SEASON OUTLOOK: Receivers Ponies will rely on ‘committee’ approach to replace Sanders Posted on 08/22/2010 by PonyFans.com Teams lose players each offseason to graduation, injuries, academics, homesickness — any of a number of reasons. But for SMU wide receivers coach Jeff Reinebold, the transition this offseason is as significant as any coach can face. Gone are Terrance Wilkerson, the Mustangs’ third-leading receiver a year ago with 42 receptions, and Emmanuel Sanders, the Pittsburgh Steelers rookie who led the Ponies with 98 catches a year ago and graduated with nearly every SMU career receiving record. (Throw in running back Shawnbrey McNeal’s 31 receptions, and the SMU offense is without three of its top five receivers from 2009, a trio who accounted for 171 — or 59.8 percent — of the team’s 286 receptions last season.) Wide receivers coach Jeff Reinebold said he expects senior Aldrick Robinson to be the next SMU wideout to draw NFL scouts to the Hilltop (photo by Travis Johnston). Reinebold is the ultimate “glass half full” kind of coach, and he is optimistic about the stable of receivers he has in 2010, but he acknowledges that losing Sanders to the NFL creates a void that the remaining receivers must fill. “The key thing with Emmanuel is that we have to replace him by committee — there is not one guy who is going to do everything he did,” Reinebold said. “But I think we can be better as a group. We don’t have that one dominant ‘alpha male’ guy that we can look for when we need a play, so we’re going to have to have a number of guys make those plays, and we have got the guys to do that.” But Reinebold said that while Sanders is plying his trade in Pittsburgh, his presence remains in Dallas. “Where Emmanuel lives on here is in the way we practice,” Reinebold said. “I’m not the least bit surprised that he’s doing so well in Pittsburgh. He’s supposed to be too small, or too thin, but he’s a great competitor, and by the time he left SMU, he was a great practice player. The other guys saw the way he practiced, and they are now practicing the way he did. When he got suspended a couple of years ago, some people wanted to get rid of the kid. June (Jones) talked to him, and taught him to practice like a professional and play like a professional … and look where he is now.” Rather than dwelling on the players who are gone from the 2009 roster, Reinebold is focused on his 2010 collection of receivers, and through the first two weeks of preseason camp, he likes what he sees. “We can only coach the guys that we have,” he said. “We lost some very talented players, but we have a lot of talented guys back. I believe guys like Al (Aldrick Robinson), Cole Beasley, Darius Johnson, Bradley Haynes — those are some good receivers there. We can do a lot in this offense with guys like that.” The lone senior in the group is Robinson, who is arguably the fastest player on the roster and among the fastest players — if not the fastest player — at SMU since football returned more than two decades ago. In 2009, despite never being fully healthy, Robinson was the Ponies’ second-leading receiver with 47 receptions for 800 yards, giving him a team-leading average of 17.0 yards per catch. He also got to the end zone five times, including a 96-yard touchdown against East Carolina, tying him for the longest reception in SMU history. “Al has always been fast, but now he’s becoming a complete receiver,” Reinebold said. “He saw the way Emmanuel practiced, he saw the way Emmanuel played, and played through pain. He saw the attention Emmanuel got from the NFL scouts. I expect Al to be the next guy the NFL scouts come here to see. He always had the speed, but he’s a lot stronger, he runs much better routes now and he has good hands. He’s a guy who definitely has a chance to play at the next level.” Junior wide receiver Cole Beasley is a strong, elusive runner is counted on to be among the top targets in SMU's passing game in 2010 (photo by Travis Johnston). Beasley was the fourth SMU receiver to catch at least 40 passes last year (40 for 493 yards and three scores), and gained a measure of national notoriety in SMU’s 45-10 laugher over Nevada in the Hawaii Bowl when he jump-started the offense with a 71-yard catch on the game’s third play, finishing the day with 88 receiving yards and a touchdown. Beasley will be joined in the starting lineup by Johnson, who had an up-and-down freshman season — he caught a touchdown in his college debut against Stephen F. Austin, but he also broke his collarbone. Johnson recovered from the break, but then got suspended, ending his freshman season with just 11 receptions. The fourth likely member of the starting lineup likely will be junior Bradley Haynes, who at 6-foot-3 and 222 pounds, adds an element of size the Mustangs lacked last year. “Bradley isn’t quite as fast as the others, but he’s a big, strong guy who has made plays every time we’ve put him out there,” Reinebold said. “He’s a good player who uses his body well to protect the ball from defenders, and has the versatility to give us a lot of offensive flexibility.” The Mustangs could go with two big targets, as senior Patrick Fleming (6-4, 242) has moved from linebacker to receiver, the position at which he originally was recruited. He also could fill the tight end spot Haynes sometimes occupied last season. A third target with good size is redshirt freshman Marcus Holyfield, Junior Cole Loftin injured a knee during preseason camp, and his immediate future is not yet known. Further bolstering the crew of receivers is a group of fast, talented freshmen. The most likely to get on the field in their first season, or at least the two who have drawn the most praise from coaches and teammates, are Jeremy Johnson and Keenan Holman, each of whom is making a significant transition this year. Johnson is a very fluid, athletic playmaker who was a quarterback at John Tyler High School in Tyler, Texas. Holman is a tall (6-1, 170) target with excellent speed and very good hands who caught just 25 passes as a senior at Central High School in Beaumont, Texas, because his team ran a Wishbone offense.