Football: Trip to Heinz Field unites, inspires potential future Panthers

Among the crowd of 65,000 at Pitt’s home opener Sept. 2 was a group of young men who had gathered for the first time. Pitt head football coach Paul Chryst hopes it won’t be their last visit.

 About 30 high school football players and potential members of Pitt’s 2013 recruiting class were invited to Heinz Field for the showdown, where they walked the field during pregame activities, sat in the first row on the 10-yard line during the game and followed the Panthers into the locker room after the game’s final seconds.

“I tried to make everybody one unit,” said Patrick Amara, who verbally committed to Pitt as a safety in June. “I’m a good people person. I’m good with relationships. I feel good about all the commits and potential commits.”

One of the potential commits Amara refers to, and one who he said he created a solid relationship with, is Montae Nicholson, an undecided safety from Gateway High School in Monroeville, Pa., who is regarded by many recruiting sites — including Rivals.com — as the No. 1 prospect in Pennsylvania.

The 6-foot-2. 200-pound Nicholson raved about Pitt’s play against Florida State, saying the outcome was just a matter of finishing the game.

“The positive is that they came out hard. The obvious downside was they didn’t finish hard. My former coach [Terry Smith] used to preach to me all the time. For us it’s 48 minutes, but you can call it just a little bit longer.”

Smith, who coached at Gateway until 2012, is now an assistant coach at Temple University. One of Nicholson’s best friends and longtime teammate at Gateway, Anthony Davis, verbally committed to Temple two months ago. Davis was in attendance Monday, and following the game rumors began to swirl about Davis possibly decommitting from Temple.

Nicholson addressed the situation with Davis and insinuated that he is letting the situation play itself out rather than attempting to lure Davis from one school to another. 

“It would be a total coincidence if we both committed to the same place,” Nicholson said. “He’s looking for his school, and I’m looking for my school.”

A 6-foot-1, 175-pound cornerback, Davis is ranked as the 10th-best player in Pennsylvania, according to Scout.com.

Another player in attendance that night was Adam Bertke, a 6-foot-5, 210-pound quarterback who played at Marion Local High School in Maria Stein, Ohio. Like Amara, Bertke also verbally committed to Pitt in June.

All three players paid close attention to Pitt players at their positions. For Bertke, it was Tom Savage.

“They took their shots with Savage. I thought even though he threw a couple picks, he was still pretty impressive. I thought he played really well, and I thought Coach Rudolph did a good job with the offense,” Bertke said.

For Amara and Nicholson, the players to watch were Jason Hendricks and Ray Vinopal.

“The basic thing is just wrapping up and finishing the tackle. That’s all I saw really. They have to just stay strong after contact,” said Nicholson.

Amara did not seem discouraged by the loss.

“I just think it was the coaching and excellent execution of Florida State,” he said. “I think that [Florida State quarterback] Jameis Winston — he carries [his team] — he deserves everything. There’s nothing really that Pitt did wrong. They’ll show improvement.”

The potential recruits also talked about the stadium’s atmosphere Monday night.

“Heinz Field was packed,” Bertke said. “It was a great thing to be a part of. It was just a great atmosphere.”

“The student section was going crazy. It was a full house, and I was real impressed with the environment,” Amara said. “Every person could say the same.”

This seems to be the main reason Amara and Bertke will stay true to their commitments. When asked if the game’s final score had any bearings on his commitment status, Berke said that nothing will change.

“No,” Bertke said. “I’m still the same player I am.”