Note; here is another new kid. He’s a 2* TE.

Link: Cole Mitchell Signs for Pitt

Pitt Football Adds to Recruiting Class of 2021, Signs Cole Mitchell

PITTSBURGH—Pitt head football coach Pat Narduzzi today announced the signing of Maryland native Cole Mitchell as another addition to the program’s recruiting class of 2021.
 
The 6-foot-5, 235-pound Mitchell (Frederick, Md./Linganore) joins the Panthers after an outstanding spring season at Linganore High School, where he contributed on offense, defense and special teams.

“Cole had an abbreviated senior year and never had an opportunity to prove who he was as a player,” Narduzzi said of Mitchell. “He was prepared to go to IMG Academy for a postgraduate year. Fortunately, he came to our rising stars camp in June and did an unbelievable job working with the tight ends. He shows great power and explosion on tape and did the same thing at camp when we watched him. A week later, he made an official visit to Pitt and we are excited to add him to our 2021 class.”

Mitchell also represented Team Maryland at the 2021 Big 33 Game in May.
 
He becomes Pitt’s third tight end signee in the 2021 recruiting class, joining early enrollees Gavin Bartholomew and Jake Renda, who participated in spring ball for the Panthers.

Pitt opens the 2021 season at Heinz Field on Sept. 4 against Massachusetts. Kickoff will be at 4 p.m.

So far we have 11 kids; eight are 3*, one is a 2* and two are 0*s. Averaging 2.4*s at this time. Mitchell has no other offers.

Discuss please…

Here is link to the Rivals’ Pitt Recruiting List page…

On June 23rd The Pitt POV turned five years old – which in the blogosphere is many lifetimes. I just read that the average lifespan of a blog is 100 days so we have lasted 18.5 times longer then average. Actually, and to be literal, we have been in existence for 1,461 days since we started on June 23rd of 2016 …so it is 14.6 times as long as the average blog.

Just for fun let’s look at some POV numbers as they are pretty interesting all around. Here are the Views and Visitors stats:

YEAR	VISITORS	VIEWS
2016	52,385	432,172
2017	73,891	736,722
2018	68,972	806,556
2019	62,357	649,638
2020	55,458	526,192
2021	19,858	200,327
TOTALS	332,876	3,351,607
AVG/MONTH	5,456	54,944

3,351,607 views is a ton. If you look at the number of visitors though you see why I keep repeating that the number of readers of the POV far exceeds the number of commenters. My email in-box shows that also – especially when something controversial is either posted or a comment.

We also have 329 “followers” on email who get a notification every time a new article is posted. The most popular day for reading is on Monday and most popular time is noon…so basically readers wait until lunchbreak at work to delve into the articles.

This year alone there have been 16,049 views by clicked links to the POV from Google, Bing, Yahoo and DuckDuckGo search engines entries for “Pitt Football”.

Also in this year, since I took over the blog again, I have received over 500 emails from readers regarding either the blog, articles or specific commenters (really, how hard is it to spell “Tex” correctly?)

Here is a detailed graph showing the Posts and Comments numbers breakdown by year then the yearly averages:

Wow – 1,195,49 comment words written over the time POV has been around. That equals 13.3 full length novels. You guys have been busy! Those numbers tire me out just looking at them.

Here is a graphic listing the most commented on articles.

In typical PITT fashion the three articles which received the most comments were written after these games:

9/28/18, lost to NC 38-35

10/7/17, lost to Syracuse 27-24

9/9/17, lost to Penn State 33-14.

Well, those last two games were in the 5-7 season so naturally POVers were pissed. Plus the North Carolina loss in 2018 came when we were 2-1 (the loss was 51-6 PSU) and we were hoping to be 3-1 to start the year.

Readers also share the POV with others rather a lot. In this month alone so far they have linked specific POV articles to Twitter 2,695 times and 2,465 to Facebook. That is only for the 26 days of June so far. The total shares over our five years must be sky high but I can’t find that specific stat.

Here is an interesting fact – this graphic is the Top Five countries by Views. Note that all the 32 pink shaded countries have had POV viewers since our beginning:

Well, that is a bunch of numbers and because of the popularity of the POV name recognition when I go to Pitt games and meet new people the name and face are recognized rather often. Hey – that ain’t bragging because half the time I’m getting yelled at by the Kool-Aid drinkers. It is fun though to get new readers onboard during our discussions.

Last stat and it is a weird one: there have been two job offers to me to write for national media outlets as a ‘stringer’ to cover the Panther football games since I started the POV. I had one earlier one when I was writing for the PITT Blather.

As a clarification to the above – those offers sound much better then the reality of it. Basically it was “Write xxx amount of words about the games and if we publish it you get $0.05 (a nickel) per word.

Let’s see…for a 1,000 word piece it would entail a nine hour round trip drive to Pittsburgh with $48 in tolls, a hotel room at the William Penn for $130 and four meals out of my pocket for around another $100 or so for the $50 I’d get for writing the article. How could I pass that up?

And don’t forget – that $50 is paid only if they publish it. I’d rather just panhandle at the pre-game tailgates.

Now that said, I have found national articles that have whole paragraphs which have been cut and pasted right out of the POV without attribution, so some get the work done for free. It really doesn’t bother me though and it is a rare instance when it happens.

What’s the bottom line here? Well, for me It is giving many, many thanks to each and every reader and especially those who contribute articles for all to enjoy. Couldn’t do it without you guys…

Amateurism in the collegiate ranks is dead and will soon be buried. The highest court in the land just ruled that sports are no longer playing games but is now actual employment for the student/professionals.

The Supreme Court of the United States unanimously affirmed a ruling Monday that provides for an incremental increase in how college athletes can be compensated and also opens the door for future legal challenges that could deal a much more significant blow to the NCAA’s current business model.

Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote the court’s opinion, which upheld a district court judge’s decision that the NCAA was violating antitrust law by placing limits on the education-related benefits that schools can provide to athletes. The decision allows schools to provide their athletes with unlimited compensation as long as it is some way connected to their education.

Even though I agree with the Supreme Court’s ruling I do think it is sad that a whole wonderful and simple way of life in collegiate sports has now been completely lost. The beginning happened as soon as cable TV came on the scene and the big TV revenues were no longer restricted to the more popular “Big Dog” programs (Notre Dame, USC, Ohio State, Penn State, etc.) who played live on TV at 1:00 pm Saturday afternoons with Keith Jackson calling the plays.

However soon even crappy schools were getting big paydays through their conference TV contracts and that is when things started to change. Soon every school and its brother were getting kickbacks from ESPN. From there it just grew and grew.

Honestly, for me, what made college football magical is that it was accessible to almost every person at almost any time. If you were a student at Pitt you could walk into the Pitt Stadium stands with your friends during varsity football practice and watch the kids play out there and see the coaches coaching them. Regular people could actually walk up to the stadium window and buy a ticket for that day’s game without having to take loans out for seat licenses (extortion IMO) and breaking the bank while doing so. Price to watch the National Champ Panthers in ’76? $7.00…

Football wasn’t dissected and micro-managed to the nth degree as it is now. When the game was over you either went to a bar, your dorm or home and then got on with your week ahead.

When you walked into a dorm you saw some of the players you had just seen out on the field. You sat next to them in class and ate with them in the cafeteria.

You might have envied them because they were getting a free ride on tuition and room & board but you knew they were just like you but with a talent specific to them. They were no better or worse than any other student when it came down to it.

Forget about that now – it has changed in ways that are almost unrecognizable to fans of a certain age. Back in the day a player might have some bucks slipped to them by a booster (Dorsett drove a Lincoln Continental and had $1,145 in Oakland streets parking tickets that somehow got paid when that was made public…”He’s an All-American scofflaw,” Angela Marasco, chief clerk of the city traffic court, said at the time.” ).

But that was Dorsett. The other 90+ players on the roster were pretty much regular students, especially when they actually went to class. They certainly weren’t on the University of Pittsburgh’s payroll like the current Panthers are about to be.

Does this bit mean all will be tied into academic performance and not what the athlete does on the field of play?

“Athletes playing Division I men’s or women’s basketball or Bowl Subdivision football will be able to receive benefits from their schools that include cash or cash-equivalent awards based on academics or graduation.

Among the other benefits that schools also can offer are scholarships to complete undergraduate or graduate degrees at any school and paid internships after athletes have completed their collegiate sports eligibility.”

Is the ‘pay’ to players based not on their athletic abilities but on “academics or graduation” standards and is paid out as either cash or more scholarship opportunities??? Who makes those criteria for standards applied in this case – the NCAA? The Conferences? The schools themselves?

Gee, won’t it be fun to see what West Virginia deems the standard for a player to be academically eligible for a salary. Maybe the accountants will start with this: if a WVU player can actually find the classroom they are supposed to have been in attendance all semester without having to ask for help, they will get the Federal minimum wage to start.

Inquiring minds want to know…

However things are laid out will we see a bunch of D1 athletes working harder in the classrooms to get the higher pay involved? Or is it that they have to meet a set standard of academic achievement to meet the “pay” criteria at all?

I can’t help but wonder about all the undergrad research assistants who work on the projects that UPMC will make tons of money on when the project is successful and monetized. Are those students (who might not even be on scholarship) not in exactly the same position that the athletes are? Their efforts result in money earned by a formal institution without them seeing a single cent so shouldn’t they get compensated just as players will now be?

Who knows what is in the future, but for me this is just another nail in the coffin lid of what was once a pleasant and enjoyable hobby – and that is what being a fan is supposed to be. Following the team and attending games should not be something that you bust your ass for to be able to afford, but should be one of the things one spends some hard earned money on because they like it as something fun to do.

Say goodbye to that my friends because lets be honest here – who in Hell do you think is going to pay those monies to the college athletes? It won’t be the NCAA or the Supreme Court or even the school themselves. No – it will be the fans who pony up via higher ticket prices and increased “club” fees along with higher prices for everything else related to the football programs.

I can see it now…

Narduzzi: C’mon Pitt fans , we need another 4* defensive line star and that salary won’t come cheap. Time to show us how much you really love the team.

Fan: What can we do coach? How can we help…?

Narduzzi: The very best fans can run out and buy even more season tickets and don’t forget to up your Pitt gear purchases either. That way you can brag to your friends that you are paying a 1,000th share of the next Pitt All-American nose guard. Regular fans can try to donate at least something you skinflint bastards. The last thing we Pitt family members want is a reduction of my salary to pay the players. That just wouldn’t be right.

I know this is the way of the world now and as I said above I agree with the Court’s decision in this matter. I just wish all we had to think about and do was just enjoy Pitt football without all the minutiae of everything else involved.

 

A Way too Early Look at GT’s Roster Changes

Pitt’s 2021 Opponent Series – By Rich Hefner (Rich in SC)

I plan on writing a series of articles focusing on the offseason activities of Pitt’s P5 2021 opponents. I will touch on recruiting, transfer portal activity, list of players loss to the pros, list of players to “know” based on returning All-conference or 2021 preseason selections. Lastly, some data based on 2020 NCAA stats (I know you all are waiting breathlessly for that). Of course, I will add my opinion when I feel something needs to be pointed out.

(Editor’s Note: Rich will be doing more of these and if I can remember I’ll also post them in the week before the game against the opponents discussed…)

I will be using Rivals recruiting ranking data but 24/7 TP activity. If you want a quick update on the transfer portal, this is the link to the POV TP article I wrote.

 The Transfer Portal; (Recruiting Part 2) (pittpov.com)

Here is my POV article on 2021 recruiting.

College FB 2021 Recruiting – Part 1 (pittpov.com)

I am going to start with Georgia Tech’s (GT) and Pitt’s 2021 schedules.

Georgia Tech is in the running for this years ACC most favorite ACC schedule. They get a bye in week seven (the mid-season Saturday). Six games before the bye and six after… winnable games both before and after the bye. They are also the only ACC team that does not play on a non-Saturday. Though they do have a hard finish of the season with Notre Dame and Georgia in the last two weeks. GT fans are hoping they are not stuck at five wins going into the last two games, or they will be relying on APR to receive a bowl bid. Like Pitt, they also will face Clemson.

I do not know if I will show the following chart for every Pitt opponent, but I thought it was interesting. As you know, 2019 was Geoff Collins first year as head coach for GT. He went 3 – 9 (including a loss to The Citadel). Did his offense change in 2020? Defense in 2020? You bet both did. Offense for the better but defense regressed.

There is some interesting data in that mass of numbers. GT passed more in 2020 vs. 2019. But not as much as I thought they did. All around defense regressed from 2019, Mainly in pass defense. Maybe it was just due to a 10 game ACC schedule and UCF as the lone OOC opponent. Maybe it was that GT was one of four ACC that played both ND and Clemson (BC, Pitt and Syracuse were the other three.)

On to recruiting. How is the HC change working out? The last five years of recruiting even though there may be 2016 and 2015 recruits playing this year.

Overall a step-up in recruiting compared to triple option Paul Johnson. He moved the needle from an average 3* 5.5 recruit to a 3* 5.6 recruit per NNR. As we will see later and as I wrote in the TP article, Collins is going for immediate help with some longevity by using the TP as a recruiting tool. One thing in the breakdown of recruits by position, GT is still trying to beef up their offensive line. Sound familiar?

Any true “stars” on their roster last year? They had three named to the 2020 All ACC team. To expand the potential list of “stars”, I added the GT players that were named to the 2020 preseason All ACC teams by either Athlon, PFF or returning 2019 All ACC selections.

Harvin (the punter) is going pro. Gibbs is good. He made the All ACC team as punt/kick returner. I thought he would make it as an all-purpose back, but such is life.  Mason was a 2019 third team all ACC selection as a running back but was injured most of the 2020 season. I do not know much about the rest but the defensive backs’ did not do themselves proud in 2020.

Any transfer portal entries? Yes.

Eight TP entries. Only one “Grad” transfer. Picked up a placekicker from the fire sale going on at Tennessee as GT kickers stunk. The best pickup may be Keion White from Old Dominion. He was unranked by Rivals in 2017. Old Dominion was one of three FBS teams that opted out of the 2020 season. During the 2019 season, White had 19 tackles for loss.

One of the things that 24/7 does is re-rank players in the transfer portal based on their college careers. Kind of makes sense as players are now competing against peers. In a way, it is unfair if a recent recruit did not play much at his old school due to age (2019, 2020 classes). BTW here is a link to 24/7 on their explanation of ratings. White has pro potential with a 3* 0.8800 rating.

247Sports Rating Explanation

One of the things I learned in digging into the TP was it pays to be in a recruiting hotspot. Florida State, Miami and Georgia Tech has a majority of their TP entrees from their home state.

Another new face for GT in 2021 is a transfer offensive lineman from 2020.

He opted out of the 2020 season but is back in the game. He started 32 games for Vanderbilt.

That is all for new faces. Did GT lose anyone? It is hard to tell if anyone is not returning. Outside of the punter, no one was an early entry to the NFL draft. GT did lose some to the TP.

A total of 16 players have entered the portal. That ties GT with North Carolina for most roster turnover in the ACC. The concerning thing to me is the three recruits from 2019 and two from the 2020 class. That does not look good for Collins recruiting prowess. Here is the link to GT’s 24/7 transfer portal page.

2021 Football Transfer Portal (247sports.com)

That ends my review. Any suggestions on what you would like to see on future articles?

Thanks, Richard

Note: Here is the Pitt 2021 schedule – disregard the upper left Austin Peay win of last season (you remember that game – that skewed stats so wildly that some thought our offense looked good last year 😉)