2016 Pitt football recruiting class moving slowly

Ever since the hiring of Pat Narduzzi was made official, we've talked quite a bit about the waves he's been making on the recruiting front. So far, however, what the staff has confirmed for the 2016 class has been little.

That's not to say the coaches have been sitting on their hands - far from it. It's been made abundantly clear that the staff is working quite hard to secure recruits for next year. It's just been slow going so far in terms of landing verbals.

Thus far, the Panthers have three recruits verbally committed for 2016 - offensive lineman Brandon Ford, quarterback Thomas MacVittie, and cornerback Tony Butler. And as I wrote recently, Butler is far from a done deal. Despite his claims of being 100% committed to Pitt, he still is looking anywhere and everywhere.

It's early, but those three recruits rank the Panthers near the bottom of D-I. Because of the few amount of recruits, Rivals currently lists Pitt's class 72nd (as of Sunday). By comparison, Penn State, the school the coaches are seemingly trying to goad into a recruiting battle, is 12th with three times as many commits as the Panthers. Nearly everyone in the top ten has at least double digits in guys committed with Florida State and Miami leading the way with a combined 41.

Also by comparison, PItt's three commits are tied for the fewest in the ACC with Syracuse. And the only P5 programs with fewer commits are Indiana, Colorado, Purdue, and Kansas State.

None of this is to suggest Pitt's class will be a bust. We're a good eight months out from National Signing Day, so there's plenty of time for the Panthers here. Still, it's noteworthy that after so much has been made of the recruiting gains expected to be made by Narduzzi and company that Pitt is still near the bottom of the pile when it comes to players currently committed. Even Paul Chryst who moves at a snail's pace compared to Narduzzi has picked up five commitments for next year.

The Panthers' class should end up okay, but Narduzzi and company are already playing catchup for next year.

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