Recruiting Trend in PA ...

[SU94]

In The Athletic, Stewart Mandel answered a mailbag question about the "mediocrity" (perhaps not the right word) of Pitt football (won between 6-8 games 9 of the last 10 seasons). In his answer, he says Narduzzi is "underwhelmiong" and his ridiculous losses counter balance their 3-4 terrific wins (Clemson, UCF, 10-0 Miami).

But what caught my eye was Mandell's statistical assertion that last year, P5 schools only signed "about 20 players" in the entire state of Pennsylvania. He grabbed this from the 247Sports database.

Maybe that is a one-year outlier. Not sure. Mandell tied Pennsylvania's talent sink to Pitt's fall from grace in the 1970s, especially compared to today. And of course, that affects SU too, although to a slightly lesser degree.

I've sensed a bit more talent coming from the Philadelphia area the last 10-15 years, and if that is true, Western PA must really be struggling for whatever reason.

 

[Trueblue25]

Western PA’s falling off?

couldn’t have happened to a better two schools!

 

[Whitey23]

Imagine complaining about going to 9 bowls in the last 10 years? They don't know how good they've got it.

 

[Cuse12]

Imagine complaining about going to 9 bowls in the last 10 years? They don't know how good they've got it.

It’s all perspective it’s crazy. If you told me cuse is going to go to 9 bowls in 10 years I would be elated beyond belief.

 

[SU94]

It’s all perspective it’s crazy. If you told me cuse is going to go to 9 bowls in 10 years I would be elated beyond belief.

You said it ... perspective.
By year four or five, having won 7 games a year, you'd undoubtedly question you HC's ability to get to the next level.

 

[SU94]

It’s all perspective it’s crazy. If you told me cuse is going to go to 9 bowls in 10 years I would be elated beyond belief.

But the real story in my post is that the commonwealth of Pennsylvania only had "about 20" P5 players last year.

 

[sutomcat]

But the real story in my post is that the commonwealth of Pennsylvania only had "about 20" P5 players last year.

Using the 247 web site, here are the counts for P5 players in recent years:

2017 30
2018 35
2019 30
2020 20

For 2021, there are 18 players already verbaled to P5 schools and another 16 with at least 10 reported offers. Most if not all of them include P5 schools. There might be some lying in there but there are also going to be a bunch of 2021 players who get offers from P5 schools, but haven't received them yet.

It looks like 2020 was a very weird and weak class.

2019 Football Recruits

247sports.com

 

[RF2044]

Using the 247 web site, here are the counts for P5 players in recent years:

2017 30
2018 35
2019 30
2020 20

For 2021, there are 18 players already verbaled to P5 schools and another 16 with at least 10 reported offers. Most if not all of them include P5 schools. There might be some lying in there but there are also going to be a bunch of 2021 players who get offers from P5 schools, but haven't received them yet.

It looks like 2020 was a very weird and weak class.

2019 Football Recruits

247sports.com

Good data / analysis.

Western PA is traditionally a strong hotbed for D1 prospects. Sounds like 2020 was just an outlier.

 

[Chip]

Imagine complaining about going to 9 bowls in the last 10 years? They don't know how good they've got it.

Going to Birmingham 4 years in a row only counts as 2 bowls.

 

[wfschrec]

Using the 247 web site, here are the counts for P5 players in recent years:

2017 30
2018 35
2019 30
2020 20

For 2021, there are 18 players already verbaled to P5 schools and another 16 with at least 10 reported offers. Most if not all of them include P5 schools. There might be some lying in there but there are also going to be a bunch of 2021 players who get offers from P5 schools, but haven't received them yet.

It looks like 2020 was a very weird and weak class.

2019 Football Recruits

247sports.com

When the largest group is 35 I’m not sure you can consider the other classes strong either. Hell there are counties in FL and GA that have that many or close to it.

 

[Orangezoo]

Not sure it has correlation but PA HS sports programs have taken a nose dive that has increased in slope of recent . Be it funding or just apathy you have your powerhouses still but smaller/mid level programs are just not the same. I use schools here locally as an example but the culture is changing. There is still plenty of talent as noted in your hotbeds but the pool of kids coming out of nowhere/smaller schools is falling. Is this a national trend at all? I'm guessing not. I do think the drug problem has put a dent into HS sports here too.