Alex Karabin Gets Scholarship

As expected, starting center Alex Karabin got his scholarship today, according to Associate AD E.J. Borghetti (via Twitter):

Congratulations to 5th-year senior walk-on center Alex Karabin. Received scholarship today!

Karabin, understandably, was pleased:

"I guess I was expecting it, but I'm still a little bit surprised," Karabin said. "It's nice to see it actually come through. It means a lot."

As I mentioned before, you've got to find a way to get a starter a scholarship. Khaynin Mosley-Smith's misfortune was Karabin's gain as Mosley-Smith's academic issues opened up the scholarship.

He's seen his share of guys start ahead of him over the years and rather than go to the service academies that offered him a scholarship, he chose to walk-on at Pitt. It's got to be hard to motivate yourself at times when you're putting in the same amount of work as others, but not reaping all of the awards. Karabin talked about staying motivated in Sunday's PG piece:

College football also is filled with walk-ons, but only a select few are good enough to earn starting positions. Karabin is now one of the few, but he had to endure constant competition as the coaching staff continually brought in scholarship players to challenge him. He most recently beat out Lippert, a converted defensive lineman.

"As a walk-on, you can't really slack off," Karabin said. "You have to go out there every day and get better every day. As long as the coaches see that, it helps out a lot. It's not like you ever really get mad about it. It's more like motivation. You say to yourself, 'I have to get better.'

Karabin is part of an offensive line with three new starters. The offensive line will largely determine Pitt's success this year and I'm glad Pitt was able to take care of him.