Vukovcan: Plenty of Reasons to Be Excited About Pitt Football

The burying of the Pitt football program and, in particular, the coaches appear a bit premature.

There was much worry and skepticism of Pitt’s future recruiting following seasons of going 3-9 and then losing six consecutive games to finish 2024.

Guess who didn’t listen to the noise? The Pitt assistant coaches.

I’m trying not to put too much into it but it’s extremely hard not to be both excited and impressed with the recruiting haul that Pitt took in over the weekend.

During their first official weekend, 10 players made the decision to commit and join Pitt’s Class of 2026. Getting 10 commitments is obviously the headline and what people will be talking about, but this weekend has a deeper meaning, and I’ll get into that in a second.

But before that I wanted to make an observation about this Pitt coaching staff. I have no way of confirming this, but I’ve been following and reporting on Pitt recruiting since the end of the Dave Wannstedt era, so I’ve done this for a bit. At no time do I ever remember the Pitt coaches recruiting as aggressively, seeing as many players and being in so many places as I do this year.

This staff has been going from high school to high school in states such as Florida, Ohio, Maryland, New Jersey, Georgia, Tennessee, Michigan, Indiana, Louisiana, Texas, Pennsylvania, etc.

Unlike some schools that mainly recruit by throwing out slogans, crowd sizes and the conference they play in, Pitt’s message consisted of three things — professional development, a track record of getting you to the NFL and relationships.

Marcus Jennings

After talking with a lot of the players that committed to Pitt over the weekend, that message resonated, especially the relationships and bonds that were created over the time Pitt started recruiting them.

Now getting into the actual 10 commitments, which were capped off with the news this morning that 4-star running back Damon Ferguson was committing to Pitt.

Taking a look at some of the players that committed to Pitt over the weekend, here’s what really stands out to me.

-Pitt’s coaches were able to land commitments from three 4-star recruits: DE Reston Lehman, WR Jaydon Dunbar and Ferguson. All three of them play at high impact positions and could be instant contributors. The Panthers also had to battle major Power 4 programs to land these players. Relationships with Ryan Manalac, Kade Bell and Lindsey Lamar played a huge role in their commitments.

-Something else that stood out to me was the areas and high schools that these players came from. Talented 3-star linebacker Isaiah Simmons is from talent rich Norfolk, Virginia, 3-star OT Mike Vanderoord plays for perennial power St. Ignatius HS in Cleveland, while Nick Howard and Wyatt Villareal are from talent rich Texas, a state Pitt has put a huge emphasis recruiting. It’s one thing to aggressively recruit a state but if you’re not seeing the results, it can become frustrating. Pitt has now received 2026 commitments from three players in Texas, including 3-star quarterback Angelo Renda.

Pitt tight end commit Wyatt Villarreal and quarterback commit Angelo Renda on their official visits

-Since they get so much heavy criticism for it, I have to bring up the WPIAL angle this weekend as three players from Western PA decided to stay home. While some may focus on the three commitments, I think the bigger importance is where those commitments came from. North Allegheny, Pine-Richland and Peters Township are three of the best high school football programs in the WPIAL and have been so for a long time. And to be honest, those are places Pitt hasn’t had a ton of success recruiting under Pat Narduzzi.

The last Pitt commit from Pine-Richland was tight end Grant Carrigan in 2017 while Elijah Zeise in 2014 was the last player from North Allegheny. So, Hoke becomes the first player since Narduzzi took over as head coach to commit to Pitt. As far as Peters Township, I can’t recall the last player.

Getting these players doesn’t instantly create a pipeline with these particular schools but you have to start somewhere, and history tells us that these programs will continue to win and pump out quality talent.

John Curran III

-The last thing that jumps out to me from this memorable weekend for Pitt is landing Lehman. I certainly don’t want to overstate things, but I really think we’re going to look back at Lehman committing as a massive signing for Pitt not only for this year but for the future. Not only do I think that Lehman is someone that can be a star in Pitt’s defense but is also a player that can help attract talent to join Pitt.

I know that naysayers out there will counter all of this by saying that we’re still a long way away from National Signing Day in December and that let’s see if they can replicate this performance in Power 4 football, which are both true.

I’ll counter by saying that thanks to the relationships that were created and the coaching staffs strong track record of development, I’m not worried about either.

The next step for Pitt is to be able to translate this talent and momentum into big wins and winning seasons and then they might really have something to get excited about.