Pitt Football Class of 2025 Breakdown: Toughness at O-Line

With a new offensive scheme for Pitt football that runs on speed with an up-tempo style, it begins with the play up front.

As the Panthers are looking to build through the trenches that fit their scheme, it all starts with toughness and offensive line coach Jeremy Darveau believes they have that with the four newest offensive linemen.

“Got a group of four offensive linemen coming in. I’m really excited about all of them because this group really falls on toughness. We want a foundation of being tough. From there, we talk about the athletic ability, the size and all of those different things. I’m really excited about these four because I think they check the boxes with what we’re looking for in those areas,” Darveau said in December.

Shep Turk, Torian Chester, Akram Elnagmi and Jordan Fields make up the 2025 recruits up front for the Panthers.

Darveau sees a lot of potential in the group, but it starts with that very grit that he has preached.

“I always start everything with, ‘Do you have that demeanor about you? Are you going to go out there and turn down blocks or are you going to finish blocks.’ If I can build from that, then the other things are gravy on top of the mashed potatoes. The great thing is they are all that 6-foot-4, 6-foot-5, even 6-foot-6 in Akram’s case. That’s all butter to me. I want guys that are tough, and these four guys right here are tough football players.”

The first lineman to commit was Turk, who hails from nearby Thomas Jefferson High School. It was immediately understood by Darveau that Turk meets that Pittsburgh toughness.

“He’s Pittsburgh through and through. He was one of the first commits we had and he’s kind of glued this class together. He’s always talking to the other recruits, reaching out to them making sure ‘Hey, we’re good, let’s meet up here, talk to each other on facetime,’ whatever it is. Just watching Shep play in the WPIAL here, it’s impressive the toughness and the finish that he plays with,” Darveau said.

Pitt offered Turk – who stands at 6-foot-4 and projects as an interior lineman — after his junior season and with that, the coaching staff gave him a task during the offseason.

“He might have been the first recruit I met here in February and he was like 230 pounds, so they were like, ‘Is this kid big enough the play offensive line?’ We were like, ‘You need to get a little bigger son.’ He just started eating, lifting and getting bigger and he looks great right now. He’s like 285 right now and he looks solid. I’m really happy with the way he’s approached this whole process. His future is going to be so bright because he has the work ethic, he’s got everything you look for in an offensive lineman,” Darveau said.

As a senior, Turk dominated in the trenches, helping his Jaguars team win their first WPIAL title since 2020.

Shep Turk in the Class 4A WPIAL title game. Nov. 16, 2024 // Ed Thompson. PSN.

“He’s a local legend here at Thomas Jefferson,” Darveau said. “One of the best highlight tapes you’ll ever watch. That guy is out here rolling off the football, moving people, getting after guys’ tails. It is so much fun to watch this kid play.”

With Turk on board in May, he helped solidify the rest of the offensive linemen in the class.

One of those commits comes from across the pond in Elnagmi from Loughborough in the United Kingdom.

The 6-foot-6 Elnagmi was an under-the-radar recruit that Darveau and the Pitt staff found at the NFL Academy.

“I got here late in the recruiting process, and we were looking all across the nation for a tackle that fits what we’re looking for: athletic, long, mean streak. We weren’t really finding what we were looking for, so what do you do, you expand your search radius. We expanded that thing quite a bit and we found him over at a really interesting high school over there called the NFL Academy. It’s got really big ties to the NFL and there’s a lot of talented players that come out of that place year in and year out, especially offensive linemen over the past couple of years,” Darveau said.

A former rugby player, Elnagmi switched to football a few years ago and has benefited from playing against teams in the United States.

From playing rugby ➡️ to #NFLAcademy trials ➡️ and now signed to @Pitt_FB 🇺🇸@AkramElnagmi put in the work to get himself to a D1 college! pic.twitter.com/Vycw53q8bg

— NFL Academy (@NFLAcademy) December 6, 2024

“The great thing about Akram is where he plays at the NFL Academy, they play an American schedule. They’ll come over here and play IMG, Massillon in Ohio, so they’ll play really good schedules. He’s only played for a few years and I’m OK with that because that’s how I was in high school. I only played for a few years. I’m OK with that because it gives me a bigger canvas to paint,” Darveau said.

Darveau plans on Elnagmi lining up at tackle, along with Fields, who stands at 6-foot-4.

“He comes from a family of giants,” Darveau said about Fields. “It’s awesome to see the size and potential that he comes from.”

Fields, who played for Texas power North Shore in Houston, Texas, helped his team post a 13-0 record and reach the regional championship for a 10^th consecutive season.

“Jordan’s one of the best tackles in the nation right now as far as the way he plays,” Darveau said. Super athletic kid the way he moves around, the way he pass sets and the way he comes off the football. He is just an absolute treat to watch play.”

Fields joins Elnagmi in early enrolling at Pitt, while Turk and Chester will come in during the summer.

For Chester, he anchored the line at Westover High School in Albany, Ga. that went on to a 9-2 record this past fall.

“Torian Chester a really offensive lineman from down in south Georgia. A lot of good offensive lineman come from that area and he’s probably one of the best. They run the ball down there just as good as anybody in the nation. His big thing is, he’s a finisher. I love watching him dump guys over the pile and run his feet through contact,” Darveau said.

With the four offensive linemen in the 2025 class, Pitt will expect them to grow in both the run and pass game.

“You got to be able to do both things, especially in today’s offense,” Darveau said. “You got to be able to protect the quarterback, you got to be able to run the football. I tend to say if you can pass pro, you can probably run block, too. It was like 51 percent, I want to see pass pro, 49 percent, I want to see you run block. Slight margin of error because I think pass protection is such a hard skill to master.”