Reno Hightower said:

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The portal is the way

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While I agree, I want to ask: Are any of our current WRs from the transfer portal?

And Jabre may end up being your second best. So If we can evaluate talent well we will continue to get proven contributors from the portal as a bandaid until the high school recruiting rebounds

Demas I think was a product of the culture/situation he grew up in. If I remember right he went to Tomball his senior year using family that lived there to get away from the bad area he was in. He apparently was raised to think it's ok to beat women in his life. Not exactly easy to predict some would turn out that way.

Evan Stew did seem to have a history of effort and quitting on his team issues. But he was certainly worth the risk trying to recruit and sign. Seems like his production is non existent at Oregon too. He took the check and went to Oregon. He'd have likely been much better off staying. Would have certainly been a top target here, but then again I've been told he skipped practices often and played only when he wanted to play. He might not have been welcomed back by Elko.

Why is it unfortunate? We have adequate receivers to make the offense work. Maybe we don't have the over the top speed guy and that would be helpful. We'll be able to replace whoever we lose imo .

It should be a concern. The portal is a start but that's a short-term fix. Stud receivers coming out of high school are needed so they can grow into the system. Top notch schools have an embarrassment of riches when it comes to receivers or playmakers. Win the recruiting battles!! NIL.

Another WR thread, so I'll offer the same answer....

If you were a high-profile stud WR recruit, what about A&M would make you want to come here? Before Ainias Smith in this year's draft, we haven't had a WR drafted since Christian Kirk and Damion Ratley in 2018. Jimbo's WR development in general was historically bad going back to Kelvin Benjamin and Rashad Green at Florida State. We have shown no ability to develop or produce elite WRs, so why would a recruit come here over schools like Bama, Ohio State, Texas, USC, Oregon, etc with elite offenses?

It's up to the current staff to change that, although Klein's offense isn't quite conducive to producing big WR numbers. His leading receiver last year at Kansas State was a TE. Kansas State had a 700+ yard WR twice since the 2017 season. Granted, Klein was only OC or co-OC for 2-3 of those years, but the offensive principles are very similar.

I suspect we will continue to miss out on 5-star guys at WR unless we can give them a reason to come here. NIL isn't always the answer despite what so many think. Fortunately, the portal makes it possible for us to get a second chance on some of those guys and to fill holes.

Agree with you 100%, especially the part about Klein. He ran a lot of tight-end sets at KSate against Big 12 defenses. Speed is needed on the outside to balance it out. Especially in the SEC. Getting good receivers is going to be an uphill battle.

Main reason the number of receptions is suppressed is the unbalanced offense so far. 131 runs vs 72 passes. Some of that I'm sure can be attributed to the weather at Florida and wanting to keep the ball on the ground in the 2nd half to burn clock. Maybe the offense will balance out more as the season progresses.

RoadkillBBQ said:

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Main reason the number of receptions is suppressed is the unbalanced offense so far. 131 runs vs 72 passes. Some of that I'm sure can be attributed to the weather at Florida and wanting to keep the ball on the ground in the 2nd half to burn clock. Maybe the offense will balance out more as the season progresses.

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This is true as well. We ran the ball the whole game against McNeese, and field conditions and game script resulted in us throwing 2 passes in the second half against Florida. One of those went for a 73 yard TD.

We should not be expecting to throw for 400 yards in a game, but I suspect there may still be more to be seen from the passing game.

Easiest position to fill via the portal. Second easiest is RB. I would expect brisk portal activity this winter for the good guys.

classof92 said:

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It should be a concern. The portal is a start but that's a short-term fix. Stud receivers coming out of high school are needed so they can grow into the system. Top notch schools have an embarrassment of riches when it comes to receivers or playmakers. Win the recruiting battles!! NIL.

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Not if the coach has to win the first year or be gone by the third year…

Aside from Crabtree, I can't think of many. Because of the "air raid" offense, he would turn a bunch of no-names into good receivers. But they never developed to the next level. But again, that was the Air Raid offense. Klein is no "air raid" offense coordinator.

I've figured out why we have such poor play over the years. Apparently we have different rooms for our players. RB room, WR room. Does OL have a room?

BWEB4 said:

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I'm extremely concerned about our WR room especially going into the next few season. We lose out on one of the last 5 stars on our board yesterday in Jerome Myles WR. Where is Ashton Bethel-Roman as he is our best WR recruit rank wise that has stayed due to Chris Marshall and Evan Stewart not working out!? Why are we so unlucky with receivers every year? Speedy, Demond Demas, etc etc. it's not as bad now that we have the portal but geez I'm tired of it. I hope Cyrus can keep heading upward and Jabre balls out.

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Relax Francis,

We have this new thing called "the portal".

5 star busts will be a thing of the past.....

Most important right now is that our O moves the ball, puts up points, and looks like a good place for a kid to transfer to

The thing that is more worrisome is that it seems like other much, much smaller schools have better receivers than we do and they weren't 5 stars. It's like we have the inability to identify talent at that position. Hopefully, that changes.

classof92 said:

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It should be a concern. The portal is a start but that's a short-term fix. Stud receivers coming out of high school are needed so they can grow into the system. Top notch schools have an embarrassment of riches when it comes to receivers or playmakers. Win the recruiting battles!! NIL.

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I wish this was correct, but very few top recruits are willing to "grow into [a] system" these days. If a 4/5 star freshman does not start or at least see significant playing time with the expectation of starting the following year, he's going to hit the portal. We're going to lose some and replace some significant talent with the portal every year. The guys who grow into the system are the 2-3 stars who exceed consensus expectations of them as high school players.

Ag_EE_88 said:

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The thing that is more worrisome is that it seems like other much, much smaller schools have better receivers than we do and they weren't 5 stars. It's like we have the inability to identify talent at that position. Hopefully, that changes.

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I actually think our WR will start to show up more if our offense continues to improve - especially if that comes with elevated QB play.

I think Cyrus Allen and Barber could both be tremendous.

nicholas said:

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Yes, Cyrus Allen

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Then even less reason to worry about as long as Elko uses the portal as well as he did earlier this year.

classof92 said:

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Aside from Crabtree, I can't think of many. Because of the "air raid" offense, he would turn a bunch of no-names into good receivers. But they never developed to the next level. But again, that was the Air Raid offense. Klein is no "air raid" offense coordinator.

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They just had a 1st rounder
-Oops for some reason thoghnt Pearsall went to tech

Guess Coutee and Ezukamna were the last drafted

WolfCall said:

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How many stars did Mike Leach receivers have?

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classof92 said:

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Aside from Crabtree, I can't think of many. Because of the "air raid" offense, he would turn a bunch of no-names into good receivers. But they never developed to the next level. But again, that was the Air Raid offense. Klein is no "air raid" offense coordinator.

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A&M will never ever hire an air raid offense coach. Ags have always thought it's not macho male enough. We'd much rather ground pound. Yet that offense continues to beat people with better talent. As in Leach's record of 9-4 vs our better talent.

Bryanisbest said:

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classof92 said:

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Aside from Crabtree, I can't think of many. Because of the "air raid" offense, he would turn a bunch of no-names into good receivers. But they never developed to the next level. But again, that was the Air Raid offense. Klein is no "air raid" offense coordinator.

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A&M will never ever hire an air raid offense coach. Ags have always thought it's not macho male enough. We'd much rather ground pound. Yet that offense continues to beat people with better talent. As in Leach's record of 9-4 vs our better talent.

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Kevin Sumlin ran an air raid scheme before Mazzone.

Divining Rod said:

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I have NO DOUBT that with the QB talent we have, the present coaching, and being Texs A&M, that we will be able to get some top-shelf receivers. None.

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All of this means squat. All that matters these days is who pays the most. This is why NIL is killing college football

This isn't something I spend anytime worrying about. You can get WR in the portals and Klein isn't a sling it around play caller.

With a good QB returning, good Oline, good run game, NIL money, and the transfer portal there is no way Elko won't be able to attract some talented under utilized receivers. If he can't that's on him

Receivers are a recruiting gamble.

Except for some rare cases, they aren't used to working hard in high school. They are just more athletically gifted than the guys across the line from them. Then, they get to college and it doesn't work like that anymore. They need to DRILL technique over and over and over again. They need to be in 4x as good cardio condition as they were in high school. They need to put on a lot of muscle to deal with the physicality of the game. They have to learn how to read defenses and learn how to block. It's a tougher transition than you might think.

In the last few years, we have recruited guys who have the measurables and hope they are ready to work. I think Elko puts a premium on being ready to work. We'll be alright.

Screw it ... get rid of all WR, invest that money in the very best OL, TE and RB ... run the quadruple option. Problem solved.