Williams was the #1 recruit. Short of winning two national championships and a Heisman, is there any way for him to not be somewhat overrated? The tone of Morelli’s piece is the shameful part. He has a right to think Williams is overrated and might be a fourth round pick, but he’s being a huge dick about it, and for no apparent good reason.

Just a weird, weird column that is getting the flogging it deserves.

But I believe this is the guy that predicted another 9-4 season during the spring practice timeframe, and basically published that we’d be 3rd best in the B10 if we were lucky. It was published in Town & Gown’s spring preview edition, I’ll look over it at home but I always remember thinking “boy this guy’s probably Morelli’s 3rd cousin and wants us to fail now that he’s gone”.

he was a sports editor when I was in high school…basically I ran an 80 yard touchdown on a stripped ball and had it called back on a clip, that on film didn’t occur the guy flat out fell, and it was 20 yards behind the ball. So we lose the game by less than a td to our rivals who are a whole classification larger than us and alway have more talent. This guy comes up to me, a 17 year old kid who just lost the most frustrating game in his life, doesn’t introduce himself and isn’t holding a pen or paper or a tape recorder and asks me if I felt screwed? Hell yes I answered…next day in the paper the line says “local team feels screwed”….the guy is a douche who will do anything to promote himself.

how (and why) do you taste your cat’s breath?

2ndly – I want to know how “recruiting hype” naturally translates to “appreciated draft stock” – 9 out 10 college stars are not NFL “material” – and that has nothing to do with how they performed in college – it’s because the game is different -

Did D-Will live up to the “hype”? I think he did. He was recruited as an “athlete” and that’s what he’s been – he’s also been a motivator, team player, star amateur recruiter and Pontiac Game Changing Momenter.

I see JNitt and millzners have already sorta beaten me to this, but does anyone else think “Chris” is actually Anthony? I mean, I’m sure Anthony wants to blame someone beside himself.

he made big plays. he started as a freshman, and was working the big 10 before be busted his arm against michigan. he started the recruiting revolution the second he committed. he was a leader. he never got into any trouble. he graduated. every time he touched the ball on a kickoff he was a real threat.

in short, derrick williams is one of the finest examples of a football player to ever enter the PSU lockerroom.

Morelli OnLion: A Better Whitehouse (I can’t embed the link work right now: www.gantdaily.com/news/67/ARTICLE/37951/2008-12-02.html)
…

4. Bag the Pompoms — if there’s anything that looks cheesy, it’s a pompom. It’s fine for cheerleaders, but to hand them out to the student section simply looks bad. What year is it? 1975? Why not give the fans a white towel, a white placard or better yet, white thundersticks?
Pompoms are very dated and are fine for a junior high school football game. But Penn State needs to change with the times on this one.
Pompoms are passé.

Nothing screams failed minor league baseball team like thundersticks! Bonus points for not remembering Penn State + Thundersticks = Epic Failure of the 2003 Capital One Bowl.

Judging a high school recruit’s success by his NFL draft round prediction is ridiculous. By that measure Tommie Frazier, arguably the greatest college football player of the past twenty years, was a huge bust because he was undrafted.

What is the main thing that keeps D-Wheels from being a top pick? Size. You can’t coach him to grow three inches and add twenty pounds. By every other measure he’s one of the greatest players to put on a Penn State uniform.

clearfield sucks, and apparently it has rubbed off on this doosh. dwill deserves a bronze statue for everything he has done for psu. He recruited more kids than jaypa, anderson, kenney, and hall combined. The Johnson express that ran through Maryland was conducted by dwill. OMG CONTROVERSY !?

apparently if your a morelli, your an idiot.

The way the article is written is sensational and quite frankly, dumb…

To say nothing of Derrick Williams’ ability as a leader and what he means to his team, if you look at what he accomplished on the field, I don’t think it’s wrong to say that he did not reach the level that many thought he would coming out of high-school. Partially because of injury, partially because of a certain QB I probably don’t have to name… etc. Of course, with the hype that surrounds that kind of recruit, it’s virtually impossible to reach that level. What I don’t quite get is that he certainly wasn’t a flop either and yet this author treats him as one.

What I don’t quite understand is the pot-shots this guy is taking as Williams’ moves on from Penn State when he has done nothing but be a consumate player and a guy that I’d gladly take on my team… why try to tear a player like him down when there are a number of other recent examples that probably deserve it much more? If nothing else they should be talking about how well Williams navigated some tough times at State College and persevered to be a leader on a great football team in his final year.

Then again, I’m a Michigan fan, what do I know?

…that a western Pa. “reporter” is belittling someone from Penn State/any team that doesn’t wear black and gold? Oh with a mild exception for a Penn State player from Western Pa.? Well, I simply cannot comprehend anybody from the Pittsburgh area being so provincial, your allegation is baseless.

After watching that video about Williams, I’m surprised the coaches didn’t bench him more. He stinks.

Chris Morelli = complete idiot.
I just don’t understand the really nasty tone to the article. Derrick Williams has been 100% class from day 1.

Maybe he didn’t live up to his five star hype, but the road is littered with five star recruits that never played a meaningful down in a blue and white uniform. So to call him the most overrated ever is just stupid.

I agree with everything in Mr. Morelli’s article.

Quarless really should have stepped up and….

wait…

…the article is about DWill not living up to expectations?

You sir, are clearly on crack.

on the BWI thread, I want to party with you, cowboy.

and something that would make it easier to evaluate how a WR has done (since pure stats are particularly hard with a WR, since you depend on the performance of a QB, a RB, an OL, and other WRs to put up “great” states)

But what percentage of his time was he unable to create separation from a defender during a pass play?

How well did he run his routes?

What % of “catchable” balls thrown his way did he actually catch? etc.

I recall in 2006 there were actually a lot of dropped passes by him, but less so in 2007, and I can’t recall too many big drops in 2008.

Also, Robinson, the other Morelli_, and Clark all had Butler and Norwood to also throw too (along with some decent receiving RBs), which both helps and hurts his stats (helps, since it takes some pressure off him, but hurts since it really spreads the wealth). Combine that with a strong tendency for PSU to “run first” (though that improved a lot this year) and you get performance like D-Will had.

And hopefully he laughed at it….all the way to the bank, where he will soon be cashing millions of dollars. For every player worth noting, there will be an occassional writer to say the guy is overrated in some way. So the only thing you can really take from this article is that Derrick Williams is worth noting. Big news there. I for one would LOVE to see Williams drafted in the 1st or 2nd round just so I can kindly email this fella and tell him to once again go back and edit his article.

Why are there so many dumdums in the world.

Is he really a Pitt alum/fan/drop-out reporting on PSU recruiting? I’ve always been curious as to how Scouts, Inc. can have us as the 11th recruiting class in the nation, yet Rivals has us at 25th. I say this, having absolutely no idea how they evaluate these kids, but it is strange to me.

…if i ever meet anyone with that last name i’m going to run screaming since apparently the problem wasn’t just w/ “he who shall not be named”

i thought about writing something to this tool about all the amazing things DWill has done for PSU…but then i realized it would be like arguing w/ a 3 year old. clearly this guy has no concept for reality, and in the end i would just end up hurting myself…

however, i’m totally up for gathering up these ppl and sending them to their own little island.

make sure the island you send them to can only receive the internet, not allow them to write or post.