Pitt FB Recruiting
How Has Pitt’s 2026 RB Board Shaped Up Prior to Official Visits?
Day by day, the Pitt football program is working to finalize their list of official visitors for the month of June.
While it might not seem so, this is a complicated process because it has the opportunity to change. Reason for that is the constant changes that take place with both the team and the players.
For the last month, recruits have been announcing places that they plan on taking official visits to, but things can happen to change that. The biggest factor in that is commitments that the program can receive or obviously if a recruit commits to another school. For example, Peters Township tight end Lucas Shanafelt had an official visit scheduled to Pitt next week, but that won’t be happening with his commitment to Stanford.
The other factor that can change things is if a program gets a commitment, they may not be taking any other commitments from players at that position. Or, if a team feels like they’re in a real good spot with a player or they’ve already received a silent commitment from a player, they might go-ahead and cancel the visit for certain players.
All of these things to keep in mind once we enter official visit season.
With all that being said, here’s an update on the running back position and some things to remember.
At this time, Pitt hasn’t received a commitment from a running back for their Class of 2026. That will obviously change as the Panthers could add two or more backs in the upcoming months.
In terms of official visits, the only three running backs on the books for Pitt official visits are Sir Paul Cheeks from Chesterfield, Virginia, 4-star Damon Ferguson and 3-star Christian Lawrence.
Ferguson is Pitt’s top target on their running back board and has an OV scheduled from June 5-7. The native of Baltimore, Maryland also has visits scheduled to Virginia, Indiana, Minnesota and Michigan State.
Top Pitt running back target Damon Ferguson during a spring visit. Photo courtesy of Damon Ferguson.
Lawrence (5’9″, 185-pounds) is from Thomasville, Ga. and holds Power 4 offers from Arkansas, Central Florida, Vanderbilt, Wake Forest and West Virginia.
Cheeks (5’9″, 185-pounds) holds Power 4 offers from West Virginia, Wake Forest and Virginia Tech.
A couple of things to keep in mind and watch out for. Yesterday, Pitt extended an offer to 2026 4-star running back Ashton Rowden from New Boston, Texas. Currently, Rowden has official visits scheduled to Texas Tech, TCU, Minnesota and Houston.
My favorite clips 🫡
Check out my hudl. pic.twitter.com/pbnWJ3veVH— Ashton “Ace” Rowden (@ashrowden) January 10, 2025
Also, last week, Pitt extended an offer to 2026 3-star running back Jamal Rule from Charlotte, North Carolina. Rule tells PSN that he’s been “chopping it up all the time with running backs coach Lindsey Lamar.” Rule currently has an OV scheduled to Nebraska and Syracuse.
Here are my junior Season Highlights-https://t.co/fCApdIKEIn Thank you to all my coaches and teammates for a great season. @CoachJames90 @gregolsen88 @pepman704 @charchristfb @PrepRedzoneNC @HighSchoolOT @NPCoachJeff @charlottepreps @On3Recruits @Rivals
— Jamal “ROCK” Rule…Terminator (@JamalRule23) November 13, 2024
