Pitt FB Recruiting
Pitt Extends Very First Offer to Underrated 2025 Virginia DB
Xavier Dillard has received some interest throughout the early portion of his recruiting process, but it wasn’t until Tuesday afternoon that he received his very first college offer.
Dillard — a 6-foot-2, 190-pound defensive back from Lightridge High in Aldie, Va. — received an in-school visit from Tiquan Underwood Tuesday, the second in-school visit in as many weeks, and this time, Underwood arrived with good news. Dillard received his first offer.
“It makes me feel good,” Dillard told Pittsburgh Sports Now. “It’s definitely a sigh of relief being that it’s the first offer, and I’ve been working really hard these last few offseasons. And to see that it’s paid off is a sigh of relief.
“Especially being a Power Five, ACC school really means a lot to me.”
Humbled to have earned an offer from the University of Pittsburgh @TiUnderwood @CoachDuzzPittFB @BatesBacker @ARCHIECOLLINS_ @coachcsanders @RivalsFriedman pic.twitter.com/f5HD0XJN50
— Xavier Dillard (@xavierdillard_) January 30, 2024
Dillard had been to Pittsburgh once, for his sister’s basketball tournament, before he started talking with the Pitt coaching staff, so he wasn’t all that familiar with the program before he started hearing from the coaching staff. In fact, he hasn’t been hearing from Pitt for all that long either.
The first time he heard from Pitt was when Underwood stopped by Lightridge last week, and he returned once again to check in with Dillard this week.
“I was in math class, and coach Underwood, he came to the school last week and I met with him, had a conversation with him, and he came back today,” Dillard said. “I got pulled out of math class, and he just said our defensive team likes how you play, likes your film and they just wanted to pull the trigger and offer you to Pitt.
“It felt really personable. They liked just basically the way I play, the way I play with so much aggression, physicality and so close to the line. But I’d love to hear perspective from the other defensive coaches on staff when I get on campus sometime hopefully in the spring.”
Underwood told Dillard that the defensive staff, especially Archie Collins and Cory Sanders, will be in touch soon, and Dillard is excited to build from there. Dillard may not be destined for the offensive side of the ball at the next level, but he’s shown flashes on both sides of the ball.
Dillard starred offensively and defensively for Lightridge as a junior. He racked up 44 carries for 139 yards (a team-high) and two touchdowns and added nine receptions for 52 yards. But his true impact came on the defensive side of the ball.
He led Lightridge with 125 tackles (99 solo), 11 tackles for loss, an interception, nine pass breakups, two forced fumbles and a blocked punt.
Dillard does not have a profile on the major recruiting sites (247Sports, Rivals and On3), but as Pitt has extended an offer, it appears to only be a matter of time before his recruiting process picks up — and his recruiting rankings.
He actually heard from a college coach, before the offer from Pitt arrived, that he has just one offer away from six.
Dillard has taken unofficial visits to Virginia and West Virginia, and he’s scheduled for visits to JMU, Liberty and Villanova, and there’s an expectation that he will make it out to Pittsburgh during the spring. It’s still in the works.
He still plans to approach the recruiting process the same way he did before picking up his first offer, networking with college coaches and building strong relationships with them, and his goal is to eventually find a school that makes him feel wanted. Football is important, obviously, but he wants to be able to find an environment that will allow him to succeed on and off the field.
“I definitely like (Pitt), I’ll have to get on campus a little bit more and see more of the coaching staff and the culture around the football program, but I like how it’s going right now,” Dillard said. “Especially with coach Underwood, we’ve had great conversations over the past week that I’ve known him.”
Pitt has not yet landed a commitment in the class of 2025, but the recruits in the class are beginning to come to the forefront.
The Panthers are in the mix for four-star linebacker Dayshaun Burnett (Pittsburgh, Pa.), three-star athlete Emmanuel Taylor (Virginia Beach, Va.), three-star offensive lineman Raphael Greene (Cincinnati, Ohio), four-star wide receiver Jadyn Robinson (San Juan Capistrano, Cal.), three-star running back Jeffrey Overton Jr. (Woodbridge, Va.), three-star athlete Jaiden Brown-Demery (Mest Mifflin, Pa.) and three-star edge rusher Sharlandiin Strange (Wyncote, Pa).
