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on the =eld showed that Paterno's phi- losophy dovetailed well with the population demographics of the time. From 1966 to 1980, Penn State had three undefeated seasons, going 11-0 in 1968 and 1969 and 12-0 in 1973. The team played in 13 bowl games during that span and ended up being ranked among the top 10 teams in the country nine times. The No. 1 reason for Penn State's un- precedented achievement during Paterno's =rst 15 years as coach was the success he enjoyed in signing players from the area that Penn State considered its natural re- cruiting territory. Paterno and his assistant coaches truly did dominate in Pennsylvania and its bordering states. The proof of that success can be found in the number of players from the region who ended up being dra@ed into the NFL in the 1970s. A total of 72 Nittany Lion players were dra@ed by NFL teams during that 10-year span, and while it might be hard to believe, not a single one of those players had come to Penn State from Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina or Florida – states that would turn out to be crucial to the program's success throughout the 1980s and '90s. Penn State's regional recruiting prowess during the 1970s was made evident when Sports Illustrated labeled the Nittany Lions' Class of 1976 the best in Division I. An SI writer followed Paterno on his recruiting trips across the Northeast and detailed his successes in a feature story that appeared in the magazine that April. That recruiting class had 15 players who would go on to be dra@ed, a list that in- cluded Bruce Clark, Matt Mullen, Matt Suhey, Scott Fitzkee, Keith Dorney, Irv Pankey, Lance Mehl, Mike Guman and Frank Case. Penn State's classes of 1975 and '76 were the sole reason why the Nittany Lions were favored to beat Alabama in the '79 Sugar Bowl. That was the team's =rst shot at the national championship, and it ended in disappointment, as the Lions fell, 14-7, to the Crimson Tide. But a@er that loss, which was certainly the most crushing of his career, Paterno changed his recruiting philosophy in a way that opened up new opportunities and led the program to even greater success. With the changes that were taking place in population demographics all across the United States, Paterno knew that he had to broaden his approach. He had been re- minding recruits for years that all of his previous classes had been able to play on an undefeated team or for a national cham- pionship – his 1982 squad won the title thanks primarily to Northeastern players – but if he was going to continue to use that line, he knew he couldn't simply rely on the Northeastern talent pipeline to stock his roster. Due to the decline of the steel industry, Pittsburgh's population was shrinking, and the talent-rich Western Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic League was not producing as many blue- chip skill position players as it had in the 1960s and '70s. Meanwhile, the states with rising populations – Virginia, Georgia, the Carolinas and especially Florida – were seeing big improvements in the qual- ity of their high school football and were producing some of the best skill-position players on the East Coast. When Penn State was at its zenith during the 1980s and '90s, a period in which it won two national championships and was denied a third by the pollsters, Paterno worked hard to maintain the program's high recruiting pro=le in Pennsylvania and its bordering states. But the key to success during those years was its willingness to deviate from the approach that had brought it so many victories in the previous decades. Penn State began reaching out into the more distant states where it felt it could have success, and its new approach helped produce some of the most highly regarded classes in school history. The Nittany Lions' Class of 1991 – their only class under Paterno other than the '76 group to be ranked No. 1 nationally – is indicative of the change in their re- cruiting philosophy. Only six members of that class were from Pennsylvania: running back Mike Archie, linebacker Todd Atkins, defensive lineman Eric Clair, wide receiver Priest Ramsey, o?ensive tackle Keith Con- lin and fullbacks Brian Milne and Jon Wit- man. Of those six, Archie, Atkins, Clair and Milne received the most national recognition. Archie was USA Today's Penn- sylvania Player of the Year, Atkins was a second-team USA Today All-American, Clair was rated by Notre Dame's recruiting coordinator, Vinny Cerrato, as the top de- fensive lineman in the class of 1991, and Milne was rated as one of the top 100 prospects in the country by Tom Lemming and the G&W Recruiting Report. But the main reason why the class re- ceived so many national accolades was that it included =ve prep All-America run- ning backs. In addition to Archie, the Lions landed Ki-Jana Carter, Brian King, J.T. Morris and Stephen Pitts, prompting Or- lando Sentinel recruiting expert Bill Buchalter to assert that the Lions "won't have to recruit a running back for the next three years." Carter and Pitts were both Parade All-Americans, as were wide re- ceiver Bobby Engram and o?ensive lineman Scott Stratton. In addition, six players re- ceived USA Today All-America recognition, with Pitts and Stratton making the =rst- team squad and Carter, Atkins, Clair and o?ensive lineman Andre Johnson on the second team. Of the Nittany Lions' six top-100 rated players (Carter, Engram, Johnson, Milne, Pitts and Stratton), only Milne was a Penn- sylvania native. Five players were from beyond the ring of border states, a group that included Engram of Camden, S.C., defensive back Cli? Dingle of Moncks Corner, S.C., receiver Lionel Fayard Jr. of Fort Walton Beach, Fla., Morris of Lynch- burg, Va., and linebacker Willie Smith of Fort Pierce, Fla. Dingle was rated a top-=ve prospect from South Carolina, Engram held a No. 1 national ranking at wide receiver, Fayard was a =rst-team 5-A All-State player in Florida, Morris was the second-rated prospect in Virginia, selecting Penn State over USC and Virginia, and Smith was a =rst-team 4-A All-State selection in Flori- da. Smith's recruitment, probably more than that of anyone else in the class, re>ected the change in Penn State's recruiting phi- losophy. He picked PSU over Florida State, telling BWI at the time that it was largely because of Paterno's determination. "Coach Paterno took the most time re- cruiting me," he said. "He wrote me =ve times and visited my school two weeks

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