The University of Pittsburgh has one of the most storied football programs in the country. Headlined by its nine National Championships, the last coming in 1976, Pitt ranks in the top five in Heisman trophy finalist (6) and fourth out of all FBS teams in alumnus in the Pro Football Hall of Fame (8).
However, recently Pitt Football has hit a lull. With its last BCS appearance coming in 2004, when they lost in the Fiesta Bowl to Alex Smith and the Utah Utes, Pitt has found itself playing in bowls such as the Sun Bowl, the Meineke Car Care Bowl, the Little Caesar’s Bowl and the BBVA Compass Bowl (three times). Overall the Panthers have gone 2-4 in its Bowl games since the 2004 Fiesta Bowl. There are many reasons that you can point out why the program has been underachieving in recent years, but the main reason that I see is the fact that they are missing out on recruits that are right here in Western Pennsylvania.
Western Pennsylvania has proven to be a football hot bed and one of the top football areas in the country. All you have to do is look back in Pitt Football history to see it. Out of the six Heisman finalist in Pitt history, two (Tony Dorsett and Dan Marino) came from the Pittsburgh area. Dorsett, of course, won the Heisman in 1976. Out of the eight Pro Football Hall of Famers from the University of Pittsburgh, six of them were from Western Pennsylvania.
Western Pennsylvania also ranks at the top of the list for players in the NFL. There are 12 current NFL players that came from the Western Pennsylvania area. Out of those 12, only one, Darelle Revis, went to the University of Pittsburgh. So I ask Pitt Head Football Coach Paul Chryst, a Western Pennsylvania native himself, why not go back to your roots? Since 2006, there have been 31 recruits from Western Pennsylvania in the ESPN Top 300 rankings. Out of those 31 recruits, 13 of them stayed home to play for the Panthers.
I think back to Jimmy Johnson when he took over the then struggling University of Miami football team, his main focus was to recruit the “State of Miami.” By sticking to the local kids, the Miami football program went down as one of the top college football dynasties ever. Now, granted, there is no beating the recruits that come from Southern Florida, but, Chryst must take this strategy into consideration in order to bring Pitt Football back to where it should be.
Just look at the success Pitt football has had with Pittsburgh kids since Chryst took over as head coach. Last year, Rushel Shell, the all time leading rusher in WPIAL history, took the team by storm by being the leading rusher his first year on campus. However, Chryst let Shell transfer for personal reasons to UCLA and then subsequently to West Virginia University. Even more recently, Tyler Boyd and Aaron Donald turned out to be two of Pitt’s best players in the 2013 campaign.
Boyd, from Clairton, Pa., was up for the Biletnikoff Award as the nation’s top receiver as a true freshman. Donald, who went to Penn Hills High School, had one of the best individual seasons in Pitt History, receiving the Bronko Nagurski Trophy as the nation’s top defensive player, the Rotary Lombardi Award as the nation’s top lineman or linebacker, the Chuck Bednarik award as the nation’s defensive player of the year and the Outland Trophy as the nation’s top offensive and defensive lineman.
To me, all these signs point to one thing; recruit the state of Western Pennsylvania. With Pitt’s recent struggles, Chryst must find a way to get these top recruits from Western Pennsylvania to want to stay home and help bring Pitt Football back to the top. But, Chryst must find a way to keep these local kids in Pittsburgh. It is one thing to be a great football coach, it is a completely other aspect to be a great recruiter.
Another way recruiting Western Pennsylvania kids would help Pitt football is that it would get attendance up. With more local kids playing at Pitt, more local fans would take interest into Pitt Football rather than say Penn State or West Virginia. Pitt ranked eight out of 14 teams in the ACC in attendance in the 2013 season. As I said before, more Western Pennsylvania players mean more Western Pennsylvania fans, which will bring more money into the program.
So my message for Chryst is, if you want to get the Pitt football program back to the top, make Western Pennsylvania your top recruiting area. It’s that simple.
