Connor Hayes speaks after committing to Pitt

Last week, Jim mentioned that Pitt secured their first football commitment of 2014. Afterwards, Hayes spoke about his decision. For one thing, he's glad the process is over:

"It's a big relief," Hayes said of getting the recruiting process done before his Titans senior season started. "I didn't want to wait too long and didn't want to weigh my options any longer. It just felt like such a right choice that I didn't feel the need to wait much longer."

Hayes also mentioned Pitt's power offense as a reason he committed to the Panthers:

"They're a blue-collar type of football team," Hayes said. "It's going to be more of a running offense, rather than the spread, which a lot of teams are going to. And a lot of pulling with the offensive linemen. That's a lot of what I do and what I'm best at. It'll be very fun to play for a power offense."

One other thing of note in that linked article is that while Hayes is currently a guard, he could play some center at Pitt.

The move really continues to show that the Panthers have a big priority on the offensive line. Not only did they convince five linemen to join last year's class, but Chryst has continued his pursuit of more quality ones like Hayes. It will be interesting to see how many more the head coach pursues for 2014.

And the fact that Chryst got him from Michigan is also noteworthy. The midwest was obviously a huge target area for him at a program such as Wisconsin, and it's great that he's still going there for recruits.

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