Family Ties Lead Braylan Lovelace, Israel Polk to Pitt

Freshman Pitt Panthers Braylan Lovelace and Israel Polk had prior connections that made choosing this school easy.

PITTSBURGH -- Long before they committed and signed, before the Pitt Panthers even reached out to extend scholarship offers, linebacker Braylan Lovelace and receiver Israel Polk had the school on their minds. While the ideas of playing big-time college football danced in their heads, both Polk and Lovelace had hopes of donning the blue and gold every weekend. 

The Lovelace and Polk families were on different sides of Pitt football history, but family ties to the program meant the Panthers had an inside track on recruiting both of them. 

For Lovelace, a former star at Leechburgh High School - about a 45-minute drive north of Pitt's campus - his affinity for the team began with trips to then-Heinz Field to watch the Panthers play. He would take in games using his family's season tickets and go back home to watch highlights of Tony Dorsett and Larry Fitzgerald on Youtube. As his football career grew, so did Lovelace's visions of actually playing at Pitt. 

“Pitt’s always been a dream school of mine," Lovelace said.  I’m from here, watching Pitt games. I mean, we’ve had season tickets since I was young so I was always watching them. I always imagined myself in the jersey and things like that when I came on my visit."

Polk comes from powerhouse St. John Bosco in Los Angeles, California and his connection to Pitt, on the other hand, is more direct. His uncle is former Panther Latef Grim, whose 2,607 receiving yards is the sixth-most in school history and his 15 career touchdowns is tied for 15th. Grim left Pitt as the program's all-time leading receiver but had the misfortune of playing right before stars like Antonio Byrant, Larry Fitzgerald and Jonathan Baldwin, meaning his impressive achievements were pushed to the periphery. 

But Polk knew his uncle and heard about all he accomplished as a Panther. From there, Polk explored some of the more contemporary star wideouts to play at Pitt and that helped sell him on the program quickly. 

“I know that this was a place on a list I had written down of possible schools I wanted to go to and that I was going to reach out to," Polk said. I was looking at Jared Wayne, Jordan Addison before he got up out of here. There were just a bunch of receivers and my uncle played here. … He played here and he was telling me about it so I have connections."

Lovelace's and Polk's prior connections to the program made the recruitment process smooth. Both said they felt right at home during their visits and the relationships built with coaches led naturally to their decisions to attend Pitt. 

"They brought me in like a family," Lovelace said. "I wasn’t even committed or anything like that and the players and coaches brought me in like a family."

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