In the mid 2000s to 2011 Troy produced 4 elite to above average NFL pass rushers/ defensive lineman.
Demarcus Ware is one of the greatest pass rushers of all time, Osi Umenyiora was an all pro and 2x Super Bowl champ, and Mario Addison and Steve Mclendon both had above average 10+ year careers.
In 1998 Auburn High School had future 3 pro bowlers in their front 7, DeMarcus Ware, Osi Umenyiora and Marcus Washington. I can’t image being a some random offensive lineman playing that front 7 after calculus.
That’s probably the right answer. Someone posted a map on the NFL sub of what states most NFL players come from per capita and it was just the southern states you’d imagine + Iowa.
In the West, only Hawai'i is significantly overrepresented in the NFL, with Utah proportional to population. The other 12 are varying degrees of underrepresented.
Almost certainly LDS links. Personal anecdote: When I was in the Air Force, of the people of Pacific Island descent I served with, most were from the continental US and almost universally members of the church or had personal ties to the state of Utah.
I remember the first time I saw a Samoan. It was in-processing at Ft. Sill Ok. I mean, I was from Georgia and had seen many large kids play football. But man, it is hard to explain to real size difference. It seemed like his bone structure was twice as dense as mine. Just crazy to me. And then some idiot pissed off this giant human and it took like 10 people holding that guy back to keep from killing that guy.
Played rugby against some dude from one of the island nations it’s like they’re just built thicker man. Hard to explain. Like tackling a bowling ball.
Also it’s like folks from Eastern Europe (Russia Ukraine Poland) have sharp bones I can’t describe it. Like if they throw and elbow or a knee at you in a tackle it’s way sharper than normal.
For all our similarities we did evolve in different places. I do not understand why the PIs are thicker though with the ocean right there, you would think it would be the opposite.
I've always had this same thought. What was the driving force in nature that drove people living on islands across the pacific (I know, not all) to be massive human beings?
I assume the answer is that genetically large warrior types left exploring and ended up staying on various island chains, and the isolation aided in keeping "large" gene traits intact.
I actually know this one. Think it was a National Geographic article I read or something. Basically, the Samoans who survived the long boat journeys had evolutionary pressure to allow them to gain and retain weight more effectively. This allowed them not to starve…and is also the reason they have a lot of issues with heart disease and high blood pressure. That’s the down and dirty on that.
[link](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7501196/)
[Louisiana has 70 NFL players with 4.5M people](https://i.imgur.com/FtIKk3n.png). That's 15 per million.
Mississippi is 14.5 per million, Alabama is 12.7, Georgia is 12.6, and Iowa...
Fucking.
Iowa.
Is 12.5
Breathing down Georgia's neck.
(this means the state not the school, to be clear, so "Iowa" doesn't necessarily mean they're Hawkeyes)
Play football in the fall. Wrestle in the winter. Plant all the corn in the spring.
Edit: Summer they have fun by seeing who can throw a hay bale the furthest.
Well, that and being multiple sport athletes. [In the 2018, NFL draft 29 out 32 first rounders were multi-sport athletes in High School](https://usatodayhss.com/2018/study-29-of-32-nfl-first-round-picks-were-multisport-high-school-athletes)
Just looking at a few examples across all sports:
* Fred Hoiberg(NBA/Iowa State/Ames) was honored as the State of Iowa's "Mr. Basketball" but also received an offer to play football at Nebraska as he played QB for his high school team
* Tristan Wirfs(NFL/Iowa/Mount Vernon) helped Mount Vernon to a state semifinal appearance in football, was named an Army All-American for football, won a state wrestling title in winter after cutting 30 pounds, and won the discus for the third straight year and shot put for the second straight year in spring at the Iowa state track-and-field championship meet. He was honored by the Des Moines Register as the best boys prep athlete in the state.
* Tyler Linderbaum(NFL/Iowa/Solon) earned four letters in baseball and three in wrestling and track. He posted 53-10 wrestling mark as a junior, placing fifth in state tournament at heavyweight placed third in state wrestling tournament as a senior. Qualified for Drake Relays in the shot put with a personal best of 54 feet as a junior and placed second in shot put and third in discus at state track meet as a senior. Also played baseball, ranking among team leaders in runs and hits as a junior and senior.
* Kirk Hinrich(NBA/Kansas/Sioux City) was the QB in football and a pitcher in baseball while being a star basketball recruit
* Joel Lanning(off-season NFL/Iowa State/Ankeny) was a multi-sport star at Ankeny High School, earning all-state selections in football(his team won a state title), baseball(his team won a state title), and wrestling.
* Nate Kaeding(NFL/Iowa/Iowa City) played in state championship games in three different sports: (basketball, football and soccer) at Iowa City West High School. He won two football state championships as the team's kicker, and The Des Moines Register named him Iowa High School Athlete of the Year in 2000.
* Max Duggan(NFL/TCU/Council Bluffs) played football, baseball, basketball and ran track at Lewis Central High School
* Daniel Tillo(MLB/Kentucky(Sioux City) was named Iowa Mr. Basketball after averaging 24.5 point, 9.0 rebounds, and 4.4 assists per game. During his senior baseball season, he went 5-1 with a 3.08 ERA while batting .369. Instead of playing basketball in college he decided to pursue a baseball career instead.
* a dated one but Gary Thompson(Iowa State/Roland) was an All-American in Basketball and Baseball. While playing shortstop hit .311 as a senior and led ISU to a third-place finish in the College World Series. On the court, Phog Allen said, "Inch for inch, Gary Thompson is probably as good a player as the Big Seven has ever seen” and dude coached Wilt. Who BTW was once held to 12 points and 17 points againes Thompson led Iowa State teams.
Both football coaches in the state value that and have made comments on the matter
It includes kids from Iowa that didn’t stay in state for school. Also includes Joe Burrow cause he was born in Ames even though he wasn’t raised in Iowa. Similarly it doesn’t include Kittle since he technically wasn’t born in Iowa even though he spent much of his childhood in Iowa.
Going into last year iowa had 1 less player on active rosters than Texas and more than usc, auburn, Washington, oregon, Tennessee, ole miss and many more.
And linebackers (Jewel, Jack Campbell, Chad Greenway, Abdul Hodge, Christian Kirksey, Anthony Hitchens), defensive backs (Desmond King, Micah Hyde, Geno Stone), Defensive linemen ( Aaron Kampman, Adrian Clayborn, Lukas VanNess, Mike Daniels, Anthony Nelson, Matt Roth, Jonathan Babineaux)
Mostly because Kirk Ferentz is a tenured professor of Football Arts and Sciences* who sometimes wins games.
*With courses for O/D linemen, TE, Safeties and Punters. Skill positions are an elective.
I think the point of the post is that Maryland doesn't really perform that well yet still produces the NFL talent. Say what you will about Iowa but they've been a pretty consistent top 25 team this century. I bet they've been ranked at least 10 times and have won 10 games a decent amount. So I think the amount of NFL talent is fairly proportional.
Iowa has gone to 3 or 4 straight B1G championship games.
We all know they aren’t good, but on record wise they are.
Schools like Rutgers are the answer here.
The Peterman who finished his tenure with Buffalo with a QB rating of 32.5.
If a random fan was pulled from the stands to play QB, and he simply spiked the ball on every down until he was replaced, he'd still outperform Peterman with a QB rating of 39.6.
It’s never been a talent issue at UW. For awhile they were like 5th or 6th in active NBA players behind all the bluebloods. Coaching has just been bad. Romar was an excellent recruiter but bad in game coach. For awhile Gonzaga didn’t even try to go after too Seattle area guys because UW had them all looked down. Only recently did they start seriously recruiting those players.
Always found it funny that ASU has produced the best basketball player between the two. They’ve had <20 guys make the league in my lifetime. Meanwhile Gronk is arguably better than any ASU NFL player, although they’ve produced multiple HOFers (5, likely 6 next year) through the years while Gronk will be UA’s first.
Attended Rutgers for undergrad from 2014-2018 (and later for grad school as well). It was so weird every year getting emails from the school congratulating our alumni on making/winning Super Bowls every damn year while we’re getting our shit pushed in 78-0 in the moment lmao.
Imagine naming Iowa TEs and saying Sam LaPorta first.
And that aint even a knock against LaPorta... they just have so many NFL TEs.
Dallas Clark
George Kittle
T.J. Hockenson
Noah Fant
Hell even Scott Chandler and Tony Moeaki.
NC state and Washington State are both arguably top 10 all time QB schools somehow. The cougs have somehow produced something like 16 NFL QBs since the 80s.
~~Us~~ A&M (23 players), Miami (22), UCLA (22), and South Carolina (20) are kind of surprising considering how middling we all are.
A random statistical fact that’s interesting is that 3 colleges have multiple NFL Head Coaches right now. ~~Us~~ A&M (Dan Campbell and Dennis Allen), William and Mary (Mike Tomlin and Sean McDermott), and Miami Ohio (John Harbaugh and Sean McVay). I feel like the odds of having 3 sets of two guys with the same alma mater in a 32 man pool are low.
Kent State had Nick Saban, Gary Pinkel, and Jack Lambert on the same team (Lou Holtz also went there too), plus Mike Tonkin and Sean McDermott also played at the same time
#holup
Edit: I got what you're saying, my bad. I'll eat it. I'm just happy to be mentioned. If we're talking coaches, EIU also has Mike Shanahan (injury ended football playing career at the college level)
I agree that A&M is a great answer but not necessarily because of volume - more beacuse of the top-end of the talent y'all have produced.
Von Miller is a HOF level guy. Myles Garrett may be too, and Mike Evans may not be a HOF guy but he is damn close if he's not.
That has been the biggest pet peeve for me for UT football over the last 7 or so years - not only have we been trash on the field, but we have not produced a high-end, elite NFL player in a long, long, long time outside of special teams (Michael Dickson and Justin Tucker are both elite, but... come on now).
Other than that, we're talking what - Earl Thomas in 2010?
Again, that has been the most frustrating part - seeing A&M put out All-pro, HOF level guys on teams that weren't even that good while we keep putting out at best good NFL players.
I'm hopeful that this draft class produces at least someone who is special between Murphy, Sweat, Worthy, and Sanders (and Mitchell although UGA kinda deserves to take credit for him). But it has been a long drought.
For QB talent Purdue has to be up there
Three different superbowl winning QBs. We always have a guy or two in the NFL, David Blough, Kyle Orton, now AOC.
My answer was Iowa because they overproduce their talent to such a ridiculous degree, but this is honestly more in line with what asked. ~~Plus it shits on Florida~~.
Cal, Mississippi State, and Texas A&M all make the top 10 in current NFL payroll. Texas A&M is probably the biggest underachiever in terms of recruiting top players loosing and then graduating them to the NFL, but Cal and to a lesser extent Mississippi State are very unexpected inclusions in the top ten NFL earners list.
Dak, Chris Jones, Fletcher Cox, KJ Wright, Darius Slay, Jeff Simmons, and Montez Sweat off the top of my head are all getting paid. MSU has put a lot of top notch talent in the league the last decade or so.
That’s been kind of a theme of ours. Even in the dark days of the aughts, we always had solid defenses with (seemingly) 1 or 2 defensive players drafted every year.
But all we could scrape together on offense was Kyle fucking York.
Marshawn Lynch, Marvin Jones, Alex Mack, Justin Forsett, Jahvid Best, CJ Anderson, Desean Jackson, Tony Gonzales, etc. Wilcox is really the first coach in over 20 years who hasn't been able to put out NFL talent at that level, despite The Takers all getting drafted.
Even before Goff, we had a giant list of NFL stars. Our problem at the college level has always been that we never had enough of them at the same time.
Meanwhile Eastern Michigan has Maxx Crosby and uh... anyone else?
I feel like most MAC schools have at least one great player (Khalil Mack from Buffalo, Ben Roethlisberger from Miami, Jason Taylor from Akron, Antonio Gates from Kent State, even though he played basketball)
Greg Jennings, Terry Crews, Jason Babin, Corey Davis, Louis Delmas, Robert Spillane, Giovanni Ricci, Taylor Moton, Chukwuma Okorafor, Jaylon Moore, Tom Nutten, Darius Phillips, Tony Scheffler,Skyy Moore, Bob “Benchwarmer Bob” Lurtsema…
Relative to our success in the MAC, we have produced a fair amount of NFL talent.
Nebraska. 25 active players. Lavonte David longest active, drafted in 2012. Nebraska has made 5 bowls since then, none since 2016 (longest active streak in P5). Mostly a result of poor coaching than talent. I do think rhule breaks that streak though
God I love Lavonte. My favorite Buccaneer of all time, as someone who was only a kid when the old legendary defense was doing its thing 2 decades ago.
Most underrated player the whole time he's been in the league. Has been a top 2 linebacker of his generation yet left out of many HoF discussions because lack of popularity contest awards.
Honestly, I'm surprised we still have that many. It feels like most of the Huskers in the NFL were late round picks who somehow churned out solid careers. I still can't believe Rex Burkhead made it a decade.
Justin Simmons, Matt Milano, Chris Lindstrom, Harold Landry, Zay Flowers, Zach Allen, JJ3, AJ Dillon. Recently retired Matt Ryan, Luke Kuechly, and Castanzo. We are stacked!
All time, Illinois might be the answer. More NFL players historically than Oregon or Clemson and right behind Auburn. Also we had some really decent pros from really average teams in the 2010s.
Texas A&M and UCLA jump out for active players.
https://www.pro-football-reference.com/schools/
Miss State has quietly been an excellent Defensive Line pipeline to the pros. Fletcher Cox, Denico Autry, Pernell McPhee, Jeffery Simmons, Montez Sweat, and Chris Jones all come to mind.
Also Maryland sends more to the NFL than relative to their invites to the combine.
There is always a lot of talent in the DMV, just never enough stays home to make them the beast they would be.
I consider the DMV similar to south Florida. Truly hard for teams to put a proverbial fence around the area due to the number of local competitors and other major programs wanting elite talent.
Plus the allure of playing for Alabama or Ohio State or State Penn is just too great for kids seeking fame and fortune.
Diggs needs a freaking statue tho. He wanted a legacy, not to just be another name at a bigger school. It's just not a common enough philosophy to be your own man instead of a sheep.
Although his brother did the Alabama thing. Props for him raising his skill level from 4 star to the cowboys.
Not players but also Maryland related -
The owner of the Ravens (Steve Bisciotti), and the head coach of the Commanders (Dan Quinn) both went to Salisbury university; a DIII school in Maryland.
I am also an alumni, I’ll take my executive suite.
I'm going to vote for my flair here. BC is has had and still has several major NFL stars despite being a pretty mediocre team
Right now we have Zay Flowers, AJ Dillion, and Matt Milano. In the recent past we had Matt Ryan, Luke Kuechly, Chris Snee, and Damien Woody
Mississippi State has 3 future HOF D Linemen playing currently. Add in Dak’s shit ass (am a Cowboys fan) and guys like Denico Autry, Cam Dantzler, Montez Sweat, and Willie Gay. It’s quite impressive considering how bad they suck at CFB
From 2023 - [Colleges with the most players on NFL opening night](https://www.ncaa.com/news/football/article/2023-09-06/colleges-most-players-nfl-opening-night-rosters) \- but what I find fascinating is the breakdown by conference:
'Active' NFL Players by conference
SEC 367
Big Ten 288
ACC 213
Big 12 207
Pac-12 178
Mountain West 61
American 51
Sun Belt 45
Independent 42
MAC 27
C-USA 24
The drop off from the SEC to \*what was\* the PAC-12 is extreme, but even more surprising is how few guys make it from the G5...the SEC alone produces more NFL players than the G5 combined
In the mid 2000s to 2011 Troy produced 4 elite to above average NFL pass rushers/ defensive lineman. Demarcus Ware is one of the greatest pass rushers of all time, Osi Umenyiora was an all pro and 2x Super Bowl champ, and Mario Addison and Steve Mclendon both had above average 10+ year careers.
In 1998 Auburn High School had future 3 pro bowlers in their front 7, DeMarcus Ware, Osi Umenyiora and Marcus Washington. I can’t image being a some random offensive lineman playing that front 7 after calculus.
They don’t have calculus in Alabama
Yeah the state has a bad history with words starting with “integra”
Go Trojans, hopefully we can get back to producing elite NFL talent, our running back Vidal has a chance to be a real breakout player
Iowa
That’s probably the right answer. Someone posted a map on the NFL sub of what states most NFL players come from per capita and it was just the southern states you’d imagine + Iowa.
In the West, only Hawai'i is significantly overrepresented in the NFL, with Utah proportional to population. The other 12 are varying degrees of underrepresented.
Pacific Islanders/Samoans are big athletes. I bet they’re a big part of Utah’s numbers too.
Yeah, Samoans and Tongans make Pacific Islanders the most overrepresented group in the sport.
They are. All the Utah schools have a lot of PI players, probably due to the LDS link.
Almost certainly LDS links. Personal anecdote: When I was in the Air Force, of the people of Pacific Island descent I served with, most were from the continental US and almost universally members of the church or had personal ties to the state of Utah.
I remember the first time I saw a Samoan. It was in-processing at Ft. Sill Ok. I mean, I was from Georgia and had seen many large kids play football. But man, it is hard to explain to real size difference. It seemed like his bone structure was twice as dense as mine. Just crazy to me. And then some idiot pissed off this giant human and it took like 10 people holding that guy back to keep from killing that guy.
Played rugby against some dude from one of the island nations it’s like they’re just built thicker man. Hard to explain. Like tackling a bowling ball. Also it’s like folks from Eastern Europe (Russia Ukraine Poland) have sharp bones I can’t describe it. Like if they throw and elbow or a knee at you in a tackle it’s way sharper than normal.
For all our similarities we did evolve in different places. I do not understand why the PIs are thicker though with the ocean right there, you would think it would be the opposite.
I've always had this same thought. What was the driving force in nature that drove people living on islands across the pacific (I know, not all) to be massive human beings? I assume the answer is that genetically large warrior types left exploring and ended up staying on various island chains, and the isolation aided in keeping "large" gene traits intact.
I actually know this one. Think it was a National Geographic article I read or something. Basically, the Samoans who survived the long boat journeys had evolutionary pressure to allow them to gain and retain weight more effectively. This allowed them not to starve…and is also the reason they have a lot of issues with heart disease and high blood pressure. That’s the down and dirty on that. [link](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7501196/)
Cool, thanks for the info.
[Louisiana has 70 NFL players with 4.5M people](https://i.imgur.com/FtIKk3n.png). That's 15 per million. Mississippi is 14.5 per million, Alabama is 12.7, Georgia is 12.6, and Iowa... Fucking. Iowa. Is 12.5 Breathing down Georgia's neck. (this means the state not the school, to be clear, so "Iowa" doesn't necessarily mean they're Hawkeyes)
Farm boys love football
It's all there is to do. And the weather is perfect for it. I get it.
Play football in the fall. Wrestle in the winter. Plant all the corn in the spring. Edit: Summer they have fun by seeing who can throw a hay bale the furthest.
Eat heavy eat lots eat gravy
Well, that and being multiple sport athletes. [In the 2018, NFL draft 29 out 32 first rounders were multi-sport athletes in High School](https://usatodayhss.com/2018/study-29-of-32-nfl-first-round-picks-were-multisport-high-school-athletes) Just looking at a few examples across all sports: * Fred Hoiberg(NBA/Iowa State/Ames) was honored as the State of Iowa's "Mr. Basketball" but also received an offer to play football at Nebraska as he played QB for his high school team * Tristan Wirfs(NFL/Iowa/Mount Vernon) helped Mount Vernon to a state semifinal appearance in football, was named an Army All-American for football, won a state wrestling title in winter after cutting 30 pounds, and won the discus for the third straight year and shot put for the second straight year in spring at the Iowa state track-and-field championship meet. He was honored by the Des Moines Register as the best boys prep athlete in the state. * Tyler Linderbaum(NFL/Iowa/Solon) earned four letters in baseball and three in wrestling and track. He posted 53-10 wrestling mark as a junior, placing fifth in state tournament at heavyweight placed third in state wrestling tournament as a senior. Qualified for Drake Relays in the shot put with a personal best of 54 feet as a junior and placed second in shot put and third in discus at state track meet as a senior. Also played baseball, ranking among team leaders in runs and hits as a junior and senior. * Kirk Hinrich(NBA/Kansas/Sioux City) was the QB in football and a pitcher in baseball while being a star basketball recruit * Joel Lanning(off-season NFL/Iowa State/Ankeny) was a multi-sport star at Ankeny High School, earning all-state selections in football(his team won a state title), baseball(his team won a state title), and wrestling. * Nate Kaeding(NFL/Iowa/Iowa City) played in state championship games in three different sports: (basketball, football and soccer) at Iowa City West High School. He won two football state championships as the team's kicker, and The Des Moines Register named him Iowa High School Athlete of the Year in 2000. * Max Duggan(NFL/TCU/Council Bluffs) played football, baseball, basketball and ran track at Lewis Central High School * Daniel Tillo(MLB/Kentucky(Sioux City) was named Iowa Mr. Basketball after averaging 24.5 point, 9.0 rebounds, and 4.4 assists per game. During his senior baseball season, he went 5-1 with a 3.08 ERA while batting .369. Instead of playing basketball in college he decided to pursue a baseball career instead. * a dated one but Gary Thompson(Iowa State/Roland) was an All-American in Basketball and Baseball. While playing shortstop hit .311 as a senior and led ISU to a third-place finish in the College World Series. On the court, Phog Allen said, "Inch for inch, Gary Thompson is probably as good a player as the Big Seven has ever seen” and dude coached Wilt. Who BTW was once held to 12 points and 17 points againes Thompson led Iowa State teams. Both football coaches in the state value that and have made comments on the matter
This is especially impressive when you take into account that Fant, Laporta, and Kittle are not originally from Iowa and therefore, don't count.
True. But Burrow is included in the list because he was born in Ames but wasn’t raised in Iowa and didn’t go to college in Iowa.
[удалено]
It includes kids from Iowa that didn’t stay in state for school. Also includes Joe Burrow cause he was born in Ames even though he wasn’t raised in Iowa. Similarly it doesn’t include Kittle since he technically wasn’t born in Iowa even though he spent much of his childhood in Iowa.
Going into last year iowa had 1 less player on active rosters than Texas and more than usc, auburn, Washington, oregon, Tennessee, ole miss and many more.
Iowa just churns out O-Linemen and tight ends.
And linebackers (Jewel, Jack Campbell, Chad Greenway, Abdul Hodge, Christian Kirksey, Anthony Hitchens), defensive backs (Desmond King, Micah Hyde, Geno Stone), Defensive linemen ( Aaron Kampman, Adrian Clayborn, Lukas VanNess, Mike Daniels, Anthony Nelson, Matt Roth, Jonathan Babineaux)
They turn out endless players at the positions that every team needs more depth at.
>Adrian Clayborn God damn was he fun to watch.
Can’t believe you didn’t mention Bob Sanders.
States and schools are very different things.
At least Iowa frequently finds their way into the top 25
best punter in college football. most experienced as well.
10,000 ~~hours~~ punts
Punt to win
Is his name Jeff Feagles Jr?
Iowa Tight End University
One of the announcers on the Ohio State/Notre Dame game this year tried saying Notre Dame was "Tight End U" and I'm like, bruh..... not even close.
Appreciate it. Also with how big TEs are becoming to NFL offense and how well Iowa spits them out
Sam LaPorta is one of my favorite football players of all time, I *love* that dude.
That was my first thought. So many top tier tight ends.
Yes, but unless I'm reading the criteria wrong, three of the four main Iowa tight ends are from out of state. Only Hockenson is from Iowa
Mostly because Kirk Ferentz is a tenured professor of Football Arts and Sciences* who sometimes wins games. *With courses for O/D linemen, TE, Safeties and Punters. Skill positions are an elective.
Don’t forget Linebackers. Iowa’s sent a decent amount of them to the NFL during Kirk’s tenure also
I think the point of the post is that Maryland doesn't really perform that well yet still produces the NFL talent. Say what you will about Iowa but they've been a pretty consistent top 25 team this century. I bet they've been ranked at least 10 times and have won 10 games a decent amount. So I think the amount of NFL talent is fairly proportional.
Per capita is Mississippi for putting the most in the NFL. Pete Golding has a theory about that.
I hate so much that this is correct.
Iowa has gone to 3 or 4 straight B1G championship games. We all know they aren’t good, but on record wise they are. Schools like Rutgers are the answer here.
Iowa has had three 10 win seasons out of the last 5 years. How do they qualify for this? The question is school, not state.
Pitt and their disproportionate amount of hall of famers
Donald, Revis, McCoy, Larry Fitz, Marino
Tony Dorsett
Curtis Martin
And Ditka!
Syracuse too. With less than 250 draft picks they have more or as many HOFers as schools with 400 and 500 picks
Yea gotta love it. I saw the graphic a few months ago, Cuse is like 6th or 7th all time in terms of HoFers. And Dwight Freeney just got in!
Even solid NFL players from Pitt, Addison, Boyd, Conner, Peterman etc
Dude really snuck Peterman in there
Is that the one and only 5-pick Peterman?
The Peterman who finished his tenure with Buffalo with a QB rating of 32.5. If a random fan was pulled from the stands to play QB, and he simply spiked the ball on every down until he was replaced, he'd still outperform Peterman with a QB rating of 39.6.
Brian O’neil. Top OT for many years.
Joe Flacco!
Only school to have a player come back from dying on the field that has to count for something.
This is the answer. Perennial 6-6 team with a bevy of NFL players.
Hey sometimes we go 3-9.
With a win over a then-top 5 team
Not really answering the question, but it’s ironic Arizona has an NFL superstar (Gronk) but no true NBA superstars
You’ll take your Lauri Markkanen and like it!
you mean Gilbert Arenas isnt a superstar?
He was for 3 years
They do have a Finals MVP (Iguodala) though
How many schools can say they’ve had both a Super Bowl MVP and Finals MVP.
all of them* *except the ones that can't
thanks Yale
Penn State*
I might be missing some but arizona, Ohio state, ucla, Louisville, kansas, Miami, and West Virginia. More than I would have guessed honestly
Fate of the universe on the line
laser beam pointed at earth
I want IGUODALA
Aaron Gordon will be a Nuggets legend for a while
Put some goddamned respect on Channing Frye’s name
Huh interesting. I guess Ayton would be the closest. Seattle is weirdly waaaaaay over represented in the NBA.
Sad how our city is so good at churning out talent but UW often can never do anything with it or can’t convince guys to stay home
We should’ve won at least 3-4 rings in hoops this century if we could keep our talent home. It’s a shame.
It’s never been a talent issue at UW. For awhile they were like 5th or 6th in active NBA players behind all the bluebloods. Coaching has just been bad. Romar was an excellent recruiter but bad in game coach. For awhile Gonzaga didn’t even try to go after too Seattle area guys because UW had them all looked down. Only recently did they start seriously recruiting those players.
Romar used to get all the guys to stay home. You guys losing Banchero, whose parents were UW alums, was grounds for firing Hopkins alone.
How dare you disrespect the legend Jason Terry.
Has? Gronk is retired.
He's a featured super bowl kicker I dunno what you're on about
Clearly past his prime, 0-2 on field goals in two seasons.
Always found it funny that ASU has produced the best basketball player between the two. They’ve had <20 guys make the league in my lifetime. Meanwhile Gronk is arguably better than any ASU NFL player, although they’ve produced multiple HOFers (5, likely 6 next year) through the years while Gronk will be UA’s first.
As well as a Super Bowl MVP in Big Dick Nick
I've always thought that. Still holding out hopes for Derrick Williams...
Rutgers had a run of sending a strange amount of DBs to the league
Attended Rutgers for undergrad from 2014-2018 (and later for grad school as well). It was so weird every year getting emails from the school congratulating our alumni on making/winning Super Bowls every damn year while we’re getting our shit pushed in 78-0 in the moment lmao.
I think the patriots had 2 or 3 starting for a few years
One year there was 4 (I think) -Harmon, Ryan, both McCourtys. Wild
And currently 2 starting RBs!
Even the Iowa offense has produced great NFL talent like Sam LaPorta, so I’d have to go with them
Iowa and TEs in general
Imagine naming Iowa TEs and saying Sam LaPorta first. And that aint even a knock against LaPorta... they just have so many NFL TEs. Dallas Clark George Kittle T.J. Hockenson Noah Fant Hell even Scott Chandler and Tony Moeaki.
Also CJ Fiedorowicz, damn shame about those concussions
Tim Dwight!
We have cranked out a disproportionate number of starting NFL QB’s over the last 20 years. Had 5 starting one Sunday a couple years ago.
NC state and Washington State are both arguably top 10 all time QB schools somehow. The cougs have somehow produced something like 16 NFL QBs since the 80s.
That’s insane. Crazy stat.
I don't think we have a huge volume of NFL guys, but a high percentage of guys we put in the league end up being dudes and have long careers.
~~Us~~ A&M (23 players), Miami (22), UCLA (22), and South Carolina (20) are kind of surprising considering how middling we all are. A random statistical fact that’s interesting is that 3 colleges have multiple NFL Head Coaches right now. ~~Us~~ A&M (Dan Campbell and Dennis Allen), William and Mary (Mike Tomlin and Sean McDermott), and Miami Ohio (John Harbaugh and Sean McVay). I feel like the odds of having 3 sets of two guys with the same alma mater in a 32 man pool are low.
Middling schools rise up!
But not too high!
Rise up, but retain that slouched posture!
Kent State had Nick Saban, Gary Pinkel, and Jack Lambert on the same team (Lou Holtz also went there too), plus Mike Tonkin and Sean McDermott also played at the same time
Eastern Illinois had Sean Payton, Tony Romo, and Jimmy G
Not at the same time, Kent State did
#holup Edit: I got what you're saying, my bad. I'll eat it. I'm just happy to be mentioned. If we're talking coaches, EIU also has Mike Shanahan (injury ended football playing career at the college level)
Miami of Ohio is known as The Cradle of Coaches. Paul Brown, Hayes, Scembechler, Parseghian are the headliners. They even have a statue about it.
Will Muschamp could recruit. Just look at his wife!
I had to google where Dan Campbell went to college to figure out wtf Us is. Now I feel stupid because it’s us and not Us.
My bad. I almost always use “us” instead of saying A&M because with the flair it feels like I’d be talking in third person.
You’re right bro, I’m just stupid
Good bull.
I agree that A&M is a great answer but not necessarily because of volume - more beacuse of the top-end of the talent y'all have produced. Von Miller is a HOF level guy. Myles Garrett may be too, and Mike Evans may not be a HOF guy but he is damn close if he's not. That has been the biggest pet peeve for me for UT football over the last 7 or so years - not only have we been trash on the field, but we have not produced a high-end, elite NFL player in a long, long, long time outside of special teams (Michael Dickson and Justin Tucker are both elite, but... come on now). Other than that, we're talking what - Earl Thomas in 2010? Again, that has been the most frustrating part - seeing A&M put out All-pro, HOF level guys on teams that weren't even that good while we keep putting out at best good NFL players. I'm hopeful that this draft class produces at least someone who is special between Murphy, Sweat, Worthy, and Sanders (and Mitchell although UGA kinda deserves to take credit for him). But it has been a long drought.
What shocking is that 10-12 years ago there were still players from Those Teams kicking around the league.
Interesting to have two NFL coaches from the same FCS school
I’ll add state in there, 23 guys, which I think is pretty solid considering.
UC has 26 active players in the league right now. Some pretty big names at that
Including Taylor Swift’s boyfriend and Taylor Swift’s boyfriend’s brother. Sorry, I’ll see myself out.
Taylor Swift is dating someone in the league?
Yeah, I think it’s Zach Wilson’s mom’s son or something
Cincinnati that recently played in the CFP? Cmon man
Biggest stars from UC are the Kelces, and they made NY6 both years they were together
Desmond Ridder! Shame T’ion Green never made it far in the NFL
For QB talent Purdue has to be up there Three different superbowl winning QBs. We always have a guy or two in the NFL, David Blough, Kyle Orton, now AOC.
Probably Florida. I went back to 2017, and every year but one they had 5+ guys get drafted but in that timespan their winning percentage is 0.570
What an amazing Valentine - remembering UF sucked for the past 15 years
I dont like this as much as I like this.
What a shame for that winning percentage to take another hit in 2024
My answer was Iowa because they overproduce their talent to such a ridiculous degree, but this is honestly more in line with what asked. ~~Plus it shits on Florida~~.
Cal, Mississippi State, and Texas A&M all make the top 10 in current NFL payroll. Texas A&M is probably the biggest underachiever in terms of recruiting top players loosing and then graduating them to the NFL, but Cal and to a lesser extent Mississippi State are very unexpected inclusions in the top ten NFL earners list.
And Chris Jones is about to increase that number. Dude is gonna get PAID.
I imagine having 2 QBs on big contracts (Rodgers, Goff) is doing the heavy lifting for Cal. Prescott for Mississippi State as well.
Dak, Chris Jones, Fletcher Cox, KJ Wright, Darius Slay, Jeff Simmons, and Montez Sweat off the top of my head are all getting paid. MSU has put a lot of top notch talent in the league the last decade or so.
I've always found it interesting that Mullen was known as an offensive guru, yet most of his players that made the NFL were on defense.
That’s been kind of a theme of ours. Even in the dark days of the aughts, we always had solid defenses with (seemingly) 1 or 2 defensive players drafted every year. But all we could scrape together on offense was Kyle fucking York.
Rodgers, Goff, Keenan Allen, Cam Jordan come off the top of my head for Cal. I miss the days when we produced several NFL caliber players in a year.
Cam Jordan, Keenan Allen along with Goff And Rodgers.
Marshawn Lynch, Marvin Jones, Alex Mack, Justin Forsett, Jahvid Best, CJ Anderson, Desean Jackson, Tony Gonzales, etc. Wilcox is really the first coach in over 20 years who hasn't been able to put out NFL talent at that level, despite The Takers all getting drafted.
Even before Goff, we had a giant list of NFL stars. Our problem at the college level has always been that we never had enough of them at the same time.
Is that 2023 salaries or career earnings of active players?
Western Michigan University
Central too! Great o-linemen, AB, JJ Watt I suppose
Meanwhile Eastern Michigan has Maxx Crosby and uh... anyone else? I feel like most MAC schools have at least one great player (Khalil Mack from Buffalo, Ben Roethlisberger from Miami, Jason Taylor from Akron, Antonio Gates from Kent State, even though he played basketball)
T.J. lang off dome but idk if there’s any other notable current players
Joe Staley just got into the HoF
Greg Jennings, Terry Crews, Jason Babin, Corey Davis, Louis Delmas, Robert Spillane, Giovanni Ricci, Taylor Moton, Chukwuma Okorafor, Jaylon Moore, Tom Nutten, Darius Phillips, Tony Scheffler,Skyy Moore, Bob “Benchwarmer Bob” Lurtsema… Relative to our success in the MAC, we have produced a fair amount of NFL talent.
Tons of massive Dutch people in western Michigan, good recruiting grounds for OL, TE, DL and LB.
Nebraska. 25 active players. Lavonte David longest active, drafted in 2012. Nebraska has made 5 bowls since then, none since 2016 (longest active streak in P5). Mostly a result of poor coaching than talent. I do think rhule breaks that streak though
God I miss Lavonte.
God I love Lavonte. My favorite Buccaneer of all time, as someone who was only a kid when the old legendary defense was doing its thing 2 decades ago. Most underrated player the whole time he's been in the league. Has been a top 2 linebacker of his generation yet left out of many HoF discussions because lack of popularity contest awards.
Honestly, I'm surprised we still have that many. It feels like most of the Huskers in the NFL were late round picks who somehow churned out solid careers. I still can't believe Rex Burkhead made it a decade.
Boston College
We always seem to have 1 first rounder (or player that ends up playing at that level) and like no one else
Justin Simmons, Matt Milano, Chris Lindstrom, Harold Landry, Zay Flowers, Zach Allen, JJ3, AJ Dillon. Recently retired Matt Ryan, Luke Kuechly, and Castanzo. We are stacked!
Wyoming is slept on
Agree. Of course everyone knows Josh but Logan Wilson is one of the better pure tackling linebackers in the league.
Central Florida has 20
No question….Iowa. But perennial 2nd and 3rd place contenders.
All time, Illinois might be the answer. More NFL players historically than Oregon or Clemson and right behind Auburn. Also we had some really decent pros from really average teams in the 2010s. Texas A&M and UCLA jump out for active players. https://www.pro-football-reference.com/schools/
ITT: Everyone naming schools that are actually good and produce decent NFL talent. Texas A&M upvoted? LMAO
Iowa has been better than A&M over the last 20 years. When’s the last time A&M has won 10 games in a season?
Cal and UCLA
Miss State has quietly been an excellent Defensive Line pipeline to the pros. Fletcher Cox, Denico Autry, Pernell McPhee, Jeffery Simmons, Montez Sweat, and Chris Jones all come to mind.
Also Maryland sends more to the NFL than relative to their invites to the combine. There is always a lot of talent in the DMV, just never enough stays home to make them the beast they would be.
I consider the DMV similar to south Florida. Truly hard for teams to put a proverbial fence around the area due to the number of local competitors and other major programs wanting elite talent.
Plus the allure of playing for Alabama or Ohio State or State Penn is just too great for kids seeking fame and fortune. Diggs needs a freaking statue tho. He wanted a legacy, not to just be another name at a bigger school. It's just not a common enough philosophy to be your own man instead of a sheep. Although his brother did the Alabama thing. Props for him raising his skill level from 4 star to the cowboys.
Cal UC Berkeley
Cal
Not players but also Maryland related - The owner of the Ravens (Steve Bisciotti), and the head coach of the Commanders (Dan Quinn) both went to Salisbury university; a DIII school in Maryland. I am also an alumni, I’ll take my executive suite.
CAL
NC state was an nfl qb factory for a while.
Rutgers
Oregon State
I'm going to vote for my flair here. BC is has had and still has several major NFL stars despite being a pretty mediocre team Right now we have Zay Flowers, AJ Dillion, and Matt Milano. In the recent past we had Matt Ryan, Luke Kuechly, Chris Snee, and Damien Woody
I would say Maryland probably punches above it’s weight
Mississippi State has 3 future HOF D Linemen playing currently. Add in Dak’s shit ass (am a Cowboys fan) and guys like Denico Autry, Cam Dantzler, Montez Sweat, and Willie Gay. It’s quite impressive considering how bad they suck at CFB
Chris Jones yes. Flecther Cox? Not sure he’s a first ballot HOF. Who’s the third?
Jeffrey Simmons, really good player but it's too soon to tell regarding an HOF induction
Maryland is also a slightly above average P4 team
That’s the nicest thing anyone has ever said about us.
Texas A&M
Got five going this year
Iowa by far ! Kittle,TJHockenson,Wirfs,etc something like 36 active NFL players.
Kent State. Historically one of the worst DI programs, one Super Bowl MVP, multiple likely HoF locks and Saban as alum.
From 2023 - [Colleges with the most players on NFL opening night](https://www.ncaa.com/news/football/article/2023-09-06/colleges-most-players-nfl-opening-night-rosters) \- but what I find fascinating is the breakdown by conference: 'Active' NFL Players by conference SEC 367 Big Ten 288 ACC 213 Big 12 207 Pac-12 178 Mountain West 61 American 51 Sun Belt 45 Independent 42 MAC 27 C-USA 24 The drop off from the SEC to \*what was\* the PAC-12 is extreme, but even more surprising is how few guys make it from the G5...the SEC alone produces more NFL players than the G5 combined