Vukovcan: Recruits That Pass On Pitt, It’s Their Loss

Here we go, one of the oldest and most tiresome topics is back, Pitt’s ability or lack of ability to recruit in Western Pennsylvania. Sometimes, I think people like to make this an issue just to have something to criticize Pat Narduzzi about.

Following Belle Vernon’s Quinton Martin’s commitment to Penn State, I was hoping this wouldn’t become an issue but unfortunately that’s not the case, so I guess I need to set the record straight.

In the last couple of recruiting classes, a number of players from the WPIAL have passed up the opportunity to stay home and play at Pitt, in order to play for other major programs, namely Penn State.

Terry Smith and James Franklin have done a hell of a job recently pulling talent such as Martin, Anthony Speca (Central Catholic), Ta’Mere Robinson (Brashear) and Lamont Payne (Chartiers Valley) from Pittsburgh to State College.

Tip of the cap to them for winning those recruiting battles.

But you know what, Pitt will be just fine, and they shouldn’t be criticized or questioned for not being able to land these players.

In the cases of Martin, Speca and Robinson, Narduzzi and his staff recruited these players as hard as any program and were the first Power Five program to extend them offers. This is also the case with other players that have went to attend other major programs.

Recruiting has always been a very hard business and in today’s world of the NIL, it’s even more difficult.

NIL opportunities aside, the Pitt coaches have a great product to sell to potential high school recruits and don’t have to take a back seat to many other programs. As I’m very fond of saying, teams across the country can sell potential recruits playing in a conference or helmets or crowd size and while that’s cute, does it really matter?

The University of Pittsburgh offers players a world class education, the opportunity to play high level football and a coaching staff that has a proven track record of developing talent regardless of the star ranking recruiting services place on you and will get you drafted.

If I’m an athlete, that sounds like a pretty attractive destination, doesn’t it? Of course it does and because of that Pitt shouldn’t apologize to anyone for a player, especially a local player, that decides to play elsewhere.

At the same time, fans of Pitt shouldn’t rip these athletes for passing on the chance to stay home. Regardless of what we think, they’re doing what they think is in the best interest of their future.

Academics asides, time will tell if these players make the right choice.

If you go back and make a list of local high-level recruits that pass on Pitt for other schools, I can tell you that athletically speaking, a majority of these players’ original decision didn’t work out. In fact, we’ve seen a few of players do a re-do and transfer back to Pitt (Derrick Davis/LSU, Donovan McMillan/Florida, MJ Devonshire/Aliquippa, Phil Jurkovec/Boston College, Johnny Petrishen/Penn State).

Narduzzi will continue to try and recruit the best talent and players that he believes best fit his program, regardless of where they play high school.

The last time I checked, Kenny Pickett, Calijah Kancey, Izzy Abanikanda, Brian O’Neill, Rashad Weaver and Patrick Jones weren’t from the WPIAL but are doing OK. At the same time, local players like Damar Hamlin, Tyler Boyd, Dane Jackson, Jordan Whitehead and Cal Adomitis made the decision to play for Pitt and that also turned out to be a good choice.

The bottom line is that if you’re talented enough, Narduzzi and company will get you to the NFL, regardless of where you call home.

Pitt fans just need to start trusting the coaching staff and their eye for talent. Sure, it’s nice if some of the local stars decide to join Pitt. But if they don’t, it’s not the end of the world as we’ve found out over the last few years.

When a player passes on Pitt, the Panther coaches have taken the attitude of it being their loss. It’s time that the fan base starts saying the same thing.