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February 4th, 2004
08:26 pm - Update
I will attempt to write some things tonight despite the fact that my new Latino roomate Diamond(real name Dominick)is bumping some kind of god awfull rap. Welcome to my paradise.
Pitt did infact lose 4 players today. Johnny Payton, a three star guy, was lost to South Florida, a blue chip linebacker, James Bryant was lost to Miami despite being from Pa. Obviously Johnson and Morelli were also lost. What was once a top 25 recruiting class will no doubt be blasted in the Pittsburgh media tomarrow. As I am in Pheonix it will be difficult for me to see what everybody says about this. If someone in the Burgh could give us the upshots of the opinions tomarrow we would all appreciate it.
My take here is both Morelli and Johnson jumped into some interesting situations here. Johnson will be one of four running backs that Miami recruited this year. He will also join SEVEN running backs returning to the roster. Being the pompous ass he is perhaps he thinks he can beat these guys out. A more likely result is that he will end up transfering. However, its worth note that Miami running backs always seem to declare for the draft after one season. I guess we will see if he can wait out 11 other RBs. Acorrding to ESPN's Tom Lemming he has never seen a recruiting class with 6 QBs. My guess is PSU has perhaps two or three actual QBs among their signings. Morelli will also jump on a roster with SEVEN QBs. He will not get out from behind Robinson or Mills and will have to wait hist turn to battle it out with the rest of the QBs. PSU has been Quarterback hell for a long time running back from Kerry Collins, Mike McQuery, Kevin Thompson, Rashard Casey (who may or may not have stomped on a cop) to the present day Mills Robinson era. The likely scenario here is that Morelli will end up having to split time with someone. We all agree he is no Einstein and could drive fans in Beaver Stadium completly nuts. I can also see Morelli transfering as he and his father will at some point feel slighted if the young Morelli is not the star.(two words:Austin Scott)Personally I am rooting for the worst case scenario for both of these two. May they never show there faces is the Burgh again.
This does come as a signifigant loss to Pitt. Even if Johnson and Morelli turn out to be busts the ramifacations of this recruiting class will no doubt be felt in the future. On another site somebody far more knowledgable then me pointed out that lossing your back yard is one of the worst things that can happen. With Pitt soon begining play in The Mountain East, I mean the Big East, recruits may look back to these defections and say "if it was'nt good for them, then why is it good for me." Couple that with a dissapointing finish and a rebuilding year and we might not see many stud recruits around this area for a little while. It is odd that I never here J.D. leaving as a reason why some of these kids might not have come. He seemed like a players guy to me, or maybe I am just reaching here, I don't know.
Pitt put together another strong performance tonight by crushing St. Johns. This brings us to a critical point in their scheduale as they will have to go on the road to play The Hall and Nortre Dame. It astounds me that ND has been this bad to date. I think they are a team that can beat anybody but to do that they have to shot the lights out. Of course they did just that not to long ago and still lost to Pitt but two road games on a Sat/Mon. against good teams scares me. Of course UCONN comes to Pitt next Sat, a game I can't belive is not being Televised. It's not going to be easy for Pitt down the stretch and two losses here would not surprise me. I am sure I will get blasted for that but oh well.
Maurice Clarret was involved in considerable contraversy today as it was revealed that a man who gave Maurice "gifts" was also placing bets at an offshore gamming establishment leading up to the Fiesta Bowl (in Tempe by the way). If Mr. Penn Hills Torey Barr would give us the OSU buzz on this it would be greatly appreciated.
Okay now I will attempt to get to some comments in my next post
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Comments:
| From: (Anonymous) |
Date: February 5th, 2004 - 06:34 am |
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Couple things from this post......
I talked to Lance Asbee tonite (For all you non Fox Chapel people, hes a good friend of mine and the rest of the FC kids on the board and he was a Preffered Walk On Fullback) and he said that no one on the team really cared about the whole Morelli\Johnson thing. But he did say one thing that caught me off guard, he said that one of the two kids not from PA (I cant remember his name) has a brother on the Pitt team and was suprised that he didnt come. He also told me that next year he is going to walk on the field line up behind center throw a touchdown, look to the camera and scream 'TOREY!'. Whether that is true or not, I dont know. The Clarett thing is news to me, but ill be sure to keep you guys posted with the news from Columbus.
T-Barr
| From: (Anonymous) |
Date: February 5th, 2004 - 06:45 am |
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Brother
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yes bryant, if i recall from the original post, the linebackers who is a bluechiper from reading does have a brother on the team.
Beard
| From: (Anonymous) |
Date: February 5th, 2004 - 06:55 am |
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lebo power baby
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beard great idea man ill email it to franchick like u asked. i played against morelli and can tell u he is real easy to read. his eyes follow his receiver all over the field. i cant say hes not atheletic though. he moves well and throws the ball on a line. i guess u could say the same about me and im playin fuckin baseball. played johnson too and fran knocked him outa the game returning a kick. no heart, he was lossing, we bottled him up and he quit like a little punk. he was talking when the game started and we shut him up real quick. i talked to JD alot when i was thinkin about playin football. harris is a dork and it was JD who almost had me sold. i dont think it woulda affected my decision though.
Goff
| From: (Anonymous) |
Date: February 5th, 2004 - 08:04 pm |
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A definite agreement here. Losing the top two recruits in the area this year will definitely hurt Pitt. Not so much on the field, but rather mentally knowing that they couldn't even keep the kids from their home area. This is certainly the case when Brian Brohm, the nations 15th rated player overall decided to stay and play for his hometown and not exactly football power, Louisville. If the coaching staff at Louisville can make it enticing, now in the Big East, for the nations top recruit, how can Pitt not make an offer to its hometown products with some of the best sports facilities in college athletics. Losing the top powers in the Big East undoubtedly hurt. Payton, the WR prospect said in the paper this morning Pitt would have been his choice barring the Big East seperation. Many factors weigh on these kids when making a college decision, however it can definitely be said that Harris didn't do enough work to keep these kids from fleeing.
| From: (Anonymous) |
Date: February 5th, 2004 - 08:12 pm |
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new big east
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briefly before I go to class. The new teams coming to the Big East, as you pointed out Louisvile and others, had great recruiting years, while the teams staying had lackluster years. interesting.
Beard
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