Pitt FB Recruiting
Jake Pope the Latest Tackle to Receive Offer From Pitt
St. Thomas Aquinas (Fla.) Jake Pope became the latest offensive tackle to receive an offer from the Pitt Panthers.
Pope (6-foot-7, 275 pounds) received the offer yesterday as members of the Pitt staff visited numerous programs in Florida.
Pope is rated by recruiting services as a 3-star recruit with Power Five offers from Illinois, Michigan State, NC State, Syracuse and Virginia Tech.
Pittsburgh Sports Now caught up with Pope last night after he received the news from Pitt.
“I’ve actually been talking with Coach Partridge since he visited our school last year,” said Pope. “He visited a couple of weeks ago and said that I’d be receiving an offer from them soon. Then today, Coach Partridge and the offensive coordinator [Shawn Watson] were at practice, they watched me and afterwards my head coach told me I had the offer.”
“Anytime I’m able to receive an offer from a school as prestigious as Pitt it’s always amazing.”
Courtesy of Jake Pope
Since he’s been in contact with him for over a year now, I asked Pope to describe his relationship with and impression of Partridge.
“Very nice guy. Not afraid to crack a joke every once in awhile to get the conversation going. Very good communicator, he’s done a good job of describing the things that Pitt has to offer and not afraid to give you an evaluation of yourself as a player. Just a really great guy to talk to,” said Pope.
Now that his spring practices are underway and with some good offers in hand, where is Pope in his recruiting process?
“I’m going to wait a couple of weeks until after spring ball is over with and see if any more offers come in and then really crackdown on the schools that have offered and before the end of summer make my decision.”
“I’m going to looking for a good school, will I be able to fit in and have fun there, will I have a chance to play and my relationship and feeling about the coaching staff,” said Pope.
“As far as my strengths on the field, I’m actually one of the faster lineman on my team. They use me well on the left side in order to make cross blocks on sweeps and stuff like that. I’m able to use my speed and athleticism well.”
In the couple weeks, Pitt has offered six new offensive tackles: Pope, Kaleb Boateng, John Gelotte, Ja’Quay Hubbard, Jarrod Hufford and Kyle Jornigan.
