2025 WPIAL LB Learns A Lot About Pitt During Junior Day Visit

The Latrobe High School football program was definitely in the spotlight over the weekend as two of their star players were making headlines.

2025 four-star linebacker Alex Tatsch closed down his recruitment and gave a verbal commitment to James Franklin and Penn State.

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Tatsch’s teammate, John Wetzel didn’t commit but did make an important visit. The 6-foot-1, 195-pound athlete spent the weekend in Oakland taking part in Pitt football’s Junior Day activities.

Wetzel has seen his recruitment begin to increase as he now holds offers from West Virginia, Cincinnati, Boston College, Marshall, Temple, Akron and Lehigh.

While Wetzel hasn’t received one from Pitt yet, he was able to spend some valuable time with the Panthers staff, in particular, linebackers coach Ryan Manalac.

“Prior to this weekend, I’ve been able to speak with Pitt’s linebackers coach a couple of times,” Wetzel told Pittsburgh Sports Now. “But it was really good to be able to go out there this weekend and have him explain things to me in the meeting room.

“(Ryan Manalac) answered a lot of my questions the day before when he came out to our school to see me, but I still had questions for him on Junior Day. When we went into the meeting room, instead of going with safeties, I went with the linebackers because they see me as a Star linebacker, which is more of an athletic linebacker that can still cover. He’s not asking to cover people deep, it’s more of the curl routes but has to be athletic because he has to man up to people on the outs and the ins.”

Wetzel found this to be very interesting as he learned more of the Pitt defense and afterward believed it fits his current skill set.

“I was asking questions like who I’d be covering and the blitzing part of it,” said Wetzel. “Because Pitt’s defense brings seven men all the time, I believe they’re like top five in the country in terms of blitzing. The Star linebacker is a position that blitzes a lot, so it was really cool to see and learn how aggressive their defense really is and how downhill they play.

“The Pitt defense tries to make as many plays in the opposing backfield as possible, which is really cool to me. The Pitt defense is one in which I believe I’d excel in and I’m versatile. I can put on 20 pounds and be at and play at 215 or 220 pounds. Even if I’m asked to put the weight on, I’m athletic enough that I can still play with the big boys. I love to play aggressive, which is what the Pitt defense is all about.”

Check out my highlight – https://t.co/Lo96dueez4 Jr. Season

— John Wetzel (@John_Wetzel10) December 1, 2023

Wetzel tells PSN that being a local kid, he definitely follows and has kept up with Pitt’s success over the last handful of seasons. A couple of things that Wetzel mentioned were the Panthers’ ACC championship, but he was really impressed with the amount of players Pitt continues to develop and put in the NFL.

It’s obvious that Wetzel has an interest in Pitt and would love for them to be his next offer. While attending Junior Day, did the topic of an offer come up?

“No, I didn’t really ask about it,” said Wetzel. “But I would love to get an offer from Pitt, but I didn’t ask them about that. I was more focused on what their school had to bring. If they don’t offer me this offseason, maybe they’ll see what I do during my senior season and offer me. But I definitely think and know that I can play there.”