The Bomb Squad-Are the Miners Down To Dropping M-80's?

December 09, 2012, 09:15:32 AM kyyote - Use the board. 

[kyyote]

One thing, I and others, have been concerned with on the offensive side of the football team is the receiver corps.  One of the factors that allows the Miners offense to be successful is the deep threat.  The Miners offense is based on spreading the opponent's defense out, and finding one on one matchups in the open field.  The team has not been a power running team, even when Donald Buckram racked up his 1500 yards.  This has been a quick strike offense. The question is, do we still have that "quick strike" ability.

In 2004, Johnnie Lee Higgins, Jason Boyd, and Chris Francies were part of the receiver corps.  I believe, Jason was an undrafted free agent.  Higgins and Francies went on to play in the NFL.  A year later, Joe West was one of the receiving corps' bombers.  Joe also went on to play in the NFL.  Daniel Robinson, another pass catcher from that group went on to the NFL and professional ball.

From 2006 through 2008, Jeff Moturi racked up over 2500 yards, and he too, went on to the NFL.  Also on that 2006 squad were Lorne Sam and  Fred Rouse.  Sam made it to the NFL, and Fred Rouse who made it to the CFL.

From 2008 through 2010, Kris Adams racked up over 2600 yards and went on to the NFL.  

In 2011, UTEP receivers were led by Mike Edwards, Nick Lamison's go to guy at Mt. Sac, and at UTEP after the transfer.  Edwards caught 50 passes for a total of 657 yards, for an average of 13.1 yards per catch to lead the Miners receivers.  Edwards showed that he can catch just about anything that gets close to him, but he hasn't shown that ability to be the deep threat-the bomb- that can stretch the opposing defense.  Donavon Kemp was supposed to be the next big threat receiver, but injuries kept that from materializing, and Kemp saw limited play.  Will any of the receivers from the 2011 that have finished their careers at UTEP make it to the pros?  I hope so, but I'm not holding my breath.

Looking at this, it becomes apparent that the Miners receiving corps, the Bomb Squad, has slowly, but surely, become more of an artillery unit than a Bomb Squad.  Losing Marlon McClure last year didn't help, but he wouldn't have saved the receiver squad, either.  The drop off in passing yards has not been dramatic over the past few years, about 50-75 yards per game.  But, it isn't the yards, it is the stretching of the defense that it has affected.

This season's receiver corps is what really jumps off of the page when you look at UTEP's Spring Roster.  Edwards is back for his senior year.  He is joined by Jordan Leslie who showed considerable promise as a freshman, and a few others that were barely worth mentioning. There are 15 wide receivers shown.  Edwards is the lone senior, and there are no juniors.  There are four sophomores.  Jim Jones is one of them, and UTEP shows only that he redshirted last year. There is the previously mentioned Leslie.  Devin Paterson and Malcolm Trail, both of whom caught a handful of passes last year are back.

Here comes the list of freshmen.  This is where it gets just downright strange.  Chris Feyjoo-Sanchez is from Hawaii.  Ishmael Harrison is a redshirt freshman from Red Oak, Texas.  Scout had him listed as a three star recruit.  Davian Harper, another redshirt, showed potential during practices last year.  Felix Neboh is another redshirt, a small, speedy receiver from Odessa's Permian High School.  Nothing strange so far, right?  That's because I haven't mentioned the rest.

Six of the fifteen wide receivers on the Spring Roster are El Paso kids.  Jacob Garcia is a redshirt freshman from Riverside.  Kyle Morin also redshirted last season, and he is from Eastwood.  Then there's Pete Carreon from Riverside, Cole Freytag from Coronado, Anthony Scallion from Andress, and Noberto Solis from Horizon.

Did El Paso become fertile territory for finding great receivers?  Sure, this is the Spring Roster.  How many of these players, especially the El Paso kids, will get beyond the practice squad isn't easy to say.  Then, there are the 2012 recruits that will come in after they finish their senior years of high school.  

UTEP enters this season with very little experience at the wide receiver position, and lots of questions.  Is the receiving corps going to be dropping bombs deep into enemy territory or throwing hand grenades just beyond their own lines?

What happened to UTEP's "Big Play" on offense?  Has the Bomb Squad lost their pop, or have the past couple of years just been a bit of a slip?  The Miners need to get back to having at least two professional caliber receivers on every team.  Receivers that can stretch the defense is a must for this offense if it is going to see the kind of success the fans are demanding.  

[zyxwvutsru]

Meh.  6-6 will be our record.

[ronstr300]

Meh.  6-6 will be our record.

damn optimists on this board! 

[utep66]

Kyyote, a well written and excellent analysis. I share your concern regarding our depth and lack of speed. Six of our wide receivers playing quarterback their senior season further demonstrates our lack of experience. Redshirt freshman Harrison and 5'8 walk-on Neboh may be our fastest receivers, but they may be closer to 4.5 than 4.0.

Surprisingly, our recruiting efforts didn't seem to put a high emphasis on immediate help for next year. Callicutt was an excellent February signing with  reported 4.42 speed, however, his status for next year is uncertain due to knee surgery. Moss, a greyshirt candidate, was lightly recruited. Unless we have an unknown transfer or unannounced signing stashed away, we may not have much help this fall. As your pointed out, acking M-80's and oyr brutal schedule doesn't bode well for Jeffery and company.

[USAFminersfan]

combine that with a brutal schedule, and you already know how next year is gonna turn out....

[kyyote]

Well, the offensive line will be a year better, and that may have a big effect on the offense's ability to run and pass block effectively, especially to give the time needed to make the long pass.  But, the receiver corps must produce some speed and the ability to catch the ball, even if it isn't perfectly thrown.  Lavorick Williams went to nmsu originally but they wouldn't let him run track.  That's why he transferred to UTEP.  But, he hasn't really been a factor.  Somehow, someway, the team will have to find a speedy deep receiver to keep defenses honest.  That is the unknown of this group.  Of our receivers, I know of no one that fills that role.  We may have a bunch of them, but we don't know.  We do know that we didn't have that last year.  So, brutal schedule or easy schedule doesn't matter in this discussion.  If we don't have that ability to stretch the field we have a problem.  If we develop that threat, if one or more receivers show that ability we may be able to give any team a tough go.  Most of what determines wins and losses for the Miners is simply whether or not the defense can stop anyone.



Notice the first two seasons.  We actually had more yards than we gave up.  After that, the defensive yards allowed blew up.  Even in 2006, the gap was there, but not as great as the years that followed.  Hundley was DC for those first three years.  He moved on, and we brought in Lewis and the 3-3-5.  How did that work out?  The worst three seasons of the bunch-by far.  Then came Patterson.  His first season, it looked like we were on the right track, but last year (and injuries, and personnel have to be factored in, I suppose) things looked like they were going back the other way. 

If Patterson and the defense can get the defense back to playing like they did in 04 and 05, we win plenty of games.  If the trend follows the past two years, we may have a tough go.  The offense is really kind of rebuilding in some ways, but the offense has not been what lost games in the past few years. 

[SisyphusMiner]

It seems to me you're conflating big plays with good wide receivers.  I share your concern about the apparent lack of quality wide receivers.  But I have no desire to return to the days when 3 out of every 4 plays are passing attempts at 20+ yards.  I don't particularly want to score quickly.  The dependence on the long play has always resulted in the defense spending a lot of time on the field, and defending a short field.  Even if we score, if the defense is back out there 30 seconds later they are exhausted by the end of the game and we give up a lot of points in the 4th.  You would like to have the threat of long bombs, and connect on a couple each game, obviously.

But as to the question of whether this receiving corp is capable of being a contributing part of a consistent offense, that's completely valid.  The great thing about JLH and others was the ability to turn a 15 yd pass into an 80 yd gain.

[kyyote]

Well, I had to look up the definition of conflate to be sure, but having done that I'm still not sure what you mean by that first sentence.  Can you have big plays without good receivers?  Sure.  Tyler Ebell was one of those guys who could make a big play out of a short pass.  Vernon Frazier could, too.  Both of them were running backs, but they could produce big plays.  But that isn't what I'm saying.  Edwards is a terrific receiver, but he isn't the deep threat that stretches the defense.  We need to be able to do that to open up the offense, to help the running game, and the short yardage passing attack. 

In 2004 the time of possession was 29 minutes to 31 for the opponent.  The 05 season it was 28 to 32.  We won 8 games each of those seasons.  In 2009 the times were 29/31 and DBuck ran his ass off.  2010 it was 29/31 and in 2011 it was 31/29.  We won the time of possession battle but lost the war. 

If the defense can't stop a quick strike offense, we will have the ball more, but if we can't score ourselves, we lose.  Houston didn't let quick scoring slow them down.  Wins are determined by points on the board, not keeping the defense off of the field.  If you run the ball for 5 minutes and don't score, but the other team scores in 1 minute, you are down 0-7, and at the end of the game the score will read  0-70 but the defense will have only been stuck out on the field for 10 minutes.

You score in the time it takes to run 100 yards if you can.  Yep, it puts your defense on the field again, but you have seven points you didn't have seven seconds before.  Keeping the defense off of the field isn't the point.  Having a defense that can get their own ass off the field, without giving up points is the key.  In that game above, the opponent's defense may be wore out, but they can soothe themselves with the victory.

Ideally, at least in my mind, we score a bunch real quick throwing those bombs along the way, and with a big lead, built upon that mixture of plays, especially those that set the opponents defense up to drop the bomb on them.  Then, with a big lead, we start to run clock to keep the defense off the field.  All of those 3 yards and a cloud of dust teams were real good about holding onto the ball and keeping their defenses off of the field.  Then teams like Appalachian State spread those big boys out, and scored on them like the had never had any of those ground pounders do to them.  What is happening in college football?  Teams are embracing the spread offences, even the used to be ground pounders.

Look at the colored bars.  The offenses have remaing fairly steady, except the last two seasons, and even those weren't off too much (probably just enough to show the lack of the deep threat effect) that I am alluding to.  In 2006 we only ran the ball for 56 yards a game, and passed for 312.  We were bombs away in 04 and 05, and throwing bombs and putting the defense back on the field.  The defense held their own.

I just don't think we are stretching defenses with our deep receivers as we once did, and I think that doesn't help our offense.  Even if the bomb isn't thrown, it has to be a threat in order to keep the defense honest.


Here is a list of the receivers and their per catch average;

04  Boyd 13      JLH 21      Francies 17 05  JLH 17      Francies 18 06  JLH 16      Robinson 16      West 18 07  Moturi 14      Sam 14      West 18 08  Moturi 13       Adams 19 09  Moturi 18      Adams 14 10  Adams 22 (1070 yards)      No other receiver caught more than 343 yards. 11  Edwards 13 (650 yards approx.)      Leslie 14      Kemp 20 ( only caught 23 passes for about 450 yards)      These three combined for about 1500 yards.

Anyway, I thought this was worth looking at, and discussing the corps as is shown on this years spring roster.

[NineteenRabbit]

Having a receiver named Moss doesn't conjure up visions of dazzling speed, either.

Fire in the hole!

V

[kyyote]

I don't know, that Randy Moss kid out of Marshall a few years back could pick 'em up, and lay 'em down.

[SisyphusMiner]

Well, I had to look up the definition of conflate to be sure, but having done that I'm still not sure what you mean by that first sentence.

It wouldn't be the first time I've mis-used a word, nor is it likely to be the last.   

Keeping the defense off of the field isn't the point.  Having a defense that can get their own ass off the field, without giving up points is the key.  In that game above, the opponent's defense may be wore out, but they can soothe themselves with the victory.

When have we had such a defense?  You try to build your team to meet the style you want to play, but today's game plan has to take into account today's players.  Our defense has laid down and died in the 4th quarter and in the last month of the season every year.  I don't believe that's all due to the DC or the quality of players.  Field position matters, and time of possession matters.

The spread offense as I understand it does not necessarily rely on the deep ball.  As you say, the deep ball needs to be a threat.  My problem is that I've watched us through the entire Mike Price era depend almost exclusively on the deep ball, and seen the results.  Yup, you can rack up a 21 point lead in no time.  And give it right back. 

All this doesn't alter the validity of your concern about the speed of the receivers.