There was an expectation that the transfer portal officially opening would lead to some chaos across the college football landscape, but Pitt lost Kedon Slovis to the transfer and still increased its quarterback room numbers.
Slovis exited the program via the transfer portal, and Pitt almost immediately landed Boston College transfer Phil Jurkovec. And it didn’t stop there as Pitt added a commitment from 2023 three-star quarterback Ty Dieffenbach.
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Dieffenbach, a 6-foot-5, 190-pound quarterback from Agoura High in Agoura Hills, California, decommitted from UNLV on Monday afternoon, and he officially committed to Pitt Monday night.
After Pitt lost four-star quarterback commit Kenny Minchey in November, Pitt turned its attention to 2023 recruits. Pitt offered Dieffenbach on Saturday, with Frank Cignetti Jr. flying out to watch him throw in person and personally extend the offer.
“When coach (Cignetti) told me about the offer, I was just fired up,” Dieffenbach told PSN on Saturday. “I was like, ‘Thank you so much, coach.’ This offer from Pitt is a huge deal for me and my family. It was awesome.”
Dieffenbach threw for Cignetti for about 10 minutes, showing off deep out, deep ins, comebacks, getting under center and working on five- and seven-step drops. And it resulted in the eventual offer.
“Well, obviously their previous quarterback commitment de-committed, and on Monday, they told me they were going through Twitter and looking at 2023 quarterbacks and came across my film,” Dieffenbach said. “They got in touch with me on Monday, and we’ve been talking ever since. Coach Salem was going to come out to watch me throw, but coach Cignetti decided he wanted to come out. So, he flew in last night and this morning we threw, and he offered me.
“I wouldn’t say that I was nervous, but I will say that there was some adrenaline there because it’s Pitt, and they’re incredible. But once I started throwing all that stuff went away and I was locked in ready to go.”
Dieffenbach fielded offers from Colorado, Georgetown, UNLV, San Diego State, Tulane and Yale.
Dieffenbach played in six games this season at Agoura as a senior, completing 49-of-103 pass attempts 617 yards with five touchdowns and three interceptions. It wasn’t the greatest showing, but he flashes potential as a junior.
As a junior, Dieffenbach completed 169-of-269 pass attempts (63%) for 2,669 yards with 34 touchdowns and nine interceptions – flashing a strong-armed potential.
247Sports rates Dieffenbach as the 1,600th-ranked recruit in the class (87th-ranked quarterback and 151st-ranked recruit from California) while On3 rates him as the 1,612th-ranked recruit in the class (89th-ranked quarterback and 149th-ranked recruit from California).
Rivals is lower on Dieffenbach, classifying him as a two-star recruit with a 5.3 Rivals Rating.
With Dieffenbach’s commitment, Pitt now has two older and two younger quarterbacks on the roster. Jurkovec and Nick Patti — whose status this season is still undetermined — each have one season of eligibility. Dieffenbach and Nate Yarnell are both quarterbacks with potential for the future.
It’s also not unlikely that Pitt dips back into the transfer portal market for another quarterback either.
It obviously doesn’t hurt, but not exactly exciting
Josh Allen had zero offers. Just making a point that grading 18 year old kids can be hit or miss. If Cignetti watched him and felt he was worth a scholarship there has to be something there. Glad he’s on board
Cignetti’s last 6 or 7 gigs have been only for 1 or 2 years and then he’s gone. So if he’s gone, what does he care.
“It wasn’t the greatest showing”.
Yes. That’s what fans want to hear.
Happy for the guy but nobody should be excited about this. The future QB1 at Pitt isn’t this guy.
We need to get that NIL money going FAST.
Check out Lane Kiffin on Dan LeBatard’s show and you will see just how far Pitt is behind on NIL…which is now ALL that matters in recruiting.
H2P
They have been behind sinse 80s 90s
6’5” got a Chargers helmet on, too early for the Justin Herbert comparisons? Hope he wears #10.
What? Would you rather me compare him to 6’5” Davis Beville?
Beville was not given a chance.
The transfer portal is the most exciting thing to happen in college football since the expansion of TV broadcasting decades ago. The kids are no longer locked into the schools that lied to them.
Wrong all is does is…. more schools lie to them. And creates more chaos.
Now duzz is recruiting 2*? Oh boy…
Minchey’s is the reason for this. You recruit a kid who explodes onto the national scene and the big NIL schools throw money at him. You get a job offer out of school and just before you start another offer comes in for more money, better fringe benefits, etc. what you gonna do?
I get your point but the real issue here is the whole world knew Minchey was going to decommit and go to ND, did duzz not know this? Why no backup plan for the future (Phil has one year left)? Do you really feel good about the QB room as either Patti/Yarnell, or both, will enter the portal.
I am honestly not concerned. The people who are paid to be concerned will probably need to bring someone in via the portal in 2 years and that will be fine. We have had good success doing that over the last decade. Pitt has put a lot of QBs into the NFL.
I’ll wait to hit the panic button on the future of Pitt’s QB situation until Veilleux announces he’s committing to a school that isn’t Pitt. I haven’t seen much written about him here but many others seem bullish on Pitt’s ability to bring him into the fold.
Literally one month ago, Vuk stated “…the only quarterback that we know for sure will be in Pittsburgh starting in 2023 is Minchey” following Minchey’s announcement that he would be enrolling early. Pretty much the same being said from other sites as well. In fact, I can’t recall anyone questioning Minchey’s commitment at that time…a mere week before he actually decommited from the program.
So why did this kid only play in 6 games as a Senior ?? After apparently playing in all of them his junior year. Was he hurt or was he benched and lost his position ?
Every time I hear how many stars a kid has I think of Dion Lewis. Poor kid only had 2 stars. Now, he lugs around a Super Bowl ring. H2P!