Position Analysis: Jeff Scott and the Wide Receivers

Jeff Scott, born in 1980, was again the youngest member of the 2010 Clemson football staff.  Scott's football bio in a nutshell:  Jeff is the son of Clemson OL coach Brad Scott.  Jeff was the holder at Clemson in the early 2000's. His college coaching career began in ‘07 at Presbyterian College as the receivers coach. Scott came back to Clemson as a Graduate Assistant, and was promoted to Wide Receiver's coach when Tom Bowden and Rob Spence got fired mid-way through the ‘08 season.  Additionally, JS held the title of Recruiting Coordinator for the past two years.

Clemson returned basically all but one receiver from the 2009 campaign. Unfortunately for the Tigers, the receiver who departed was Clemson's best WR target a year ago, current Raider's WR and former CU track star Jacoby Ford.  Among those who played significantly in '09 and returned for the '10 season are Xavier Dye, Brandon Clear, Terrance Ashe, and Marquan Jones.

We rate Coach J. Scott and the 2010 group of Wide Receivers in three key areas:

• Recruiting - Scott has the additional title of Recruiting Coordinator
• Passing production, keeping in mind QB performance.
• Blocking

Jeff Scott has the additional title of Recruiting Coordinator, meaning most fans will put the success of the recruiting class on his shoulders when it does well. This is actually not a totally correct assumption, as the coordinator is merely that, a coordinator/director of recruiting. It's an administrative title that doesn't carry the power of an offensive or defensive coordinator. He does not decide directly who we go offer or who goes after them, that decision is one made by the full staff with approval from Swinney. However, he does have a say in how the recruiting territories are decided/divided up amongst the coaching staff.  It is important to remember that each coach has a specific region to recruit.  The position coach does not recruit only players to his own position.

Each player offered by the offensive staff is seen by the entire offensive staff and the coordinator and relevant position coach decide who gets an offer. This Clemson staff is far more deliberate in how they go about deciding who gets a Clemson offer.

What does the RC actually do? He is responsible for weeding through some film on players from HS coaches who want their guys looked at. The film goes to him first. He maintains the staff database on prospects and compiles their information, and handles any kind of transcript/academic issues with the AARC. In actual recruiting, he keeps tabs on what each coach is doing on the road, handling flights/travel, itineraries for coaches and official visits, assigns player-hosts, and the like. He deserves credit, but giving it all to him would not be right. Most credit should go to the actual recruiter and the head coach, who must close on a prospect.

This year's class ranking by the "experts" tells you how this staff performed bringing in top talent.  I am awed at the ability of this group to weather loads of turmoil and still pull in big names and legit talent.  As stated above, the praise should not be completely given to the recruiting coordinator for a great class. This year's effort in spite of all the adversity surrounding the program, however, did not go unnoticed and Jeff was a big part of the success.  I'll need to point out that a few of the guys Scott is credited with were initially approached by other coaches, so JS did have some help. However, we were pleased with Scott's ability to pick up slack caused by the departure of several members of the '10 coaching staff and bring these guys into the CU family.

Jeff Scott has been on the recruiting scene since his days as a graduate assistant and as the wide receivers coach, we expect him -- like the running backs coach -- to be a stand out recruiter.  Here is how Jeff has performed since being upgraded from GA to assistant following Tom Bowden's departure (note that the McNeal recruitment was started as a GA):

As you can readily see, Jeff is charged with much of the Upstate, a portion of Florida and Georgia. We expect that his duties in SW Florida will be expanded with the retirement of his father, since this was Brad's territory. We have heard varying thoughts that his father's off-field position will somehow be involved with recruiting and taking away some of the load that the RC does with respect to transcripts, film, itineraries, etc.

In the above table, for this cycle, it should be pointed out that Davis was (mostly) a Rumph recruit initially and the closing was reinforced by Harbison/Scott. Adam Humphries was a Dabo offer and since he had no other offers, it is fair to say he'd have come here no matter what.

We should also note that Jeff was involved with his father in the recruitment of standout WR Sammy Watkins for the 2011 class, an impressive haul for anyone.

2010 ON-FIELD OVERVIEW

2010 was a new year yet the story overall was still the same: Our receivers as a whole were painful to watch. Like '09, Clemson had one dependable receiver and a group of other players that had trouble making big plays when the opportunity arose. Clemson built some depth with Hopkins being the go-to guy and Brown bringing in over 30 balls, but that is not enough. The majority of receiver production came through Hopkins/Brown and nearly all of 2010 production was a product of four underclassmen receivers. Clemson must do a better job of developing talent at this position and getting better production as players mature. 

As a collective group, our receivers are not great blockers and definitely have issues catching the football. Why is it that we have but ONE receiver who appears to know what he is doing and can execute these skills at the receiver position?  And why is it that this player is a TRUE FRESHMAN?

Our senior scholarship receiver did not properly develop over the past four years and was benched a few games into the '10 season. Other receivers often gave little effort on running plays and were caught on National TV simply standing around.  This is not acceptable and has been an issue at Clemson for quite a while now.  I will say that I am thrilled overall with DeAndre Hopkins.  I hope that our staff can motivate the other receivers to play as inspired as Nuke.  I also hope the other receivers pay attention to Nuke's effort running routes, blocking, and catching the football and learn something from the True Freshman.

Route running, again, was overall poor to average. We were overall NOT impressed with the crispness of our receiver's routes nor were we particularly enthused about how our receivers got off the line of scrimmage. The receivers tipped defenders with movements at the snap of the football. The explosion off the LOS needs to be consistent during both running and passing plays. Routes have to be run with purpose and less rounded.

Pass catching was an up and down affair for the Tigers. We told you coming into the year that we expected this group to cost us a game which they definitely did. Clemson could have beaten Auburn without all the dropped passes and would have been in much better shape against Miami had the Clemson receivers caught the balls that hit their hands. The Tiger receivers improved this area during the middle of the season then returned to their early-season form against South Carolina.

Pass catching, like most everything else, is dependent on repetition. So when you wonder why some guys are great at this in HS and not at Clemson, you should see the root culprit readily. Pass catching should be second nature to a receiver, allowing the WR to focus on items like attacking the football at its highest point and making the highlight reel catches.  As a group, the Tigers are far from highlight material and have trouble making routine plays. Overall not acceptable, particularly with a struggling quarterback who loses more and more confidence with each dropped pass.

Overall pass production from this group is simple to grade -- not acceptable.  Dropped passes and Clemson's inability by the receivers (other than Nuke) to be a viable offensive threat hindered the passing game. While you cannot blame all of our passing woes on the WR's, they do shoulder their fair share of the blame, as the stats show. We hope to someday be to the point where we talk about how the receivers can elevate their play to from good to great/great to elite but we aren't even close.

To illustrate how poor our pass production (receivers) was in '10, three players (thanks ESPN) had more yards individually than all our receivers combined-Clemson's WRs accounted for 1613 total yards for 124 YPG through the air.  Greg Salas (14 games, 119 receptions, 1889 yards, for 134.9 YPG), Justin Blackmon (12 games, 111 receptions, 1782 yards, for 148.5 YPG), and Ryan Broyles (14 games, 131 receptions, 1622 yards, for 115.9 YPG) each had more yards individually than our team receivers.  I will also note South Carolina's best receiver, Alshon Jeffery (14 games, 88 receptions, 1517 yards, for 108.4 YPG), almost caught Clemson's crew.  You will notice that two played 14 games-opposed to CU's 13-but I still expect our team effort to eclipse these numbers.

Wide Receiver blocking, again, was below average/average at best. The big items that stick out are the flares and screen passes that were flat out blown up and/or the interceptions on such plays caused by missed/ineffective WR blocking. Perimeter blocking revolves around three basic concepts:  technique, desire, and quality repetition. 

Quality repetition is built upon one glaring item:  PRACTICE STRATEGY.  Having your squad DBs or reserve WRs used in blocking drills is not exactly the highest quality. The Tigers don't do a good job blocking on the perimeter and, on the flip side, struggle defensively getting off perimeter blocks. Put two and two together and you quickly realize that Clemson does not practice open-field blocking/defensive shed drills physically enough. Since the WR's need improvement open-field blocking and the defenders need improvement getting off blocks, why not put the best on the best and have the WR's/DB's fight it out each practice session?  Make these two groups get after it; make blocking a source of pride and I'll guarantee you better results.

The big item that I did not like was the apparent lack of effort shown in some running situations. Our receivers looked like they were going through the motions on many run plays, which is unacceptable. Standing around is also unacceptable.  Blocking is an attitude based on desire. Anyone can be a good blocker, they just have to put in the effort and have the aspiration. The talent level of the WR in question does not matter when it comes to blocking. Xavier Dye and Ashe should execute blocks with the same effort and tenacity as Hopkins, and they do not.

That falls on their WR coaches during their time here: Dabo Swinney and Jeff Scott.

We saw plenty of bad technique. Our receivers block with poor leverage and were out of position for a good portion of the season.  WR's need to improve on getting off the LOS in the same fashion as a pass play, break down, and seal.  We often block at a high pad level. A better job breaking down would get our receivers lower than the defender and create a better leverage point. Attitude/effort and repetition drives technique, so getting the guys excited about blocking is the first step. 

Joe Craig:  Craig was redshirted in 2010 as expected because he was underutilized as a WR at Gaffney and was very raw as a receiver. He added around 10 pounds since arriving at Clemson, putting him around 165 lbs. Preferably he'll be over 170-175 before next football season. Joe is a speed guy (4A state 200m track champion, 2nd in the 100m) who has impressed the staff with his ability to get into and out of cuts very quickly. He has been described as a mixture of Chansi Stuckey and Jacoby Ford and, while not quite on the same level as Ford on a pure speed basis, is further along as a football player than Ford was after one year in school.

We fully expect Craig to get good looks this spring as he moves from the scout team to the two-deep roster. We also anticipate Craig pushing for significant playing time in 2011, receiving most of his reps in the slot position.  The offensive staff is excited about implementing him into Morris' spread attack. Look for Clemson to get the ball to Joe in various ways over the 2011 season, especially through running reverses and especially the sweep. 

We predict you'll see Joe Craig make a definite impact on the jet sweep this fall.

DeAndre Hopkins:  Hopkins is easily the biggest bright spot of this group and appears to be just about the only receiver on the field who knows and cares about what he is doing continually.  Hopkins was able to come in and play at a high level as a freshman, without much coaching, eventually starting seven of the eleven regular season games in which he played. Nuke showed off his pure athleticism and skills as the season progressed and emerged as Clemson's best receiver.

Nuke was the offensive glimmer of hope this season after Ellington's injury.  Hopkins hauled in 43 catches for 532 yards and 4 touchdowns in the regular season.  Nuke added 8 catches for 94 yards in the Meineke Car Care Bowl to cap off an impressive Freshman campaign.  Nuke additionally appears to be the best blocking receiver that the Tigers have on the roster, and its not because of size or technique, but because he is a football player who likes to hit -- effort and desire.

Hopkins joined the basketball team following the Bowl, taking a little of his off-season focus away from football. We were really excited about Nuke getting a full offseason to focus solely on increasing game knowledge through extensive film study and training only for football. Nuke needs to add weight, and you don't do that while playing basketball. Thus, we were a little disappointed in the basketball thing but understand that he likes to play ball and Clemson desperately needs such players on their basketball roster.

We expect Hopkins to spend a large portion of his post-basketball off-season in the weight room and studying the new Clemson offense. Nuke is a tremendous talent who, if he can pick up a little more football-related strength and continue to build his game knowledge, will be a legitimate superstar for the duration of his Clemson career.  Hopkins was easily the best newcomer to the football program for '10 and was the best roster receiver and we look forward to seeing him over the next couple seasons.

Jaron Brown:  Brown fought his way into the starting lineup and, along with Hopkins, has emerged as a legitimate receiving threat. Jaron, as we have repeatedly emphasized, has a ton of raw talent and still needs some work to become a star but has made strides over the past year or so. Brown had two pretty big games on the season at North Carolina (4 catches, 107 yards, 1 TD) and at Wake Forest (5 catches, 93 yards, 1 TD).  Brown's season highlights have to be a big 74 yard TD against the Tarheels and a 40 yard TD grab against Wake at the end of the 1^st half.  Brown had four additional catches for over 20 yards on the season and caught three balls for 40 yards during the bowl game.  Unfortunately, Jaron also had a couple of catchable balls slip through his hands in 2010--most notably in Auburn OT period and against South Carolina.

I will say that I was very disappointed with Brown's blocking, particularly in the bowl game.  There were a host of screen passes that were blown up because of missed blocks.  JB (and many of the other wide outs) will need to improve in this area if we want to run or throw screens to his side of the field.

Jaron has the agile moves to keep his job, but if he doesn't commit himself, he will lose his starting outside position to one of the incoming players.

Xavier Dye:  The senior had a very disappointing season to say the least, losing his starting role and most of his playing time to younger guys midway through the year. Dye was unable to take advantage of many opportunities he was given early in the 2010 season. His drop of a sure touchdown against Miami was the big one that finally pushed the staff to pull Dye from competitive action.  Dye played in 10 regular season contests, starting four of them.  Xavier caught 4 passes in these 10 games for a total of 51 yards and no touchdowns.  Dye's playing time decreased dramatically over the course of the season and his departure should have few adverse effects on the 2011 Clemson passing game.

Marquan Jones:  The Junior from Columbia had an average year for the Tigers, starting 3 of the 12 regular season games in which he played. Jones contributed with 20 catches for 146 yards before and had one catch for 38 yards against South Florida in the bowl game.  Jones' biggest game was against North Carolina State where Jones led all receivers with six receptions, accounting for 47 yards.  Marquan showed his versatility when used during the year to fill in following a couple of injuries to Jaron Brown and Hopkins. 

We expect Jones to contribute more next season and think that he has positioned himself to be able to make consistent plays for this offense.  As a SR, Marquan will have had three full seasons in a college offense, so we expect him to have adequate offensive knowledge AND have developed skills to be reliable in 2011.

Otherwise, he'll continue to be the most invisible man on the field, and will definitely lose his job. Of any projected starter, Marquan is in the most precarious position.

Bryce McNeal:  McNeal had a rather lackluster (RS) Freshman campaign, starting three of the eleven games he played in this season. McNeal had 19 grabs for 187 yards on the season.  McNeal used his red shirt last season to learn the Clemson offense. This new system should be even easier to pick up than the last because of the lack of multiple sight adjustments. Bryce is listed at 6-1, 175 lbs and will need to bulk up a little more in order to have a great career at Clemson.  McNeal garnered comparisons to Derrick Hamilton upon arrival in Tigertown but still has a long way to go to become that kind of superstar. As we discussed before, McNeal is a quick and speedy receiver who is quick to get off the football and elusive after making a catch.  2011 will be McNeal's third season in Clemson and we expect to see more output from the Redshirt Sophomore as he has been in a college system, has extensive experience on the practice squad/Clemson two deep roster, and gained critical playing experience during the 2010 season.

Brandon Clear:  The Hoover native had three catches for 103 total yards and a touchdown on the season.  Clear's biggest catch was a 70 yard reception against North Texas for his first career TD.  Additionally, Clear had a catch against Wake Forest and a catch versus Presbyterian.  We hoped that Clemson was going to utilize his 6'5" 210 lb frame but has yet to do so in the passing game. If he's back, we suspect Clear will have another season with minimal catches in 2011, especially given Clemson's young receiver talent. His move to Corner may or may not stick, but we have given up on him realizing his potential.

Terrance Ashe:  The former walk-on and 2010 Senior had a very unimpressive 2010 season. We praised him last year for his blocking, but he didn't even do that well this fall. Ashe dropped some big passes and, similar to Dye, saw his playing time and looks in the passing game decrease dramatically.  The Cheraw native suffered a season ending injury at Wake Forest.  Ashe had one catch for 43 yards on the season.

2011 Recruiting Class

Martavis Bryant (T.L. Hanna) may have been the most talented commitment on Clemson's board a year ago.  After a year at Hargrave, Martavis is primed to be at Clemson before Summer Sessions begin.  Bryant is extremely skilled and many expect him to come in and contribute immediately.  At 6-4 184 lbs, Bryant runs a 4.41 40 yard dash.  With this his speed and size, MB is definitely a deep threat and you will see him playing outside (flanker or split end).  Bryant has a long stride and the staff will probably work on his mechanics getting off the football and up to full speed.  If there are concerns for the CU staff, they include the need for Bryant to get stronger and improve his blocking skills. We all know that the weight room and training table forms these guys out of high school, so I would expect to see a little more weight on MB before it is all said and done. We hope Bryant's blocking technique can be refined through drills and proper instruction (I don't see a guy with his frame and quickness lacking the ability to block, so we are pretty confident that tweeking his technique should be what is necessary).

We expect him to be an outside receiver and given the extra year at Hargrave, he's unlikely to redshirt.

Charone Peake was the best South Carolina receiver to come out in 2011. The Roebuck native has nice size (6'3", 200 lbs) and good speed (4.4 second 40 yard dash). He'll play outside in college as well. Peake reportedly sports a 3.5 GPA so we expect him to learn the Clemson offense early and get good looks during August camp.  In addition to Peake's size and speed, Charone has a knack of playing the ball well, attacking the football and catching it at its highest point.  Like most freshmen, time in the weight room will be important for CP as he needs to improve upper body strength. The lower body strength is there already. We also hope Peake will focus on improving his blocking skills in addition to other aspects of his game.

Sammy Watkins was one of the best players in America and may be the best player coming out of Florida this year. Watkins is the total package, having decent size and speed but also the pure skills to do it all at the wide receiver position. He's a very physical WR for that size. Watkins is a guy who can turn a routine short pass into a huge gain AND has the ability to stretch a defense to make things happen downfield. Sammy is probably the most hyped receiver commitment since Roscoe Crosby and we expect him to increase offensive productivity early in his career. Given his size and moves, he is likely going to start out in the slot, so McNeal and Jones better work hard to keep their PT.

We are expecting Clemson to use at least 3, and at many times 4, WRs in any set next fall, so there will be two slot positions.

Stanton Seckinger, a Charleston native, is a project guy but has nice size. Because of this size, we would not be shocked to see the staff consider a position change, possibly to TE. He is intelligent as well, an underrated quality for football. Currently, Coach Scott and Morris have talked about utilizing Stanton at either X or Z (traditionally the flanker and split end positions) in Morris' spread attack.  Depending on how all the numbers shake out, we believe that Seckinger may be a grey shirt candidate. The two colleges giving him formal offers were Clemson and NC State.

2011 OUTLOOK

Clemson certainly has a talented group of receivers entering school, returning from 2010, and coming off of a redshirt season.  Clemson loses former walk-on Terrance Ashe and Xavier Dye to graduation. These departures should have minimal impact on 2011 as both of these guys saw their snaps decrease dramatically as the '10 season progressed.  We (obviously) expect Nuke to be the go-to guy as he was clearly the class of the Clemson group and ahead of his peers during game competition. Jaron Brown will be used more and we anticipate that he will get more deep shots, especially after Morris promised to throw more passes downfield. Bryce McNeal and Marquan Jones will get their fair share of quality snaps in 2011. McNeal currently backs him up at A, but we do see Watkins and McNeal being on the field in dual slots. We fully expect the staff to incorporate Joe Craig into this offense, both catching and running the ball. 

*-assuming no RS

Martavis Bryant is a guy that we will be anxiously watching as the season approaches. Bryant has game-changer type talent but spent 2010 in prep school and probably will not be in Clemson until the summer, which severely limits his ability to grow through winter workouts, spring practice, and through film study.

We are obviously geeked up about Charone Peake and Sammy Watkins. These guys are legit and will be important to this program over the next couple years. The incoming receiver class of Bryant, Peake, and Watkins may be one of the best in the program's history. We are optimistic that this influx of highly touted and skilled receivers combined with a talent upgrade through the 2010 recruiting class will equate to more production in the passing game.

OVERALL

We are less than impressed with the development of our wide receivers over the past half-decade or so. Xavier Dye is a perfect example of a guy who came to school with clout and high expectations but never was developed while he was here. This is not a new problem at receiver (or Clemson in general) and is indicative of coaches not effectively evolving athletes into football players. We are particularly disappointed with lackluster play and the inability of this staff to correct player errors over the course of a season. Further, the inability to recognize that Hopkins was Clemson's best receiver and incorporate him into the game plan EARLIER in the season disturbs us.  This problem compounds itself when the staff takes snaps he could have taken and gives them to players who have underperformed for 2-3 years and play like they don't give a damn (Dye).

We are, however, encouraged by Jeff's abilities on the recruiting trail. Scott--and the rest of the staff--hit a homerun on NSD bringing in a stellar class despite a really bad 2010 season and staff changes a month before signing day.  Pulling guys like Charone Peake and Tony Steward was nice. The versatility shown to work well with other coaches to preserve and build this class in the face of adversity was impressive.

Again we come back to our belief that no offensive staff member should be retained. For the performance of our WRs over 2 years, Jeff Scott has done an awful job. We view Coach Scott in the same light we viewed Coach Swinney when he was a receivers coach. The guy established himself as a great recruiter but has yet to produce through position players, particularly when you evaluate the group's technique. I still think that Jeff's career path would be improved on an offensive staff that better emphasizes overall technique than last season's, and in our opinion should be moved to RB Coach (where there is considerably less to teach and he can recruit all day) and have Elliott moved to WRs. Hopefully the addition of Caldwell and Morris' less complex passing game will help the receivers to practice and play better, because you cannot outrecruit bad coaching. We also hope that Scott can keep up the momentum established with the '11 class on the recruiting trail.  I don't know that I can take another football season with such bad wide receiver play.