Quote:No...I don't expect a college to expect Pro Bowlers at EVERY position.
Heck, as great as USC and Miami have been at producing NFL players, they haven't produced great players at EVERY position.
Can Penn State improve the NFL fates of their DBs? Possibly, by successfully recruiting better players and putting them in schemes that translate to the NFL. If Amos has anything going for him, is that his former college coach, O'Brien, coached in the NFL before becoming Penn St. coach. He likely implemented some NFL defensive principles and for that matter, offensive principles he saw every day in practice.
For as many players Alabama has produced over the years, for a long time, they hadn't produced anything resembling a stud WR, which was odd, because over the years, they produced great QBs (Starr, Namath, Stabler), at least one great TE (Ozzie Newsome) and great OLs. It wasn't until Nick Saban came in, after stints in the NFL, that Alabama started producing stud WRs in Julio Jones and now Amari Cooper.
Maybe this is what it will take for Penn State to produce good DBs.
But until they do, I will be skeptical about the long term pro prospects of Penn State DBs.
I haven't been proven wrong yet on that stance.
Quote:I'm with Bullseye on this one. The reason this PSU discussion is unique is that Paterno coached PSU for 40 years so the philosophy didn't change --- in his system the DL and LBs made the plays and his secondary was solid role players. THIS WILL CHANGE MOVING FORWARD IN ABOUT 3 YEARS because James Franklin likes speed and understands what it's going to take to compete against Urban at OSU. James Franklin recruits out of the south whereas JoePa was a little more regional (with certain exceptions of course).
The difference when people bring FSU TEs into the mix is O'Leary is Jimbo's recruit so put aside the Bowden philosophy that didn't feature TEs in the past and insert Jimbo's philosophy which is more of a pro style philosophy.
Perhaps the argument should be made that you don't want a "Paterno" secondary rather than labeling it PSU.
The odd thing is that for a long time, going back to Bruce Clark, Penn State didn't produce any DL worth anything, either.
I thought from a physical standpoint, Courtney Brown could break through with that, but I was never sold on his production at Penn State. Jimmy Kennedy bombed.
The Giants had a rotational guy on one of their recent Super Bowl teams who was decent (can't recall his name). The two guys to really break through for them-Tamba Hali and Cameron Wake-both changed positions and now both play OLB. Only Wake seemed to have major impact as a DE.
But their LBs? Even until the very end of the Paterno era, they were always producing stud LBs.
Now if what you say about Franklin is true and he is putting a larger emphasis on speed, then their DBs and receivers should be better going forward.
Worst to 1st. Curse Reversed!
