Pitt FB Recruiting
Pitt Conducting In-Home Visit With Ole Miss Transfer OL
It hasn’t taken new Pitt offensive coordinator Kade Bell long at all to begin targeting the players he’d like to execute his offense next season.
Bell, who was officially announced as the Pitt OC just a couple of days ago, will be conducting an in-home visit Wednesday afternoon with Ole Miss transfer offensive lineman Cedric Melton, his agent informed Pittsburgh Sports Now.
Melton — a 6-foot-5, 300-pound redshirt junior lineman from Houston, Texas — has played sparingly over the course of four seasons at Ole Miss, and he’s looking for a fresh start in the portal.
He’s picked up offers from UTSA and Houston and heard from Baylor, Pitt, Syracuse and Indiana since entering the transfer portal earlier this month, according to the Portal Report.
Melton was originally an underrated three-star recruit in the class of 2020, choosing the Rebels over Houston and Texas Tech, amongst a handful of other schools, and he redshirted as a true freshman in 2020.
He received his heaviest workload in 2021, taking 231 offensive snaps primarily at left guard, and he allowed just three pressures and one hurry in the process. But over the next two seasons, he recorded just 42 offensive snaps — 15 at left tackle and 27 at right tackle.
With the versatility to play at multiple spots across the line, having experience at both tackle and guard, and the required size and speed to fit in an offense with the sort of tempo that Bell runs, Melton is an easy fit in the system.
And with two seasons of eligibility remaining at the college level, Melton would be able to grow within the system as a multi-year contributor.
Pitt worked through a double-digit number of offensive line combinations in 2023, to varying degrees of success, but it’s clear that, for all of the problems offensively, the offensive line play wasn’t good enough.
Jake Kradel and Blake Zubovic, mainstays on the offensive line over the last two seasons, have exhausted their eligibility, and preseason starters Matt Goncalves and Ryan Jacoby have split their decisions — with Goncalves leaving for the NFL and Jacoby choosing to return.
Branson Taylor and Ryan Baer started just about every game at left and right tackle, respectively, after Goncalves went down with an injury, and there’s potential there. Terrence Moore is coming back as the starting center, and BJ Williams and Jason Collier Jr. will return as two of the more experienced interior options as it stands.
Melton is a potential fit on the offensive line, but he’s one of a handful of offers that the Pitt coaching staff has extended since the portal opened on Dec. 4.
For all your college football transfer portal needs, check out the Portal Report and their Transfer Portal Tracker.
