Pitt Lands Four, Ejuan Price On the Way?

by mikeo90 on Jun 19, 2025 1:15 PM EDT in Pitt Football

Todd Graham's 2012 recruiting class got off to a pretty slow start, but now the wheels seem to be greased and the commitments are rolling in. Between Friday and Saturday, the Panthers picked up four verbal commitments for the class of 2012, and it looks like an even bigger fish could be on his way.

The fun began on Friday, when Bedford, Ohio defensive end Myles Hilliard excitedly announced he was coming to Pitt. Hilliard has impressive size, standing at 6'6'' and weighing 242 pounds. The three-star recruit chose Pitt over Big East foes West Virginia, Cincinnati, and Syracuse, and several MAC schools.

Three more verbals rolled in on Saturday. The first was 6'3'' Clairton wide receiver Trenton Coles, adding another WPIAL player to Graham's first full-year class. Coles is listed as a three-star recruit, but currently didn't have any other scholarship offers, according to Rivals. Brandyn Cook, a 6'2'' 290 center, from St. Xavier (Cincinnati,OH) was the second player on Saturday to commit to Pitt. He chose to come to Pittsburgh over offers from Miami (OH) and Youngstown State. The recruiting extravaganza was capped off on Saturday with the commitment of cornerback William Parks. 6'2'' 180, Parks is from Germantown, Pennsylvania, and had offers from a handful of schools, including Connecticut, Buffalo, and Temple.

Of the bunch, I think Hilliard has the most potential, especially since he'll get even bigger once he gets to campus. I was happy to see an offensive lineman in Cook, as well. Dave Wannstedt was notorious for lacking in this area, so I'm glad to see Graham pick up a lineman already. None of these guys are stars, but they look to be solid additions to a fledgling recruiting class.

More immediately, it looks like Pitt could be getting another late pick-up for this coming season, and this one is very highly regarded.

Oh yeah.

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Comments

I must say this about Graham — even if his first season is lacking in the wins column, you have to give it to him for trying his ass off. This team’ll compete soon enough.

Thank you Ned Colletti.

by ryebr3ad on Jun 19, 2025 9:38 PM EDT reply actions

I do lean towards thinking Graham will be successful

But some of his recruiting targets are a bit questionable at least in terms of ratings and I’ll be interested to see how some of them pan out.

by CardiacHill on Jun 19, 2025 10:34 PM EDT up reply actions

To be honest — the more I look at recruiting classes, the more I take ratings with a grain of salt — sure, the top of the top will generate success, but most of the time it seems that the teams with enough three-star recruits that fit a team’s playing style end up the most successful (In the BIg East, at least).

Weren’t the majority of first team Big East players a bunch of two-star/three-star recruits?

Thank you Ned Colletti.

by ryebr3ad on Jun 20, 2025 11:22 AM EDT up reply actions

First Teamers

To be honest, I can’t remember. I tried scanning through the archives, but they’re currently down now. Brian Bennett at ESPN put together a piece (at least I think it was him) that had a correlation of the All-Big East performers and recruiting rankings and I think I touched on it before, but I’m not sure.

There are definitely misses to be sure - I think Greg Romeus, for example, was a two-star or unrated if my memory serves me correct, while Pat Bostick was a four- or five-star. And there have also been plenty of solid three-stars that have contributed a great deal. But I question a little bit the two-star/unrated guys that weren’t necessarily chased by good BCS schools. They could definitely pan out, though, and as you mention, there’s something to be said for Graham’s system.

That, coupled with it still being really early is enough that this shouldn’t be a panic alert situation yet.

by CardiacHill on Jun 20, 2025 11:31 AM EDT up reply actions

Rather than stars

I tend to look at offers from other schools as a more telling sign about the players ability. Again, Graham has said he wants guys who fit into his specific system, and some of those guys might not be heavily recruited elsewhere. It’s still never bad to see some nice offers or a lot of stars, though.

Hail to Pitt, Hail to Pitt Every Loyal Son
Twitter: @mikeo90

by mikeo90 on Jun 20, 2025 10:13 PM EDT reply actions

Agreed

While I use both of those as my main gauges if a kid can play since I haevn’t seen them in person, I’d rather take the opinions of coaches more seriously than scouting services.

by CardiacHill on Jun 20, 2025 11:15 PM EDT up reply actions