WR group

[shandeezy7]

I said this in the Colgate postgame thread, but yeah this receiving unit definitely passes the eye test: tall, athletic, fast. Watching the game live from 311, every single receiver looked like someone that belongs at the P5 level. If they put it all together, they could be a very scary unit.

 

[RF2044]

I guess Dino can recruit WRs now.

Glad that talking point has been dispelled.

 

[upperdeck]

You go back to our best WR groups under Dino, most years 1-2 guys we trust.

Phillips
Custis
Riley
Johnson/Johnson
Ish
Taj
Trish
Estime
Etta

Lots of undersized guys Riley/Taj/Phillips
Guys like Etta/Ish/Estime who were on trick ponies

Some did some slotm some did stuff over the top throws

But this group has multiple guys who show signs of being capable of doing the short stuff. the screen stuff the slants the fades

At least 1-2 who maybe can do the HR throws

We saw 2 break tackle and take it to the house plays in one game. When did that last happen?

Lets see how it plays out against teams with real corners but the size/speed/hands of this group across more than 1-2 guys is a huge uptick potential right now.

going 4 wide with OG, and a couple threats with decent size/speed and still a couple guys who can go deep means you have to choose the double and then add a Pass Rec RB..

Lets hope the oline makes teams pay for attacking us with just a bit of time for Shrader to find the open man,

 

[JeremyCuse]

I guess Dino can recruit WRs now.

Glad that talking point has been dispelled.

I hate to be that guy but as good as the WR unit looked versus Colgate (it looked very good) its a bit much to be declaring the WR unit issues/concerns solved and everyone vastly improved. Again were talking about Colgate here, I am pretty sure a half dozen guys off the board could have had a few catches and a TD by the late third quarter on Saturday. Again there was a lot of positives especially seeing Brown out there, Hatcher and the frosh Gill but let's see what the unit does against the rest of the Sept schedule first before declaring the unit the equivalent of the early 90s Fun n Gun Gators.

 

[NineOneSeven]

I want to see it against a P5 secondary, but it's a great start.

Considering for years we entered seasons with 213 wideouts and seemingly never got enough production, this is again, a great start.

 

[JeremyCuse]

I want to see it against a P5 secondary, but it's a great start.

Considering for years we entered seasons with 213 wideouts and seemingly never got enough production, this is again, a great start.

It was good to see some of the other guys actually make plays beyond Oronde and to a lesser extent Jones. Hatcher and Brown specifically making an impact was nice to see and hopefully a sign of things to come. That said let's see what happens Sat and at Purdue and even Army. Also going to need Shrader to keep working those secondary receivers and not always look Oronde's way.

 

[sutomcat]

I want to see it against a P5 secondary, but it's a great start.

Considering for years we entered seasons with 213 wideouts and seemingly never got enough production, this is again, a great start.

Agree, everyone looked very good. Colgate must have seen us having major problems beating press coverage last year and decided that was the way to go.

It was a big issue last season. But Colgate’s CB are several levels below the CBS we normally see. It will be interesting to see how things go the next couple of games as the quality of our opponent slowly improves.

 

[rhcuse]

I'm a big believer in Hatcher.

 

[bigmike]

I like tall, I like strong, and I like elusive receivers. Early returns say we have all three types.

 

[baggerbob]

It was good to see some of the other guys actually make plays beyond Oronde and to a lesser extent Jones. Hatcher and Brown specifically making an impact was nice to see and hopefully a sign of things to come. That said let's see what happens Sat and at Purdue and even Army. Also going to need Shrader to keep working those secondary receivers and not always look Oronde's way.

Watching Brown get in and out of cuts to get a step on his defender reminds me of a bigger Phillips.
We need that type of player to open things up for everyone else.
Someone who can occupy the middle of the field and get 8 to 15 yards.

 

[kcsu]

At the top level its all about getting separation, route running , blocking.
The physical attributes of the player make that possible. We have multiple wrs with speed, size and a few with both. We definitely have talent and i believe Coach Beck will use them to the best of their abilities. Its a strong group.

 

[blizz]

Nah man! 13 personnel and run QB draw!

 

[RF2044]

I hate to be that guy but as good as the WR unit looked versus Colgate (it looked very good) its a bit much to be declaring the WR unit issues/concerns solved and everyone vastly improved. Again were talking about Colgate here, I am pretty sure a half dozen guys off the board could have had a few catches and a TD by the late third quarter on Saturday. Again there was a lot of positives especially seeing Brown out there, Hatcher and the frosh Gill but let's see what the unit does against the rest of the Sept schedule first before declaring the unit the equivalent of the early 90s Fun n Gun Gators.

I don't have to declare it -- the coaching staff intimated as much coming out of camp, with what they said about Alford, Jones, and Brown.

And then we saw that for ourselves on Saturday. Doesn't matter that Colgate wasn't tough competition,

It's okay to be optimistic, given what we have. And the WR corps is poised to have a big year.

 

[CbusCuse]

Before the season started many of us speculated that we should now have a good receiver group. I'm sold after just watching Colgate. Of course they looked a bit better because of the competition but they should be solid all year. Numbers wise we only have 9 WR's or 10 if you include OG and two of them are true freshman. That is sort of a small group but what we have has pretty good talent. They may not be top 10 WR group in the country or anything but they will be solid. OG will certainly be above the rest but I think almost the entire group is now better than serviceable which is a great leap. I think they will be the best we have had here since Dino arrived. Lots of big guys that should be able to hold some blocks on the outside. That can help us a good deal in this offense.

I really didn't like that Gadsden was out there playing at all. I know he wanted to go and put up some big numbers against some weak competition but I don't think he should have been out there as he was clearly hobbled. I'd assume it was a left ankle injury or I guess it could be a toe. He wasn't quite as explosive as normal but still looked pretty good when running his routes. But between plays he limped all game long and went down immediately to reduce being tackled on whatever was injured. Other than to pad his season stats it just seemed like unnecessary risk and would more likely to just prevent him from getting better or he could have injured it further. I think we got lucky here but i would assume he would be healing quicker that he will had he rested it Saturday. We need him to be 100% against our better competition.

Alford didn't exactly break out like a lot of us had hope but had a couple nice plays when called upon including a nice TD. I think he maybe just didn't have too many opportunities as the ball was spread around and OG was always the first target.

Isaiah Jones two big plays were TD's. One was a long 44 yarder where Colgate had busted coverage and he was wide open. The other he was tightly covered in the endzone on a scramble drill play but he did make the nice grab on a well threaded pass.

Hatcher really seemed to break out and I think earned more opportunities. He really seems to be one of our best as far as being able to get separation on routes. If he can continue to gain weight he could be special. He even had some nice blocks against Colgate.

Donovan Brown proved he is a viable option in the slot.

Adams, I really didn't see him at WR if he played there but he could if needed. But he should be a good return man for us along with Pena.

Kendal Long is developing faster than I though he would. He has a good combination of size, speed and deep play ability. Seems like a gamer.

Gill looks pretty impressive considering he just got here a couple months ago. Coming in he seems similar to Hatcher in that the only thing he seems to be lacking is strength and if he continues to add muscle he could be a dynamic weapon. Very explosive and shifty in the open field. His crazy vertical should help as well.

But I think the OL is a harder group to evaluate after going up against just Colgate. That will be the difference maker on how our offense performs this year. Seems we still need a bit of improvement in both run blocking and pass blocking. If we could at least pass block consistently we could use many pass plays as run plays. I think we certainly need to keep improving there as that is still a fairly big question mark for me once we play against some talent. Luckily we have Shrader's legs and pocket presence to mitigate some problems there though. He can make them look better than they are.

 

[baggerbob]

Before the season started many of us speculated that we should now have a good receiver group. I'm sold after just watching Colgate. Of course they looked a bit better because of the competition but they should be solid all year. Numbers wise we only have 9 WR's or 10 if you include OG and two of them are true freshman. That is sort of a small group but what we have has pretty good talent. They may not be top 10 WR group in the country or anything but they will be solid. OG will certainly be above the rest but I think almost the entire group is now better than serviceable which is a great leap. I think they will be the best we have had here since Dino arrived. Lots of big guys that should be able to hold some blocks on the outside. That can help us a good deal in this offense.

I really didn't like that Gadsden was out there playing at all. I know he wanted to go and put up some big numbers against some weak competition but I don't think he should have been out there as he was clearly hobbled. I'd assume it was a left ankle injury or I guess it could be a toe. He wasn't quite as explosive as normal but still looked pretty good when running his routes. But between plays he limped all game long and went down immediately to reduce being tackled on whatever was injured. Other than to pad his season stats it just seemed like unnecessary risk and would more likely to just prevent him from getting better or he could have injured it further. I think we got lucky here but i would assume he would be healing quicker that he will had he rested it Saturday. We need him to be 100% against our better competition.

Alford didn't exactly break out like a lot of us had hope but had a couple nice plays when called upon including a nice TD. I think he maybe just didn't have too many opportunities as the ball was spread around and OG was always the first target.

Isaiah Jones two big plays were TD's. One was a long 44 yarder where Colgate had busted coverage and he was wide open. The other he was tightly covered in the endzone on a scramble drill play but he did make the nice grab on a well threaded pass.

Hatcher really seemed to break out and I think earned more opportunities. He really seems to be one of our best as far as being able to get separation on routes. If he can continue to gain weight he could be special. He even had some nice blocks against Colgate.

Donovan Brown proved he is a viable option in the slot.

Adams, I really didn't see him at WR if he played there but he could if needed. But he should be a good return man for us along with Pena.

Kendal Long is developing faster than I though he would. He has a good combination of size, speed and deep play ability. Seems like a gamer.

Gill looks pretty impressive considering he just got here a couple months ago. Coming in he seems similar to Hatcher in that the only thing he seems to be lacking is strength and if he continues to add muscle he could be a dynamic weapon. Very explosive and shifty in the open field. His crazy vertical should help as well.

But I think the OL is a harder group to evaluate after going up against just Colgate. That will be the difference maker on how our offense performs this year. Seems we still need a bit of improvement in both run blocking and pass blocking. If we could at least pass block consistently we could use many pass plays as run plays. I think we certainly need to keep improving there as that is still a fairly big question mark for me once we play against some talent. Luckily we have Shrader's legs and pocket presence to mitigate some problems there though. He can make them look better than they are.

Really want to see how Brown progresses, looked like he makes guick cuts to the middle. He has speed, and can get up, we haven't had someone who can get consistent yards in the middle of the field since Phillips.

 

[NJCuse97]

You go back to our best WR groups under Dino, most years 1-2 guys we trust.

Phillips
Custis
Riley
Johnson/Johnson
Ish
Taj
Trish
Estime
Etta

Lots of undersized guys Riley/Taj/Phillips
Guys like Etta/Ish/Estime who were on trick ponies

I think this is to your point, but about half these guys were Shafer recruits.

 

[RF2044]

I hate to be that guy but as good as the WR unit looked versus Colgate (it looked very good) its a bit much to be declaring the WR unit issues/concerns solved and everyone vastly improved. Again were talking about Colgate here, I am pretty sure a half dozen guys off the board could have had a few catches and a TD by the late third quarter on Saturday. Again there was a lot of positives especially seeing Brown out there, Hatcher and the frosh Gill but let's see what the unit does against the rest of the Sept schedule first before declaring the unit the equivalent of the early 90s Fun n Gun Gators.

Can we declare it yet?

 

[JeremyCuse]

Can we declare it yet?

See me a week from today

 

[Trueblue25]

Will be a lot of opportunities for Jones, Hatcher, Alford, Brown etc to show their abilities.

Hopefully Jones and Alford, at least one of them, can take over as the guy. My bet is Jones.

 

[TheHaze315]

I hate to be that guy but as good as the WR unit looked versus Colgate (it looked very good) its a bit much to be declaring the WR unit issues/concerns solved and everyone vastly improved. Again were talking about Colgate here, I am pretty sure a half dozen guys off the board could have had a few catches and a TD by the late third quarter on Saturday. Again there was a lot of positives especially seeing Brown out there, Hatcher and the frosh Gill but let's see what the unit does against the rest of the Sept schedule first before declaring the unit the equivalent of the early 90s Fun n Gun Gators.

Exactly what I was saying yesterday. I like our WR room but acting like they’re a proven commodity after dismantling Colgate and Western Michigan is a bit too far. Let’s see them against P5 athletes before we crown them.

 

[RF2044]

Exactly what I was saying yesterday. I like our WR room but acting like they’re a proven commodity after dismantling Colgate and Western Michigan is a bit too far. Let’s see them against P5 athletes before we crown them.

No it isn't.

The preseason optimism I felt was primarily predicated on Jones returning and Alford improving.

Had no idea that Hatcher, Brown, Long, and Gill were also so impressive.

Crown 'em. This group is fantastic.

That opinion has ZERO to do with level of competition inflating what they are capable of.

 

[Trueblue25]

No it isn't.

The preseason optimism I felt was primarily predicated on Jones returning and Alford improving.

Had no idea that Hatcher, Brown, Long, and Gill were also so impressive.

Crown 'em. This group is fantastic.

I feel the same. We’ll see new names for most receptions and touchdowns for the Cali Awards.

 

[djorange1989]

I feel the same. We’ll see new names for most receptions and touchdowns for the Cali Awards.

Well that sounds like the news you hinted at cannot be good for OG3. Our WR group is big and fast, definitely need them to continue developing quickly. Jones and Hatcher are my best guesses for those Cali Awards. Allen being effective as a receiver won’t hurt the efforts of the WR group

 

[TheHaze315]

No it isn't.

The preseason optimism I felt was primarily predicated on Jones returning and Alford improving.

Had no idea that Hatcher, Brown, Long, and Gill were also so impressive.

Crown 'em. This group is fantastic.

That opinion has ZERO to do with level of competition inflating what they are capable of.

That’s great and I hope you’re correct in crowning them, because it’s crucial in our success this year. But I’m still in wait and see mode until they do it against athletes that can keep up with them and compete with them athletically.

 

[RF2044]

That’s great and I hope you’re correct in crowning them, because it’s crucial in our success this year. But I’m still in wait and see mode until they do it against athletes that can keep up with them and compete with them athletically.

I'll guarantee you one thing, outside of Florida State we're not going to see any opponents who can match up with ALL of them.

This positional unit has transformed from a unit with massive questions marks behind OG last year to a group our opponents will fear.

In that regard, they're like this year's version of the DL from last year.

And Pena hasn't even played a snap yet.