Pitt FB Recruiting
Where has Pitt Stood Recently in Recruiting Pennsylvania?
The recruiting landscape surrounding Pitt football has changed over the years under head coach Pat Narduzzi.
Pitt has furthered its reach more and more into the hotbeds of Florida, Georgia and Texas. The Panthers coaching staff has also continued to spread its roots into the DMV, Michigan, Ohio and New Jersey.
As Pitt targets those areas, it comes at a price of sacrificing local and in-state talent.
Long, long gone are the days of Dave Wannstedt putting a fence around the WPIAL and successfully attracting in-state prospects to Pitt at a high rate.
It is unfair to say that Narduzzi and his staff don’t push hard for the top local recruits because they certainly have. It is also safe to say that the high-quality, blue-chip recruits, especially in the WPIAL, are not as abundant as they once were.
Still, the inability – or want – to secure that talent has become something to ponder.
In the 2025 recruiting class, Pitt signed two players from Pennsylvania in Shep Turk from Thomas Jefferson and Shawn Lee from Harrisburg.
Out of 28 offers extended to players within the state, Pitt landed just two. That makes up just 10% of the recruiting class.
When looking at Pitt’s toughest recruiting competitor, 26% of Penn State’s 2025 recruiting class were in-state players. From those seven Nittany Lion recruits from Pennsylvania, five came from the WPIAL.
It certainly is a year-by-year case as Pitt landed six in-state players in the 2024 class, but in the previous two cycles (2022 and 2023), there were just four combined commitments.
Pittsburgh Panthers wide receiver and York, Pa. native Kenny Johnson (2) December 26, 2024 David Hague/PSN
In the last six classes from 2020-2025, Pitt has secured 19 commitments from players within the state. During that span, the Panthers extended 139 offers, meaning that just 13.7% of the players that they offer end up committing.
Penn State has scored 40 in-state recruits in that same time frame, which includes many of the four-star options and top talent out of the WPIAL.
When Narduzzi first took the Pitt job, he found much more success at building the foundation of his recruiting classes with local and in-state players. He landed 29 scholarship players from the commonwealth in his first five classes. In 2016 and 2015, he secured seven players each with 47% of the latter class made up of Pennsylvania recruits.
In the early days, Narduzzi held onto blue-chip prospect Jordan Whitehead and picked up consensus four stars Damar Hamlin and Paris Ford.
Paris Ford (12) Damar Hamlin (3) huddle up before the Quick Lane Bowl — December 26, 2019 David Hague/PSN
Pitt has not pulled in the top player in the state since Whitehead and the closest they have come after that was when Ford and Dayon Hayes ranked third in their respective classes, according to Rivals’ rankings.
In the last four recruiting cycles, the highest-ranked in-state commitment came from Jahsear Whittington out Imhotep in Philadelphia, who ranked No. 7 in Pennsylvania.
While Pitt has a lot of factors playing into the decline of in-state scholarship recruits filing into the program such as NIL resources and Penn State’s recent success in recruiting and on the field, there still lies a fundamental and philosophical barrier.
Let’s go back to Wanny’s classes for example. He dominated within the state of Pennsylvania because he prioritized keeping those players home.
- 2010: 10 PA commits made up 42% of the class
- 2009: 9 PA commits made up 45% of the class
- 2008: 14 PA commits made up 74% of the class
- 2007: 13 PA commits made up 54% of the class
- 2006: 16 PA commits made up 59% of the class
- 2005: 12 PA commits made up 52% of the class
Talk about hit rate. Between Wannstedt’s first two classes, he landed 28 in-state players out of just 41 extended offers.
Besides his first recruiting class, Narduzzi has never exceeded 30% of his players coming from within the state in a single recruiting class.
Brandon George, Gavin Bartholomew and Pat Narduzzi walk in the Panther Prowl October 12, 2024 Photos by David Hague/PSN
When Narduzzi has pulled in significant recruits from the state, it has translated to overall success in the recruiting rankings. In 2021, Pitt finished 21st in the country — the best under Narduzzi — with a class that featured six in-state recruits. In 2016, the Panthers were 29th with seven Pennsylvania prospects.
Of course, it does not make or break your class if you do not load it up with local talent, but it is something to think about. Some of those players never pan out, but many thrive at Pitt.
Maybe someone like Sincere Edwards — an Apopka, Fla. native — does not transfer out of the program after a successful true freshman season if they are from within the state. Maybe they do. Who knows?
As for the 2026 cycle, there are a lot of options on the table when it comes to in-state prospects and it is only a matter of time before that class starts taking shape with or without players from Pennsylvania.
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