Millin, Darrin Hall, George Aston, Rafael Araujo-Lopes, Mike Herndon, Connor Dintino, Qadree Ollison, Dewayne Hendrix, Shane Roy, James Folston, Elijah Zeise, Oluwaseun Idowu, Phillipie Motley, Dennis Briggs, Jalen Williams and Quintin Wirginis.
Here’s a positional breakdown of players that are graduating:
- Running Backs: 3
- Wide Receivers: 1
- Offensive Lineman: 4
- Linebackers: 4
- Defensive Ends: 2
- Defensive Tackles: 1
- Defensive Backs: 2
What positions will the Pitt coaches make a priority in this upcoming recruiting class?
**Let’s start by saying that Pitt will add another freshman quarterback. They have extended offers to 9 junior quarterbacks. Keep an eye on Davis Beville, Garrett Shrader and Connor Bazelak.
**Running back is a position that I believe they’ll try to get multiple commits at because they’ll be losing Hall, Ollison and Aston. While they will return AJ Davis, Todd Sibley and Mychale Salahuddin, they’ll need to continue to add more talent.
**With young talent such as Shocky Jacques-Louis, Cameron O’Neil, Taysir Mack, Michael Smith, Darian Street, Ruben Flowers, Maurice Ffrench, Dontavius Buter, Aaron Mathews and Tre Tipton, Pitt has plenty of depth but I still look for them to add at least 1 receiver with 4-star Mershawn Rice (Reynoldsburg, Ohio) likely to be a big priority.
**Four offensive lineman will be leaving so replacing them and adding quality depth and future starters will be a priority. As we’ve been reporting for the last six months, Pine-Richland OT Andrew Kristofic is one of if not the top player of Pitt’s 2019 recruiting board. Unfortunately for the Panther coaches, getting this national recruit won’t be easy as he’s already been offered by many major programs. If Narduzzi is able to land this future star, it might be his biggest get since becoming the head coach at Pitt.
**Linebacker is another position that will need to be recruited as the Panthers will be losing four players after this year. Some players to follow are Kyi Wright, Spencer Lytle, Kam Blount and Jacob Wahlberg, all of whom already hold offers from Pitt.
**As with quarterback, teams look to add multiple players each year in the secondary. If Kristofic is 1-A on Pitt’s board, Norwin safety Jayvon Thrift is 1-B. This is a player that the Pitt coaches absolutely love and will be someone that Narduzzi will personally keep track of. It was Narduzzi himself who extended an offer to Thrift early last season. Another local defensive back target will be North Allegheny cornerback Joey Porter Jr.
