Freshmen WRs

[Otto]

Great stuff, PonyPride
Thanks

[Chuck Norris]

In case you don't remember Beasley is the kid with the highlight tape that puts Sam Mcguffie to shame. Kid is as good as good as they get in the open field but that 4.4 time he posted might be a stretch.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zRXagOsRwU0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hrephVM3 ... re=related

[Top 25]

Thanks, PP.

From what I've heard from one of the other freshmen, Lundy is off-the-charts quick...and extremely fast.

[gostangs]

Wonder if any of our WR's are going to the Cole-play concert later this fall.

[giacfsp]

In case you don't remember Beasley is the kid with the highlight tape that puts Sam Mcguffie to shame. Kid is as good as good as they get in the open field but that 4.4 time he posted might be a stretch.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zRXagOsRwU0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hrephVM3 ... re=related

The first play on that first tape is absolutely incredible.
The play at the 3:15 point of the second clip is amazing, too.

[SMUmustangs]

The freshman WRs I can think of off the top of my head: E.J. Drewery, Cole Beasley, Cole Lofton, Bryce Lunday, B.J. Lee, Quincy Whittington - am I forgetting anyone? (I know, a couple of those guys might end up at RB or something, but they're running routes this summer in voluntary workouts.)

Cole Beasley is amazingly quick - that's the thing that stands out so far. He seems to have good receiving skills, catching the ball away from his body and tucking it away quickly, and he seems to have a sixth sense that allows him to know where guys are. There have been several times over the last couple of weeks when he would make a catch and turn away from a defender who was coming up on one side or the other - but he hadn't taken his eyes off the ball. Once he makes the catch, he starts and stops very quickly, and seems to like cutting back against the grain and making people miss. Remember when someone came on PonyFans.com during recruiting season and said he had a 40- or 42-inch vertical leap or something crazy? Can't vouch for that, but I have seen him go up pretty high in the air and battle for balls.

E.J. Drewery has gotten the most attention so far, I guess, in part because he's 6-5, so he looks like a basketball player next to the other guys. But he's not just big - he is fast and can leap, which by itself makes him a viable target. He catches the ball away from his body and pulls it in, almost snatching it out of the air, so as the quarterbacks get more familiar with him, they'll be able to aim a little higher so either he catches it or nobody catches it (I feel fairly comfortable saying he won't see a defensive back his size). He's far from a finished product (after all, he hasn't worked with the coaches yet), but he has outrageous potential. My guess is that a couple of things they'll work with him on are shortening his stride a little, so he can make quicker cuts and breaks, and getting more consistent with his hands. He has made some great catches, but he also has let too many balls slip through his hands.

B.J. Lee is short, and he is very fast. The listed height of 5-foot-5 probably is not a stretch, but to the naked eye, it looks like his reported 4.3 speed might not be a stretch, either. He's the polar opposite of Drewery, obviously, and is going to have to use his speed and elusiveness to have a chance to get away from defenders. There have been several times when he has had a chance at catches in the back of the end zone, which you would think would be difficult for a guy with his lack of height, but when he shifts it into a higher gear, the guy can flat-out fly. He has blown by several DBs, some of whom started lining up with a slightly deeper cushion. One thing that struck me was that, while Beasley starts and stops on a dime, Lee can change directions almost without slowing down. There have been several times when he was flying downfield and then he takes off across the middle, losing the DB who was chasing him.

Cole Loftin is one of the harder guys to get a read on. Like Beasley, he's a former high school QB, so how that adjustment goes remains to be seen. He's not going to stand out from the crowd with the obvious measurables - he's not as tall as Drewery, he's not as fast as Lee - but he seems to do some other things very well. He adjusts his body to a ball in mid-flight very well, making him able to twist back and grab a pass that's headed behind him, etc. He also appears to have very good hands - there was the one sensational catch the other day when he stretched out and seemed to catch the BACK END of the ball - and good body control, as he showed Tuesday (I think) when he caught the ball over the sideline and got his feet down in bounds. Our man SIDELINE saw a lot of Loftin's games in high school, and said that while he might not blow up a stopwatch like Lee does, he makes people miss and is very effective in the open field.

Bryce Lunday is hard to get a read on. He looks quicker in person than he did in the on-line video clips that were available during his recruitment. He seems to be perhaps the best of this bunch at staying with a ball that gets deflected, and there have been a few times when he either bobbled a ball or tipped a ball that was slightly out of reach and adjusted to the ball to make the catch. Seems very shifty and changes direction well, kind of like Beasley. Considering the pounding he took at Sheridan (Ark.) HS - a reporter buddy of mine said he was "the only good player they had" - I'm willing to bet he's pretty tough, too.

Quincey Whittington is impressive. First of all, he is incredibly muscular for a freshman. They're all strong and they all work out - I get that - but this guy is stacked with muscle. I watched him lifting weights last week and thought he was a linebacker or something because of the amount of weight he was pushing around ... until he stood up and I realized who it was. He's not quite as fast as Lee, but he's not far off - he can really move. He ran the ball a lot at Cuero HS, so I don't know how much experience he has battling defenders for passes, but he has the speed to get open and the strength to fight off defenders.

from what i seen Drewery's hands are pretty consistent he catches the ball good.

[PonyPride]

Don't get me wrong, he catches the ball well — he could just be a little more consistent, that's all. Making the tough catch is great, but not at the expense of dropping an easy one.

And I did forget one: Ekolu Soon. Didn't mean to forget him — sorry — but I went through the guys in the recruiting class signed in February. Soon is pretty slender — he reported his weight at 163 when he visited with PonyFans.com in May — but he seems pretty fearless, wandering across the middle where LBs like Justin Smart and Victor Jones roamed and making receptions in traffic. Granted, the guys aren't in pads, so the big guys aren't doing any hitting, but a lot of little guys won't even go across there in practice. Soon is quicker than he is fast, and seems to run pretty crisp routes.

[kent dorfman]

Hey PonyPride would you mind being a little more in-depth with your reports?