WR/TE "Efficiency" Troy through Boston College

Humphries has more snaps than Bryant or Peake. That’s pretty shocking to me considering that they are, supposedly, much better than him. Not sure which. Humphries seems to be what we thought he would be, he catches everything coming his way and is an efficient reciever. However, Peake’s low snaps has also baffeled me. During the preseason it was thought that Peake would take over Brown as some point, but to be fair, Brown has seriously stepped up his game and is money for us this year. I’m sure he’ll get his time and to be honest I feel good that we have so many targets to give the ball to. It makes it nigh impossible for teams to shut our O down. Too many targets and the 3rd or 4th option is just as good as the 1st or 2nd.

One question, which McNeal leaving how is behind Sammy in the depth chart? Is it Humphries or do you think that Craig will take that over eventually?

I appreciate the effort involved in the data mining here. I also appreciate the attempt at quantifying the performance we’ve seen out on the field.

I’m just not sure I agree with the conclusions that have been drawn from the data. Using catches per snap produces an easy, exact number, but what does that really communicate? You indicate that you’re surprised with Peake’s performance based upon his 1.75% figure, but I disagree that this is an indicator of performance. There is far too much noise involved with the statistics here.

Too many things are outside of the player’s control and the sample size is far too small for that noise to correct itself effectively. Off the top of my head, the player is limited in his potential contribution by the following (among other things):
*Play choice (potential targets)
*Quarterback effectiveness on that particular play

In my opinion, statistic analysis of this nature is only effective when we truly isolate to determine true performance. Using catches per snap to rate the “performance” of wide receivers is faulty from the start and is bound to lead to conclusions that just aren’t supported by the data.

There is also the problem that catches per snap are almost certainly going to decrease the further down the depth chart you go. In my estimation, this is true for two reasons. For one, these players are likely in the game more often when it is out of reach. In these instances, Clemson is more likely to run the ball than they would have been with the game in doubt. This skews the data toward the starters. Another possible explanation is that the Clemson coaching staff may be more likely to call pass plays with top pass-catching personnel in the game, further skewing the data.

I think this data can be used to effectively evaluate how efficiently our personnel has been used. Is it “worth” using Charone Peake given the catch per snap figures? I tend to think that these questions can be answered with the data presented, but the analysis focuses its efforts elsewhere.

and is a great blocker this year. What a turnaround in his game from last year.

Aside from the speed and hands, the one thing that stands out to me about Sammy is the little things he does that resemble an NFL receiver. It makes me wonder how much film or time he has put in studying those guys, or who has taugh him those little things.. It cant be Jeff Scott, because here are two things I haven’t seen from our receivers before:

Avoiding big hits- We saw Charone take a couple this year, and Nuke took a couple last year over the middle. But has anyone noticed that given the amount of catches he makes in traffic and across the middle, Sammy rarely takes big shots? You see this a lot from polished NFL guys with long careers, they make the catch in the middle, get what they can, and then GET DOWN. Even when he makes the catch jumping across the middle in traffic he heads for the ground instead of exposing himself to the KO. Check it out this week if you haven’t.

Sideline grabs- Yes Nuke last year showed some of this ability to drag a foot, but Sammy always goes for getting two in bounds.. and he has shown that ability to make his body almost go “limp” as he makes the catch on the sideline and falls to the ground instead of running through the pass and dragging a foot. Quite impressive.

On another note, where does a guy like Germone Hopper fit into this system? Will he be playing the same role as Watkins? Do you guys think he’ll redshirt first year?