Pat Signal: Calijah Kancey commits to Pitt

Pat Narduzzi and the Pitt coaching staff picked up another commitment from a Miami prospect on Sunday, as defensive tackle Calijah Kancey of Miami Northwestern Senior High School revealed that he will be joining the Panthers in 2019 in a message posted on Twitter.

“I’ve worked extremely hard over the past few years to turn my dreams into reality,” Kancey said in the message. “With that being said, I am 100 percent committed to the University of Pittsburgh.”

Kancey is considered a three-star recruit, according to 247Sports and Rivals, and he’s also listed as a captain on a Miami Northwestern Bulls team that went 14-3-1 last season and was ranked by MaxPreps as the No. 4 high school team in Florida and the No. 28 team in the nation.

The 6’2”, 260-pound defensive tackle held offers from 18 other schools, with the most notable among them being Georgia Tech, Louisville, Rutgers, South Carolina and Kansas State.

Recently promoted Pitt assistant head coach and defensive line coach Charlie Partridge was listed as Kancey’s primary recruiter. It appears Partridge’s ties to Florida are continuing to pay dividends for the Pitt football program, as he also took the lead in the recruitment of Leslie Smith, a linebacker prospect from Miami who committed to the Panthers a week ago.

Smith was Pitt’s first commit of the 2019 recruiting cycle, and since he announced his intent to join the team last Sunday, junior college tight end Travis Koontz committed as well. Although the recruiting period got off to a bit of a slow start for the Panthers, with the addition of Kancey, it seems as if the coaching staff is beginning to build up some momentum.