Pat Devlin And Poor Roster Management

After the Oregon state game I became a believer. I’m sick of this argument. I’m confident that with pat at Thelma in 08 we still make the rose bowl. Maybe 09 is better. But it doesn’t matter. Especially the 2010 season. Who is to say Devlin doesn’t go pro after 09. Heck let’s go out on a limb and say he plays for a MNC in 08. Who is to say he doesn’t go pro then. Point is, were still in the same boat. And who knows what our qb roster is like right now if he would have won or would have stayed. I still followed him after he left and I wish him well in the next level of his career. O just hope in a few years were not on this same topic with another quarterback….

  It is about mismanagement of talent.
  Penn State has been accused of this for years. Didn’t PSU recruit Jim Kelly? We told him that he would make a great linebacker. He didn’t want to be a linebacker so he went else where. I know it isn’t about what the players want to play. It is what is best for the team.
  There are numerous examples of situations like this. We have seen it before. We will see it again. This situation is not specific to Penn State. Other colleges experience similar scenarios.
  Even though I don’t always agree with the coaches on who gets to play and where they get to play. I know they have had a good track record over the years. I believe there has been many more success stories than failures.

Michael Robinson was drafted in the 4th round in the 06 draft by the 49ers, even if he was drafted more as an overall athlete than as a QB.

he will leave the cupboards “full” ( that really depends on how you feel about our recruiting overall) but the next person in charge will be left with this similar problem. I’m pretty sure the articles here mentioned that transfers were definitely a possibility the moment all of them verbaled to us. So we knew this could happen, I just don’t think anyone thought that 2 players would think about leaving.

I wonder how much of this is because we don’t have a clear offensive identity. Are we a Spread HD team still? Or are we now working around what type of QB we have? It’s still not perfectly clear to me. If the QB’s had a better understanding of how the offense would work with them, maybe they would be content with being a backup to fight for the job the following year.

Seeing Phil Taylor go in the first round bugs me more than the Devlin thing, we could have really used him last year. As we look at the players who have left or been kicked off the team, I wonder what a different staff who didn’t stick to their principals would have done. Maybe Devlin would have started no matter what (ala Pryor his freshman year) and off the field issues would have been brushed under the rug (ala the rest of college football) and we would have seen Taylor, Bell, and others stay at Penn State. But that is not how it is done at PSU, and I am happy with that.

young men not being happy that they weren’t the better player. But yes, I agree there is some lack of development. But what do you recommend that the coaches do? Best thing is to get real time experience for these guys. However, during our 11-2 season with DC, what, did you want him pulled so Newsome could have more experience?

What is your suggestion to manage the talent better?

and PSU has only had one guy drafted so far. Ogbu and Royster are both seen as boderline draft picks.

What happened the last time PSU had 0-1 guys drafted? That’s right…2005.

to recruit, sign and retain one and only one future pro qb (either a 5* prospect, or a 3* prospect that isn’t properly evaluated because only PSU is recruiting him) every 2nd or 3rd year, only. Make sure the kid doesn’t pull a signing day hat trick and change his 17 year old mind, or have a dad that wants a couple hundred grand from an SEC school. Make sure that kid stays out of trouble, doens’t think he deserves to play right away, learns the offense, matures physically, has a skill set that translates to D1 and is a natural leader. Also keep an upperclassman around to fill in if the starter gets hurt and the next future pro qb isn’t seasoned enough yet. Also, this 3rd string qb has to be able to at least manage a game, meaning he could probably start at a lesser school, but not care if he ends up sitting on the bench for five years at Penn State. I, as well, can not understand how Penn State continues to screw this up.

http://www.nfl.com/draft/2011/profiles/patrick-devlin?id=2495145

I never followed too closely, but I got the sense that he was pretty much a lock as a mid-round pick. Maybe I got sniped by PSU haters without even realizing it.

I hope he catches on somewhere. Always thought he was a good kid.

His supporters can suck it now, because in the end, he did exactly what Clark did in the draft, the only difference being that Clark went undrafted going 22-4 at the D1 level, which IMHO, is much more valuable. Devlin wasn’t a 1st or 2nd round pick like everyone was predicting when he left for Delaware. He wasn’t picked. Clark got 2 years of starting FBS experience under his belt, Devlin got 2 years of FCS experience instead of 1 year at a much, much more competitive level.

I hold, and never did hold, any grudges or bad feelings towards Pat, he did what he thought was best for his career, but the relentless illogical “What if…” scenarios that PSU “fans” have been blindly pouting about for two years can finally be silenced once and for all. It’s over, you lost.

 I feel that the only game he might have hepled PSU win instead of lose was the Outback Bowl. (The only close loss was to Michgan State and the passing offense really wasn’t why PSU lost that game.)

Clark was the right choice in 2008. I thought so then and still think so. He is PSU’s third best QB in the Big Ten era after Collins and Robinson.