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| Photo from Pitt Panthers.com |
I never really got into college recruiting. At least not at the magnitude of some who follow college sports. It never clicked with me.
I remember the first time I experienced the passion some
have for college recruiting when a fellow student at the University of
Pittsburgh at Johnstown asked me if I was going to watch Damar Hamlin’s signing
on TV. I had nothing against Hamlin, and
of course became a big fan of his when he played for Pitt, but I was taken
aback by the idea of a televised event for a high school kid.
This for me is similar to how some fans love and closely
follow high school football. Since I
graduated in 2011, I have not attended, watched, nor even looked up the score
of high school football game. I didn’t
grow up in a small town, and I have plenty of professional sports teams around me,
so I never followed it after I graduated.
I’m not saying anything against those who do have a passion for those types of things. I
actually hope we get large enough as a site that we eventually need someone who
will cover both of these topics closely for us.
It is just not something I have ever had an interest in.
And as a Pitt fan, how could I? Pitt always falls somewhere in the middle of
the ACC, and the nation, in recruiting class rank. However, the apathy I have for signing day as
a Pitt fan is a testament to how well Pitt has played relative to their
recruiting class. Especially how well
some Panthers have played relative to their star rating. I’m consistently told by Twitter how ho-hum
Pitt’s recruiting class was on National Signing Day, yet we continue to be one
of the top programs in the ACC and the most stable program in our division.
The Panthers in the last five years have consistently finished
behind Florida State, North Carolina, Virginia Tech, and Georgia Tech, among
others in the ACC, in recruiting class rank.
While year after year Pitt is consistently better than most of the
ACC. The stat I love to use is that Pitt
has more ACC wins under head coach Pat Narduzzi than every team in the ACC
besides Clemson and Miami. Pitt unfortunately
lost to Miami in a nail-biter this season, but they did beat Clemson pretty
convincingly.
So how do I take these ranks seriously when the program consistently performs better?
I also believe these grades are too premature for anyone
outside of the top 20 to 30 players.
These 18 year-olds are too young to properly know how they will develop
into their bodies and as players. It’s similar to why so many baseball prospects miss. These kids are too young to properly evaluate.
If quarterback Davis Beville was Pitt’s highest rated recruit
in 2019, why are we so desperate for a transfer QB? Also Calijah Kancey and SirVocea Dennis were
in the same class as Beville, but as a three-star and a two-star respectively. They are already playing far superior to those grades. Hopefully, when Beville is given the opportunity to play, he does live up to the rank he received in 2019.
The point I am making is that fans put way too much stock
into these recruiting class rankings and National Signing Day. Unless you have a program that consistently
turns in Top-10 recruiting classes year after year, it’s just another day of
the college football year. The rest of
the nation just needs to find the right kids that fit their system, regardless of their star rating.
Conclusion
With below average recruiting class ranks, Pitt has consistently
played above average college football. I’m
much more interested in getting a transfer quarterback than today’s recruiting class. I wish nothing but the best for the individuals who committed to the University of Pittsburgh today, but I won’t know any of their names until
they play on Saturdays at Heinz. National
Signing Day is blown way out of proportion for most of the nation’s programs.