I saw a cool list of all the California players drafted into the AFL or NFL

Up and down the list there's guys that jump out at you whether it's because they're legends you loved watching, legends you never got the chance to see, players you loved but had forgotten or hadn't thought about in a while, or any other reason. Anyway it's a fun trip down memory lane for Cal football fans

Thanks for posting this: a trip down memory lane, to be sure. Still trying to process the Evan Weaver thing, but I get it.


How about QB Rich Campbell going 18 picks higher than QB Aaron Rodgers! Different draft, even different era, but still...

What about Bryan Anger drafted ahead of Russell Wilson in '12? The guys in the '07-'13 drafts were a who's-who of legendary Tedford guys and we were an NFL factory. I bolded '07 because those were some of my personal all-time favorites

Keenan Allen, Brian Schwenke, Steve Williams, and Marc Anthony in '13
Mitchell Schwartz, Mychal Kendricks, Bryan Anger, Marvin Jones, DJ Campbell, and Trevor Guyton in '12
Cam Jordan, Shane Vereen, Chris Conte, and Mike Mohamed in '11
Tyson Alualu, Jahvid Best, and Syd'Quan Thompson in '10
Alex Mack, Zack Follett, and Cameron Morrah in '09
DeSean Jackson, Craig Stevens, Thomas DeCoud, Lavelle Hawkins, Mike Gibson, and Justin Forsett in '08
Marshawn Lynch, Brandon Mebane, Daymeion "Dante" Hughes, and Desmond Bishop in '07

The early 2000's we were cranking out NFL defenders like Nnamdi and Tully Banta-Cain in '03, Scott Fujita in '02, Andre Carter in '01, and Deltha O'Neal in '00

Tony Gonzalez, Tarik Glenn, and Pat Barnes in '97
Regan Upshaw, Duane Clemons, JeRod Cherry, Iheanyi Uwaezuoke, and Ben Lynch in '96
Sean Dawkins, Russell White, and Chidi Ahanotu in '93

I could write whole pages on Todd Steussie, John Tuggle, and Natu Tuatagaloa. Mike Pawlawski once played an Arena League season with a hurt back--broken vertibrae if I remember right

We had a run of NFL LBs in the 80's Steve Hendrickson, Ken Harvey, Hardy Nickerson, Ron Rivera, Tim Lucas and Greg Bracelin

I was gonna go back into the 70's and further but I'm already too wordy. I mean between guys like Joe Roth and Bob Rozier (for very different reasons) there could be a full docu-series about 70's Cal football

That's a nice webpage. A quick review shows that there is not really a bias against Cal. Really it just shows a bias in favor of the better pac-12 programs. And that is why Furd is better represented than Cal, having about twice as many drafted players over the last half century than Cal. Cal is pretty on par with UCLA, WSU, OSU and ASU. Furd, USC, Oregon and Washington are the most represented. This just seems to make logical sense and is probably pretty consistent across the NFL.

Interestingly, over the entire history of the NFL, Cal has more players drafted from SF than any other team. But most of them were in the first 50 years of the league. So, it really depends on who is running the organization, rather than the organization itself. Given that executive personnel on NFL clubs changes all of the time, it would be hard to maintain a bias against a particular school.

Of course ownership is more stable. So I suppose a theory that the Yorks have a bias against Cal and a favoritism towards Furd would be hard to refute. But it seems unlikely. The story about Rodgers and Smith having to submit to some ridiculous evaluative measures enacted by then HC Dick Nolan has some credibility. And clearly Nolan was a mistake as HC which SF has long since moved beyond. Of course Harbough, having first been a Furd HC and then HC with SF, would have a natural bias. But SF has moved on from that as well.

So the current hating on SF with regard to Cal seems a bit more sentimental regarding history rather than anything that can be legitimately leveled against the Lynch/Shannahan regime.

Furthermore, other than the strange and outdated fetish Shannahan has for a system QB, the current regime seems to have a laser focus on getting the best players on their roster and has no biases at all regarding school of origin. This is evidenced by their recently releasing Soloman Thomas and adding Alex Mack. Both moves strengthen the roster while reversing the Cal vs. Furd bias theorized by many here.

As Cal continues it's upward trajectory under Wilcox and Furd continues to level off under Shaw, I would expect that SF would be adding at least as many Cal players as Furd players. This is especially true now that Cal is operating an offensive scheme (west coast/power) under Musgrave that is pretty similar to the 49er offensive scheme, something Furd has had for years. IOW, the 49ers really like TEs, in their system and Furd has been a better TE pipeline than Cal. But that may be changing.

Harbaugh's program had a lot of fans in the pros, Shaw has squandered most of that but they'll still get some bigger WRs/TEs, OL, and DBs drafted. They're getting significantly less love than they used to though, I mean at one point Walker Little was supposed to be a future NFL star and now he's projected as a mid round draft pick.

What's really crazy is how much more pro success Cal players have than the cardinal both historically and in the last 20 years. I mean it's not that surprising but it's just not even close, even though, like you pointed out, stanford has had a lot of drafted players

Bearly Clad said:

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Harbaugh's program had a lot of fans in the pros, Shaw has squandered most of that but they'll still get some bigger WRs/TEs, OL, and DBs drafted. They're getting significantly less love than they used to though, I mean at one point Walker Little was supposed to be a future NFL star and now he's projected as a mid round draft pick.

What's really crazy is how much more pro success Cal players have than the cardinal both historically and in the last 20 years. I mean it's not that surprising but it's just not even close, even though, like you pointed out, stanford has had a lot of drafted players

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How a player translates into the pros from college is such a crapshoot. With all the resources available to NFL clubs (all the scouting, evaluation events like the senior bowl and the pro days etc, all the analysis) they still get it wrong an incredible % of the time. It's like a batting average in baseball. If you only lose 2 out 3 times, you are doing pretty good.

It is why the 49ers are being mocked for giving up so much for a player that is more likely to be a bust than a success...statistically.

Having said that, I have a theory as to why Cal players succeed in the NFL a disproportionate amount of time. I think success in the NFL is more about self discipline and self motivation than even talent or measurables. And I think Cal's sink or swim culture teaches the student athlete to be self-disciplined and self-motivated more than most schools do. Certainly the football players are a bit more academically coddled than most other Cal students. But they are also juggling a very demanding athletic schedule.

You would think Furd has a similar culture but Furd students are usually spoiled rich kids that are used to privilege. So I don't think that translates to the NFL quite as much as the public school kid who succeeds through effort.

Obviously these statements are major generalizations and can only explain some of the cases. But I think it is a contributing factor. If I was an NFL exec. I would certainly be factoring this in to my evaluations and I think it is one reason why I think that Zeandre and Beck might surprise some folks in the NFL. Beck in particular, is an extremely self-motivated and overachieving kid. I think that translates well despite his size limitations.

How did you manage to miss mitchell schwartz in 2012? Arguably the best career of that class.

Yikes, no idea how I messed that one up. Thanks for the catch though

Cam Bynum visually has long arms. Reminds of Nmandi. Maybe I'm just seeing things.