Pitt Season Preview: Gavin Looks To Lead Turnaround
PITTSBURGH – The No. 24 Pitt Panthers will look much different in the 2017-18 season.
From new head coach Keith Gavin to some fresh faces in the lineup – including Pennsylvania natives Kellan Stout and Jake Wentzel – to a new regional training center to a renovated wrestling room, the program is in a much different position than it was a year ago.
Because it is located in arguably the most fertile recruiting ground in the country, Pitt has often been referred to as a “sleeping giant,” much the way that Penn State was before Cael Sanderson took over over and led the Nittany Lions to six of the past seven NCAA titles.
No one is saying that Gavin, who won the 2008 NCAA title at 174 pounds for Pitt, is going to have that kind of success at his alma mater, but there is a sense of excitement surrounding the program that hasn’t been seen in years.
Just ask Nick Zanetta, the redshirt senior 141-pounder. His brother, Anthony, was a senior during Nick’s freshman year, meaning the family has been a part of the program for nearly a decade.
“It’s really exciting to be part of this,” Nick Zanetta said during the team’s media day on Tuesday. “I kind of wish I had a few more years, but I’m making the best out of it.”
Gavin has tried to downplay any talk about Pitt’s long-term future.
“Everybody talks about potential of the program,” he said. “That’s something that we, as a team, don’t really try focus on too much, because we’re trying to get better daily and see how good we can be. This is a place where, obviously, wrestling is very valued – with the community, the alumni, the donors, the administration.”
Gavin’s guys
Pitt fans have grown increasingly frustrated over the past decade as wrestlers from the WPIAL have gone on to win NCAA titles and All-American honors at out-of-state schools.
One of Gavin’s biggest tasks will be bringing that local talent to Pittsburgh. Of course, being sandwiched between two of the NCAA’s best programs – Penn State to the east and Ohio State to the west – won’t make it easy.
“It’s one of our advantages – that we’re in such a great location for wrestling – for sure,” Gavin said. “But it’s not a secret. Everybody knows that. Everybody knows that a lot of good wrestlers are from this area. The Ohio area, Pennsylvania, they’re two of the best states. It’s very competitive, but we’re just trying to build relationships with these guys and get in with them early to make them comfortable with us and share our vision. Hopefully, by the time that they’re ready to make that decision, they feel like this is the point where we want to be.”
Gavin has gotten off to a strong start in that respect. He’s already gotten commitments from four of the top 26 seniors in Pennsylvania: No. 6 Cole Matthews of Reynolds; No. 14 Jack Davis of Wyoming Seminary; No. 16 Louis Newell of Seneca Valley; and No. 26 Luke Kemerer of Hempfield Area.
The Panthers also got two high-profile transfers in the offseason. Kellan Stout, a 2015 state champ from Mount Lebanon, returned home after spending two seasons in Happy Valley. Micky Phillippi, a three-time PIAA winner from Derry Area, was at Virginia for the past two years.
Stout is eligible this season as a redshirt sophomore, but Phillippi will have to sit out this season because he transferred between Atlantic Coast Conference schools.
While Nick Suriano was able to win a high-profile decision to be immediately eligible in transferring from Penn State to Big Ten rival Rutgers, the same doesn’t hold true for Phillippi. While that has rankled some Pitt supporters, Gavin took it in stride.
“The rules are the rules,” he said. “It doesn’t frustrate me. It’s out of my control.”
But when pressed, Gavin admitted that he didn’t think Phillippi should have to sit.
“I don’t have a problem with the rule, I guess is what I’m saying, but at the same time, in that particular situation, do I think he should be able to wrestle? Yeah, because it wasn’t just for wrestling.”
Gavin was an assistant coach at Virginia when Phillippi signed there, but left for an assistant position under Lou Roselli at Oklahoma last season. Gavin said he has known Phillippi for about a decade and was excited to be able to bring him to Pitt.
“Micky’s a kid that’s very high-character and the kind of guy that we want in our program, no doubt,” Gavin said.
Stout will be expected to make an immediate impact for the Panthers.
“Kellan, he’ll probably be our 197-pounder this year,” Gavin said. “That in itself helps because we kind of had a question mark there. He’s a mature kid. He was at Penn State. He was around some high-level wrestling there, obviously. He got to learn some things.
“He doesn’t need much from the technical standpoint. He’s been exposed to pretty high-level coaching. For us, it’s just keeping him enjoying wrestling, keeping him confident. We look for him to be able to do some good things for us this year.”
Keeping pace in ACC
Gavin will need quite of few new faces to make an impact for the Panthers to finish near the top of the ACC. FloWrestling.org projects them to finish fourth in the conference tournament, with no champions.
Redshirt sophomore Taleb Rahmani returns at 157 after winning an ACC title last season and finishing 2-2 at the national tournament. Senior Dom Forys won the ACC title at 141 a year ago and is a three-time NCAA qualifier, but he is still looking for his first All-American finish.
“We’re a team of guys that are pretty talented,” Gavin said. “We have guys that have come close to being on the podium.”
Ryan Solomon certainly fits into that category. The heavyweight is one of Pitt’s biggest title contenders, literally and figuratively. The redshirt freshman lost in the blood round at the NCAA tournament last season.
“Being that close, it kind of lights a fire under you,” Solomon said of coming up one victory short. “Being that close really pushed me even more, knowing that I could have been on that podium. It sucked, but I think it made me take the time for the technical things, really shape up my game so that I’m ready to go this year.”
He already owns a win over Duke’s Jacob Kasper, who is the top heavyweight in the ACC and finished sixth in the nation last season.
Wentzel is a two-time state champion from South Park who went 8-5 while redshirting last season.
A pair of true freshmen – Central Dauphin’s Jake Cherry and Bethel Park’s Nino Bonaccorsi – are listed as potential starters, but could end up redshirting if an upperclassmen seizes the spot.
Pitt’s path
The Panthers will face a challenging schedule that includes eight duals with teams in the NCAA coaches poll as well as Cliff Keen Las Vegas Invitational.
ACC opponents Virginia Tech and N.C. State begin the season ranked in the top 10 while North Carolina is two spots ahead of the Pitt at No. 22. Gavin said that the ACC’s strength is a good thing for the Panthers.
“It’s good for the sport, for wrestling to have more parity,” he said. “It’s good for us to be in that conference and be tested so that when we get to the nationals, it’s not like you haven’t seen it before. It’s not like you haven’t been in a dogfight before. You’re going to have to earn your way to get there. I think that’s going to better prepare them to be All-Americans and national champions.”