April 24, 2010
Looking Back at Quarless' Penn State Career
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - The Green Bay Packers today selected Penn State tight end Andrew Quarless (Uniondale, N.Y.) in the fourth round of the National Football League Draft.
Quarless joins defensive tackle Jared Odrick (1st, Miami), linebacker Sean Lee (2nd, Dallas) and linebacker Navorro Bowman (3rd, San Francisco) as Nittany Lions selected thus far in the 2010 NFL Draft. "Linebacker U." was the first Big Ten team with multiple choices in this year's draft.
With Quarless' selection, 243 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. Bowman, Lee and Quarless 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.
The final four rounds of the draft are being held today.
--NITTANY LIONS--