Pitt Offers Big 2020 Tight End Jonathan Odom

Pitt’s recruiting of the Class of 2020 is in full gear, as the staff extended a handful of offers yesterday to some Florida athletes.

Tight end Jonathan Odom (Tampa, Florida) was one of the players that picked up an offer from Pitt.

Pitt isn’t the first program to be in contact with this physically talented tight end. Pitt joins Duke, Iowa, Michigan, Nebraska, Vanderbilt, Indiana, Michigan State and South Florida as teams that have offered Odom.

Pittsburgh Sports Now had a chance to talk with Odom Wednesday morning and it’s quite obvious that he appreciates every school that shows interest and eventually offers him.

“This is just very exciting but also satisfying at the same time seeing the work you’ve put in,” said Odom. “Coming in as a freshman and nobody knows about you and then putting in time and work to put yourself in a position to get recruited. Coaches told me my freshman year that they’d come at some point and they have.”

Courtesy of Jonathan Odom

Although he received the news on Tuesday from Rob Harley, Odom has been hearing from Pitt for quite awhile.

“I’ve been in contact with Coach Harley for awhile,” he said. “He’s been great and a guy that I can talk to about whatever, he’s just a real down to earth guy. When he told me to call him and then told me about the offer, I was extremely excited and just ready to get up there and visit to see what they’re all about.”

”Coach Harley said the offer is just the first step. He wants to be in touch at least once a week. He told me they’ve needed a game-changing tight end for awhile now and thinks that I can be that guy.”

Odom is a huge target (6-foot-6, 240 pounds) and will be a mismatch for anyone trying to cover him, which is one of the many things teams like about him.

Courtesy of Jonathan Odom

”First off, I think I pass the eye test because of my size,” Odom said. “Then my highlight tape, my dad played in the NFL (Jason Odom, OT, Tampa Bay Buccaneers) and he knows what coaches are looking for because he played at the highest level. He helped me structure my tape to show that I can get down the field quickly, I can also outrun linebackers and can take on defensive ends. He helped me set things up so that I was able to show all that in the first 2-3 minutes so I don’t just have a whole minute if passing and a whole minute of blocking. My dad really helped me out in that perspective.”

We fell 1 game short. Here are my final highlights form this season. We left it all on the field #AMDG https://t.co/pNJBMqYX1f

— Jonathan Odom (@Odom_87) December 2, 2018

Another thing that stood out to me about Odom was his Twitter address (@Shockey_80) and asked if it was in reference to former Miami tight end Jeremy Shockey?

”Yes, it does,” Odom said. “Funny story about that is that when I was in 6th grade my middle school coaches nicknamed me Shockey after Jeremy Shockey. I never thought it would stick but it’s stayed with me through high school and that’s what pretty much everyone calls me.”

Shockey — er, Odom’s — recruiting trips will start this weekend as he’ll visit Purdue. After that, he plans on going to Nebraska, Michigan, Michigan State and Pitt.

”I’m not counting anyone out; I’m not that type of guy,” he said. “I want to see everything and make sure I’m making the right decision because I only get to go through this once. These next upcoming months I’m going to be very busy.”