Mattheus 'Stretch' Carroll places Pitt in top 10

The Pitt football program made headway with a promising recruit out of Baltimore on Tuesday, as Mattheus “Stretch” Carroll, a defensive end out of the Gilman School, put Pitt in his top 10.

”I would like to thank all the coaches who have helped me along this journey and all the coaches that have given me the opportunity to play at their respective universities,” Carroll wrote in a message posted on Twitter. “My recruitment is still 100 percent open.”

The other nine schools in Carroll’s top 10 include Cincinnati, Duke, Louisville, Maryland, South Carolina, Temple, Vanderbilt, Virginia Tech and West Virginia. That list was derived from an offer sheet with scholarship offers from 16 schools. Programs that did not make the cut include Boston College, East Carolina, Liberty, Syracuse, Toledo and Virginia.

The 6’3”, 220-pound defensive end is a three-star recruit, according to 247Sports and Rivals. During his high school career, Carroll has also played tight end and linebacker, so he could bring some versatility to a team that will be in need at multiple positions in 2021.

Carroll previously visited Pitt on Nov. 30, 2019, and was in attendance for the team's 26-19 loss to Boston College. In an interview with Mike Vukovcan of Pittsburgh Sports Now, he noted that he had been in contact with Panthers assistant coach Andre Powell.

”We talked about how I’d fit in on their defensive scheme,” Carroll told Vukovcan. “The only thing I wasn’t able to do [during the visit] was get a real grasp on the university and feel for campus life because it was a game day. But from a football standpoint, everything was good, and although they lost, I like how they never gave up and played hard for the seniors, which was good to see.”

Pitt is one of seven schools Carroll has taken unofficial visits to so far during his recruitment. Two of those schools, Stanford and Wake Forest, did not offer him a scholarship and are not in his top 10. The other four that he previously visited include Duke, Maryland, Temple and Virginia Tech. Carroll’s most recent visits were to Maryland, Temple and Virginia Tech, as he visited all three in March.

It is unclear at this point if Carroll will get another opportunity to visit Pitt before committing and if he intends to pare his list of top schools down further. He has also yet to set a date for his college decision.