With Todd Graham coming from Tulsa, we knew/hoped that there would be some kind of recruiting pipeline to Texas. I figured there would be some connections that would carry over to the Pitt job, but was also concerned about the inroads locally that Dave Wannstedt had made.
Still, there's a lot of potential in Texas, obviously, and it's good to know it's not being forgotten about. QB coach Todd Dodge had a nice article about him and explained that Pitt is definitely going to be recruiting Texas to find a certain type of athlete.
About recruiting in Texas, Dodge says:
"We are definitely going to step in to the state of Texas because there is so much talent for what we are doing, especially offensively," said Dodge, who recently spent 10 of his 16 recruiting days in Texas. "We won't recruit Texas a whole lot for offensive and defensive linemen because with western Pennsylvania, Ohio and New Jersey, we've got those guys. We are going to go to Texas for the speed guys, for the quarterbacks and for shotgun centers. There aren't too many of those in the Northeast."
The perception by many, obviously, is that speed guys are found in the south. But to hear a coach openly say there's not enough speed in the northeast is kind of interesting.
The thing is that, I'm glad Pitt is pursuing both areas. Schools like Ohio State and Penn State can dominate the local area, but the bottom line is that when they need to compete with the upper escehlon of schools in big time bowl games, they fall flat because of a lack of ... you guessed it - speed.
Pitt can compete without big time speed in the Big East. But if trying to do more than simply winning the conference is the goal, then Pitt needs to add a lot of it.
