Part one in a three-part series
By Josh Wheeling
Senior Staff Writer
jw4@sas.upenn.edu
As a defensive end getting offers from numerous BCS conferences, Josh Neubert got caught up in the hype.
But when the Philadelphia-area native got to Boston College, he knew he didn't make the correct decision on what college to attend.
"My life goals really changed because I committed a day after my junior year in high school," Neubert said. "I got a lot of interest early. I really was naive in the whole gung-ho high-school thing going Division I-A, and I really didn't look at Penn or the rest of the Ivies."
Now a redshirt freshman, Neubert transferred from Atlantic Coast Conference power Boston College to the Ivy League this year. The defensive end picked his first college because of the quality of competition, but based his transfer on the quality of education.
"I couldn't pass up the opportunity to go to Wharton," Neubert said.
Neubert overlooking Penn wasn't too much of a surprise, because he was such a high-priced recruit coming out of North Penn, in the suburbs of Philadelphia.
The defensive end, who also spent time at tight end, posted 10 sacks in 13 games as a junior, following that up with 13 a year later. In 2005, Rivals.com rated Neubert as the 54th-best defensive end recruit in the country, Pennsylvania's 38th-best player and a top-750 recruit overall.
"He kind of fell out of the sky for us," Bagnoli said. "He was a very dynamic player out of high school with great quickness, speed and explosiveness, and I think he was one of the more coveted recruits coming out of this area."
The transfer to Penn has worked out great so far - for both Neubert and the Quakers, but it didn't go off without any hitches.
The Eagles didn't want to see their redshirted freshman to go so soon. In order for Neubert to transfer, he had to be released from his scholarship, which took over a month.
That created another issue - having to pay for college.
The cost of Penn isn't a small hurdle, but Josh's parents Cheryl and Robert couldn't let that get in the way.
"Penn and the Wharton business school are the best in the world," Robert Neubert said.
"I made a promise that eventually I'll pay them back for it," the younger Neubert added.
But the move had benefits for the family too.
"[Yesterday] was Josh's birthday, so we were able to come down this weekend and take him out for his birthday - last year we couldn't do things like that," the elder Neubert said.
But now that he's here, Neubert is finding that the new 5-2 defense is testing his study skills as much as the business school is.
His playbook study has provided "lots of headaches," said Neubert, who played in a 4-3 at Boston College. "BC's philosophy is 'we'll play mainly this defense and you have to stop us.' Here it's more of a thinking game, and there's a lot more looks to it . There are a lot more looks to memorize. It doesn't give the offense a chance to get as many shots on them, so I like it a lot more."
That's one more thing Neubert likes better, and one more thing he was quick to overlook as a high school junior. Funny how things change.
