Re-Ranked 2019 Pitt Recruiting Class Lands in Top 10
PITTSBURGH -- Each offseason for the past six offseasons, The Athletic rewinds the clock and goes back four years to reevaluate a full recruiting class and rerank them with the benefit of hindsight. As a result of that added context of full careers for most of the class, the Pitt Panthers became one of the biggest risers
Pitt, whose 2019 recruiting class ranked 54th nationally by the end of the cycle, was elevated to ninth nationally in The Athletic's Max Olsen's revised rankings, good for third in the ACC behind No. 5 Clemson and No. 8 NC State and narrowly trailing an in-state rival in No. 7 Penn State.
Just two other ACC teams - No. 18 Florida State and No. 22 North Carolina - cracked the top 25 of these new rankings. Two more - No. 27 Wake Forest and No. 35 Virginia Tech - landed in the top 35.
"After playing in the ACC title game in 2018, Pat Narduzzi and Pitt’s coaching staff inked a recruiting class that helped them get back to that big stage," Olsen wrote. "They found 10 future starters and several NFL-caliber players from this group. They managed to pull Kancey, an undersized three-star recruit, out of Miami and aced that evaluation. The unanimous All-American and ACC Defensive Player of the Year became the No. 19 pick in this year’s draft. Dennis was arguably an even better find, a two-star prep school recruit who flipped from Air Force late in the cycle and ended up being an All-ACC linebacker and fifth-round pick. These guys helped the Panthers win their first ACC title in 2021 and achieve a No. 11 finish in the AP poll, their best in 40 years."
Oddly enough, the Panthers' top-rated recruit in the class - then-four-star Davis Beville - ended up not playing much for the Panthers (23 completions for 237 yards, a touchdown and an interception over nine games) before transferring to Oklahoma in 2022.
The real value for the Panthers' lied in players like Dennis and Kancey, plus Jared Wayne (1,721 receiving yards, 11 touchdowns from 2021-22), Brandon Hill (three-year starter at safety, seventh-round draft pick), Vincent Davis (2,226 career rushing yards, 17 total touchdowns) and others.
Some members of this class - two-star A.J. Woods, two-star Nate Temple, three-star Bam Brima, three-star Brandon George, three-star Matt Goncalves and three-star Daniel Carter - are still around and several of them have a chance to play major snaps for the Panthers when the season opener rolls around.
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