Nate McCollom to UNC

[JacketFan137]

Really? So what is? Punter? Place Kicker? Long Snapper? It's certainly not QB or either of the lines. Pretty sure it's not LB or RB. That leaves WR and Safety and Corners.

Love Nate, but 5 touches a game. That's 5 plays a game. How many plays in a game?

(Actually, I think they're all equally important)

RB is the easiest position to replace at any level of football as their production is most dependent on the performance of people around them. that’s why in the nfl they rarely get paid big contracts and teams will rarely take guys at the top few rounds of the draft unless they are truly generational prospects like zeke, saquon, etc. TE at the college level is also fairly easy to replace as the vast majority of college offenses don’t feature the TE a whole lot unless they have truly great talents like one of the notre dame TE’s, uga, etc

5 receptions per game is actually pretty good and if anything we failed by not getting him the ball more. we completed 18 passes a game total so i would say a guy getting almost 1/3 of the passes is a pretty substantial workload for an offense as run heavy as us. he lead the team in scrimmage yards so your weird obsession to disprove that nate wasn’t the best offensive player on the team is just comical lol

 

[SOWEGA Jacket]

WR’s and DB’s are a dime a dozen. Their are thousands of high school and portal players who are 5’11 to 6’3 who are fast and can jump and are willing to risk injury and long lasting joint pain for the hope of making money and becoming famous. Sure, you have the freaks like Calvin and Deion who are above the rest but the majority are very interchangeable.

 

[JacketFan137]

WR’s and DB’s are a dime a dozen. Their are thousands of high school and portal players who are 5’11 to 6’3 who are fast and can jump and are willing to risk injury and long lasting joint pain for the hope of making money and becoming famous. Sure, you have the freaks like Calvin and Deion who are above the rest but the majority are very interchangeable.

it depends on what you mean by replaceable. actual impact WRs are few and far between and that’s why they are so coveted in the nfl draft. if you just mean a guy who can go out and run downfield then yes, that is not anything you can’t replace.

rb is still head and shoulders the easiest position to replace

the db stance is just crazy. that is a very difficult position to replace

 

[jojatk]

How much more does Nate have to show that might be an enhancement to his skills resume?

Taking a quick look at some comparative stats, and with the understanding that I think Nate is an excellent football player so I'm not trying to tear him down at all, among D1A WRs he's 124th in the country in receiving yards, 47th in the country at 5.5 receptions per game, at 10.9 ypg receiving he's not anywhere even close to the top 200 (#200 averaged 44.6ypg but played 1 game less, had 31 receptions to Nate's 60, and had about 200 less yards total but also had 2 more TDs). Nate was our most effective WR last year. But let's be honest; he was not even close to the conversation for top WRs in the country. Yes a lot of that is most likely due to inadequacies of our offense overall and not his ability. But you asked what he needs to do and that's differentiate himself from a very crowded list of WRs and having a QB who is being talked about as a potential Heisman candidate can help his visibility if he's catching a lot of balls from Maye.

 

[SOWEGA Jacket]

it depends on what you mean by replaceable. actual impact WRs are few and far between and that’s why they are so coveted in the nfl draft. if you just mean a guy who can go out and run downfield then yes, that is not anything you can’t replace.

rb is still head and shoulders the easiest position to replace

the db stance is just crazy. that is a very difficult position to replace

I don’t disagree about RB. But DB’s are easy to replace. We easily replaced guys who started for years. And in all this I’m talking about college ball not the NFL. The NFL is completely different. But in college, the only positions that make a difference are QB and OLine. We’ve stunk for 5 years because we’ve had neither that were average, hence we finished every season below average.

 

[inGTwetrust]

Losing McCollum will hurt. But I’m quite excited and optimistic to see someone step up.

Lots of potential … just need to see it and health. Blackburn, BlackStrain, Julian Lewis, Haynes, Rutherford or my personal favorite to make a big leap - DJ Moore.

Also, I think the new commit - Singleton is going to be really good in time.

 

[iceeater1969]

The Tax slayer bowl has South carolina playing a stronger ND team .
South carolina has a small fast W R named A. Brown. Is he a gt transfer?

 

[Chas_Jacket]

The Tax slayer bowl has South carolina playing a stronger ND team .
South carolina has a small fast W R named A. Brown. Is he a gt transfer?

Yes - Amari Brown

 

[SOWEGA Jacket]

And he’s done nothing since he left GT.

 

[bke1984]

it depends on what you mean by replaceable. actual impact WRs are few and far between and that’s why they are so coveted in the nfl draft. if you just mean a guy who can go out and run downfield then yes, that is not anything you can’t replace.

rb is still head and shoulders the easiest position to replace

the db stance is just crazy. that is a very difficult position to replace

Just curious, but how impactful was Nate? He was definitely the most productive on our team this year, but how much did he move the needle for the offense as a whole compared to someone else we could have plugged in?

 

[Eli]

it depends on what you mean by replaceable. actual impact WRs are few and far between and that’s why they are so coveted in the nfl draft. if you just mean a guy who can go out and run downfield then yes, that is not anything you can’t replace.

rb is still head and shoulders the easiest position to replace

the db stance is just crazy. that is a very difficult position to replace

I would actually say the WR position has become easier to play relative to even the early 2000s. Look at the WR numbers in the NFL. Jaylen Waddle, Jamar Chase, Tyreek Hill, AJ Brown, Cooper Kupp, DJ Metcalf, Stephon Diggs, Amari Cooper, Cedee Lamb, Justin Jefferson, Devonta Smith, Deandre Hopkins, Devonte Adam’s and Debo Samuel. I honestly can’t name a time in history where this many hall of fame caliber receivers played in the league at one time.

 

[forensicbuzz]

I don’t disagree about RB. But DB’s are easy to replace. We easily replaced guys who started for years. And in all this I’m talking about college ball not the NFL. The NFL is completely different. But in college, the only positions that make a difference are QB and OLine. We’ve stunk for 5 years because we’ve had neither that were average, hence we finished every season below average.

Interior DL is important too.

 

[SOWEGA Jacket]

I would actually say the WR position has become easier to play relative to even the early 2000s. Look at the WR numbers in the NFL. Jaylen Waddle, Jamar Chase, Tyreek Hill, AJ Brown, Cooper Kupp, DJ Metcalf, Stephon Diggs, Amari Cooper, Cedee Lamb, Justin Jefferson, Devonta Smith, Deandre Hopkins, Devonte Adam’s and Debo Samuel. I honestly can’t name a time in history where this many hall of fame caliber receivers played in the league at one time.

Hall of Fame caliber? Come on now. These are mostly young guys. Hall of Fame means they need to do it longer than a few years.

 

[forensicbuzz]

I would actually say the WR position has become easier to play relative to even the early 2000s. Look at the WR numbers in the NFL. Jaylen Waddle, Jamar Chase, Tyreek Hill, AJ Brown, Cooper Kupp, DJ Metcalf, Stephon Diggs, Amari Cooper, Cedee Lamb, Justin Jefferson, Devonta Smith, Deandre Hopkins, Devonte Adam’s and Debo Samuel. I honestly can’t name a time in history where this many hall of fame caliber receivers played in the league at one time.

They could be, but not yet. If they stay healthy and as productive as they are for a stretch of 8-10 years, yeah.

 

[jojatk]

Just curious, but how impactful was Nate? He was definitely the most productive on our team this year, but how much did he move the needle for the offense as a whole compared to someone else we could have plugged in?

Nate had more than double the impact in yards and catches than anyone else on the team. He was not the problem with the offense. The one place I wish he had been more impactful was the scoreboard. He was not a TD machine but, once again, I don’t think he was the problem there. And you can’t just say anyone else could have done the same as he did. It’s not provable. We know what Nate did.

However, I will agree with what I think your point is which is that Nate is not irreplaceable. I happen to think Malik Rutherford will have an excellent season in 2023. His 2022 was better by quite a bit than Nate’s 2021 and we saw how much Nate produced and that was with, shall we say, an anemic offense. So I would not be at all surprised to see Malik’s stats to be better in 2023 than Nate’s were this year.

 

[jojatk]

Hall of Fame caliber? Come on now. These are mostly young guys. Hall of Fame means they need to do it longer than a few years.

Isn’t what you said exactly what Hall of Fame caliber means? It means they have the capability. Not that they deserve to be in based on what they’ve done so far.

 

[forensicbuzz]

Isn’t what you said exactly what Hall of Fame caliber means? It means they have the capability. Not that they deserve to be in based on what they’ve done so far.

By that definition, any young player that has a good year or two is “HoF caliber.” While I agree on you to an extent, I wouldn’t start talking about HoF caliber on time they’ve shown HoF level play for at least 5 years. This is purely my personal barometer.

 

[Root4GT]

WR’s and DB’s are a dime a dozen. Their are thousands of high school and portal players who are 5’11 to 6’3 who are fast and can jump and are willing to risk injury and long lasting joint pain for the hope of making money and becoming famous. Sure, you have the freaks like Calvin and Deion who are above the rest but the majority are very interchangeable.

If WRs are a dime a dozen we spent one dime on WRs as McCollum was our only decent receiver last year.

 

[Eli]

By that definition, any young player that has a good year or two is “HoF caliber.” While I agree on you to an extent, I wouldn’t start talking about HoF caliber on time they’ve shown HoF level play for at least 5 years. This is purely my personal barometer.

My point being there hasn’t been a group of receivers this good/great ever. It’s the way offenses are designed now along with defenses being hamstrung with the way they can play. Kind of like the NBA it is nothing for a guy to drop 30 every night

 

[Eli]

If WRs are a dime a dozen we spent one dime on WRs as McCollum was our only decent receiver last year.

A lot of that has to do with a way an OC calls a game. I think McCollum is fantastic but he is far from irreplaceable, and I believe that is what a lot of folks are saying. For instance in 2010 if Dwyer doesn’t leave I believe we win more games. I do not feel this way towards McCollum