Paul Chryst And Recruiting For 2013

I haven't seen much angst out there over Paul Chryst and the job he's done recruiting so far for 2013, but fellow SB Nation Pittsburgh writer, Pat O'Mahony (also of The Incline Blog) wrote a small article on the topic. I meant to get to this earlier, but with the holiday and the week in preparing for it ... well, there you have it.

At any rate, Pat essentially said it's way too early to start worrying about the job Chryst is doing. That, of course, is correct.

Chryst has a relatively small class thus far, and probably more of concern to fans is that the recruits have been modestly ranked. But there are a few things to note, here.

First, Chryst is used to following this same model, taking some unheralded prospects at Wisconsin and turning them into quality players for a ranked team. That seemed to be the approach with Dan Samuelson. He was only a three-star recruit and had few offers, but was a bit under the radar. Last week, though, he was offered by Nebraska and decided to break his commitment to Pitt. Losing Samuelson hurt, but that makes me think Chryst is on the right track.

And about that Samuelson loss, there's no way that can or should be blamed on Chryst. It was simply a matter of a midwestern kid getting a tremendous offer out of the blue. Certainly nothing Chryst can do about that and to blame him for it is nonsense.

Chryst also held onto the two biggest recruits from last year's class in the midst of all the turmoil. At a time when the program was in flux, Rushel Shell and Chad Voytik could have headed elsewhere. Instead, he got them to stick around despite a lot of uncertainty around Pitt.

Lastly, don't forget, this is all new to Chryst. Sure, Chryst has experience recruiting, but it's the first time he's had to deal with that along with managing a program serving as the head coach. Even if you don't think he's on the right track give him time. I mean, he's not even been on the job for six months - can we at least wait until he coaches a game?

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