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Pitt head coach Pat Narduzzi secured his second commitment of the 2021 recruiting cycle on Saturday, as Rodney Hammond, a running back out of Booker T. Washington High School in Norfolk, Virginia, announced his commitment to the program.
First I want to say I’m very excited I just want to take the this moment to thank everybody that have supported through the process also want to thank @BeattyCoach and @CoachDuzzPittFB #Gopitt #COMMITTED pic.twitter.com/BlqbRUDaPb
— Rodney L. Hammond (@RodneyLHammond1) November 2, 2019
”First, I want to say I’m very excited,” Hammond wrote in a message posted on Twitter. “I just want to take the this moment to thank everybody that has supported [me] through the process. Also want to thank [Pitt assistant coach Chris Beatty] and [Narduzzi].”
Hammond then announced he had committed to Pitt and posted a video of him putting on a Pitt hat and leaving a North Carolina hat on the table during a ceremony following his team’s 63-0 win over Wilson High School on Friday.
ESPN and 247Sports consider Hammond a four-star recruit, while Rivals has given him a three-star assessment. The 5’10”, 185-pound athlete is ranked as the No. 16 player at his position in the country and the No. 6 recruit out of Virginia in 2021, according to 247Sports. The same website also includes him among the top 200 recruits in the nation in 2021, with Hammond coming in at No. 181 overall.
The Booker T. Washington running back picked Pitt from an impressive offer sheet that also included Duke, Maryland, Michigan, North Carolina, Penn State, Virginia and Virginia Tech. He publicly announced his offer from Pitt on Feb. 9 and thanked Pitt assistant coach Chris Beatty for his role in recruiting him.
During his junior season at Booker T. Washington, Hammond has amassed 1,391 rushing yards and 18 touchdowns in a span of nine games. As a sophomore, he rushed for 1,426 yards and eight touchdowns. And in 2017, he ran for 1,209 and 12 scores.
At Pitt, Hammond will join a talented corps of running backs that currently includes underclassmen Daniel Carter, V’Lique Carter and Vincent Davis, who have largely been waiting in the wings behind A.J. Davis and Todd Sibley Jr. and should compete for playing time in the coming years.
Hammond also joins West Mifflin linebacker Nahki Johnson in Pitt’s 2021 class, which in its early stages, ranks 23rd in the country, according to 247Sports.