[Messiahtosh]

Committed to Penn State University today, live on ESPN News.

It's a done deal. Penn State got one of its biggest verbal commitments when consensus All-American athlete Derrick Williams from Eleanor Roosevelt High in Greenbelt, Md., announced for Penn State today live on ESPNews. Williams, a consensus first-team prep All-American selected the Nittany Lions over Oklahoma, Texas, Florida and Tennessee. Williams' announcement capped off one of the best 10-day recruiting periods in Penn State football recruiting history. From www.bluewhiteillustrated.com



Personally, I'm pretty excited that Penn State got this kid, because now the football team can actually win some games during my time at Penn State!

I'm actually happier for Joe Paterno, since he just turned 78 yesterday, probably the best present he could have gotten. That guy deserves to go out on top, because of the # of players he graduates and the contributions he's made to the sport and to the school. The guy's a legend and his time is definitely not over, I think he'll be back on top once more, before he calls it quits.

[MCQ]

Aren't you guys on a two game winning streak? What more do you want?

C'mon Florida/Urban Meyer, get some solid commitments! Only one person on the Rivals top 100 has Florida beside their name.

[DMBand0026]

High school kids getting essentially recruited for the NFL/NBA/MLB...I don't know if I like it. That's wonderful for that young man, but I still don't know if I like the idea.

[Messiahtosh]

Of what? A kid going to a University to be a student first, and an athlete second? This is Penn State we're talking about, not Oklahoma or Nebraska.

OVERALL RATE FOUR YEAR




1
(T) PENN STATE
78%

1
(T) NOTRE DAME
78%

3
VIRGINIA
75%

4
NEBRASKA
63%

5
USC
61%

6
(T) WISCONSIN
60%

6
(T) FLORIDA STATE
60%

8
(T) MIAMI
58%

8
(T) UCLA
58%

10
TEXAS
57%

11
ARIZONA
55%

12
(T) FLORIDA
52%

12
(T) MICHIGAN
52%

14
VIRGINIA TECH
49%

15
(T) COLORADO
48%

15
(T) PURDUE
48%

17
KANSAS STATE
47%

18
GEORGIA TECH
46%

19
ALABAMA
45%

20
GEORGIA
44%

21
ARIZONA STATE
38%

22
OHIO STATE
36%

23
TENNESSEE
34%

24
TEXAS A & M
32%

25
ARKANSAS
25%

[The Return of the 'nut]

what exactly are those numbers of?

[psmith2.0]

Fifth-grade level reading ability/comprehension?

[ducks]

[Messiahtosh]

Graduation rates of football players from those universities. The numbers I gave are averages over the past four years. However, this year Penn State graduated 84% of of their players, the highest in the nation.

It used to be more amazing, because not only was our graduation rate the highest, we used to have winning seasons as well. Here's hoping things get turned around this coming season.

[johnq]

Any stats to show that they aren't just giving the jocks a free pass?

[Moogs]

Graduation rates don't mean shit if they're allowed to major in cupcake subjects, cut classes on "unimportant days", etc. I'd like to know what percentage of those players (at each university) major in something other than "criminology", "cultural studies" or some other sham of a curriculum.

Other than Stanford, which if you looked hard enough, probably tops that list, Duke (I had to admit it) and maybe Notre Dame and Boston College... almost all of those state universities have athletic programs filled to the brim with cupcake majors. Plus a few real students majoring in business or one of the scientific fields (you know... for the television audience's benefit).

[Messiahtosh]

Do you know anything about Joe Paterno and "The Grand Experiment"?

[Messiahtosh]

Beyond Wins And Losses

"How many football coaches majored in English Literature at an Ivy League school," retired Penn State athletic director Jim Tarman, a Paterno friend since 1950, asked? "When he sits up half the night, as he did for years, doing 'x's' and 'o's' for the next day's practice or next Saturday's game, he always listened to opera. I think the fact that he has such a broad range of interests is one of the reasons our football program has been different."

Paterno always has concentrated on seeing that his student-athletes go to class, devote the proper time to studies and graduate. He often has said he measures success not by the athletic prowess of a particular team but by the number of productive citizens it contributes to society.

"The players who have been most important to the success of Penn State teams," Paterno has said, "have just naturally kept their priorities straight: football a high second, but academics an undisputed first."

The most recent NCAA report for Division I institutions revealed that the Penn State football program had a graduation rate of 68 percent for the entering class of 1991-92 and a four-year average of 80 percent.

In his extraordinary career, Penn State has produced at least one first-team All-America 30 times. More than 200 of his players have signed with National Football League teams and 23 have been first-round draft choices.

Paterno has five former pupils in the College Football Hall of Fame. He also boasts 20 first-team Academic All-Americans, 14 Hall of Fame Scholar-Athletes and 16 NCAA postgraduate scholarship winners.

In a 1995 survey of pro football general managers and personnel directors by The Sporting News, Penn State emerged a clear-cut winner as the college program that best prepares players for the NFL.

"That program is well-rounded from the standpoint that Joe Paterno demands discipline for his players, both academically and on the field," Chicago Bears director of player personnel Rod Graves said. "Standards of character are very high there. The kids practice extremely hard. I don't care whether you are bringing in a free agent or a first-round draft choice, those kids know how to work. Nine times out of 10, you'll never have any problem with those kids off the field."

The Paterno Philanthropy

Significant as it is, Paterno's football portfolio offers but a glimpse of his multi-faceted personality. He has taken on duties away from the field with the same sense of purpose and ambition.

The Paternos have won wide admiration for their philanthropy. Recognizing the difference Penn State has made in their lives, Joe and Sue Paterno, and their family recently gave the University $3.5 million to endow faculty positions and scholarships, and to support two building projects.

Their gift, announced on Jan. 16, 1997 in conjunction with their volunteer service to Penn State, make the Paternos a unique couple among colleges and universities nationwide. Their pledge is believed to be the most generous gift ever made by a collegiate coach and his family to a university.

"I have a theory that Joe coaches not so much for what he can do for football as for what he can do for the University and the community," current Penn State president Graham Spanier said. "And that makes me the luckiest University president in the country."

The Paternos' effort as co-chairs of the campaign to expand Pattee Library included a personal contribution of $250,000 among the $14 million raised. The Penn State Board of Trustees voted to name the new library wing after the Paternos. Construction on the $26.5 million Paterno Library began in April, 1997. The five-story, 122,000-square foot expansion will almost double the size of Pattee Library and is scheduled to open in 1999.

Paterno also was a major contributor of both money and time to the $352 million Campaign for Penn State, which he served as Vice Chair. He also is one of four honorary chairs for the University's forthcoming capital campaign. He and his wife established the Paterno Libraries Endowment in 1984 with gifts totaling $120,000. Subsequent contributions have pushed the Endowment's total to more than $3.8 million.

"I've said it a hundred times," Paterno stated at the time the drive began, "a great library is the heart of a great university, and if we want to remain a big league university, we've got to have a big league library."

"Sue and Joe Paterno are legendary at this institution, not only because of the notable and consistent success of the Nittany Lions, but also because of the values they have espoused over the years," former president Joab Thomas said at the time the Board of Trustees' decision to name the new library wing after the first family of Penn State football was announced.

"Family, learning, loyalty and commitment are prominent among those values. This new library will stand as an appropriate tribute to all that they have done for Penn State."

Paterno also was a donor and committee member on the campaign to build the Bryce Jordan Center and has committed $250,000 to the drive to construct an All-Sports Hall of Fame and Museum on the University Park campus.

The Emphasis On Education

The icon of college coaching has elevated Penn State football to a level matched by only a very few. And, since the day he arrived on the campus in 1950 as a fresh-faced assistant on Rip Engle's new staff, Paterno has proven winning and educating are not mutually exclusive goals.

"His philosophy was that college was getting an education first...," said 1972 All-America linebacker John Skorupan. "I think we always felt we had someone special up there. I was part of the 'Grand Experiment,' that football players can get an education and can talk, that they're not dumb jocks..."

Another of his former players, All-America offensive lineman Dave Joyner, was elected to the GTE/CoSIDA Academic All-American Hall of Fame in 1991. Joyner, now an orthopedic surgeon who served as physician of the 1992 United States Winter Olympic Games team, was the first Penn Stater to be so cited.

"His primary interest in his football players is as members of society," Dr. Joyner offers in retrospect. "He wanted you to be outstanding individuals in everything you did, not just as football players."

Wide receiver Kenny Jackson, who returned to Penn State in 1993 as an assistant coach under Paterno, said his old coach "doesn't realize how much I respect what he did for me, for my family, and other Penn State football players. He doesn't understand how much he helped us, not just from a football standpoint, but from an emotional and dedication standpoint.

"He doesn't realize," Jackson continued, "how much so many guys out there think of him. And if you walked in a room, walked up to him and said, 'Thank you,' he wouldn't want to hear it. He wouldn't even want to listen to it. "But he needs to hear it. He needs to have people come back and say thanks. It's no different than it is with your own father. He was my father when I was here..."

[Moogs]

I never said a word about Paterno or PSU (which is known to be better about these things than most big state university programs). Though the lengths you go to defend him is telling...

Anyway, I said the graduation rates you posted for most of those other schools mean precisely nothing because there's no context to them.

[johnq]

Longer posts are not "more true" than shorter posts.

It usually indicates the opposite.

[psmith2.0]

Uh oh. Then I'm in trouble...

[DMBand0026]

Paul, you're exempt from that

[Messiahtosh]

Joe Paterno is not nicknamed St. Joe for nothing. He's a real role model, this day in age, someone worthy of being admired by the youth and the public. I can only hope to be as accomplished, unwavering and dedicated to doing things the right and passionate way.

[Moogs]

You seem to be operating under the delusion that Joe Paterno has control over the student athlete curricula at PSU, or that he somehow is the high authority there. While Joe is very definitely a class act and a role model for coaches everywhere (and for people in general), the realities of competitive collegiate athletics dictates things aren't as simple as you seem to believe.

While I'm sure PSU has a good share of legitimate student-athletes, majoring in useful fields with classes that require real work, I am also equally sure you could find an uncomfortably large number of athletes there who get away with a lot of crap. Maybe not a majority, but does it have to be a majority for it to be a part of the larger disgrace of college athletes not having real academics demanded of them like everyone else?

[SKMDC]

Originally Posted by johnq Longer posts are not "more true" than shorter posts. It usually indicates the opposite.

Plus it wasn't written by messiahtosh, I'm sure he's not intentionally trying to pass it off as his own, unfortunately I've been exposed to enough of his homework to know that he didn't write it.
In all propriety, he should credit who the author is, and out of which self-serving media guide it came from.

This isn't to say that he doesn't speak the truth, Joe Paterno was a fine coach and still is a fine person, albeit one who doesn't know how to let go.

Another note, all athletic graduation rates should be compared to the entire school's graduation rates. Most programs hold up a lot better under that criteria.

[johnq]

I wasn't commenting on the truth of the article so much as long article posts tend to mean the person is desperate.

[Messiahtosh]

You just don't know about Joe Paterno, the standards to which he makes his athletes compete on, and the way he recruits his players to ensure a high calibur student-athlete.

Joe won't recruit any player that scored under 1,000 on the SATs. The majority of his players have high SAT scores and 3.0 or better GPAs.

[The Return of the 'nut]

Originally Posted by Messiahtosh You just don't know about Joe Paterno, the standards to which he makes his athletes compete on, and the way he recruits his players to ensure a high calibur student-athlete. Joe won't recruit any player that scored under 1,000 on the SATs. The majority of his players have high SAT scores and 3.0 or better GPAs.

over 1,000 and a 3.0 are not high scores.

USC recruits mostly athletes with over 1000s.

and i find it extremely doubtful tha the wont recruit ANY player below 1000 or a 3.0. mostly because its not true.

[Moogs]

Over a 1000 and 3.0... sounds like that's pulled out of your ass. If I didn't think you'd bend the truth, I'd ask you how many PSU student-athletes (especially for the big-time sports) you know on a personal basis. I'd further ask you where you got those numbers... PSU student-athlete recruiting pamphlet? Student-athlete guidelines binder?

Or maybe you just picked a couple arbitrary numbers that society in general deem to "OK scores", assuming we'd accept it and join you on the Paterno altar. Kid, your heart is in the right place but you are one of the most naive people I've seen on this board.

Not a slam; we were all that way to some degree at your age, but you need to stop being so sure of yourself and so proud of what you think you know. Whether it's about music, college sports, computers or whatever. It's OK to say "I'm not sure" once in a while and/or to admit that everything you're associated with isn't the absolute "best ev@r ™".

[DMBand0026]

A somewhat educated chimp could pull a 1,000 on the SAT. And a 3.0 GPA is barely acceptable.

[Messiahtosh]

I'm a Mac user arent I? That gives what I say a little bit more credence than the average Joe.