Pitt’s 2023 Recruiting Class Sees Renewed Success in the Sunshine State

Pitt’s Class of 2023 added another member on Monday as they picked up a commitment from three-star wide receiver Lamar Seymore.

Seymore became the 16th player to pledge to Pitt and interestingly, of the 16 verbal commitments, six are from the state of Florida.

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This success in recruiting in Florida follows two years where Pitt only landed four combined players from the Sunshine State.

CLASS OF 2023 COMMITMENTS FROM FLORIDA:
WR Lamar Seymore (Miami)
S    Jesse Anderson (Fort Lauderdale)
OT Tai Ray (Apopka)
RB Montravius Lloyd (St. Petersburg)
DT Antonio Camon (Tampa)
CB Shadarian Harrison (Lakeland)

While some fans have questioned why the Pitt program has placed such an emphasis over the years on recruiting Florida, the answer(s) are pretty clear. The first being is that they have developed solid relationships with many of the top programs in the area and helped developed them to play in the NFL. More importantly, the numbers show that Florida is one of, if not the most, talent-rich states in the entire country.

States with the most players picked in the 2021 NFL Draft:

Florida: 37
Texas: 33
Georgia: 21
California: 19
South Florida: 17
Louisiana: 13
Broward County: 12
North Carolina: 10
Ohio: 9
Michigan: 8
Pennsylvania: 8

— David Wilson (@DBWilson2) May 2, 2021

Here are the states with the most active NFL players!

RT if your state made the top 6 ⬇️ pic.twitter.com/W7Ffxle0g2

— FOX Sports: NFL (@NFLonFOX) June 20, 2020

If your objective is to be a top program and win championships, you need NFL-type players, so it only makes sense to recruit the territories with the most talent, such as Florida. The fact that they have coaches such as Charlie Partridge, Tiquan Underwood, Tim Salem, Cory Sanders, Frank Cignetti, Jr. and Pat Narduzzi, who have tremendous reputations there, certainly helps their efforts in pulling in that talent.

In case you’re wondering, the six commitments from Florida isn’t the most that Pitt has landed in a single recruiting class during the Narduzzi era.

Here is a year-by-year look at Pitt’s commitments from Florida under Narduzzi:

2016- 4 (Rashad Weaver, Keyshon Williams, Zack Williams, Henry Miller)
2017- 7 (Dontavius Butler, A.J. Davis, Michael Smith, Damarri Mathis, Deslin Alexandre, Jerry Drake, Albert Tucker)
2018- 4 (Haba Baldonado, Shocky Jacques-Louis, V’Lique Carter, Marquis Williams)
2019- 6 (Leslie Smith, Calijah Kancey, Brandon Hill, Vincent Davis, Jared Wayne, Daniel Carter)
2020- 4 (Aydin Henningham, Jahvante Royal, Emmanuel Belgrave, Samuel Williams)
2021- 3 (Phillip O’Brien, Jake Renda, Noah Biglow)
2022- 1 (Jordaan Bailey)

The Class of 2023 sits at 6 players, but Pitt is still actively recruiting and in contention for talents such as five-star wide receiver Hykeem Williams and four-star defensive back Jaremiah Anglin.