FanPost

Wide Receivers

Lots of people on the line are trying to talk about who has the best WR corps in the nation, and using the eye test to judge who has the best receivers. So, being a science guy, I took a different approach. This ranking takes any bias away and looks completely objectively. If you haven't already seen them, here they are.

WR Rankings

What are Those?

First, an explanation of what's in the rankings. Every AP top 25 team except Boise State and Missouri has their scholarship receivers listed. I also included Texas A&M because people consistently bring them up when talking about receivers. On the first set of numbers, their 247Sports composite, National Rank, and Positional Rank are listed. Any players that came in rated at different positions or as JUCO prospects had their composite score determine where they would be in their respective class. Braxton Miller was excluded because he was such an odd case. The set of numbers on the right is the career stats of every returning receiver who has caught at least one pass.

Calculations and Rankings

For the calculations on the recruiting side the averages were taken for every receiver, the top 8 receivers based on composite score, and the top 3 returning receivers based on yardage. The 8 is because Clemson has 8 scholarship receivers and allows some teams who may have recruited a few benchwarmers to still have a chance. The calculations for the returning experience side of things are a little bit simpler. Every team had their top 4 used in the calculations along with any others that had caught over 10 passes and 100 yds. Those with fewer than 10 receptions or 100 yds were listed but not used in calculations. The rankings were made by determining each teams position on each individual statistic and then averaging them. Star ratings were not included in this because of the crazy range that is included for each star level. Now that that's out of the way, let's get on to what was found.


Returning Experience

1 Arizona 13 Tenn
2 Oregon 14 UGA
3 Clemson 15 OSU
4 TCU 16 Mich St.
5 Baylor 17 Aub
6 UCLA 18 LSU
7 OU 19 USC
8 Arizona State 20 Arkansas
9 ND 21 FSU
10 Texas A&M 22 Wisc
11 Miss 23 Bama
12 Stanford

Notes
  • Both Oregon and Arizona's returning players all have over 500 yds
  • Clemson returns the most touchdowns per player and was top 10 in every stat
  • TCU returns 7 qualifying players, tied for the most with Texas A&M
  • Corey Coleman and K.D. Cannon helped push Baylor into the top 5 with 1600 and 1000 yds respectively
  • Oklahoma was carried by Sterling Shepard's 2000 career yards. WIthout him, they would be well outside the top 15.
  • Arizona State led in average receptions and yards, but were brought down because they only return 3 receivers
  • A&M was outside the top 10 in all the stats involving averages, but top 5 for pure numbers
  • FSU had an average ranking of 20.3 and were not higher than 19 for any category
  • Wisconsin's two leading receivers were both unranked coming out of high school
  • Alabama was dead last in every single category. Not a single receiver who was on the team last year has over 300 yds. Richard Mullaney is a graduate transfer with over 1000 career yds, but they were acquired with a different team.
  • 4 teams return multiple players with over 1000 career yds: Arizona, UCLA, Oregon, and Baylor
  • The last 4 national champions are all outside the top 10

Recruiting Rankings

1 Bama 13 Baylor
2 Clemson 14 UCLA
3 Oregon 15 UGA
4 FSU 16 MSU
5 USC 17 Miss
6 OSU 18 TCU
7 Texas A&M 19 Stanford
8 OU 20 Arizona
9 LSU 21 ASU
10 Aub 22 Arkansas
11 Tenn 23 Wisc
12 ND

Notes

  • Bama was top 5 in every stat and 1st in 3.
  • Clemson led for each stat that included every receiver on roster and was the only team to be top 10 in every stat for both recruiting and experience
  • Oregon is the only team without a 3 star on the roster
  • Florida State is in the same boat as Bama. Lots of raw talent but no experience
  • USC was carried by their top 3 returners all being above .9500 composite and two over .9900
  • A&M has the most 5 stars with 3 but after Frank Ihjahbsak (composite .9589) there's a huge dropoff to Kemah Siverand (composite .8995)
  • TCU is the only AP top 10 team without a receiver that was ranked in the top 15 for receivers and top 100 overall
  • The other orange team that likes to call themselves WRU was not top 5 in any stat, recruting or experience.
  • Arky and Wisky made it into the top 20 a grand total of three times combined
  • The last 4 national champions are all in the top 10.

Overall Rankings

Team EXPRNK RECRNK AVG OVRLRNK Team EXPRNK RECRNK AVG OVRLRNK
Clemson 3 2 2.5 t1 USC 19 5 12 t11
Oregon 2 3 2.5 t1 FSU 21 4 12.5 14
OU 7 8 7.5 3 Aub 17 10 13.5 t15
Texas A&M 10 7 8.5 4 LSU 18 9 13.5 t15
Baylor 5 13 9 5 UGA 14 15 13.5 t15
UCLA 6 14 10 6 Miss 11 17 14 18
ND 9 12 10.5 t7 ASU 8 21 14.5 19
OSU 15 6 10.5 t7 Stanford 12 19 15.5 20
Arizona 1 20 10.5 t7 MSU 16 16 16 21
TCU 4 18 11 10 Arkansas 20 22 21 22
Bama 23 1 12 t11 Wisc 22 23 22.5 23
Tenn 13 11 12 t11

With the power vested in me by the oh so mighty Oculus, I hereby dub the Universities of Oregon and Clemson Wide Receiver champions.

Overall Analysis

This is not a perfect system, but it gives a pretty good look into the receiving corps of each team. Clemson and Oregon were both a good bit ahead of the competition. Oregon really surprised me with how well they had recruited the position, but one thing to keep in mind is that 4 of their receivers were listed as athletes or all purpose backs coming out of high school. They do a great job of getting players that fit into their system and clearly, it's been working out. Clemson, as we all know has recruited wide receivers like no tomorrow since 2011, and they have really been able to develop them. There is not a single player on roster that I would say has been a bust. Some disappointments *cough GDrop cough and some injuries have hurt the careers, but every player on the roster still has a shot at moving on to the next level. Oklahoma was really propelled by Sterling Shepard, and if I were to do this over, I would only use the previous season's stats. Texas A&M and Baylor are both often mentioned when talking about receivers, and they lived up to that, being ranked 4th and 5th, respectively. Baylor lacked the recruiting firepower to move up more and A&M did not return any true superstars (on the field, not in recruiting), but a lot of above average players.

Moving past the top 5, UCLA definitely surprised with 3 players over 700 yds and some really solid recruiting. Arizona along with TCU have really done the most with the least. Alabama's receivers have less experience than the Kardashians do with poverty, but dammit can they recruit. Grandpa's WRU is pretty consistently average. Arizona State is definitely a team I'd keep my eye on. If they had a few more player coming back, they could have been ranked right there with the other Arizona school. D.J. Foster is a beast, and screw Kirk Herbstreit for telling people about him. The bottom four are all schools that run traditional pro style offenses and if tight ends had been included, they would not look nearly as bad.

So there you go. If someone tries to tell you who has the best Wide Receivers, just show them this and be like, UGATiger says screw your opinions, he just spits straight facts.

These opinions are not necessarily those of the Proprietors of Shakin' The Southland.