The real brawl begins with recruiting - PittsburghLIVE.com

"In my opinion, we don't have competition here," he said. "We don't have much -- Penn State, every once in a while Notre Dame or somebody. But there shouldn't be, and there won't be, much other competition. The best players are going to come to Pitt."

Rodriguez responded during his postgame news conference late Thursday after starting three former WPIAL players and a former City League standout in a victory. The outcome not only gave the Mountaineeers (9-1, 6-0) a share of the Big East title, but swept away Pitt's (5-6, 4-3) last hope of landing a minor bowl bid.

Asked if it was satisfying to deny Pitt the chance to go to a bowl, Rodriguez said, "No, not really. It may help us in recruiting a little bit since we supposedly have a hard time recruiting certain areas of Pennsylvania."

Rodriguez paused until the laughter at his news conference faded.

He said it will give his coaches extra motivation to recruit the Pittsburgh region.

"Actually, for us, when you go to bowls and have success, it makes it more difficult in recruiting in some respect because you're practicing for bowls and all that instead of going (to visit recruits)," Rodriguez said. "Hopefully, recruits understand that, 'Hey, we want to spend as much time as we can with you but we've got to get ready for a bowl game.' Other teams don't have to worry about that."

Message sent.


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