Is Speed The Only Thing Missing From Our Receivers?

[Billso]

Our WR's were open surprisingly often this year.

The missing ingredients were QB play and hands.

 

[seepig]

Speed is fabulous to have anywhere on the team, but especially at wideout. That being said, I definitely think there are other attributes that are more important for our receivers. One is the ability to get open, and the other is catching the ball. The getting open part can be more dependent on the player's brain than his physical tools; holding onto a pass once it's touched can be very mental as well.

Multiple times this past season I caught myself flashing back to 1985, Chuck Long's senior season. Yes, I'm old---even older than Jon Miller. Sure Chuck was a great passer, but he didn't have a great arm. But the main thing that would keep reappearing in my mind was Billy Happel and Scott Helverson cradling and gathering in passes. To ensure my memory is intact I poked around on Totalfootballstats.com and pulled up the following archived stats on our receivers that year:

Ronnie Harmon 60 catches/699 yards 1 TD 11.65 yds/catch long: 60 yds
Billy Happel 59 catches/901 yards 8 TD 15.27 yds/catch long: 39 yds
Scott Helverson 54 catches/703 yards 5 TD 13.02 yds/catch long: 46 yds

Happel and Helverson were Iowa kids, and unless you're Tim Dwight you know what that means about your time in the 40. This is proven by looking at their long plays for the year: Happel catches 59 balls but his long is only 39; Helverson similar: 54 catches with long of 46. That's a lot of receptions with no huge plays. But what is key is their average yards/catch: 15 and 13. We were throwing the ball more than 4 yards up the field! Both these guys caught countless out patterns a yard past the down marker; they weren't fast, but they got open and Long laid the ball on the mark ON TIME.

Get kids that know the game--if they're speedy so much the better. Run an offense that looks upfield more than 5 yards. Get an accurate QB and CATCH THE BALL!

Real simple Long had Bill Snyder as his OC...not the underperformers we've had under the Ferentz regime....and it got WORSE!

 

[franstheman]

How are Powell's hands? Does anyone know? He looked pretty fast on his video.

 

[sportstalent]

IIRC, that guy named Larry Fitzgerald ran a 4.48 40-yd dash at the NFL scouting combine, not blazing, but he doesn't seem to get caught from behind in the open field much. Jerry Rice ran worse than that.

Speed is not essential to having success, running a good route is a good start, next is actually catching the ball, third is being able to shake a defender in space, finally the speed to outrun everyone else.

When I think Iowa WR, I remember Quinn Early and Danan Hughes, guys that weren't fast, but ran good routes and made plays.

I remember all the hype that Willie Guy got when he went to Iowa and the only thing I remember was how much he was hated when I went to a game after he graduated. Another fan said "oh great, just run into the f-ing pile like Willie Guy." I think Willie had been gone for three years.

My point being Willie was supposed to be so fast and have such a huge impact on the Iowa program because of it and became a player that did really nothing.

Iowa has had some good WR's, but even their best ones haven't been of the "game breaker" mold, minus Dwight.

 

[clim]

Speed is fabulous to have anywhere on the team, but especially at wideout. That being said, I definitely think there are other attributes that are more important for our receivers. One is the ability to get open, and the other is catching the ball. The getting open part can be more dependent on the player's brain than his physical tools; holding onto a pass once it's touched can be very mental as well.

Multiple times this past season I caught myself flashing back to 1985, Chuck Long's senior season. Yes, I'm old---even older than Jon Miller. Sure Chuck was a great passer, but he didn't have a great arm. But the main thing that would keep reappearing in my mind was Billy Happel and Scott Helverson cradling and gathering in passes. To ensure my memory is intact I poked around on Totalfootballstats.com and pulled up the following archived stats on our receivers that year:

Ronnie Harmon 60 catches/699 yards 1 TD 11.65 yds/catch long: 60 yds
Billy Happel 59 catches/901 yards 8 TD 15.27 yds/catch long: 39 yds
Scott Helverson 54 catches/703 yards 5 TD 13.02 yds/catch long: 46 yds

Happel and Helverson were Iowa kids, and unless you're Tim Dwight you know what that means about your time in the 40. This is proven by looking at their long plays for the year: Happel catches 59 balls but his long is only 39; Helverson similar: 54 catches with long of 46. That's a lot of receptions with no huge plays. But what is key is their average yards/catch: 15 and 13. We were throwing the ball more than 4 yards up the field! Both these guys caught countless out patterns a yard past the down marker; they weren't fast, but they got open and Long laid the ball on the mark ON TIME.

Get kids that know the game--if they're speedy so much the better. Run an offense that looks upfield more than 5 yards. Get an accurate QB and CATCH THE BALL!

In this new offense you get a 3 yard pass and need to make that into 7-10 yards or more so Speed is pretty important in at least a couple guys. The biggest issue this year was a QB who didn't play well most times and when he did manage to get the ball to the receivers there were flat out too many drops. I mean right in the hands and bounce of the chest or helmet drops.......Jr High type drops. We need to probably get two servicable receivers and go double tight next year as it appears if we get the run going our play action can work............Minnesota game is the only real case I have from last year but it seemed to work.

 

[oroko]

Soup said that Davis was one of the most naturally talented player he had ever coached. Shame he didn't have better career at Iowa. Don't know if that was on Soup, Keenan or GD/KOK play calling or what but he didn't have the career that many hoped he would. Then again, maybe it was just "coach speak", who knows.

KMM is a good kid had a pretty solid career for a slot/possession guy, he has 2 years left to make his mark on this program. He has done pretty well so far but I think with McNutt having his great WR numbers to overshadow it a little bit, not to mention the horrible offensive season this past year but I think KMM is getting the shalf. Then again if he steps it up over the next two years he will go down as an all-time great Iowa WR in my book.

K Davis was turrible so my opinion is that Soup's opinion is turrible.

 

[HawkeyeGold]

hands, talent, agressiveness, football prowless, speed, size, a good offensive scheme, coaching, a good/accurate QB, if it hasnt already been said.

 

[SmokeTownHawk]

 

[Billso]

hands, talent, agressiveness, football prowless, speed, size, a good offensive scheme, coaching, a good/accurate QB, if it hasnt already been said.

Clean those up, and we'll be atop the BIG in no time.

#snort
#thatsfootball
#notdogcrap

 

[dave3912]

K Davis was turrible so my opinion is that Soup's opinion is turrible.

That might be true, who knows. But then again the offense this year wasn't setup for Keenan to succeed. Oh who am I kidding it wasn't setup for anyone to succeed.