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Pitt received a commitment seemingly out of nowhere on Saturday night, as SirVocea Dennis, a former Air Force linebacker commit originally from Syracuse, New York, told reporters he would be continuing his academic and athletic career at Pitt.
“Growing up in Syracuse, I was a big Big East fan and I always watched the rivalry between Syracuse and Pitt,” Dennis told Chris Peak of Panther-Lair.com. “I didn’t dislike Syracuse, but for some reason I always loved those teams that were rivals against Syracuse. So then when I was a rising junior, I went to a Pitt camp and I remember really liking it. I said, if I ever get a chance to come here, I’m going.”
”Once I decided to visit, I pretty much knew I was going to commit,” he continued. “I saw everything and was like, it’s a go.”
The 6’1”, 204-pound linebacker attended the Christian Brothers Academy in his hometown before spending a post-graduate year at the Peddie School in Highstown, New Jersey. It was there that he began attracting the attention of FBS programs and signed with Air Force on Dec. 19. However, he previously noted that Pitt had been recruiting him since his time at the Christian Brothers Academy.
While there, Dennis played at safety, but he switched to linebacker at the Peddie School. That move paid off, as he earned a two-star rating from 247Sports. He talked about the position switch with Nolan Weidner of Syracuse.com in December.
“I get more action,” he said of the move. “I love it. It’s better than staying back [at safety] and watching everyone else have all the fun. It was definitely an easy switch.”
Dennis said that he decided to back off his initial commitment to Air Force in January amid concerns over potential disqualifications from military service. Because he did not sign a National Letter of Intent with Air Force, he was able to re-open his recruitment.
The Syracuse native is the fourth linebacker to commit to Pitt in the 2019 recruiting cycle, as Brandon George, Leslie Smith and Kyi Wright all previously joined the Panthers.