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UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

December 18, 2019

Pat Narduzzi

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

PAT NARDUZZI: Obviously an uneventful day. Signed 16 players that we planned on signing today, expect to have one more tomorrow based on our knowledge, and feel really good about that. But no surprises. Got a class with a lot of variety. We addressed really all of our needs as far as recruiting at this point, and I think we've still got a little bit of work to do.

We got eight guys on offense that we've signed, got eight on defense. When you look at just the different positions, when you talk O-line, D-line, big skill as far as running backs and linebackers and talk about the skill which is receivers, DB's, we've got really five power, so we've got five guys up front, got six big skill guys and five skill guys, so pretty good balance and really what we needed.

Again, one of the most amazing things and I think the most we've ever had was three mid-year guys, but we've got seven mid-year signees, so we'll have seven guys that you guys will be able to interview during spring ball and even probably in the first week of classes if EJ can get that set up.

But five mid-year, Aydin Henningham, Solomon DeShields, Israel, or Izzy, Abanikanda, AJ Roberts, Buddy Mack, Lucas Krull and Daniel Moraga. Those are the mid-year guys that we'll have immediately, which I think any time you can bring those guys in mid-year and have a chance to get around our guys, our offense, our defense and special teams for Coach Powell, it just gives those guys an extra advantage, not only to make an impact on the field as young players, but it also gives them a chance to get acquainted with the academic rigors of University of Pittsburgh without having a full 12-game regular season on top of your shoulders. So we're excited about that.

Again, of those 16, got really kids from 10 different states, which is amazing how far we've spread to find this class, and really seven from our backyard. When I talk backyard, those bordering states, obviously it starts with the state of Pennsylvania, which is the most important, and especially western Pennsylvania, but you've got Ohio, New Jersey, Maryland, D.C., New York areas are places that are awful important to us, so we want to recruit our backyard hard. We got seven there PA, obviously Dayon Hayes. Ohio, Branson Taylor and Bangally Kamara. New York, already talked about Izzy Abanikanda and AJ Roberts. New York, Solomon DeShields and from Maryland, Michael Statham. So those are our backyard guys, excited about them.

And then the other guys we got, we got four guys from Florida, which you know we've been hitting Florida really hard with Aydin Henningham, Jahvante Royal, Sam Williams and Emmanuel JoJo Belgrave. We got two from Georgia, Jaylon Barden and Hunter Sellers. California, Daniel Moraga, again. And then Kansas, Lucas Krull. And then one South Carolina player in Buddy Mack, okay.

Again, 13 of these 16 have been really summer visits for us, and when you look at that summer visit, the summer visits have been outstanding for us. I think it's been an incredible rule for everybody in the country to get this December signing. I think without the summer visits it would be hard to have a signing period in December.

13 of them have been committed since July, and again I thank those guys for their commitment and trust in us. Again, 11 team captains in this group. Four of the 16 signees were able to attend summer camp this summer, really five of them we saw in camps total when you think about some of the other camps we went to, but four, which is really low, lower than normal, and that kind of tells you where recruiting is going. I know you're always interested in the recruiting trends, but these juniors to be aren't camping anymore. We have what we call Rising Star Camp, which we're trying to get all those young guys in there because that's when they're camping. But kids are no longer really, it seems, camping. So again, those four guys came to camp and got offers. We saw another guy down at a Georgia camp and got an offer from that one, which is two years in a row we've gotten somebody out of there. So I think that's significant.

One signee won their state championship this fall, Jahvante Royal from down in Florida, St. Thomas. And then again, one Pittsburgh City League champion in Dayon Hayes, which, first time in a long time for Westinghouse High School.

Just a couple notes and comments here, but it's obviously our third December signing, which again, I think it gets better every year. I want to thank -- there's a ton of thank you, and I started today -- not very often in the signee period do you have practice in the morning, but with our bowl schedule we happened to have practice this morning as well. So I'll start off thanking probably the most important players are the players that hosted these individuals during these weekends. And our kids got a lot on their plate with schoolwork, whether it's study hall, writing papers, studying. We know that's not easy. They got the football part of it, which obviously takes up quite a bit of their time, whether it's voluntary or mandatory. But our kids really take time on a Friday night, all day Saturday with these guys, and as I told our kids today, we can get them on campus as coaches, that's our job, then the next job is our players. So I thank them personally, which I don't know if I've ever been able to do on the signing day, so it was fun to be able to do that. I want to thank all the high school coaches and administrators that we've knocked on their doors, said head hello to them, all the guidance counselors and I obviously can't thank every coach individually. There's a couple that I'll point to, but just all the work that they've done to help us through this process, giving us all the information we need on these prospects as far as their athletic ability and their character, which we're obviously very interested in.

I want to thank the entire class and their families. There's a lot of work that goes into it, and I don't know if everybody realizes the time spent on the road in these kids' homes every week, again, with the two-week period is all we had is really -- I think I was out 10 days -- but went running for 10 days. It's a haul. We're all over the place, and our coaches are working their tails off. So I want to thank our class, again, for their commitment. Obviously our coaching staff and their families that have to put up with our schedules and where we are, and, hey, see ya, dad. I'd come home on a Sunday from talking to recruits on campus, go home about two hours and, boom, I'm off to a home visit on a Sunday night, which we don't like to do, but we had to utilize even Sunday nights to get that done.

Obviously Mike Farabaugh in Academics, Penny Semaia in Life Skills, which I think is critical every year, the work -- again, another thing that's really not on their, I guess, their list of things that are the major priority in their lives, but them helping us recruit these kids, did a great job.

Heather Lyke obviously spends time talking with our recruits as well, talking to them on weekends. And then Mark Harding and the admissions staff and the entire faculty usually on a -- especially in the summer, on a Saturday morning we'd have a breakfast for them a lot of times at The Porch and every academic advisor would come sit down and have breakfast with them and talk about their academic field. So I thank them.

I'll start off with the offense, 2020 class, again, those eight individuals. Start off with running back. Israel goes by Izzy, Abinkanda from Abraham Lincoln High School in Brooklyn, New York. Again, a mid-year guy as I said, was a guy that came to camp, runs a 10.5, 100 meter. I think again, is going to add immediate speed to our backfield, breakaway speed, like he did in high school. Again, very explosive and again, was named, probably the most prestigious thing, the New York Gatorade Player of the Year. There's not many of those throughout the United States, so I think that's worth mentioning.

Two receivers at this point, Jaylon Barden, Westside High School down in Georgia, down in the Macon area, the guy's made plays all year long. Jaylon, again, every Friday night, right after we tuck our players into bed you'd get a text from him with his highlights, he's already got his highlights. So you talk about a guy that's passionate about the game, runs great routes, athletic, going to make a lot of plays for the Panthers here in the future. And then Aydin Henningham, Deerfield Beach High School, same high school as Deslin Alexandre, so we've had some great success down there and that high school. Get another mid-year guy. Aydin can be a two-way player. He goes up and gets the ball -- I think the first three games of the season he played on defense -- he'll hit you, be a great safety, but also can be receiver. He goes up and gets the football.

Quick story about his recruiting. When he came on the visit I sat next to him on the first Friday night, and again, you almost felt sorry for -- as I sat next to his dad Clinton, because his dad raised him all by himself, so it was kind of, you heard that story, you're like wow, all by yourself, no mom in the home, he's the mom, he's the dad. A lot of times you see it's the mom raising a kid. But then I go on a home visit and there's about 48 people on the home visit and I'm like he's got an army down here, but he made me feel bad on that visit, but he's got a ton of support at home and we're fired up about him coming to Pitt. Tight ends, as you know, we lose two senior tight ends. We've got two mid-year guys that we're excited about, Lucas Krull from the University of Florida. They've got a pretty good tight end down there, he was looking for a place that he could be the guy. He's got obviously one year of eligibility left. But Lucas is a big, tall guy. When he walks in the door the first time you meet him you're going to go, whoa. He's a great looking kid.

One of the interesting things about him is, from the time I talked to him on his trip, this guy is a football guy. He loves the game. He's very, very intelligent. He's on the leadership council down at the University of Florida, so he's one of their leaders, so I think we added another older leader to this football team.

And again, the most impressive thing, because he understands the game, is he talked a lot about special teams now. He wants to catch a lot of footballs, but he talked about special teams and wanting to be on every special team. That's something that a lot of young kids, especially freshmen coming in, don't talk about that. And again, all of our freshmen, I hope those other 15 or 14 of them know how important special teams are.

Daniel Moraga from Ventura College in California, a guy that Tim Salem did a lot of work on, went out and got a lot of evaluation on him besides the videotape of just watching him run routes in practice and videotape to be able to bring that back to our staff. Very athletic kid, runs great routes, and again, really raised by his older brother Joe the entire time. When I say older brother, he might be 23 years old. Again, just great, great people, and we've done a lot of homework on him.

Offensive line-wise we've got two. First one from O'Leary Catholic, Branson Taylor. Again, played two years of football, was a basketball guy, went and watched him play basketball, at least in a practice, and just a phenomenal big athlete. And this guys is going to walk through the door and he looks like they're supposed to. And just a super, super kid.

And again, Branson is a guy that probably the hardest coach he's got up at O'Leary is his mother. I videoed a little bit of tape, just watching him move around on the court at a practice. I said to his mother, Heather, while I was at the school, and she texted me back and was kind of mad that he missed a lay-up. But I'm just like, I don't care if he scores any points, I just like how, the way he moves on the court. But his mother is after him, like she's all looking about the points. And I think he put up, last night or two nights ago, 22 points and 15 rebounds. So he's an explosive, big man. He's got to be about 325 pounds. So we're happy to have him.

Michael Statham from St. Francis Academy, won a football games there, I think they lost one, I think they're in the top 5 in the country football programs. So we've got a great kid there. I think when he first got here he was about 365 pounds. I think he's down in the 330s now, but just a mountain of a man.

He's my first commit since I've been here in five seasons that committed in Heinz Field, in my office over at Heinz Field in the locker room, so I'll never forget him for that.

But again, like all these guys, he stayed committed late in the game when a lot of people were knocking at his door trying to get in on him. So we're happy to have Michael.

Got one athlete in the, again, you could throw him in the receiver category. I think he can play a lot of places on defense. Another mid-year, Solomon DeShields from Millville High School down in South Jersey. Again, like I said, he can play both ways, going to start off on offense, I believe, if he wants to, but just a guy that, every time you see him, he's got shoulders that look like this. I don't know what he's going to grow into, but he's athletic, he's fast, he ran a 10.8, 100 meter, which is a fast time for a big kid. So he's just not some skinny little receiver, he's a monster receiver. So happy about him.

The 2020 defensive class, we've added three defensive linemen. And again, three of them, really all three of them defensive ends. Dayon Hayes from Westinghouse High School, again the No. 1 target in PA. You never get as many guys from PA as you want. But when you look at No. 1 target, that's the guy we went after early, been on him for a while, just an incredible, incredible young man.

Last night, man, just -- there's only one other guy that's every texted me good night as much as he did and it was William Gholston who plays for the Buccaneers. But every night it's a good night and a good morning in the morning. But a guy that FaceTimes you all the time, just an incredible young man that we're looking forward to having him on this football team.

The next guy from Miami Southridge Florida, Emmanuel Belgrave, goes by JoJo. Another guy, I don't know, maybe it's the defensive ends, another guy that's FaceTiming you every week. Just love this kid as well. Again, you build a lot of relationships with guys when you're on the phone and he's a great communicator.

And again, I've got to give a lot of credit to his high school defensive coordinator, at least in his junior year, of Phillip Simpson, Coach Simpson, really has done a great job with this kid of getting him where he needs to be and getting him to the University of Pittsburgh. So I've got to thank him. He's been the main guy, and again, we'll get into it later things on him, but just did a tremendous job.

Sam Williams, again, from Calvary Christian High School down in Florida. Again, a really, really athletic guy, speed rush guy off the edge, and again, had an incredible year for his high school this year.

The guy came on an unofficial visit with his mother and then obviously came on an official visit after that. A guy that we just kind of fell in love with, so we're excited about him.

Linebackers, got two. First one Bangally Kamara, Akron East High School in Ohio. Again, came to camp, very athletic, you put on some of his high school tape, you go, that guy can come right now and play for you. He's physical, he's athletic, he's a great blitzer and you guys know we like to blitz a little bit. So we're excited about having him.

When we first recruited him we thought maybe he -- he's so athletic, he can play strong safety, so a guy that we think can really play all three positions but we think starting off as an outside linebacker.

Next guy at linebacker, AJ Roberts, Tottenville High School in Staten Island, New York. Again, another mid-year guys that we'll have him here. Another very athletic guy that can do it all, and we're excited about his opportunity here at Pitt early. He's going to get that early, early shot to come find out -- again, another guy athletically that can play all three positions.

An interesting tidbit on him is his parents are in Liberia right now and they signed the papers from Liberia to get him here, so we didn't know how that was going to go with the email. He's a super kid that will be here come early January.

Cornerbacks, got two. Again, two different styles, I think. The first one, Hunter Sellers from Woodward Academy down in Georgia. Great to get a Georgia player up here, but very athletic, can play to the field, can play to the boundary, the most impressive thing about him is he's just an intelligent guy. When you sit and talk with him you feel like you're talking to a third-year player in college. Again, I think he can play field and boundary corner. So we're excited about where he is and what he can do for this football team.

And then the other one is Jahvante Royal. Again, a 6'3", athletic guy, elite size for his position at corner, so when you face some of those big wideouts, having a match-up like him on some of them, a guy that played a lot of defense as a junior, played a lot of offense as a senior for his high school, so I think he can do a lot of different things.

You can call him a big athlete because I think, again, if we needed help on offense, that guy could go over there and immediately help us there, as well. Again, won a state championship, 14-0 at St. Thomas Aquinas.

And then the last one is a safety position so we took one safety, and when I say we took two corners, those corners can also play safety, especially the field safety position. But when you look at Buddy, a kid from Byrnes, South Carolina, Byrnes High School, which is one of the best high schools in the state of South Carolina, he's a physical, physical guy. Again, mid-year guy, so he'll be here in January. We watched him at Georgia's camp last summer, so he's one of the guys we pulled out of there a year ago, kind of like Nate Temple a year ago. We think he can be a heck of a strong safety, takes great angles on the ball, will hit you. I just think for that boundary safety, he's a perfect fit there, so we're excited to have him, as well.

I'll open it up to questions.

Q. When Dayon Hayes signed, you put in the tweet, "hometown hero." How much was that a part of his recruiting, both what you guys tried to say to him and what you think --
PAT NARDUZZI: Well, I think he's going to be a hometown hero. He's special, and you can watch the tape on Dayon, and maybe it doesn't do justice. I went and saw him live on a Friday night -- I think I only got two Friday nights out, and that's a guy I wanted to obviously see. That guy is special. He really is. Seeing him live compared to watching videotape, I always tell you I love those live contacts and evaluations, and he's special.

And again, I think all of our Pittsburgh guys are going to be hometown heros. They're playing for their city, they're playing for University of Pittsburgh. He's a special athlete and a special person.

Q. (Indiscernible.)
PAT NARDUZZI: I believe so. I don't ever get to watch any of those but I think the whole city of Pittsburgh works out with DeWayne Brown, so DeWayne is outstanding. But I get mixed up with who works out. But Dayon is here when he's allowed to be. The guy -- after school he'll stop over here and sit in the defensive staff room and watch tape with us. He's just a very personable kid. Might have been last summer, I don't think he's been working out with him lately, obviously during the season, but he works out a lot, yeah.

Q. Seven of your guys -- obviously it's a personal choice, but do you in any way encourage that with these kids?
PAT NARDUZZI: You know what, no, I don't. We may have talked about this last year with Jared Wayne. Jared Wayne was a mid-year guy in mid-October. I could show you text messages. He's like, Coach, I hope you're not mad, but I think I'm going to stay down here in Clearwater, Florida. He's coming from Canada; he probably liked the sun and the palm trees down there. But I didn't discourage him. I didn't say hey, you need to come; you told me you were coming. These are seven guys that were ready academically, mature enough to come in right now, so I don't encourage it or discourage it. I think they have to really want to do that, and I think that's their personal preference, and again, we don't push it at all. I'm glad they're here because when spring ball becomes real thin when you lose 16 or 20 seniors depending on that whole senior class, how it breaks down as far as scholarships and walk-ons, but when you lose those numbers, to be able to fill it in with half of them, I think it's a major, major benefit not only for them but for us.

Q. Kenny, he was an early guy.
PAT NARDUZZI: Yeah, it was. When you look at him playing at the end of his first year here at Pitt, I don't know if he could have done that if he wasn't mid-year.

Q. When you guys got Dayon Hayes, what was going through your mind at that point in time? I know he had interest in A&M, Ohio State.
PAT NARDUZZI: You know, we were obviously excited, and there's been a lot going on since his commitment, but obviously extremely excited like we are for all of them. Any time you get a commitment it's exciting for every one of them. But that No. 1 target in the state of Pennsylvania that you say we want to get that guy, not only because of his athletic ability but his character, his ability to communicate. There's just so many great things about Dayon that you like.

Q. (Indiscernible).
PAT NARDUZZI: Yeah, I think my head was spinning more the year before because you didn't expect it and you don't see that very often. A tribute to our staff, our coaching staff and really the university for opening up their arms and doing what we did in the summer as far as just taking time during the month of June when a lot of people are on vacation and out of here, but our whole university opened their arms to our kids and helped get those 11 commitments. It's not one guy, it's not two guys, it takes an entire university to help get a guy.

I don't know if it was spinning, it was spinning the year before. Last year maybe just a little, maybe it just spun one time instead of multiple. But it was a fun Sunday, that's for sure.

Q. You said to expect one more tomorrow. That would make 17. How many more are you expecting?
PAT NARDUZZI: You know, we'll find out once January comes. We'll evaluate our needs and kind of go from there, but maybe two or three more, I don't know. The nice thing is once signing day is over, you kind of -- and off the bowl is over, you kind of take your seniors off the board. You kind of figure out where you are, what you're doing, and what are our needs. What do we need to compete next year at the highest level possible.

Q. (Indiscernible).
PAT NARDUZZI: You know what, I don't think that the quarterback position this year was all that strong, to be honest with you. Obviously we'd like to take a quarterback in every class. I think that's a -- you don't want to take two quarterbacks in every class. We feel really good with our young quarterbacks. Obviously we've got Kenny for another year, but we'd like to have one in every class, but I didn't want to just take one to take one. It's such a special position. You hate to take one and then you find out he can't play like you want him to. So we were really, really particular. We said if we're going to take one, we're going to take a great one. If you skip a year it kind of gives some spread as far as having a redshirt freshman quarterback and then another guy, I guess a sophomore quarterback and bringing in another guy. So we'll continue to evaluate that as we go on, but again, we were not desperate for one, but we always like one.

Q. It's always been the rule of thumb, right, you've got to get your quarterback every year, but has the equation changed --
PAT NARDUZZI: Yes.

Q. -- with how quarterbacks transfer?
PAT NARDUZZI: It really has. That's why you want to get the right guy. It's not about getting a guy. I've never been like that in recruiting. You have you needs and you say you want to take three defensive ends or two receivers. You'd like guys that can play multiple positions and help you a bunch of different ways. You'd like to get one, but certainly with the way those guys transfer, that plays a part. You want to make sure you get the right guy.

Again, just wasn't a great quarterback year. From the very beginning we were kind of like, where are they, what do we like. So I think that plays into that.

Q. Why were AJ's parents in Liberia?
PAT NARDUZZI: You know, they're from Liberia, and they're on vacation or doing what they do, maybe some work there. I didn't ask really why, but I'm sure, again, being from there, that's probably why.

Q. You'll expect Lucas Krull to contribute this season, but some of the freshman skill guys who are going to be here in the spring, do you think those guys have the tools to help you as soon as this fall?
PAT NARDUZZI: No question about it. Again, this spring is really going to help them. Our fourth quarter workout being with Dave Andrews in strength for the entire spring and summer, don't forget we usually get these guys for summer school, too, they're going to be here for two summer schools, physically they're going to develop.

We're going to take a before picture when they get here in January and then we'll take one at the end of spring to see what these guys have done. Every one of these freshmen, if they're ready to go we're going to play them, whether it's four games or 12, 13 games, 14 games. Every one of those guys will have an opportunity to prove what they have this spring. So we'll find out. To say, hey, this guy I know is going to do it, it's hard to do that, I think, because as soon as you say that, that's the guy that's not.

You can't say that one is going to, one is not going to. All seven of those guys we expect to come in here and compete for playing time right away. That's why they're coming, too. If you ask them, they're coming so they can play early.

Q. What's your favorite story from the recruiting trip this year?
PAT NARDUZZI: Recruiting? I don't know. Favorite? Again, there's so many great experiences you have. And again, as a head football coach, I get one time to go. So really every time you go into a home there's something special about the family, the kid that you love. I'm trying to think. I had a lot of dinners. Speaking of dinners, maybe one of the things that stands out to me, usually as a coach you go in, you try to have a snack before you go in because you don't want to sit there and scarf the food down.

But probably one of the funny stories, you guys always get a kick out of this guy, Turbo Tim Salem, probably one of the funny stories is I'm kind of calm, eating a couple oxtails and some salmon, some Jamaican rice at Izzy's house. They made an incredible meal, which I had a ton of incredible meals throughout the month of December, but my man Salem loved those oxtails, man. He was going after them. He had stuff all over his face. That's probably one funniest things I saw. He obviously didn't eat enough prior to going into that home visit. So he was having fun eating. His father was laughing, we were sitting on the couch after dinner, I think Tim was about ready to fall asleep. I think he had a food buzz. That might be the funniest story is Salem getting after that oxtail and salmon.

Q. But he came anyway?
PAT NARDUZZI: And he came anyway. Well, they love to feed you. Great people. Great meal.

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