Pitt football recruiting update: George Hill and Henry Miller say “Pitt Is It”

Pitt football landed two more verbal commitments as 4-star Ohio athlete George Hill and 3-star Florida cornerback Henry Miller chose the Panthers.

Today, Pat Narduzzi and staff received verbal commitments number 17 and 18 for the Pitt football class of 2016.

The new commitments sent some shock waves across the country, indicating that Pitt is becoming a serious contender for top notch athletes that are not local.

The “Pat Signal x2” was released on Twitter, and Pitt fans were full of excitement.  Now that the program is committed to becoming a National Championship contender, we are beginning to see additional talent commit to the Panthers.

It is essentially a guarantee that Pitt will climb up the recruiting rankings by signing day on February 3rd.  When a program hires a coach committed to winning a championship, strong recruiting is a priority.

George Hill, a former Rivals.com 4-star RB commit for Ohio State, chose Pitt over Michigan State this afternoon at his high school, according to The Detroit News.  Hill is a 6-foot, 190 pound athlete who can play cornerback, running back or wide receiver.  Some of his other offers included Wisconsin, West Virginia, and Nebraska.  He has the potential to be a game-changer in a similar fashion to true freshman safety Jordan Whitehead this past season.  Hill recently had an in-home visit with former Pitt head coach Paul Chryst and several Wisconsin assistants.

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This is the third 4-star prospect to join Pitt.  Ohio 6-foot-4 wide receiver Ruben Flowers and talented Aliquippa running back Kaezon Pugh are the others.  All three will likely make immediate impacts for Pitt in a season where they’ll play at Oklahoma State and Clemson, as well as host Penn State.

Henry Miller, a Rivals.com 3-star CB, announced personally on his Twitter page that he will be attending the University of Pittsburgh.  The 6-foot-3, 195 pound cornerback from Kissimmee, Florida chose Pitt over other finalists Rutgers and NC State.  Additional offers included Georgia Tech, Michigan State, Mississippi State, Wisconsin, Oregon State, North Carolina, Kentucky, Louisville, and West Virginia.

Miller is now the fourth defensive back to join Pitt, along with Central Catholic’s Bricen Garner, Brashear’s Therran Coleman, and South Brunswick’s Phil Campbell.

Pitt has landed several visitors from last week, including Hill and Miller who hit it off and decided to commit at the same time today, two former Rutgers commits in 6-foot-1 safety Phil Campbell (the No. 1 safety in New Jersey) and 6-foot-6, 320 pound offensive tackle Justin Morgan (the No. 1 tackle in New York), and Florida 6-foot-7, 295 pound offensive tackle Zack Williams.  I don’t think Rutgers is very fond of Pitt right now.

Pitt now stands at 18 commitments, not including the top tight end in last year’s class in 6-foot-6 Chris Clark, who transferred from UCLA.

It is also worth noting that Narduzzi and staff may have landed their quarterback of the future in 6-foot-4 Ohio QB Thomas MacVittie who just surged up the charts to the No. 77 player in the country according to 247sports.com, and he has the potential to be the best quarterback of the Class of 2016.  He’ll likely redshirt next season as Nathan Peterman finishes up his senior year, and then it’ll likely be his turn to run the show.

Clark, 6-foot-5 defensive end Patrick Jones (the No. 1 defensive end in Virginia), Ohio running back Chawntez Moss and 6-foot-1 defensive end Zack Gilbert from Virginia will all enroll in January.

You can feel the sense of excitement in Oakland, and according to the coaching staff, this is only the beginning.