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All of our receivers seemed to be over powered by ECU defenders. Nelson, Joseph, Thompson all seemed to be weaklings. Gaines looked really strong. I also saw him make a couple of great blocks. Is there any way that we could get more reps for Gaines and maybe Hipps?

Is it a strength and conditioning problem or is it a scheme problem?

Do any of our receivers have a basketball background?

dirtysouthpony wrote:All of our receivers seemed to be over powered by ECU defenders. Nelson, Joseph, Thompson all seemed to be weaklings. Gaines looked really strong. I also saw him make a couple of great blocks. Is there any way that we could get more reps for Gaines and maybe Hipps?

Is it a strength and conditioning problem or is it a scheme problem?

Do any of our receivers have a basketball background?

I would say Strength and conditioning. The scheme was somehow fixed at halftime. Hopefully this momentum is followed up to the Cincy game

Play Sutton.

dirtysouthpony wrote:All of our receivers seemed to be over powered by ECU defenders. Nelson, Joseph, Thompson all seemed to be weaklings. Gaines looked really strong. I also saw him make a couple of great blocks. Is there any way that we could get more reps for Gaines and maybe Hipps?

Is it a strength and conditioning problem or is it a scheme problem?

Do any of our receivers have a basketball background?

This has been a theme for years. A combination of lack of talent and inferior preparation (touch football practices). Lucky for us Thompson and Nelson are out the door after the season and the ones that aren't starting will be recruited over.

It was nice to see Gaines make some good blocks - we have very little of that from our receivers. I think part of it may be that a lot of think aren't real big. A bigger part is probably the will to build their bodies and become much better physically.
At Southern Miss a few years ago I remember our receiver getting destroyed by their DB - Thompson and DJ got knocked out of the game. The Southern Miss receivers (blocking) dominated our guys as well. For the most part we have not gotten much better at those physical match ups. If we run a bunch of those short screens have Gaines, Sutton, Hipps out there blocking would give us a chance to be much better at them.

ponyswim wrote:It was nice to see Gaines make some good blocks - we have very little of that from our receivers. I think part of it may be that a lot of think aren't real big. A bigger part is probably the will to build their bodies and become much better physically.
At Southern Miss a few years ago I remember our receiver getting destroyed by their DB - Thompson and DJ got knocked out of the game. The Southern Miss receivers (blocking) dominated our guys as well. For the most part we have not gotten much better at those physical match ups. If we run a bunch of those short screens have Gaines, Sutton, Hipps out there blocking would give us a chance to be much better at them.

Watching the TCU-OU game, it really hit home how much less physical our receivers are. Both offenses had WRs battling DBs for the ball. Our guys simply don't.

Gaines is a TE playing WR. Of course he's going to be a much much better blocker than the rest of our 5'9" receivers. SUtton looks like he can block well too.

dirtysouthpony wrote:All of our receivers seemed to be over powered by ECU defenders. Nelson, Joseph, Thompson all seemed to be weaklings. Gaines looked really strong. I also saw him make a couple of great blocks. Is there any way that we could get more reps for Gaines and maybe Hipps?

Is it a strength and conditioning problem or is it a scheme problem?

Do any of our receivers have a basketball background?

Gaines, Sutton, Hipps all 6"3 220ish. Rest of receivers 5'9 175ish. Has nothing to do with strength and conditioning. Now that Phillips and June gone we can assume the receiver recruiting will change dramatically.

First issue to address for the new staff is the 5 smallish WR's already committed to the existing class?

Wide Receiver blocking is one of the keys to a strong spread passing game. I notice the difference every time SMU plays a top program. I hate Mike Leach but I used to love to watch Tech receivers block downfield. That carried forward at least last year at Tech. Watch Jace Amaro and the Marquez kid-he's always laying big hits on DBs and breaking long plays. Of course, the big difference is recruiting philosophy. Right or wrong SMU recruits the mini-me kids at Inside Receiver. Most Big 12 receivers are 6-0+ and ideally 6-3. Not too many of them out there who can run-and quite frankly I haven't seen Gaines get open very much

Stallion wrote:Wide Receiver blocking is one of the keys to a strong spread passing game. I notice the difference every time SMU plays a top program. I hate Mike Leach but I used to love to watch Tech receivers block downfield. That carried forward at least last year at Tech. Watch Jace Amaro and the Marquez kid-he's always laying big hits on DBs and breaking long plays. Of course, the big difference is recruiting philosophy. Right or wrong SMU recruits the mini-me kids at Inside Receiver. Most Big 12 receivers are 6-0+ and ideally 6-3. Not too many of them out there who can run-and quite frankly I haven't seen Gaines get open very much

Gaines the perfect Tight End/H-Back, hopefully our new scheme can incorporate his strengths. Just judging by their body types and movement on the field, Sutton certainly looks more the WR.

Have to give Nelson credit for getting open & actually catching the ball while getting knocked around like a pinball.

Ironically, when June first got here he always made a big deal about how important wide receiver blocking and physicality was during the luncheons. He would always proclaim that the ability of the WR to block was the key to making a small gain a big one. Over the last few years I have seen three big changes:
1) the WRs don't block that well anymore.
2) We eliminated the double post from our passing attack and that was the pattern that Padron easily had his most success with in his big season.
3) They stopped having all 4 receivers run fly routes down the field on running plays.

JasonB wrote:Ironically, when June first got here he always made a big deal about how important wide receiver blocking and physicality was during the luncheons. He would always proclaim that the ability of the WR to block was the key to making a small gain a big one. Over the last few years I have seen three big changes:
1) the WRs don't block that well anymore.
2) We eliminated the double post from our passing attack and that was the pattern that Padron easily had his most success with in his big season.
3) They stopped having all 4 receivers run fly routes down the field on running plays.

Good observations. I'd agree that June abandoned his own system in favor of a 'safer' or more conservative style. I think it 'all' finally caught up with him.

Intentional sabotage?

4.) It is more difficult to hold blocks for an extended period when the defensive backs average 2-3 inches taller and 15-20 pounds heavier than all of the wide receivers on the roster.

Its also the reason that on 3rd and 7 our 8 yards routes turn into 4 yard passes