Pitt FB Recruiting
Another WPIAL Product Takes Shot at Pitt Recruiting
For the second time this month, a former WPIAL player has taken a shot at Pitt football’s recruitment of local talent.
First, it was Pine-Richland offensive lineman and former Indiana Hoosier Michael Katic bashing Pitt for waiting late in the recruitment process to extend an offer.
Now, it’s North Allegheny alum and former Penn State Nittany Lion Joey Porter Jr. targeting Pitt’s lack of recruiting players beyond the top tier of local talent.
“The thing with Pitt was like, I really wanted to go to Pitt, but they didn’t recruit in their backyard enough that I felt like. I felt like even our 7-on-7 team, Evolve, we had so many top guys. Even 412, they had so many top guys, and they just never really recruited out of that pool. I was like, ‘If my guys not going, I’m not going. That’s what was really going on with Pitt,” Porter said on the Christian Kuntz Podcast.
WOW!
On the Christian Kuntz Podcast, North Allegheny alum Joey Porter Jr discusses why he didn’t go to Pitt and how he feels Pitt doesn’t recruit their backyard enough.
Thoughts?? Is JPJ right? Should Pitt recruit friends of top players? pic.twitter.com/y9GiyNEwSy
— WPIAL Insider (@WPIAL_Insider) May 29, 2025
Porter then shared a story about one of his gameday experiences at Heinz Field for a game against Penn State that led to his commitment choice of the Nittany Lions
“The last time Penn State played at Pitt, I went to the game — Pitt was my first real offer — they invited me to the game. I’m in contact with Pitt and Penn State at the same time. I go to the game — it’s the rain game and Penn State blew ya’ll out. After that game, I committed to Penn State. So I basically used Pitt tickets to go to the game. It was messed up of me, but I did that,” Porter said.
Pitt was Porter’s second Division I offer and first from a Power Conference school in June of 2017. Penn State did not offer until April of 2018 — five months prior to Penn State’s 51-6 dismantling of the Panthers.
Porter, a current cornerback with the Pittsburgh Steelers, played two years at North Allegheny. Prior to his commitment to Penn State, he listed Pitt, LSU, Penn State, Miami and Nebraska as his final five.
In recent years, the Pitt staff has shifted some of its recruiting focus away from Western Pennsylvania, and it hasn’t helped that Penn State has picked up the top players in the area over the past few recruiting cycles as well.
In four of the past seven recruiting cycles, Pitt landed only one local representative for that respective class — TJ’s Shep Turk (2025), Central Valley’s Sean FitzSimmons (2022), Westinghouse’s Dayon Hayes (2020) and Aliquippa’s Will Gipson (2019).
The most WPIAL talent in a single class under Pat Narduzzi was seven players in the 2016 class, which followed six recruits in the 2015 class.
