Safety Ray Vinopal left the Michigan football program last week to be closer to his family. To do that, Vinopal, who is from Youngstown, Ohio, decided to eventually transfer to Pittsburgh, which is about three hours closer to his hometown than Ann Arbor.
↵Vinopal played as a true freshman and even started some games toward the end of last season for the Wolverines. His position coach at Michigan was Tony Gibson, who is now at Pittsburgh. That and the fact that Pittsburgh is both a BCS program and closer to home contributed to his decision to pick the Panthers as his future college.
↵↵↵"Pitt was that place," said Vinopal, a Mooney High graduate. "I wanted to play football at the highest level I could.
↵"Pitt gives me the chance to play big-time ball and be 55 minutes to an hour from home."
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Vinopal plans to finish the semester at Michigan and then transfer to Pittsburgh.