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#11

Parsons will be the benchmark, but you are very correct on Bowman.

Love AC #11. You can tell when he is in the game.

11 and 23 make plays.
Based on my off the top check only Lenny Moore (5) & Jack Ham (6) have been on the NFL All-Pro team more than Bowman. That's pretty large.
Poz, Lee, Conlan, Arrington, Buttle, Mehl, Millen never were all-pro.
Cam Wake was all-pro once.
 
Will people please stop forgetting to mention Navarro Bowman?
Arrington & Parsons are great but .... Bowman IS the bar for #11. He is a 4 time 1st team NFL all-pro. I'm not even sure if Jack Ham did that.
LaVar was never named to the all-pro team. Parsons is off to a good start 1 for 1 in all-pro.
NFL success has little to do with a player's time in college. Bowman was a very good player and should be mentioned. Without doing research, my sense is he was in the category of Brandon short at PSU, which is good company. You all can decide how that compares to others.
 
The bar for #11 at PSU has nothing to do with the NFL. It's about what each #11 does in Blue & White. And Arrington started the #11 standard and tradition at PSU, and set the bar for #11 at PSU.
 
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Bowman never got to be the man at PSU. That’s what happens when you have Poz, Connor, Shaw, and Lee setting the standard before you get your chance. I think he had injury issues (sports hernia?) and never got the attention he deserved. Again, Lee was the focus.

Ironically, he was somewhat overshadowed in SF by Willis. But he was absolutely a great player. Awful that he tore up his knee.
 
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My heart hurts.
No, actually it doesn't.
Carter will play for his team instead of himself.
 
The bar for #11 at PSU has nothing to do with the NFL. It's about what each #11 does in Blue & White. And Arrington started the #11 standard and tradition at PSU, and set the bar for #11 at PSU.
I disagree wholeheartedly. Dan Connor had a better college career than Micah Parsons but nobody knows who he is or what number he was because he didn't excel past college. The pro career definitely matters in how a school, number or player is viewed. How was Tom Brady's college career? Answer, about the same as Drew Hensons.
Players are perceived by and are more than their couple year college career whether you like it or not.
If we are going by college careers than let's talk about #31 instead of #11 because Paul P is the greatest college linebacker EVER at PSU and his cohort Mr. Conlan would form a more formidable duo with that number than Parsons and Arrington in college. Novarro Bowman had the best overall career a Penn State defender has had since Jack Ham, yes it's true. He might be in line for NFL HOF with his 4 1st team all-pros.

A jersey number, or its perception, is about the whole of a player, not a tiny piece.
 
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I disagree wholeheartedly. Dan Connor had a better college career than Micah Parsons but nobody knows who he is or what number he was because he didn't excel past college. The pro career definitely matters in how a school, number or player is viewed. How was Tom Brady's college career? Answer, about the same as Drew Hensons.
Players are perceived by and are more than their couple year college career whether you like it or not.
If we are going by college careers than let's talk about #31 instead of #11 because Paul P is the greatest college linebacker EVER at PSU and his cohort Mr. Conlan would form a more formidable duo with that number than Parsons and Arrington in college. Novarro Bowman had the best overall career a Penn State defender has had since Jack Ham, yes it's true. He might be in line for NFL HOF with his 4 1st team all-pros.

A jersey number, or its perception, is about the whole of a player, not a tiny piece.
Dan Connor had a longer career and made a larger overall impact on PSU football than Parsons because he played for more games at PSU as he didn't have to deal with Covid abreviated seasons, the pressure to sit out which in Parson's case was also influenced by him having a child, and by the current 3 and out model for top college players. But Connor was not the disruptive force that Parsons was, even on Connor's best day.

The NFL career of any former PSU player may help PSU recruiting, but it is no direct add on to the body of work or the level of play that a player had when they suited up for PSU and worked to make plays for PSU and help PSU win games.

Yep, the #11 jersey number is about what that player did at The Pennsylvania State University. On the field.
 
Parsons will be the benchmark, but you are very correct on Bowman.

Love AC #11. You can tell when he is in the game.

11 and 23 make plays.

Carter at Will, Jacobs at Sam and our defense HUMS. Hopefully Jacobs returns and has an even better year in '23.
 
Micah Parsons has so much acclaim because of how much his team improved with him on the field. If he had the same stats but the defense remained mediocre, not so much.

PSU has 3 players I can think of who fit that category. Mike Reid, Shane Conlan, and Poz. Each one of them changed their era. Ham may be one of the greatest pro players ever, but Reid ushered in the modern era of PSU football. Conlan was the undisputed leader during a great run of PSU teams. Lee may have been better but Poz led PSU out of defensive mediocrity through sheer willpower.

It is tough to rank players from different eras with different roles. But Carter seems to be off to a great start as he has changed the defense as opposed to simply playing well.
 
Dan Connor had a longer career and made a larger overall impact on PSU football than Parsons because he played for more games at PSU
But Connor was not the disruptive force that Parsons was, even on Connor's best day.
Come on man, seriously?
Dan Connor was a two time 1st team All American and winner of the Chuck Bednarik Award in 2007 as the best defensive player in college football.
Such items make this no contest. Not even close.
 
Come on man, seriously?
Dan Connor was a two time 1st team All American and winner of the Chuck Bednarik Award in 2007 as the best defensive player in college football.
Such items make this no contest. Not even close.
Your thoughts are not my thoughts. LA was and is a PSU legend, and the most exciting defensive player in college football during his PSU career.

Move on.
 
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