The Pitt football staff spent the spring building its 2027 class, and one of the clearest themes to emerge was a bigger footprint in Georgia. Of Pitt’s 25 commitments, nine come from the Peach State, a notable haul for a program trying to deepen its reach in one of the country’s richest talent pools.
That push has been led in large part by first-year tight ends coach Brent Davis, a Georgia native who grew up in Athens and played at the University of Georgia. Davis also coached at Georgia Southern twice and has stops on his résumé at VMI, Army and Virginia Tech. That background gave him an immediate advantage when Pitt started leaning harder into Georgia.
“For me personally, I've been fortunate to recruit Georgia for almost 30 years,” Davis said at Pitt’s media day on Wednesday. “A lot of coaches that I've met 25 years ago are now the head coaches or some of the assistants are still there. There's a lot of relationships there, so that definitely helps having that familiarity.”
That familiarity showed up in Pitt’s class. Five of the Panthers’ six highest-rated commitments right now are from Georgia, a group headlined by four-star linebacker Jeremiah Proctor. Pitt also landed commitments from Trey Moore, Khamani Estrada, Omarion Wallace and three-star tight end Max Patterson.
“Having the familiarity definitely helps and just us being able to sell the program here, the tradition, the city of Pittsburgh and the way things are done here,” Davis said of the ease of breaking into a new frontier for Pitt.
Pitt’s interest in Georgia didn’t begin with Davis, either. Assistant coaches Archie Collins and Jeremy Darveau have had success there, and first-year linebackers coach Joe Bowen also has ties to the state. The roster already reflects that work, with Georgia natives like starting left guard BJ Williams in the program.
“I just think Georgia is just a great high school football place,” said Williams when asked about Pitt's recruiting focus of his home state. “There's lots of talent and development there.
I think that's just a big reason. Georgia is just a great football area in my opinion.”
The state’s depth has made it an obvious target. Florida, Texas and California have long been viewed as the heavyweights in high school talent production, but Georgia has climbed into that same conversation. Davis pointed to the competitive nature of the prospects themselves as part of the appeal.
“There's really good football there and really good coaching there, and to me, the kids from down there are used to working at football and used to working hard,” Davis said of the mindset of Georgia recruits. “I think culture-wise, there's a lot of great fits for what we want to do here from the state of Georgia.”
Pitt’s official visits helped seal the deal. Nine of the 11 Georgia prospects who came to campus on official visits ended up in the class, a sign that the Panthers’ pitch landed once recruits saw the place for themselves.
“It hasn't been a hard sell and I've found out personally when we get guys on campus, we have a good shot of getting them,” Davis said. “If we can get them here on an official visit and they get on that river boat and ride over to the stadium, get out and eat lunch at the Pirates stadium or go over to Acrsiure and eat dinner, it's a pretty good experience for them.”
The Georgia connection isn’t just about recruiting, either. Pitt is expected to rely on a strong group of Peach State players this season, including projected starting tight end Carson Kent, starting guard Kendall Stanley, transfer linebacker DeMarco Ward, freshman safety Tony Forney and redshirt freshman running back Synkwan Smith. Kent, who is from Milton, said the move north came down to something simple.
“There's actually quite a lot of people, not just from Georgia but the South,” Kent explained. “And to bring a kid up North and it really just takes one thing and I've thought about this.
It's really just the people they have in the facility at Pitt. If you have great people, it doesn't really matter where you go.”
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Pitt Enters Camp With One Offensive Problem Fans Cant Ignore
Pitts summer camp has already started to sort out a roster that looks different after a busy transfer portal stretch, with some new faces arriving and others moving on. Mason Heintschel is among the players expected to help shape the offense, while returning pieces and transfers are jockeying for roles across the line and in the kicking game, giving Pat Narduzzi plenty to evaluate before the season gets here.
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