Haus - your point on him not being surrounded by unbelievable talent is a good one. He didn't have another scholarship Division I player on offense - fullback Nick Pinchek walked on at Penn State, the left tackle Morgan Thomas (who was only a sophomore) was a very nice player at East Stroudsburg, and I think they had one more lineman play at Bloomsburg or Shippensburg. But certainly no stars. Frankly, didn’t have close to the offensive line they had his sophomore year in 2000 with a bunch of FCS guys, plus Massaquoi at tight end.
I do subscribe to the theory that Penn State was his biggest mistake. Frankly, if he went and played for a coach that didn't care that he skipped class and smoked weed, I still think he could have flourished. Rob Melosky made some headlines when he just about said as much in a Philly Inquirer article about Scott - I think the line was "Pete Carroll just lets his guys go out and play." Scott being in the doghouse so much kept him off the field, then him being off the field led to more doghouse behavior, and we all know the story from there.
Getting back to my Scott/Saquon comparison, when Scott was in high school he always had all of these whispers and rumors around him - mostly around how and why he missed his junior season. Meanwhile, everybody around the Valley universally LOVED Saquon. There are few high level football players that have had a reputation as sterling as him, and all of those work ethic and "great kid" things have followed him to Penn State and the NFL and I think are a big reason why he's been able to maximize his talent in a way Scott didn't.
