College Football to NFL: The Real "Position Universities"

No clear-cut winner here. Each of these schools has two current starters in the league:

Purdue – Kyle Orton (Bears), Drew Brees (Saints)

Boston College – Matt Ryan (Falcons), Matt Hasselbeck (Seahawks)

Miami edged out Notre Dame here, 3-to-2, with its current starters being:

Willis McGahee (Ravens), Frank Gore (49ers), and Clinton Portis (Redskins)

The Hurricanes would have had one more on this list had Edgerrin James not been benched for Tim Hightower earlier this year.

Miami once again had to edge out a couple of schools, going 4-to-3 over Oklahoma, Ohio State, and Florida State.

Today’s current starters from Miami:

Andre Johnson (Texans), Reggie Wayne (Colts), Devin Hester (Bears), and Santana Moss (Redskins)

Quick fun fact: The only two starting NFL wide receivers from Oregon State both play for the same team; Chad Ocho Cinco and T.J. Houshmandzadeh from the Bengals.

This makes it three straight now for the Hurricanes. It was another close one though, as the ‘Canes edged out Arizona State, Mississippi State, Tennessee, and Georgia all 3-to-2.

Current NFL starters from Miami:

Kellen Winslow (Browns), Greg Olsen (Bears), and Jeremy Shockey (Saints)

BC had the largest margin of victory over other schools so far. They won 8-to-6 over LSU and Michigan, with their current starters being:

Josh Beekman (Bears), Gosder Cherilus (Lions), Marc Colombo (Cowboys), Dan Koppen (Patriots), Chris Snee (Giants), Jeremy Trueblood (Bucs), Damien Woody (Jets), and Pete Kendall (Redskins)

This one wasn’t even close. Florida blew everyone out of the water here, beating the two closest schools (Georgia, Texas A&M) 8-to-5.

Current NFL starters:

Alex Brown (Bears), Kevin Carter (Bucs), Derrick Harvey (Jaguars), Jevon Kearse (Titans), Bobby McCray (Saints), Ray McDonald (49ers), Marcus Thomas (Broncos), and Gerard Warren (Raiders)

I check these players by looking at teams’ depth charts in alphabetical order, and this position came down to the very last person I checked. Looking at the Washington Redskins roster, Miami was tied with Michigan at five per.

But Rocky McIntosh turned out to be the deciding player, giving Miami a 6-to-5 edge.

Their current starters are:

Jon Beason (Panthers), Ray Lewis (Ravens), Rocky McIntosh (Redskins), Jonathan Vilma (Saints), Nate Webster (Broncos), and D.J. Williams (Broncos)

Well, this one was a two-way tie, and Miami wasn’t even involved.

Both Ohio State and LSU have five current starters in the league.

Here’s the list:

Ohio State – Nate Clements (49ers), Chris Gamble (Panthers), Shawn Springs (Redskins), Donte Whitner (Bills), and Antoine Winfield (Vikings)

LSU – Ryan Clark (Steelers), Randall Gay (Saints), LaRon Landry (Redskins), Mark Roman (49ers), and Corey Webster (Giants)

To my surprise, there were actually four teams with multiple starting kickers in the league.

So congrats to UNC, Nebraska, WSU, and Louisiana Tech for producing more than one good kicker.

North Carolina – Connor Barth (Chiefs), Jeff Reed (Steelers)

Nebraska – Kris Brown (Texans), Josh Brown (Rams)

Washington State – Jason Hanson (Lions), Rian Lindell (Bills)

Louisiana Tech – Josh Scobee (Jaguars), Matt Stover (Ravens)

No, that’s not a typo. That says Australia. That’s because there happen to be two starting punters in the NFL who did not come from a US school, or even straight out of college, but rather came over from Australia and stuck with a team.

The starters from each school:

Notre Dame – Hunter Smith (Colts), Craig Hentrich (Titans)

Ball State – Reggie Hodges (Jets), Brad Maynard (Bears)

Nebraska – Sam Koch (Ravens), Kyle Larson (Bengals)

Australia – Ben Graham (Cardinals), Sav Rocca (Eagles)

Oddly enough, the two punters from Ball State are also the only players currently in the league from that school.

Well, there are the respective “Position U’s”. The results might be surprising to some, and familiar to others.

Is Miami still dominant in defensive back production? Is Penn State producing linebackers like some claim? The numbers answer a resounding “No” in this case.

On a side note, the most diversified position in terms of collegiate background was offensive line. The starting offensive linemen in the league today came from an astounding 85 different colleges.