As I mentioned over the weekend, Pitt had a pretty bad Saturday losing both their bowl game and their basketball game against Rutgers. But the day was salvaged a bit with the verbal commitment the football program picked up from local receiver Tyler Boyd.
Some may have thought that Boyd was always coming to Pitt and that his mind had been made up for a while. But even though they were the first to offer a scholarship, according to him, that wasn't the case:
"Probably within the last week, I decided on Pitt," Boyd said.
The decision also gave Pitt a bit of national exposure on national TV:
Clairton‘s Tyler Boyd made a verbal commitment to Pitt on Saturday during the first quarter of the U.S. Army All-American Bowl at Alamodome in San Antonio, just two weeks after Central Valley‘s Robert Foster surprised many by choosing Alabama over Pitt.
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Flanked by his mother, Tonya Payne, Clairton coach Tom Nola and others, Boyd selected a Pitt hat over West Virginia and Michigan State during the nationally televised game.
Love the hat thing ... at least when Pitt wins out.
But if you're looking for a downer, voila:
However, Boyd, who has about 30 scholarship offers, still plans to take at least two more official visits — to Michigan State and Tennessee — over the next four weeks.
He will visit Michigan State on Jan. 18 and has yet to confirm a date to visit Tennessee.
Verbal commitments are nonbinding until signing day Feb. 6. Boyd said he will make his decision final following those last two visits.
We're not in the business of criticizing high school kids here, but doesn't it make little sense for Boyd to verbal to Pitt, but continue with other visits and make his decision final at a later date? Sure it does. So why do it? My guess is to have the chance to make the commitment official on live TV with everyone watching. I could do without such pomp and circumstance about these types of non-binding announcements, but hey - it's a once in a lifetime chance for a kid, so have at it, I suppose. And he certainly wasn't the only player to do it -
five others made their commitments during the game as well.
But Boyd's verbal still has to be taken with a grain of salt if he's still out there checking out other merchandise. High school/recruiting guy Mike White of the Post-Gazette
echoed a similar sentiment:
Last night, Boyd sounded convincing about the reasons he picked Pitt. But then a few moments later he was talking about still visiting Michigan State and Tennessee. It sure is a head scratcher, so I asked, "If you announced for Pitt, then why are you still visiting Michigan State and Tennessee?"
Boyd answered: "I'm committed to Pitt, but I just want to still do a little more with the recruiting."
"Even if I do commit (Saturday), I still am going to take a visit (to Michigan State) in January," he said Tuesday. "I am ready to make a decision, but then again, I'm not. I'm just getting tired of all the hype."
Does that seem all that convincing to you? To me, it sounds more like he just wanted the recruiting process to end.
In summary, feel free to do a little celebrating now. But don't uncork the bottle of wine until signing day.
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