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Fort Cherry’s Sieg a Big Get Locally and Nationally For Rodriguez and West Virginia
December 04, 2025 02:54 PM | Football
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – These days, my recruiting knowledge basically consists of what I occasionally read on the Internet message boards, X postings or whatever else I am able to pry out of Keenan Cummings and Greg Hunter during West Virginia's weekly football press conferences.
For me, to definitively say prospect X can do this would be and out and out lie. The difference between a three-star and a four-star recruit is simply one star, no more, no less.
So, me telling you what Fort Cherry four-star prospect Matt Sieg is capable of doing on the football field will have to wait until I see him in person.
But I can parrot what others think of him.
247Sports has Sieg, his last name spelled with the I before the E, ranked 11th nationally among senior safety prospects and 104th overall. Rivals.com has him a little lower, ranked 17th among all safeties and 184th overall, while ESPN.com puts him 42nd among high school safeties and 162nd overall.
The net of it is he's considered a consensus top 300 national prospect.
According to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Sieg finished his career as the WPIAL's all-time total yardage leader with 12,592 yards passing and rushing.
He rushed for 7,958 yards, which is either the most or second-most in WPIAL history, depending upon who you read. Google searching gives the nod to Sieg, while longtime P-G high school writer/historian Mike White referenced his rushing total being the second-most in conference history in yesterday's online story.
The other two contenders, Fort Cherry alum Mike Vernillo and Hopewell High's Rushel Shell III, both played at WVU, by the way.
All of this brings me to my point: Isn't it fun to see West Virginia and Pitt battling it out for the top Western Pennsylvania prospects again?
Yes, Penn State waved the white flag on Oct. 12, 2025, when James Franklin was fired. Franklin has had the region's top prospects on lockdown for years, continuing a trend that began in the late 1960s when Joe Paterno got things rolling in Happy Valley.
For those of you old enough to remember the Joe Paterno-Jackie Sherrill feud, do you know why Paterno disliked Sherrill so much? Because Sherrill put a stop to Paterno's unfettered access to the city's top football players while he was coaching the Panthers.
Otherwise, Penn State usually took the best and then Pitt and West Virginia typically fought it out for the rest.
That's how it was a couple of months ago before Penn State gave Franklin the boot.
"(Sieg) was solidly committed to Penn State, and every time we would talk to people in Western Pennsylvania it was like this guy was the talk of the whole state," West Virginia coach Rich Rodriguez said. "Everybody in Western Pennsylvania knew him and you watch him play and it's like he's dynamic, he can play a bunch of different positions, and we weren't sure we were in it.
"We tried to be," he continued. "Then, there was a little bit of a crack in there again with what happened (at Penn State) and so we got a chance to stay in it. I think he probably saw there is a great opportunity for him here at safety, and I told him, 'I think you are good enough to play that but also help us on the other side of the ball as well.'"
For accuracy's sake, Uniontown's Rodney Gallagher III was a coveted local player a few years ago who entertained several offers before signing with WVU, but Uniontown is farther out on the periphery of Pittsburgh and much closer to Morgantown than say, Fort Cherry, Aliquippa, McKeesport or Central Catholic.
When you can no longer see the Laurel Highlands, that's when you know you are getting close to the city.
A couple of weeks ago, while listening to prominent Pittsburgher Mike Logan's speech during the Don Nehlen testimonial dinner at Mylan Park, I kept wondering to myself why West Virginia football coaches haven't more aggressively pursued the top WPIAL players in recent years?
According to White, Sieg is just the third WPIAL player that WVU has managed to sign in the past eight recruiting cycles.
Recruiting these guys are a matter of short car rides, not airplane trips!
There was a time when the Mountaineers and Panthers used to battle tooth and nail for players, to the point where former Pitt coach Dave Wannstedt once employed a recruiting strategy of creating a wall around Western Pa.'s top prospects.
Penn State was the wall's focus, of course, but West Virginia always seemed to be its nuisance.
That was during the time when Rodriguez's frequent raids into the Steel City were having some success, a continuation of what Jim Carlen, Bobby Bowden, Frank Cignetti and Don Nehlen had been doing.
Either through neglect or malpractice, some of Pittsburgh's better prospects such as Major Harris, Marc Bulger and Rasheed Marshall eventually found their way down to Morgantown, which always put some extra spice into the Backyard Brawl rivalry.
It's one thing to lose the game, but to also lose recruits … and then to have those recruits turn around and beat you again … well, that's intolerable.
You ask Central Catholic's Bulger what he has to say about Pitt, and he will simply answer "4-0," West Virginia's record against the Panthers when he played at WVU.
What Matt Sieg's last-second decision did yesterday morning for Mountaineer Nation was it created some much-needed excitement and enthusiasm for a fan base that has endured losing seasons in four of the last five years.
It was also a big letdown for the Pitt fans who are most heavily invested in local recruits.
"He's a coach's kid," Rodriguez said. "He's smart and you can tell he's been coached well, and he's 45 minutes up the road in Fort Cherry, so we made a hard, late run at it in the last 24, 48 hours and the staff did a good job with it, coach (Zac) Alley and the guys.
"He's going to be a whole lot of fun for our fans to watch over his career here," Rodriguez concluded.
When these two teams used to play each year on a yearly basis, they got to see first-hand what some of the top local players could do against each other.
It wasn't really that way when the series resumed in 2021 because West Virginia didn't have any Western Pennsylvania players on its roster.
And it won't be that way again until 2029 when the series resumes.
Now, Panther fans will only get to watch Matt Sieg play others and wonder what if?
For me, to definitively say prospect X can do this would be and out and out lie. The difference between a three-star and a four-star recruit is simply one star, no more, no less.
So, me telling you what Fort Cherry four-star prospect Matt Sieg is capable of doing on the football field will have to wait until I see him in person.
But I can parrot what others think of him.
247Sports has Sieg, his last name spelled with the I before the E, ranked 11th nationally among senior safety prospects and 104th overall. Rivals.com has him a little lower, ranked 17th among all safeties and 184th overall, while ESPN.com puts him 42nd among high school safeties and 162nd overall.
The net of it is he's considered a consensus top 300 national prospect.
According to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Sieg finished his career as the WPIAL's all-time total yardage leader with 12,592 yards passing and rushing.
He rushed for 7,958 yards, which is either the most or second-most in WPIAL history, depending upon who you read. Google searching gives the nod to Sieg, while longtime P-G high school writer/historian Mike White referenced his rushing total being the second-most in conference history in yesterday's online story.
The other two contenders, Fort Cherry alum Mike Vernillo and Hopewell High's Rushel Shell III, both played at WVU, by the way.
All of this brings me to my point: Isn't it fun to see West Virginia and Pitt battling it out for the top Western Pennsylvania prospects again?
Yes, Penn State waved the white flag on Oct. 12, 2025, when James Franklin was fired. Franklin has had the region's top prospects on lockdown for years, continuing a trend that began in the late 1960s when Joe Paterno got things rolling in Happy Valley.
For those of you old enough to remember the Joe Paterno-Jackie Sherrill feud, do you know why Paterno disliked Sherrill so much? Because Sherrill put a stop to Paterno's unfettered access to the city's top football players while he was coaching the Panthers.
Otherwise, Penn State usually took the best and then Pitt and West Virginia typically fought it out for the rest.
That's how it was a couple of months ago before Penn State gave Franklin the boot.
"(Sieg) was solidly committed to Penn State, and every time we would talk to people in Western Pennsylvania it was like this guy was the talk of the whole state," West Virginia coach Rich Rodriguez said. "Everybody in Western Pennsylvania knew him and you watch him play and it's like he's dynamic, he can play a bunch of different positions, and we weren't sure we were in it.
"We tried to be," he continued. "Then, there was a little bit of a crack in there again with what happened (at Penn State) and so we got a chance to stay in it. I think he probably saw there is a great opportunity for him here at safety, and I told him, 'I think you are good enough to play that but also help us on the other side of the ball as well.'"
For accuracy's sake, Uniontown's Rodney Gallagher III was a coveted local player a few years ago who entertained several offers before signing with WVU, but Uniontown is farther out on the periphery of Pittsburgh and much closer to Morgantown than say, Fort Cherry, Aliquippa, McKeesport or Central Catholic.
When you can no longer see the Laurel Highlands, that's when you know you are getting close to the city.
A couple of weeks ago, while listening to prominent Pittsburgher Mike Logan's speech during the Don Nehlen testimonial dinner at Mylan Park, I kept wondering to myself why West Virginia football coaches haven't more aggressively pursued the top WPIAL players in recent years?
According to White, Sieg is just the third WPIAL player that WVU has managed to sign in the past eight recruiting cycles.
Recruiting these guys are a matter of short car rides, not airplane trips!
There was a time when the Mountaineers and Panthers used to battle tooth and nail for players, to the point where former Pitt coach Dave Wannstedt once employed a recruiting strategy of creating a wall around Western Pa.'s top prospects.
Penn State was the wall's focus, of course, but West Virginia always seemed to be its nuisance.
That was during the time when Rodriguez's frequent raids into the Steel City were having some success, a continuation of what Jim Carlen, Bobby Bowden, Frank Cignetti and Don Nehlen had been doing.
Either through neglect or malpractice, some of Pittsburgh's better prospects such as Major Harris, Marc Bulger and Rasheed Marshall eventually found their way down to Morgantown, which always put some extra spice into the Backyard Brawl rivalry.
It's one thing to lose the game, but to also lose recruits … and then to have those recruits turn around and beat you again … well, that's intolerable.
You ask Central Catholic's Bulger what he has to say about Pitt, and he will simply answer "4-0," West Virginia's record against the Panthers when he played at WVU.
What Matt Sieg's last-second decision did yesterday morning for Mountaineer Nation was it created some much-needed excitement and enthusiasm for a fan base that has endured losing seasons in four of the last five years.
It was also a big letdown for the Pitt fans who are most heavily invested in local recruits.
"He's a coach's kid," Rodriguez said. "He's smart and you can tell he's been coached well, and he's 45 minutes up the road in Fort Cherry, so we made a hard, late run at it in the last 24, 48 hours and the staff did a good job with it, coach (Zac) Alley and the guys.
"He's going to be a whole lot of fun for our fans to watch over his career here," Rodriguez concluded.
When these two teams used to play each year on a yearly basis, they got to see first-hand what some of the top local players could do against each other.
It wasn't really that way when the series resumed in 2021 because West Virginia didn't have any Western Pennsylvania players on its roster.
And it won't be that way again until 2029 when the series resumes.
Now, Panther fans will only get to watch Matt Sieg play others and wonder what if?
Players Mentioned
WR
/ FootballRich Rodriguez | Dec. 3
Wednesday, December 03
Reid Carrico | Nov. 29
Saturday, November 29
Jeff Weimer | Nov. 29
Saturday, November 29
Rich Rodriguez | Nov. 29
Saturday, November 29
