Only Todd Atkins Until Penn State Football

He's number 6 on the All-Time Sacks list at Dear Old State.  That's right - #58 in your programs, Todd Atkins, was a hell raiser on the foosball field.  The single-A, Laurel (WPIAL) product got an in-home visit from the Old Man himself:

"It’s funny, Joe Paterno came to Laurel High School and we sat in the school and he wanted me to come to Penn State," Atkins said. "Because Penn State had a habit of recruiting kids with bigger frames and then switching them and putting some weight on them, I said right to Joe’s face that I want a shot to play inside linebacker. If I can’t cut it there, I’d go wherever he wanted me to go, but I want a shot. He told me that they were recruiting me as an inside linebacker, and that’s where they wanted me to play."

Big hands, big feet, big heads, big frames - and then moving them into positions of need based on where they might eat themselves.  Sounds like a plan, doesn't it, Penn State faithful?  Well, Todd ended up at defensive end.  There, he made life miserable for brand new Big Ten opponents as a starter on the 1994 and 1995 squads.