Pitt makes top 10 of top New Jersey tackle Jacob Allen

Pat Narduzzi and the Pitt coaching staff made significant progress on the recruiting trail on Friday, as Jacob Allen, a coveted offensive tackle out of the Hun School in Princeton, New Jersey, placed Pitt in his top 10.

The Garden State tackle’s top 10 includes Boston College, Duke, Florida, Miami, Michigan State, Penn State, Pitt, Rutgers, South Carolina and Virginia. The group of finalists was pulled from an offer sheet with 29 programs represented, and some of the cuts included Alabama, Auburn, Florida State, LSU, Michigan, Notre Dame, Oklahoma and Texas.

Allen broke down what he saw in Pitt for Adam Friedman of Rivals on Friday.

“Pitt is a great location and I’ve been in touch with coach [Dave] Borbely, another great guy and a great coach,” Allen said. “Logan Clouse is there, my old quarterback from when I first transferred to Hun. He’s another great resource that I can talk to about it. He’s having fun. Playing against those defensive linemen everyday would help make me a better player.”

Allen, a 6’5”, 277-pound tackle, is a consensus four-star recruit who is viewed by all major recruiting websites as one of the top 15 tackles in the 2022 class. Rivals and ESPN consider him the top recruit out of New Jersey and a top-100 prospect, while 247Sports ranks him 133rd overall and No. 2 in New Jersey.

At Pitt, Allen could encounter a few familiar faces, as his former Hun teammate is one of six underclassmen on the Pitt roster from New Jersey. In addition, the team has no shortage of comparable talent from his area, as he could join a line with a former four-star tackle Matt Goncalves out of Manorville, New York. He could also block for former four-star running back Israel Abanikanda out of Brooklyn as well as one of the four-star quarterbacks vying to succeed New Jersey native Kenny Pickett.

With that said, Allen has already taken two visits to Rutgers, which is one of six programs Friedman describes as in “pretty good position” right now. Pitt is not one of those six, so Narduzzi and Borbely may have a steeper climb than others in the recruitment of the tackle. At this point, it is also unclear when more developments might come, as Allen has not set a date for his next cuts or decision.