Feb 3, 2005 By Stephen Flinn For The 5 min read

PITTSBURGH, Pa.-During the University of Pittsburgh’s annual National Letter of Intent meeting at its football practice facility Wednesday, new coach Dave Wannstedt expressed how parents and recruits welcomed him as he returned to the college ranks. “The parents and coaches of the recruits made me feel very welcome,” Wannstedt said. “I found no negativity whatsoever and overall, I thought we had an excellent response while putting together this year’s class.”

Harris, Pitt’s previous coach, was criticized in the past for not signing or even pursuing many local players.

Wannstedt, a Pittsburgh native and a former Pitt football player, made it clear that he signed WPIAL players as the foundation for this year’s class and plans on using the same strategy moving forward.

“The makeup of this year’s class is probably going to be the average makeup of our classes every year,” Wannstedt said. “There are plenty of quality players in our own backyard and within a 300-mile radius of our campus that we won’t normally have to venture all over the country to find players unless we have a contact somewhere or in the case of a special exception.”

This year’s recruiting class stressed Wannstedt’s point as 11 of the 24 players signed were from Pennsylvania with 10 hailing from the WPIAL, including linebacker Ernest “Mick” Williams from Monessen, and one from Johnstown, Class AAA all-state running back LaRod Stephens.

“LaRod is probably faster than any player we have on our team right now,” Wannstedt said. “He has as good a chance as any of making an impact because our running back position is going to be wide open going into next season.”

Florida remained a lynchpin for Pitt’s recruiting efforts this year, as is the case with many schools. The Panthers signed six players from Florida, the most from any other state except Pennsylvania. Among them is first-team all-state Class 3A running back Conredge Collins who was considered a highly touted fullback, but will be given a chance at running back at Pitt.

“A lot of schools were looking at him at fullback, but we told him we’ll give him a try at running back and see what happens,” Wannstedt said.

Another highlight of the Pitt class reigned from Florida, 6A second-team wide receiver Cedric McGee, from Plantation, the same school as current Panthers H.B. Blades, Nick Williams and Darrell Strong.

The Panthers also signed two players from New Jersey, two from New York, one from Virginia and one from Maryland.

Pitt signed more running backs and defensive linemen than any other position, five of each.

Wannstedt considered those two areas among the most in-need heading into next season.

“You don’t win championships at any level without good defensive linemen,” Wannstedt said. “With us losing two starters on the line from last year, I thought we really needed help there.”

The Panthers were also getting thin at offensive line and signed four offensive linemen in an attempt to rebuild at that position, including John Brown from Lower Burrell, son of former Pitt tight end John Brown.

New offensive line coach Paul Dunn is looking forward to working with the new and experienced linemen this season.

“You can’t have a good, solid running game without a good offensive line, and I think the group we’ll have here coming in is a good start,” Dunn said. “I would describe this group as athletic who have characteristics as tight ends as well as linemen but who can also block for the run and protect the quarterback.”

Wannstedt did not feel there were enough quarterbacks to be protected on the current squad, so he focused a lot of effort on beefing up that position. The number of scholarship quarterbacks doubled with this year’s class, from two to four, as Shane Murray from Pittsburgh Central Catholic and Bill Stull from Seton-LaSalle in Pittsburgh committed to the Panthers.

Murray led the Vikings to the Class AAAA WPIAL and PIAA Championships this past year, and Stull was the first quarterback in WPIAL history to pass for over 3,000 yards.

“I was not comfortable with only two quarterbacks on scholarship,” Wannstedt said.

Stull had actually verbally-committed to Kentucky, as Pitt’s former coaching staff passed him over. When Wannstedt arrived at Pitt, one of the first calls he made was to Stull.

“I think, with the coaching change, there is nothing wrong with asking a kid to take a look at his hometown school,” Wannstedt said. “I called him on the Monday after I got here and told him we were now interested in him, and he owed it to himself to at least take a look at his home school and if he didn’t like what he saw, then no harm done.”

Stull agreed, as he wanted to play at Pitt, and jumped at the chance when the Panthers came calling.

“It was a dream of mine to play for Pitt, so when they told me they were now interested, I thought about it, then decided to check it out,” Stull said. “I’m sorry for what happened, but I don’t think the situation is the same as just backing out of a commitment to go somewhere else. There is a different head coach there now.”

Two linebackers, two defensive backs, and one tight end, John Pelusi, son of former Panther John (J.C.) Pelusi, rounded out this year’s class. Wannstedt credited his assistant coaches as being the key to holding this year’s class together after the coaching change.

“Other coaching staffs are always looking for a crack in your armor and trying to get an edge against you in recruiting, somehow, someway, and a coaching change gives them that chance,” Wannstedt said. “It’s difficult to hold onto recruits, especially during a coaching change, so I thought our staff did an excellent job and we kept the majority of the original recruits who wanted to come to Pitt and even picked up a few more.”