Robert Foster picks......Alabama

Robert Foster announced today that he will be attending the University of Alabama to continue his college career. This decision comes as a bit of a surprise to many, as the general consensus was that he was leaning to play for the hometown Pitt Panthers. Foster is rated as the 28th best player in the country by ESPN and 74th by Rivals.com. He is widely considered to be one of the best players in the state of Pennsylvania and perhaps the best in Western Pennsylvania.

This is obviously a huge blow to the 2013 Pitt recruiting class. Foster has been on Pitt's radar since his sophomore season at Central Valley. He has been thought to be a Pitt lean after a very promising visit with fellow blue chip recruits Dorian Johnson and Tyler Boyd. Foster elected to play for the top program in the country over staying home to play for Pitt. Alabama is attractive to any high school football player, so it certainly makes sense, though.

This was not the ideal outcome, but far from the end of the world for Pitt (no pun intended). Foster was a player many media outlets and fans expected to pick Pitt in recent weeks, which makes the situation feel worse. Foster is a young guy choosing what he feels is best for him and his family and I will never be upset with a kid for that - nor should anybody. He is being awarded a great opportunity and we should all wish him the best. This obviously will make Paul Chryst and his staff scurry a little more over the next month to try to add another quality athlete to fill the void. Tyler Boyd is very much in the equation and he would help make this a terrific recruiting class.

Be sure to join Cardiac Hill's Facebook page and follow us on Twitter @PittPantherBlog for our regular updates on Pitt athletics.