Pitt commit Khalil Anderson upgraded to four-star status

Khalil Anderson, a cornerback out of Riverwood High School in Atlanta, announced his commitment to Pitt on June 5. At the time, he held a three-star rating from Rivals but had yet to be evaluated by 247Sports. That changed on Wednesday, as the recruit was given a four-star rating by the recruiting website.

In addition to the four-star rating, Anderson has been ranked by 247Sports as the No. 24 cornerback in the 2021 class and the No. 20 recruit in the state of Georgia. Rivals still considers Anderson a three-star recruit and places him at No. 95 in the state. The website has yet to assign him a position ranking.

The 5’11”, 175-pound cornerback earned a reputation as a ball hawk in his junior year, as he came up with seven interceptions, five pass breakups and 37 tackles for a team that went 11-1 overall and 7-0 in conference. During the 2019 season, Riverwood beat opponents by an average of 17.4 points per game, and its defense held them to 10.4 points per game.

With the new rating, Anderson becomes the second four-star recruit in Pitt's 2021 class, as Nahki Johnson, a defensive end out of West Mifflin Area High School, holds four-star ratings from Rivals and 247Sports in addition to a three-star rating from ESPN.

Pitt has some work to do to match last year’s accomplishments, as the program’s 2020 class included six four-star recruits and one transfer who previously held a four-star rating, per 247Sports. Those four-star recruits included Jordan Addison, Israel Abanikanda, Jaylon Barden, Dayon Hayes, Bangally Kamara and Branson Taylor, and the transfer was former Florida tight end Lucas Krull.

With that said, rating adjustments are common, and they have benefited the Pitt football program in recent years, as Abanikanda, Barden, Hayes, and Kamara all committed as three-star prospects before being upgraded. In addition, past recruits like Matt Goncalves have also seen significant star-rating bumps, as the offensive lineman notably rose from two stars at the time of his commitment to four stars by the time he arrived at Pitt.