WPIAL Coaches Are Not Todd Graham Fans

We're slowly approaching Big East Media Days (July 30-31) and the start of fall camp. During these slow summer months, however, it's the prime recruiting time and Pitt was able to have a bunch of prospects at the South Side facility for their 7-on-7 camp, which started on Saturday. The event attracts high school teams from around the region and neighboring states and gives the coaches another look at some of their top prospects, such as Clairton WR Tyler Boyd.

It has been a popular event for local schools because it, according to several coaches, signals the start of the football season.

"The thing about it is we are able to get the kids in that football mindset, get them thinking about the season," said Thomas Jefferson coach Bill Cherpak. "We do this, then we do one down at Hoover[, Ala.,] which is even a step up in competition, and it really gets our guys a good understanding of how to compete and push themselves against other teams."

The local coaches also really appreciate how welcoming Paul Chryst has been and like how he has reconnected Pitt with the area high schools, unlike another recent Pitt coach.

"We didn't come to this camp last year for obvious reasons," Cherpak said, referring to departed coach Todd Graham. "[Pitt director of operations] Chris LaSala does an amazing job of setting this up and organizing it, and the staff now makes us all feel so welcome.

"It was like a second home, and it is starting to get back to that way after the disaster from last year. This staff has made a place where people are going to love coming down here and being here. And Chryst has made it clear he wants [high school coaches] to be a part of things and give him input again. So it is a welcome change."

This has been the rumor floating around on the message boards for some time and should really come as no surprise. Graham's a sleazy used car salesman and the WPIAL coaches realized that from the get go. It probably hurt Pitt with several local prospects. But thankfully, Graham got out before too much damage was done.

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