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!
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!