The Lions' Pride

What I make of it is that we don't have any "playmakers" in the defensive backfield. Considering not only the quantity but also the quality (in terms of size, speed and experience) of the kids we have back there, Butler has done an exceptional job. We are 11th in the country in average yards/completion. We're not giving up a lot of huge completions. Of the seven TD passes given up, one was the tipped pass vs Ohio, one was a halfback option and one was a garbage time TD against Temple. That's a hell of a lot better than I expected when the season started.

Good point. Unfortunately some folks can't seem to compliment this staff without taking a shot at the previous staff.

Well the point was that there are 4 DB's that aren't playing for Penn State for a variety of reasons. Kind of like our depth issues at QB next year. So you can't completely fault the old staff when the depth problem was out of their control to an extent.

Pullium - never made it on campus. Agree. Staff fault.
Wallace - has never shown anything. Absolutely no reason to believe he would have been any more of a factor than Jesse Delle Valle. He would be a body though.
Thomas - Staff did a good job of recruiting him.
Drake - Old staff showed zero interest in him playing DB.

The 4th I was referring to was Givens who would fit into the same category as Pullium I guess.

While I agree that they definitely need/needed more Db's, you can't really expect them to predict everything that happened. We didn't even know Givens wasn't eligible until after NSD if I recall correctly.

Also, didn't Hodges come in at safety originally?

Frankly...considering Thomas played what, 3 games and then couldn't get on the field for another 2 years or something, how could anyone really rely on him to begin with? Guy was obviously a knucklehead and the old staff should certainly have been accounting for him not playing. And gee, surprise he's not playing. And probably wouldn't be unless we had Urban Meyer as a HC.

The recruiting effort of the former staff has been thoroughly discussed - Bradley and Johnson then a few ham sandwiches. But I think what kept elite Corners from committing to PSU was the scheme - it didn't really require guys to put on an athletic display.

Follow the trail to the NFL. Not a whole lot of PSU CB's with extensive, outstanding careers. PSU would get smart, undersized players who would keep the play in front of them and tackle well - decent/good college players but not NFL talent.

Hopefully the combination of the new staff's increased recruiting energy, new "multiply-aggressive" defensive scheme, and promise of immediate playing time will remarkedly increase the level of CB talent attracted to PSU.