Pitt FB Recruiting
California TE with Ties to Pittsburgh, Speaks on Latest Offer
In their just concluded Class of 2023 signing class, Pitt football was able to sign two players from the state of California.
Three-star wide receiver Israel Polk is from Bellflower, California, while three-star quarterback Ty Dieffenbach resides in Agoura, California.
It looks as though the Panthers are trying to parlay that success into attracting more players from that talent rich state.
In the last 24 hours, Tim Salem has extended offers to three 2024 California high school tight ends: three-star Ryner Swanson, unranked Kyle Brody and three-star Camden Jones.
Jones is a 6-foot-6, 230-pound athlete from Pasadena, California. This is an interesting offer because Jones gave a verbal commitment to California back in December. However, that didn’t stop Salem and Pitt from trying to recruit Jones.
This morning, Pittsburgh Sports Now caught up with Jones in order to learn more about him and to ask him about his talk yesterday with Salem.
“My talk with Coach Salem was fairly quick, but it was great,” said Jones. “It started off with us getting to know each other a little bit. Almost right off the bat, he straight up said to me, ‘You got yourself an offer to Pitt Cam.’ We talked about it for a while and how school and football were going. And we talked about my connections to Pitt as well.”
Full Junior SZN Highlights‼️
10 games played
16 Catches
211 Yards
4 TD’s
A Certified Brick Wall ✅✅https://t.co/dPcfwnKldb— Camden Jones (@theecamjones) November 9, 2022
In terms of the connections, Jones tells me that he has family from Pittsburgh and also had family that attended the University of Pittsburgh as well.
“I was very surprised by the offer. I wasn’t expecting Pitt to come offer me as fast as they did as well. I had texted Coach Salem the day before I was offered in order to introduce myself, because he was showing interest. Then the next day, I got on a call with him, and he offered. It was very much like Cal did when they offered me. I was very excited by the offer as well.”
“My initial thoughts on Pitt are that it’s a great program from what I know in terms of sending players to the NFL like Kenny Pickett, Aaron Donald, and even Curtis Martin,” said Jones. “And, I have noticed that Coach Salem has many, many years of coaching experience and that really caught my attention. As well as Pitt being in the prestigious ACC Conference playing teams like Florida State and Clemson. I would be playing against competition.”
The million-dollar question is does this offer impact his commitment to California and how it impact anything moving forward?
“I am committed to California; however, I will eventually be visiting Pitt. I’m going to check out other schools as well,” said Jones. “As much as I like Cal and as much as I am committed there, I always want to keep my options open in case I do find a better school for me or if I end up changing my mind about Cal. But as much as I am committed, I am still considering.”
Along with the offers from California and Pitt, Jones also holds offers from Nevada, Colorado, Arizona State, Colorado State, Oregon State and Washington State.
