Submitted by Mark Kerestan (PittPT)

It is that time of year, right before the start of the pre-season football camp, when Pitt seemingly discloses a bombshell as to someone leaving the team for any of a number of reasons. This year unfortunately is no different, with the team announcing that Charles Reeves, monster (sized) 4-Star Tight End recruit, will no longer be a part of the team.

Some POVers have pointed out that this happens at every school, but to be honest I don’t pay enough attention to what is happening at other schools to know if that is true or not. Somehow it has seemed to happen at Pitt yearly since around 2010.

We will soon have plenty to discuss regarding the Two-Deep and offensive/defensive strategies with the players comprising the 2018 Pitt Squad. In the meantime I thought it might be interesting to discuss what promising recruit sticks in our minds as the biggest disappointment, whether the recruitment failed to play to expectations, was injured before achieving expected greatness, or couldn’t get on the field due to grades or other off-field issues?

I’ll start, and as I’m kind of tired and can’t seem to think too far back at the moment, I’ll pick the disappointment that is/was Rushel Shell. Here we had a very promising local HS star, coming to play for his hometown team.

There was a great article in Sports Illustrated before the season started hyping his potential. And then boom, he was part of the Panther group that didn’t get on the field for the first game of the Paul Chryst era, a group of six contributing players held out for disciplinary reasons. There were questions regarding Shell’s work ethic and attitude and he decided not to return to Pitt for his sophomore season.

One may wonder if James Conner would have gotten on the field as a running back if Rushel Shell played to his potential or what a tandem of the two might have looked like. If Rushel Shell did become a star for the Panthers, I suspect that it could have opened the pipeline for getting more of the top players in the WPIAL to commit to Pitt.

So Rushel Shell is my player choice for biggest Panther disappointment…What say you???