Pitt landed their 21st addition to the 2021 recruiting class when Schuylkill Haven (PA) Blue Mountain HS tight end Gavin Bartholomew (6-5 inches, 245 pounds) verbally committed on Sunday night.
The towering tight end prospect was originally committed to Buffalo until receiving a call from Pat Narduzzi and tight ends coach Tim Salem informing him, they wanted to offer him a scholarship. Bartholomew immediately committed to the Panthers. To gain perspective on the newest Panther, Pittsburgh Sports Now spoke with Blue Mountain High School head coach Cory Mabry.
“Gavin is a great kid and is an extremely hard worker,” said Mabry. “One of the hardest workers we have in the weight room. He put on 20 pounds of muscle from last year and he’s still growing. Gavin is a young senior as I believe he just turned 17 years old. His body is still growing, and he hit a big growth spurt. He played at about 235 pounds his junior year and close to 250 pounds his senior year. Gavin put a lot of good weight on and it’s all due to the dedication he had in the weight room in the off-season.”
Bartholomew primarily played tight end in 2019 and factored heavily into their passing game, catching 27 passes for 527 yards and scoring 5 touchdowns. He also threw for 521 yards and 4 touchdowns and rushed for 145 yards and 3 touchdowns.
“Gavin is a super athletic kid for his size. We used him at tight end, played quarterback for us for a chunk of the season due to some unforeseen injuries,” said Mabry. “He has a cannon for an arm plus he can run the football. We use him at split end and on defense, he had his hand on the ground. Gavin even stood up and covered slot receivers and had a pick six for us this year. He did a lot for us. Gavin even punted for us. He’s a great kid that will do anything you ask him to do. If you tell him to run through a brick wall, he’ll ask how many times. Pitt’s getting a good one.”
Bartholomew is the second tight end to join the Panthers 2021 recruiting class joining Jake Renda from IMG Academy in Bradenton, Florida.
“Gavin is 6-foot-5 inches tall and change. On a tall day, he’s 6-foot-6 inches. He grew about a half inch over the year. He uses his size well and was actually more of a skill kid coming up through our system. He was a quarterback coming up through our program but he’s now growing into his body, adding muscle, and his athletic ability is sticking with him. When you get that combination of speed, size and hands, he has a lot of good things going for him.”
“Gavin may have been a bit under the radar because he emerged in the later half of his junior season and started growing as well,” said Mabry. “Rutgers, Syracuse and several others had interest in him. I know programs offer basked on their needs. Coach Salem from Pitt was on him for many, many months. He had his eye on him from day one. Every time I spoke with Coach Salem, I could tell how excited he was about Gavin. He never guaranteed anything, but I had a gut feeling they might offer. Gavin visited Pitt prior to the pandemic, and he talked highly of his visit, he loved it.”
Bartholomew, like the bulk of the 2021 class, will sign with Pitt in December and join the program in January.
6’5” 245
Can we get this kid a couple porterhouses for dinner.
All sounds great but can he consistently catch the ball??! Pitt’s biggest TE problem.