April 24, 2010
Looking Back at Quarless' Penn State Career
Looking Back at Shuler's Penn State Career
Looking Back at Hull's Penn State Career
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - A trio of Nittany Lions were selected Saturday in the National Football League Draft, giving Penn State a total of six choices in the 2010 draft.
The Green Bay Packers selected tight end Andrew Quarless (Uniondale, N.Y.) in the fifth round, tight end Mickey Shuler (Enola) was tabbed by the Minnesota Vikings in the seventh round and linebacker Josh Hull (Millheim) was chosen by the St. Louis Rams with the next to last pick of the draft, also in the seventh round.
Penn State's six selections are its most since having six in the 2006 NFL Draft and tied with Iowa for highest among Big Ten Conference schools. Penn State tied for fourth nationally for the most selections in 2010 NFL Draft.
Quarless, Shuler and Hull join defensive tackle Jared Odrick (1st, Miami), linebacker Sean Lee (2nd, Dallas) and linebacker Navorro Bowman (3rd, San Francisco) as Nittany Lions selected in the 2010 NFL Draft. All three of "Linebacker U's" starters were drafted, pushing Penn State's total of linebackers selected to six in the past four drafts.
With the three selections today, 245 Nittany Lions have been drafted under Hall of Fame Coach Joe Paterno and more than 350 of his players have signed NFL contracts.
Quarless capped his superb senior season in the big Capital One Bowl win over LSU by making a career-best and Penn State bowl record eight receptions for 88 yards. The eight grabs gave him 41 for the season, breaking the school record for catches in a season by a tight end, which had been 38 by Tony Stewart in 2000. The former Uniondale High School standout was third on the team with 41 receptions for 536 yards (13.1) and three touchdowns, including a career-long 60-yard score in the win at Michigan. Quarless started every game this past season and made 31 career starts. He made 87 career catches for 1,146 yards and eight touchdowns.
Shuler played in every game for the third straight season in 2009, with four starts last season. Shuler played an unsung role for the Big Ten's most productive offense, ranking No. 2 in yardage and No. 5 in scoring. He had 11 receptions for 89 yards and two touchdowns. The former East Pennsboro High School standout caught one-yard touchdowns in the back-to-back wins against Syracuse and Temple. Shuler had a season-high three catches for 33 yards in the win at Illinois and he made two receptions for 27 yards in the 20-0 blanking of Minnesota.
A two-year starter at middle linebacker, Hull was a 2009 second team All-Big Ten selection. He led Penn State and was No. 5 in the Big Ten with 116 tackles (8.9 avg.). The former Penns Valley High School standout recorded 8.5 tackles for loss, with two sacks for minus-14 yards, two interceptions and two pass break-ups. A former walk-on, Hull made 10 or more tackles seven times this past season, with a career-high 13 hits three times. He made 216 career tackles, with 14.5 TFL and three interceptions. A two-time first team ESPN The Magazine Academic All-American, Hull earned a perfect 4.0 grade point average during the 2009 fall semester.
Bowman, Hull, Lee, Quarless and Shuler earned their degrees last December.
The 2009 Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year, Odrick is the 36th Nittany Lion to be selected in the first round of the NFL Draft, 33 of whom have played for Paterno. Odrick is the eighth Nittany Lion to be selected in the first round of the NFL Draft over the past seven years.
Josh Hull | Mickey Shuler |