Pitt Football: Defensive end from New Jersey chooses Panthers
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Pitt football coach Dave Wannstedt said last week he was confident the Panthers would be able to assemble a good recruiting class for next year despite losing a few high-profile recruiting battles in Western Pennsylvania.
After a weekend of stepping up their recruiting efforts on a number of key prospects, it appears that Wannstedt and his staff are making good on that promise.
The Panthers received a verbal commitment over the weekend from Paterson (N.J.) Catholic standout defensive end T.J. Clemmings.
Clemmings, who is 6 feet 6, 266 pounds, chose the Panthers over offers from a number of top programs, including Penn State, Notre Dame, Florida, Tennessee, South Carolina, Miami and Rutgers.
He is the Panthers' fourth commitment for the class of 2010 and the second defensive lineman. He is the second highly rated player to commit in the past two weeks.
Last week, safety Jeff Knox from DeMatha Catholic High School in Maryland said he will play for the Panthers. Knox, had a number of offers from high-profile schools like Penn State, Michigan, Michigan State and Iowa.
Clemmings is very similar to current Panthers defensive end Greg Romeus in body type and athletic ability, and those are the kinds of players who seem to thrive in Dave Wannstedt's defensive scheme.
He was at Pitt's prospect camp this weekend. Last week, he was at the Rivals.com premier showcase camp in New Jersey and was rated as one of the top defensive ends at the camp by Rivals recruiting expert Mike Farrell.
After that camp, Farrell wrote that Clemmings "is a bit raw, but his upside is impressive. He could be a freak down the line," and that is very similar to the scouting report on Romeus coming out of high school.
First Published June 23, 2009 12:38 am
