When a major program loses a key recruit, Rivals.com takes a look at how big of a blow it is to the respective school, analyzing it from a local and national level. To quantify the “sting” of each decommitment, we assign a score from one to 10, with one being no big deal and 10 being a catastrophic hit.
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THE STORYLINE
Ja’Kavion Nonar has only played one year of high school football but the tall and athletically-built offensive tackle landed a handful of offers and committed to Pitt at the end of his official visit in June.
But in recent days the Belle Glade (Fla.) Glades Central backed off his pledge to the Panthers and it looks very strongly like Nonar is going to end up at Florida.
Pitt recently landed a big commitment from four-star Ryan Baer out of Eastlake (Ohio) Eastlake North and that helps a lot with replacing a big-time offensive tackle in this class but still losing Nonar definitely hurts.
Keeping Nonar means Pitt would have another connection into recruiting the state of Florida and a commitment from an athletic specimen with a really high ceiling that could have been a major steal for the Panthers.
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LOCAL REACTION
“Ja’Kavion Nonar was one of the more intriguing prospects in Pitt’s 2022 recruiting class, having played just one year of football in high school but attracting interest from Pat Narduzzi and company due to his size at 6-foot-7 and 280 pounds and athleticism since he was a standout basketball player. With Nonar off the commitment list, the Panthers still have four-star tackle Ryan Baer and three-star guard Isaiah Montgomery plus three-star Bradley Mann, who could play tackle or end, so the numbers are still strong in the class. But Nonar’s athleticism gave him a very high ceiling, and Pitt will likely be looking for another tackle to replace him now.” - Chris Peak, PantherLair.com
Sting factor: 6
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NATIONAL REACTION
"Nonar does not have an extensive resume playing football and he’s still just learning the position so one way to look at this is he could become a very special player in the years to come. The other is that Nonar is far away from any serious development at the position and he never becomes really maxed out because we just don’t know his potential. Either way, Pitt could use a potential star like Nonar in this recruiting class and it never hurts to have that size and athletic ability on your offensive line. It was an early commitment from far away and oftentimes those don’t work out. With Nonar it didn’t and that does leave a mark.” - Adam Gorney, Rivals National Recruiting Director
Sting factor: 5
