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WR/athlete Derrick Williams (6-0, 190, 4.4) of Greenbelt (Roosevelt), Md. -- considered by many to be the finest football player in the country -- announced Wednesday that he's committing to .... Penn State?

Apparently he wants to play for a team on a downward spiral, that hasn't had a good passing game in decades and for a coach who might get shoved out any day now. Good thinking, son.

SMUGUY,
Just to play the other side of this.
1. Close to Home
2. Strong Tradition
3. BCS Conference

I'd hope other kids would look at the top two when looking at SMU

Merry Xmas

Joe Paterno is stubbornly destroying the program he built. Its long past time for him to go but he has put the university in the role as a villiam when he ought to get his [deleted] out. The guy is something like 80 years old-come on -what recruit is willing to go to a school where -God willing- he won't know who his coach will be?

Apparently
WR/athlete Derrick Williams (6-0, 190, 4.4) of Greenbelt (Roosevelt), Md. -- considered by many to be the finest football player in the country --

Well said, Stallion. Very well said.
Paterno should have retired a dozen years ago. The Coke-bottle glasses and the black cleats lost their magic years ago.
Happy holidays to all PonyFans and their families.

Well, they now have two of the top 10 players in the country, as they have a committment from the number one corner in the country as well. And Williams will probably be a nice pair with the Morelli kid who was the #2 QB in the country last year coming out of high school.

If we could only have such recruiting problems.

Posted by Stallion:

Joe Paterno is stubbornly destroying the program he built. Its long past time for him to go but he has put the university in the role as a villiam when he ought to get his [deleted] out. The guy is something like 80 years old-come on -what recruit is willing to go to a school where -God willing- he won't know who his coach will be?

Stallion - You might not understand Penn State or Paterno.

Paterno is restocking the program for a good run in 2005 and immediate positive impact by his successor in the future.

Penn State had a consensus top 15 recruiting class in February 2004. So far, the current recruiting class being assembled includes 2 (Justin King and Derrick Williams) of the top ten (Rivals.com) HS players in the nation. Penn State is in the running for other top national talent. High-quality recruits want to play for Paterno and Penn State - it is an awesome place to play football and get an education.

Penn State has had losing seasons in 4 of the last 5 years. Prior to that, Penn State only had 1 losing season since 1966 when Paterno became head coach. Paterno joined the Penn State staff as an assistant coach in 1950. His teams have won 10 or more games in a season 18 times, had 20 finishes in the top 10 and 29 finishes in the top 20. His list of achievements (2 national championships) is almost endless. Beyond gridiron success he is a community leader, fund raiser, educator, university ambassador and a quality person. He and his wife have personally contributed more that $4 million to PSU. He is directly/indirectly responsible for hundreds of millions in contributions to Penn State annual and capital campaigns - the university acknowledges that fact. His lifetime of service to Penn State and the student body have earned him a special place in Happy Valley.

In this era where the entirety of most head football coaches’ relationship with their employer is – you pay me a lot of money and I win games (there is nothing wrong with that business-only approach) – Paterno is completely unique.

Are PSU fans frustrated by the team’s fall from elite status? Yes! Do many want the HC transition to happen now? Yes! But, there is no way that Paterno would be fired. He has strong and long friendships throughout the university including on the Board of Trustees and the general PSU community is loyal to him.

Penn State made previous (last few years) recruiting mistakes (too many early commitments – players did not develop, not enough quality receivers, linemen that did not develop – linemen were quick but not strong enough for weekly Big 10 battles) that propelled the program into its losing streak. Predictable offensive play calling and a too cautious / reactive defensive scheme were also issues. Those problems really started to be worked out late in the 2004 season especially with the OL.

In 2005 Penn State returns 9 of 11 starters from a 2004 national top 10 ranked defense. In fact, the 2 non-returning starters are the first 2 a DC would want to lose from the starting squad. Two PSU linebackers (Dan Connor and Paul Posluszny) will likely earn All-American honors in 2005. The strength of PSU’s dominating 2005 defense will be its two-deep defensive line. PSU’s offense only lacked quality receivers (down-field play-makers) (previous recruiting miscalculations) (February 2005 recruits will help) and improved performance from the returning line of which 4 of 5 starters earned some type of All-American recognition in HS. Anthony Morelli, a national top 3 HS QB recruit in February 2004 will compete with others for 2005 starting position.

Tom Bradley, the current DC will likely be PSU’s next HC. Most recruits and fans understand that. He is smart, personable and an excellent recruiter.

Add the following to davidsmu94’ Penn State attractions list:

Beautiful campus / excellent academic and athletic facilities / nationally recognized academics at a top public university / the unique pride and loyalty that Penn Staters (students and alumni) feel and exhibit for the school / community spirit / 110 + thousand fans in the stadium for each home game / foremost tailgating in America / tradition , etc.

Based on what is currently happening inside the Penn State program, I believe that Joe Paterno will go out as a winner.

Top recruits sense that too.

Cheesesteak wrote:Posted by Stallion:

Joe Paterno is stubbornly destroying the program he built. Its long past time for him to go but he has put the university in the role as a villiam when he ought to get his [deleted] out. The guy is something like 80 years old-come on -what recruit is willing to go to a school where -God willing- he won't know who his coach will be?

Stallion - You might not understand Penn State or Paterno.

Paterno is restocking the program for a good run in 2005 and immediate positive impact by his successor in the future.

Penn State had a consensus top 15 recruiting class in February 2004. So far, the current recruiting class being assembled includes 2 (Justin King and Derrick Williams) of the top ten (Rivals.com) HS players in the nation. Penn State is in the running for other top national talent. High-quality recruits want to play for Paterno and Penn State - it is an awesome place to play football and get an education.

Penn State has had losing seasons in 4 of the last 5 years. Prior to that, Penn State only had 1 losing season since 1966 when Paterno became head coach. Paterno joined the Penn State staff as an assistant coach in 1950. His teams have won 10 or more games in a season 18 times, had 20 finishes in the top 10 and 29 finishes in the top 20. His list of achievements (2 national championships) is almost endless. Beyond gridiron success he is a community leader, fund raiser, educator, university ambassador and a quality person. He and his wife have personally contributed more that $4 million to PSU. He is directly/indirectly responsible for hundreds of millions in contributions to Penn State annual and capital campaigns - the university acknowledges that fact. His lifetime of service to Penn State and the student body have earned him a special place in Happy Valley.

In this era where the entirety of most head football coaches’ relationship with their employer is – you pay me a lot of money and I win games (there is nothing wrong with that business-only approach) – Paterno is completely unique.

Are PSU fans frustrated by the team’s fall from elite status? Yes! Do many want the HC transition to happen now? Yes! But, there is no way that Paterno would be fired. He has strong and long friendships throughout the university including on the Board of Trustees and the general PSU community is loyal to him.

Penn State made previous (last few years) recruiting mistakes (too many early commitments – players did not develop, not enough quality receivers, linemen that did not develop – linemen were quick but not strong enough for weekly Big 10 battles) that propelled the program into its losing streak. Predictable offensive play calling and a too cautious / reactive defensive scheme were also issues. Those problems really started to be worked out late in the 2004 season especially with the OL.

In 2005 Penn State returns 9 of 11 starters from a 2004 national top 10 ranked defense. In fact, the 2 non-returning starters are the first 2 a DC would want to lose from the starting squad. Two PSU linebackers (Dan Connor and Paul Posluszny) will likely earn All-American honors in 2005. The strength of PSU’s dominating 2005 defense will be its two-deep defensive line. PSU’s offense only lacked quality receivers (down-field play-makers) (previous recruiting miscalculations) (February 2005 recruits will help) and improved performance from the returning line of which 4 of 5 starters earned some type of All-American recognition in HS. Anthony Morelli, a national top 3 HS QB recruit in February 2004 will compete with others for 2005 starting position.

Tom Bradley, the current DC will likely be PSU’s next HC. Most recruits and fans understand that. He is smart, personable and an excellent recruiter.

Add the following to davidsmu94’ Penn State attractions list:

In 2002 they had a Bottom 15 ranked class...

Cheesesteak wrote:Beautiful campus / excellent academic and athletic facilities / nationally recognized academics at a top public university / the unique pride and loyalty that Penn Staters (students and alumni) feel and exhibit for the school / community spirit / 110 + thousand fans in the stadium for each home game / foremost tailgating in America / tradition , etc.

Based on what is currently happening inside the Penn State program, I believe that Joe Paterno will go out as a winner.

Top recruits sense that too.

- Beautiful campus? No. Not ugly, but nothing extraordinary.
- Excellent facilities? Yes.
- Nationally recognized ....? Not bad, but not to be confused (among public universities) with the likes of Cal, Michigan, North Carolina, Virginia, etc.
- Unique pride? Um .... Penn State fans are proud, to be sure, but no more so than any other longtime national-profile team like Nebraska, Ohio State, Texas A&M, Michigan, or the world's two most elitist "we're better than everyone else" programs: Texas and Notre Dame.
- Community spirit? Yes, but not unique. Spend a few Saturdays wandering around the campuses at Texas A&M, Clemson, Ohio State, Tennessee, etc., and you'll see similar "every game is the super bowl" atmospheres.
- 110K fans? Impressive, no doubt about it. Right up there with Tennessee and Michigan.
- Foremost tailgating? Sorry .... I've been to several games in Happy Valley, and they put on a good pre-game tailgate. But they've got nothing on a gamen at Alabama, Auburn, Georgia, Nebraska, Texas A&M, Ole Miss, or my personal favorite (for tailgating): LSU.
- Tradition? Good. But there are many with similar levels of tradition.

JoePa has been a great coach. And he's got some terrific players coming in, but you can bet he's not the one out there scouting HS games on Friday nights. He has a good staff of assistants, and they're doing a good job recruiting. For someone who claims to have nothing more than the best interest of Penn State at heart, he has stayed about 10 years too long. It's time to let a new coach infuse some new blood at the top of a once-proud program.

Besides, it was Paterno's team that was handed a national championship that rightfully should have gone to SMU a couple decades ago.

Paterno's recruiting classes from 2002-2005 have been or are ranked 21st, 93rd, 14th and 33 rd in the nation. Viewing it from average rating per recruit its 16th, 12th, 12th and 38th. They aren't getting the top level of talent they need to compete at their traditional level. Penn St should be compared to the top teams in the country and they are far behind the OUs, UTs, USCs, Michigans, Ohio Sts, Florida Sts, Floridas, Tennessees, Miamis, LSU, Georgias etc in talent level with whom they should be analyzed.

Red+BlueDude –

I thought about your comments and instead of splitting hairs…

PSU has an attractive campus in a beautiful setting.

PSU is one of the Top 10 public universities east of the Mississippi (where it recruits).

PSU has exceptional school pride. I have attended football games at Texas A&M, Ohio State, Nebraska, Michigan, Tennessee, Texas and Notre Dame (not Clemson) from your list. PSU pride and enthusiasm is equal to the best of them.

110K+ fans in the stadium. PSU (second largest football stadium) is one of only four (UM, PSU, OSU, UT) schools with stadium seating capacity exceeding 100K.

Tailgating – I’ve tailgated at Georgia, Nebraska and Texas A&M (not Alabama, Auburn LSU or Ole Miss) from your list and I rate PSU highest of the three. Two acquaintances of mine are Auburn season ticket holders and even they are not that impressed with Auburn tailgating compared to other SEC schools. I’ve heard positive reports about Ole Miss and LSU tailgating. I intend to experience the atmosphere there sometime in the future.

My motivation for presenting PSU’s advantages/potential came from others posts expressing surprise that top recruits are committing to PSU and saying that Paterno is “stubbornly destroying the program…”

Paterno would not intentionally hurt the university he loves but he is clearly finding it difficult to leave the sideline. In a closing line in a recent article about Paterno a writer said “when you built the house it is hard to turn in the keys”.

I believe that in 2005 Penn State/Paterno will have the pieces in place to return to the top 20 and let Paterno retire as a winner.

SMU has some exceptional non-revenue sport coaches who are winners.

It is my hope that during my future lifetime, an SMU revenue sport HC is so successful at SMU for an *extended period* and is so devoted to SMU (including consistently displaying the highest standards of integrity) and is such a positive force for SMU’s public image/perception/appeal that I am sad when he retires or moves on to another challenge.

That would be a proud day on the Hilltop.