Ohio lock Dorian Johnson just committed to Pitt

Submitted by no joke its hoke on

5* olineman Dorian Johnson has picked Pitt per 247sports.

UMRecruitingFannatic

November 18th, 2012 at 7:41 PM ^

Very true.  I feel like U of Pittsburgh football doesn't have much going for it, except their location.  They really had a good lock on Western Pa. football (oh God, please don't take Kugler!!) even before Penn State imploded.  It will be interesting to see if they can do anything now being THE program in the state (for at least a few years) and moving to a more reputable conference. 

ziggolfer

November 19th, 2012 at 1:02 AM ^

The athletic facuilities, weight room etc are exceptional at Pitt. Some kids may have the misconception that playing in an NFL stadium is cool ie SMU with Eric Dickerson and the Hooker killer that is Craig James. 

 

I doubt that they will continue to improve unless they can win recruiting battles against Ohio and us in the coming years. 

MichiganMan20

November 18th, 2012 at 7:43 PM ^

There is no such thing as a lock when you are talking about uncommitted high school athletes and a verbal doesn't mean much until you've signed that L.O.I. And no one recruit will make or break a program. Those are just some of the things I've learned after following recruiting for as long as I have.

FreddieMercuryHayes

November 18th, 2012 at 7:45 PM ^

Not a bad choice.  The whole Paul Chryst brain trust that moved from from Wiscosin really has developed OLs nicely.  Just got to worry that they won't be there for your whole career when you commit to any non-premeir program. 

Belisarius

November 18th, 2012 at 7:48 PM ^

I can tell you, people at Pitt have believed he was Pitt-bound ever since he decommitted from PSU  (which was a big shock at the time). And Pitt fans/experts don't have the unreasoning optimism that OSU fans/experts have (quite the opposite- more of a perpetual sense of impending doom),

I didn't know if Johnson would pull another PSU surprise and go to Alabama, or such, but I can tell you, if he's declared for Pitt, it's over. He grew up a Pitt fan, has spent a LOT of time visiting the Pitt program, and hasn't rushed the decision. I think OSU can kiss him goodbye. ENjoy the shadenfreude.

ThadMattasagoblin

November 18th, 2012 at 8:03 PM ^

If we beat them next week, our head to head battles will get much easier.  We absolutely need to beat them next week because recruiting against ND will be tough enough.  I think Hoke should recruit more toward the end of the 2014 cycle where we stand a better chance because next year we should be an NC contender.

Jack Daniels

November 18th, 2012 at 8:11 PM ^

Off topic, but there have been rumors going on lately about LTT wanting to take a visit to TCU and Poggi wanting to visit Bama and A&M. The LTT rumor was from a TCU Scout site, and the Poggi rumor has been going on for a while on the A&M side (there was also a post on their 247 board(

FreddieMercuryHayes

November 18th, 2012 at 8:32 PM ^

LTT rumor has already been put to bed.  As for Poggi, man, that would go in the face of pretty much everything he's ever said about recruiting.  He's already visited Bama a bunch, and has been on the record saying he wanted to be done with recruiting about as soon as it started.  He only stayed uncommited as long as he did to get attention for teammates through the evaluation period.

UFM

November 18th, 2012 at 9:13 PM ^

Haha, come on, you guys can do better than that. Why would he bad mouth PSU when guys like Reeves (who Hoke tried hard to snag, too) already decmmitted from PSU for obvious reasons before Urban established contact.

You guys are rational most of the time on this board, but you guys are pretty irrational about Urban and his recruitment. He's never been cited for any recruiting violations his whole career. He's just really good at it.

YoOoBoMoLloRoHo

November 18th, 2012 at 11:16 PM ^

Perhaps your memory fails on Williams, O'Connor and Schutt who also verballed to PSU before shifting to OSU with Urbie having only weeks to pursue his 2012 class.

He's widely acknowledged as one of the best flippers in the business. It's rational to recognize his recruiting prowess and fun to see if he can steal this recruit from lowly Pitt.

UFM

November 18th, 2012 at 9:08 PM ^

Not sure who the OP is referring to when he mocks OSU Fans for thinking Dorian Johnson was a lock to OSU. I'm an OSU fan and I'd love Dorian to be at OSU, but I always understood from major recruiting sites that Pitt was the favorite. I visit 11W a ton, too, and Alex has always put him as a Pitt favorite with the only caveat being that hie had scheduled 2 visits with OSU. One for the Michigan game, and one in the offseason. So the thinking was Urban might seal the deal with two late visits.

By the way before he committed to PSU earlier this year, he told Alex that Pitt was his second choice ahead of OSU, Pitt was always ahead of OSU.

Like most OSU fans I wish him the best. Great kid.