Steve Jones commented today in pregame on the average experience of the Michigan starters. The Michigan starters average 3.55 years in the program, they’re the oldest in the B1G. Add to that, I believe they had top 20 (could be top 10) classes over each of the last 4 or so years, and you can understand why, with a good coah, they’ve had so much success. We’re obviously nowhere close to that... so I got to thinking how things would be different from an experience and talent perspective if the sanctions weren’t assessed. I’m not sure one can truly quantify the damage they did and I know many feel bringing them up is simply an excuse (btw, they are not an excuse, they’re fact and looking at them as anything but is extremely simple-minded and shows a complete inability to look at our situation objectively) but there’s little doubt the impact is, and has been, huge. I’d also point out that without the sanctions, who knows how all the following guys would have worked out here, or what other kids who, in years 2 and 3 after the sanctions were announced, would have commited but who didn’t even consider us- those are the other kids we’ll never know about and therefore makes quantifying the damage nearly impossible. Anyway, here’s the list I came up with:
JP Holtz; TE
Dorian Johnson; OL
Tommy Shutt; DT
Cam Williams; LB
Armani Reeves; DB
JJ Denman; OL
Jamal Pollard; DL/OL
Joey O’Connor; OL
Tyler Boyd; WR
Thomas Holley; DT (O’Brien casualty)
Ryan Switzer; WR
Will Fuller; WR
Ross Douglas; DB
Greg Webb; DL
Zach Bradshaw; LB
to a lesser extent, Sean Oakman (no margin for kid mistakes- sent packing by O’Brien almost immediately after arriving at Penn State)
plus countless others who immediately stopped considering Penn State after the sanctions hit.
I know some of these kids never made it, but others would clearly have had a positive impact on our program.
Last thought, no sense crying over spilled milk- I get that, and I’m not complaining about this or lamenting “what could have been”, I bring this up to emphasize my point that the sanctions did have a huge impact, still have a huge impact, and will have some impact next year as well...having said that, I still think we have the athletes to beat Michigan today so Go Lions! We ARE!!!
JP Holtz; TE
Dorian Johnson; OL
Tommy Shutt; DT
Cam Williams; LB
Armani Reeves; DB
JJ Denman; OL
Jamal Pollard; DL/OL
Joey O’Connor; OL
Tyler Boyd; WR
Thomas Holley; DT (O’Brien casualty)
Ryan Switzer; WR
Will Fuller; WR
Ross Douglas; DB
Greg Webb; DL
Zach Bradshaw; LB
to a lesser extent, Sean Oakman (no margin for kid mistakes- sent packing by O’Brien almost immediately after arriving at Penn State)
plus countless others who immediately stopped considering Penn State after the sanctions hit.
I know some of these kids never made it, but others would clearly have had a positive impact on our program.
Last thought, no sense crying over spilled milk- I get that, and I’m not complaining about this or lamenting “what could have been”, I bring this up to emphasize my point that the sanctions did have a huge impact, still have a huge impact, and will have some impact next year as well...having said that, I still think we have the athletes to beat Michigan today so Go Lions! We ARE!!!
