Thread: Dent: Blame Ditka For Bears Not Repeating As Super Bowl Champs

Originally Posted by Henry Burris

Well, i think the logic of what he says makes sense...they started a qb that wasn't on the team long, over established backups. Btw, we have chad pennington back then, we win every sb from XIX to XXVI. FACT!

Some things just never change do they?

Originally Posted by JustAnotherBearsFan99

Somehow, I have that gut feeling Jerry was somehow responsible for Hurricane Sandy too.

Hurricane Sandy was just a code name. It was really Tropical Storm Jerry when it began.

Originally Posted by ZifanQ

Henry I've "heard" so much about this Chad Pennington from you on.. I gotta know the history..
Why are you so fixated on him? :)

Oh boy you had to ask. Time to pop some popcorn and get ready for the feature presentation. LOL

Originally Posted by Henry Burris

Only knock on the dude is:

He would get injured from time to time

Dude got paid, though.

Originally Posted by Henry Burris

If it isn't, I know I can come up with more. I'm still pissed that I was deployed while he was covering games for Fox, and.....he's not on t.v. anymore. I can't find any news about what he's doing, but hopefully he goes into coaching.

Henry, here's a recent news clip on Chad Pennington. He must be a class act as a person.

LINK to the article

Cato finds mentor in Pennington





Rakeem Cato, the nation’s leading passer with 2,949 yards and 284 completions, reached the top against all odds.

Cato, Marshall’s sophomore quarterback, has endured a life of tragedy. He grew up in a violent neighborhood in Liberty City, Fla. His mother died of pneumonia in 2005, and his father has spent most of the quarterback’s life in prison.

Lesser men may have failed, but Cato’s life is more than about tragedy. It is also about perseverance and triumph. And his dedication to hard work has won the admiration of another Marshall standout who knows something about hard work and being a quarterback, Chad Pennington, who led the Thundering Herd to greatness in the late 1990s. They have become friends and talk often.

“I’m just trying to help him navigate through all the different challenges that are popping up on a daily basis with trying to be the quarterback of Marshall University,” Pennington said in a recent telephone interview.



Pennington led the Herd to the NCAA Division I-AA football championship game as a freshman in 1995. In 1997, Marshall moved to Division I-A football and in his senior season Pennington led the Herd to 13-0 record and the Herd’s third consecutive Mid-American conference championship. He was drafted18th overall in the 2000 NFL draft by the New York Jets and went on to play 10 years in the NFL. Pennington is the all-time NFL career completion percentage leader at 66 percent. During his career, Pennington had mentors, and he’s now playing that role with Cato.

“I’ve been there before,” Pennington said. “I know how important it was for me to have somebody … I just told him that anytime he feels he needs to holler at me that I will be there.”

Cato and Pennington try to talk once a week, and Cato said he has the upmost respect for Pennington and has appreciated his guidance both on and off the field.

“I look at him as a big brother,” Cato said. “He is a phenomenal man on the field and off the field. He has great respect around here in Huntington and everywhere he goes he has great respect. I am just trying to learn after him and see how he took upon things.
“He’s a great man. I respect him. We not only talk about football, but we talk about life in general. Half of the times we are just talking about life.”

Pennington confirmed their mutual admiration with similar praise for Cato.

“A guy like Cato is what’s great about collegiate athletics and being a student athlete,” Pennington said.

At times throughout Cato’s life he said it was hard to continue to play football and questioned whether or not football was right for him.
“Last year when I first got here (Marshall), me and Tommy (Shuler) were always talking to each other before camp and just asking ourselves if football is really for us,” Cato said. “We prayed together and read the Bible together and just thinking on how far we got. Knowing that we come from a tough environment that not too many people get the opportunity. We just thought to each other that we need to take advantage of this and just hope we do well from the place we came from.”

Cato is one of seven children and was the first in his family to go to college after earning a scholarship to play for the Herd.
Shuler, Cato’s Marshall teammate, has been friends with him since they were 7-years-old. He said the relationship that Cato has built with Pennington is one that is more than just football.

“He is like a big brother to Cato,” Shuler said. “Some people look at it as Cato just wants to be around Chad, but when I was around them they just talk about life. I just feel like Chad has been a big brother to him. That’s great and I love how they have bonded.”
Although Cato and Pennington talk about life, the two do get in a few words about Cato’s play on the gridiron. In the short time Cato has been at Marshall, he has gone toe-to-toe with some of the nation’s top teams, including a 2012 matchup against the 7-1 Ohio Bobcats program. Cato had a chance to lead the Herd to victory, but he threw an interception that sealed the game 27-24 in favor of the Bobcats.
Pennington said Cato learned from that loss.



Chad Pennington readies to take snap from Jason Starkey in the Herd's 1999 upset of Clemson, 13-10. Pennington started as a true freshman in 11 games in '95, redshirted in 1996, then started 39 games from 1997-99. (Herd Insider file photo by Greg Perry)


“It’s frustrating as a quarterback when you’ve got an opportunity to lead your team to victory and it doesn’t pan out,” Pennington said. “What you have to do is go back and be critical of yourself in film. Look at the good things you’ve done and look at the bad things that you need to correct and then move on. You have got to be able to move on and learn from it. I think that is one of his greatest qualities.”
When Cato needs help with coaching, that is where current Marshall Co-Offensive Coordinator and quarterbacks coach Tony Petersen comes into the picture. Petersen played quarterback for the Herd in 1987 and 1988, having led the Herd to the Division I-AA National Championship football game in 1987. Petersen returned to Marshall in 1991 as the Herd’s quarterbacks coach and remained with Marshall until 1998, coaching Pennington for four years. Following coaching stops at Minnesota, Iowa State, and South Dakota, Petersen came back to Marshall a second time in 2010 and has remained here ever since. Peterson is glad to see Pennington and Cato interacting and has been able to interact with Cato beyond being a coach.

“I have got some history at Marshall and this is the school Cato is at and now I am coaching here,” Petersen said. “Cato has gotten to know Chad a little bit when Chad is around. It’s kind of a family of quarterbacks around here and Cato feels apart of it. I am trying to help him obviously as a coach, and I think Chad tries to be somebody that can talk to him that’s been there, but is not his coach and has also played in the NFL, which Cato looks up to. I think that helps to have a couple of people that he can lean on.”

Cato has continued to put up statistical numbers that have him leading the nation and climbing the Marshall all-time charts. Cato said he does not look at statistics. He said he is only focused on wins and losses.

Pennington deems those remarks as what separates Cato as a great quarterback.

“There is a lot that goes into becoming a winning quarterback and not just a statistical quarterback,” Pennington said. “That’s why I think he will be one of the best we have ever had because that’s what he wants to get to. He understands that his position is measured by wins, losses and championships, and that is what he is focused on.”

Jeremy Johnson can be contacted at johnson783@live.marshall.edu and Braxton Crisp can be contacted at crisp23@marshall.edu.

The Jets HAVE to draft Rakeem Cato next year. I'm not even slightly joking.