Turnley Fulfills Dream

Less then a week ago Ryan Turnley received a written scholarship offer to play for his childhood favorite in Pittsburgh and while he said he would continue to diligently check out his other schools, the pull of the Panthers was just too much to hold off in the end when he finally gave his verbal commitment this evening.

The Pittsburgh coaching staff has been on a recruiting rampage lately and this evening they added another quality prospect to the family in 6-foot-6, 300-pound Hopewell High School offensive tackle Ryan Turnley. The Aliquippa, Pa., product held offers from many schools, but had narrowed the field to Georgia Tech, Maryland, Akron, Wisconsin and Louisville until Pittsburgh came in and essentially ended the race.

“I just committed to Pittsburgh this evening,” Turnley stated. “I was pretty sure I would commit to them when they offered, but I really liked the coaching staff at Akron and had them as my leaders until Pittsburgh came in. All of the schools I had listed highly had great coaches and I really liked a lot about them, but when it came down to my decision it was just that Pittsburgh was my dream school, not that there was anything wrong with the other programs.”

“Like I said before, I grew up a huge Pittsburgh fan and I told people my whole life that it was my dream to play for the Panthers in college,” Turnley added. “I’ve known Coach (Greg) Gattuso, Coach (Bob) Junko and Coach (Dave) Wannstedt for a long time now and they are all great people. When I went on a visit there this Thursday I was able to sit down and talk with Coach (Paul) Dunn for about an hour and he was a great guy too. They took me around and showed me everything on campus and I liked it even more then I thought I would going down there. I just loved everything about Pittsburgh from the coaches, to the campus to the facilities, it has just always been the dream. I knew I was going to commit there when I left campus on Thursday.”

“I appreciate all of the coaches from the different schools that gave me an offer because they all had great qualities about them, but in the end like I said, it was just an opportunity that I always wanted and once I got it there was no other choice to make.”

Turnley becomes the third member of Hopewell High School’s Class of 2008 to commit after teammate David Posluszny gave the nod to Notre Dame and other teammate Jared Rains became a Cincinnati Bearcat. As a junior, Turnley was an honorable mention All-Conference pick at offensive tackle.