We Are Better, 5/5/25, Mathieu Lamah, LB, VA, '26
- Thread starter Tom McAndrew
- Start date
They didn't like recruiting LB. 2012 and 2013 were sanctions. We recruited three but one was gone in a year so it was really only 2. They get a pass on the sanction years.
From 2014-2016 they only recruited 5 in 3 years. One transferred which left 4 in 3 years. Go back and look at the numbers from 2014-2017. Pathetic. In 2017 they sign 3 but two were busts who never played and transferred.
For those years psu looked as lbs as an afterthought. They would under recruit the position and then take busts at other positions and move them all, to lb. That is a joke. Farmer, Sutherland, Jonathan Thomas, jàrvis miller and so on. At the end of the day we end up with walk ons(Brandon Smith, Jan Johnson, von walker and now dom deluca) giving us more at LBs than half the scholarship lbs.
With all due respect, you went back 8+ years and 3 DCs ago to attempt to make a point. You left out the part where they recruited 4 and 5 star LBs like Brandon Smith and Dixon and they didn’t pan out. The post I originally replied to implied that the new DC likes LBers more than previous, which is ironic because he plays a base 4-2-5 defense that relies less on LBers. FWIW, though, I agree with you on the need to rely on walk on LBers too much.
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PRY was here from 2014-2021. He was DC from 2016-2021. That is not exactly ancient history.
Dixon and Smith are part of the problem. The staff recruits ATHLETES over legit LB skills. Smith had the tools but not the skills. Dixon was another Safety playing LB. This staff will take speed over actual LB skillset EVERY time.
The fact that we get more tackles from walk on Brandon Smith over most of the scholarship LBs is a problem. Smith had LB experience and skills but not the speed. How about splitting the difference and recruit a few LBs who actually have LB skills. We need a few more Brandon Bells. There is enough scholarships to still recruit a few LB athletes with high end talent.
How many safety busts do we have to move to LB? Jarvis miller, Tyrese mills, Koa Farmer, Jon Sutherland, Jon Thomas(RB). PSu also uses LB to supplement DE and takes the best LB and moved him to DE.
If a player cant play then move on. They are pros now.
You covered a lot of territory in that post. All I’ll say is this. If you think the staff doesn’t value LBers or recruit LBers, then I have nothing for the conversation, as I don’t believe that to be true.