WR Coach - Kerry Dixon

jacketup

jacketup

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I have been very supportive of this staff given what they inherited. A lot of people have been critical of Patenaude, but until he has an offensive line with P5 talent that has played together, it's hard to judge the OC.

My one question mark is Dixon. Our receivers have underperormed relative to talent in my opinion. The route running has not been crisp for one, but there is something missing. Maybe the best words I can come up with is lack of desire. When the ball is in the air they don't seem to have the attitude of "it's mine, and I am going to take it from you DB." An announcer in either the Pitt game or NC State commented on the poor performance of our WR.
 
TromboneJacket

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jacketup said:
I have been very supportive of this staff given what they inherited. A lot of people have been critical of Patenaude, but until he has an offensive line with P5 talent that has played together, it's hard to judge the OC.

My one question mark is Dixon. Our receivers have underperormed relative to talent in my opinion. The route running has not been crisp for one, but there is something missing. Maybe the best words I can come up with is lack of desire. When the ball is in the air they don't seem to have the attitude of "it's mine, and I am going to take it from you DB." An announcer in either the Pitt game or NC State commented on the poor performance of our WR.
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I felt the same way about performance relative to talent until I looked at the recruiting ratings of the receivers on our roster. I know recruiting ratings aren’t perfectly accurate and precise, but they’re generally pretty decently accurate. Looking at Rivals (which is the one whose ratings I understand better), Dixon didn’t inherit a single WR rated higher than a low 3-star. I think CPJ did a good job of putting our WRs in advantageous positions, but they also really benefited from defenses having to commit more to stopping the run. Now more is being asked of them. Unfortunately, most of our receiver talent is pretty young, and receivers can take a bit before they start being productive. And our receivers have had to rely on inexperienced QBs so far, and those inexperienced QBs have had to rely on an O-line in rebuild. I’m willing to somewhat accept our WR performance over the last 2 seasons, but I think it’s time for them to start producing. There’s no excuse for Malachi and Adonicas not to know their fundamentals or their routes at this point. If we’re being charitable, that “lack of desire” could be interpreted as lack of confidence, but there’s no excuse even for that anymore.
 

stinger 1957

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I thought receiver and RB were the two positions that FR could come in and play their freshman year when they are naturally good, where all the other positions usually take more time, some one correct me about this please.
 
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stinger 1957 said:
I thought receiver and RB were the two positions that FR could come in and play their freshman year when they are naturally good, where all the other positions usually take more time, some one correct me about this please.
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RB definitely is a position that a freshman (or rookie at the NFL level) can excel at immediately based on talent. WR is a little trickier. The best of the best can dominate immediately, but I’ve noticed, especially at the NFL level, that often a young WR will start out as a special teams contributor and then in year 2 or 3 become a reliable offensive asset. Tyler Lockett is a good example of this. Any time you jump a level in competition, the players you’re facing are bigger, faster, stronger, smarter, and more polished than what you’re used to. Plus, a RB usually isn’t spending the entirety of a game competing with a player whose job is to basically be a mirror image of them. Imagine being a dominant WR in high school: you easily blow past attempts to jam you at the LOS because you’re stronger than the corner, you get open easily because you’re faster than the corner and can get him to bite on double moves and cuts, you tower over most defenders on jump-balls, and you rarely drop passes because most of the other players can’t hit you hard enough to jar you. Now you’re a freshman in college going up against corners who have no problem jamming you at the LOS, matching you step for step, and contesting your catches. To go back to winning, you’ll have to work on your hand fighting techniques, polish up your route running, improve your catch mechanics, and hit the weight room to get physically stronger. Doing all that takes time.
 

SOWEGA Jacket

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Yeah, hard to judge with the WR’s we’ve been using the last 2 years. If the young guys don’t get on the field I’d be shocked. To your point these Collins recruits at WR will be ball hawks because that is how they were coached in high school. These guys are a definite step up in talent.
 
Buzztheirazz

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SWATlien said:
Just landed another 4* WR. He’s one of the program’s strongest recruiters & is loved South Florida. If Camp is drafted (which he will) his stock will shoot up even further.
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He didn’t recruit Camp so not sure why he would get credit there.
 
Buzztheirazz

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And then who is the next guy he gets credit for? I’m sure he’s a great recruiter but I don’t think other places are coming calling for another 2 or 3 years. Just my opinion.

Our WRs have been called out, as people have mentioned, as specifically not trying that hard during games. That’s on him.
 

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Buzztheirazz said:
And then who is the next guy he gets credit for? I’m sure he’s a great recruiter but I don’t think other places are coming calling for another 2 or 3 years. Just my opinion.

Our WRs have been called out, as people have mentioned, as specifically not trying that hard during games. That’s on him.
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Jeffrey Bonica.
 

gville_jacket

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SOWEGA Jacket said:
Yeah, hard to judge with the WR’s we’ve been using the last 2 years. If the young guys don’t get on the field I’d be shocked. To your point these Collins recruits at WR will be ball hawks because that is how they were coached in high school. These guys are a definite step up in talent.
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Or the guys we had on roster were better than we realized. I think we can only judge our WR’s by snap count to compare within the team. Production numbers haven’t been great but that hasn’t been all on the WR. Coaches will always put the best on team on the field. Seeing a freshman play is awesome because it means he earned that playing time over the other guys.
 
GTBandit22

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stinger 1957 said:
I thought receiver and RB were the two positions that FR could come in and play their freshman year when they are naturally good, where all the other positions usually take more time, some one correct me about this please.
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The conventional wisdom is the further away from the ball, the easier it is to get on the field early. DB, WR, RB, LB

I think WR has one talented veteran transferring in, and a bunch of untested talent in the wings, including guys like Norris, King and Boyd who haven’t played a ton. Then add in the freshman.

Carter and Adonicas will get a lot of burn, but I think the rest of the snaps are up for grabs. We do have a lot of guys here so I expect we lose at least one after spring.
 

gville_jacket

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DieselTeeth said:
this could still be 2 or 3 years out
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we're 2 or 3 years out for a freshman to earn playing time? tell that to sims, gibbs, and williams...

anyone who is playing, regardless of age, has earned that playing time. that's the whole point of competition. so if that person happens to be a freshman, then it means he's earned those reps. this is always true for every team in the country. even if you don't respect the ability/talent of the upper classmen, they aren't just going to just lay down and let a freshman take those snaps away.
 
DieselTeeth

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gville_jacket said:
we're 2 or 3 years out for a freshman to earn playing time? tell that to sims, gibbs, and williams...

anyone who is playing, regardless of age, has earned that playing time. that's the whole point of competition. so if that person happens to be a freshman, then it means he's earned those reps. this is always true for every team in the country. even if you don't respect the ability/talent of the upper classmen, they aren't just going to just lay down and let a freshman take those snaps away.
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This is in contex to who we have on roster now,
gville_jacket said:
we're 2 or 3 years out for a freshman to earn playing time? tell that to sims, gibbs, and williams...

anyone who is playing, regardless of age, has earned that playing time. that's the whole point of competition. so if that person happens to be a freshman, then it means he's earned those reps. this is always true for every team in the country. even if you don't respect the ability/talent of the upper classmen, they aren't just going to just lay down and let a freshman take those snaps away.
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Name a true WR freshman on the roster that will play this year.
 
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