Which college football players, Cal or USC, have had better pro careers?

SanctionII

Both shcools have had a large number of players do well in the NFL.

Any idea which school's players generally have had better pro careers?

A few of Cal's more recent players (Marshawn Lynch, DeSean Jackson, Aron Rodgers) are doing well or are poised to do well. USC's most recent name quarterbacks (Leinart and Palmer) have produced mixed results.

edmundfitzgerald

I would say Cal. Here is some more info on the subject.......

The SEC had more former players on NFL opening-day rosters (259) than any other conference this season. The ACC was second (254), followed by the Big Ten (227), the Pac-10 (178), the Big 12 (170) and Big East (87).

Too bad this article didn't break it down by teams, then we could have seen all the players from Cal and USC.

larryallen73

I don't know but I do KNOW that Russell White never lived up to the hype... so there's one knock against Cal.

edmundfitzgerald

This isn't part of the discussion, but I'd say Stanford had the best QB's with Plunkett and Elway.
Aikmann finished his career at UCLA after starting at Oklahoma. I can think of a few more if I had the time.

perkdog

Im not that familiar with Cal's players of the past but USC has put some talent in the pro's.

Anthony Munoz?
OJ Simpson
Keyshaun Johnson
Ronnie Lott

SanctionII

Interesting thing about Russell White. He came from a rough childhood and was woefully unprepared to handle the academics at Cal. I think he had some type of learning disability (dyslexia?). He did well on the football team and could have left early for the NFL with a high spot in the draft. He declined and completed his final year at Cal. He also chose to tough it out and apply himself academically. He graduated and obtained a Bachelor's degree.

When he finally went pro, he did not have much success in the NFL.

However, I suspect that today he is glad he put in the work to obtain his degree from Cal. I do not know hat he is doing, but it would not surprise me to learn that he is doing well, probably better than other football players who leave early without a degree.

SDSportsFan

USC had Marcus Allen, Mike Garrett, Ronnie Lott, Anthony Munoz, Junior Seau and OJ Simpson.

The only Cal players I can think of off-hand are Chuck Muncie and Joe Kapp.

Steve

SanctionII

Do not forget about Marcus Allen of USC fame. He was a pretty good NFL player.

SanctionII

Steve Bartkowski, QB of the Atlanta Falcons, palyed at Cal. He was Leigh Steinberg's first client.

Cal also had Sean Salisbury play quarterback. There are many others whose names I do not recall at the moment.

USC also had "RoboQuarterback" Todd Marinovich (Marajuanavich) play two years before leaving early for the "Raiders", where he was a washout. I read now and then that he is in Newport Beach getting into trouble with the law whenever he is not hanging out at the beach.

perkdog

<< <i>USC had Marcus Allen, Mike Garrett, Ronnie Lott, Anthony Munoz, Junior Seau and OJ Simpson.

The only Cal players I can think of off-hand are Chuck Muncie and Joe Kapp.

Steve >>



Jesus Steve how could I forget those guys I gotta go with USC

SDSportsFan

<< <i>

<< <i>USC had Marcus Allen, Mike Garrett, Ronnie Lott, Anthony Munoz, Junior Seau and OJ Simpson.

The only Cal players I can think of off-hand are Chuck Muncie and Joe Kapp.

Steve >>



Jesus Steve how could I forget those guys I gotta go with USC >>





I swear Paul, your post wasn't there when I started mine

What's the world coming to?.....A Patriot fan and a Charger fan both thinking the same thing at the same time

Steve

larryallen73

Cal also had Sean Salisbury play quarterback.

I think he went to U$C actually.

larryallen73

I would think in the Pac 10 the order of best pros goes:
U$C
UCLA
Cal
Stanford
ASU, U of A, U-Dub, Oregon and Oregon State tied
Washington State dead LAST.

SDSportsFan

I just looked on pro-football-reference.com and came up with this list of the top players from Cal:

Steve Bartkowski
Isaac Curtis
Herman Edwards
Vince Ferragamo
Tony Gonzalez
Joe Kapp
Craig Morton
Chuck Muncie
Hardy Nickerson
Gary Plummer
Aaron Rodgers
Wesley Walker
Ray Wersching
Ed White

USC coming up.....

Steve

lawnmowerman

<< <i>Im not that familiar with Cal's players of the past but USC has put some talent in the pro's.

Anthony Munoz?
OJ Simpson
Keyshaun Johnson
Ronnie Lott >>



Willie McGinest too!

SanctionII

That is a pretty good list of Cal players who did well in the NFL. How could I forget Tony Gonzalez and many others on the list provided by SDSportsfan?

The Bears have some good players this year. I suspect that barring injury, Jahvid Best will get lots of media attention in college and could go fairly high in the NFL draft next year, or the year after that.

Looking forward to the SDSportsfan list of USC players. Don't forget Charles White.

SDSportsFan

Here are the USC players (including 11 HOFers) I came up with:

Marcus Allen (HOF)
Jon Arnett
Red Badgro (HOF)
Chip Banks
Ricky Bell
Tony Boselli
Reggie Bush
Bob Chandler
Curtis Conway
Sam "Bam" Cunningham
Clarence Davis
Jack Del Rio
Vince Evans
Mike Garrett
Frank Gifford (HOF)
Pat Haden
Keyshawn Johnson
Bob Klein
Matt Leinart
Ronnie Lott (HOF)
Bruce Matthews (HOF)
Clay Matthews
Willie McGinnest
Ron Mix (HOF)
Anthony Munoz (HOF)
Carson Palmer
Rodney Peete
Troy Polamalu
Sean Salisbury
Junior Seau
Jason Sehorn
OJ Simpson (HOF)
Lynn Swan (HOF)
Mosi Tatupu
Willie Wood (HOF)
Ron Yary (HOF)


Steve

Edited to correct the number of HOFers

larryallen73

UCLA's LIST of stolid pros:

Karim Abdul-Jabbar (oh wait, wrong Kareem)
Troy Aikman
Randy Cross
Kenny Easly
Irv Eatman
Donnie Edwards
Tom Fears
Mike Flanagan
Efren Herrera
Norm Johnson
Maurice Jones
Carnell Lake
Mike Loddish
Duval Love
Freeman McNeil
Max Montoya
Ken Norton, Jr.
Jonathan Ogden
Jerry Robinson
Eric Turner
Kenny Washington
and J-Dub (for all you Fox listeners - the guy with broken English that talks about the Cowboy's the entire show every day).


Plus, long list of marginal pros.

SanctionII

Looks like SC and the Bruins spank the Bears on the number of players. Looks like SC spanks all Pac 10 teams.

I wonder which college program has had the most players in the NFL and which has the most NFL hall of famers?

SDSportsFan

Here's Stanford's players:

John Brodie
John Elway (HOF)
Darrien Gordon
James Lofton (HOF)
Ed McCaffrey
Ernie Nevers (HOF)
Glyn Milburn
Blaine Nye
Jim Plunkett
Touchdown Tommy Vardell
Randy Vataha
Gene Washington


Steve

larryallen73

$C has 10 HOF'ers? WOW! That's pretty amazing. I doubt many college teams have 10 HOFers.

SDSportsFan

I'd add these UCLA players to larryallen's list above:

Flipper Anderson
Steve Bono
Dave Dalby
Jimmy Johnson (HOF)
Billy Kilmer
Tommy Maddox
Wendell Tyler
Bob Waterfield (HOF)


Steve

bman90278

These are a couple guys who went to my former HS that I remember going on to USC and went on to the pros. I think both of their careers ended early because of injuries, so they weren't household names.

Bill Shultz (USC) Played NFL (Colts, Broncos and Browns)
Jeff Bregal (USC) Played NFL (49'ers) I believe he was USC's first 4 year started on the Offensive line in school history.

SDSportsFan

<< <i>Looks like SC and the Bruins spank the Bears on the number of players. Looks like SC spanks all Pac 10 teams.

I wonder which college program has had the most players in the NFL and which has the most NFL hall of famers? >>




From the Pro FB HOF's website (Colleges with the most HOFers):

Southern California (11)
Notre Dame (10)
Michigan (7)


Steve

joestalin

If you have to back to Marcus Allen to talk about great SC players, then that tells you something about the program at the next level. For
every Reggie Bush there are 20 Matt Leinart's. The most dominant players come from the ACC!