Today was a relatively quiet affair. No kids decommitted from Pitt's class and everyone signed relatively quickly. But the big splash came when local wide receiver Tyler Boyd decided to stay with the Panthers.
Boyd committed to Pitt in January, but recently took some trips to West Virginia and Tennessee. That led to confusion and for a while, it seemed as if he could end up elsewhere. But in the end, the four-star receiver stuck it out with Pitt.
Over the past week or so, there have been plenty of assertions that Pitt would still be just fine without Boyd. That may have been the case, but the Panthers were in desperate need of a big-time receiver. They caught a break when Devin Street announced he was coming back for his senior season, but he'll be gone after this year. And with two highly-touted but young quarterbacks, head coach Paul Chryst really needed to go out and land an elite wideout to help them along.
The thing that helped Pitt the most? If you listen to Boyd, it sounds like the ability to play with some of his high school teammates:
"I want to stay with my brothers," said Boyd, who was joined by teammates Terrish Webb and Titus Howard, who also signed with Pitt on Wednesday morning.
I'm sure it was a slew of things, but that played a big part to be sure. We may never know how close he was to passing on Pitt, but it was a decision that went right down to the wire. His mom texted ESPN.com and said his decision wasn't known ($) less than a day before National Signing Day.
When Robert Foster chose to head to Alabama, getting Boyd became that much more important. Fortunately for Pitt, he's a Panther.
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