2010 Ole Miss Football Preview Continued: Receiving Corps

This article is the third in a series.

When is 70 greater than 135?

When the 70 is the number of receptions by departing senior Shay Hodge and 135 is the total number of receptions by everyone else on the Ole Miss team—including one by center Devarin Geralds.

Hodge never quite got the attention he should have—neither for his productivity nor his technical skill at the position.  He entered the season as the SEC’s active leader in yardage, then when out and put 1135 more on top.  Hodge’s total made him the only SEC receiver to top 1,000 yards and was fifteenth most in the nation.

Add in Dexter McCluster’s 44 receptions for 520 yards and you have just accounted for 56 percent and 58 percent of Ole Miss’ air game in those categories respectively.

For the 2010 Rebels, even the old faces are new.

Fans are familiar with Markeith Summers and Lionel Breaux—both rising seniors—but more in the sense of how suburbanites know their neighbors down the street.  We recognize them, know they keep their yard clean, and are cordial enough to say hello when paths cross.  We do not really know what they do for a living, how they treat their kids, or what church they attend if any.

Though the pair has been in the program for a while, Ole Miss Fans just have not seen that much of them to know exactly what to expect from the projected starters.

Last season the duo combined for 30 catches, 554 yards, and five TD’s.  Add another 17 receptions and 272 yards and those totals represent their careers at Ole Miss.

Granted, it is not all their fault.  With Hodge, McCluster and Mike Wallace running around catching passes during the last two seasons, there was not that much food left on the table.  However, the pair was expected to produce much more this past season than they actually tallied. 

This year, they must.

As I alluded to in the Running Backs Preview, getting open last year was often a tall order.  With a new quarterback and a revamped interior line, Wide Receivers coach Ron Dickerson should have his crew expecting much of the same.

Dickerson did a masterful job with Hodge, whose route running and separation technique were widely considered the best in conference.  A spring loaded with the same instruction is just what Summers and Breaux need.

At 6’3” and 205 lbs, Summers has a prototype build with sufficient speed to get deep, and his 23.3 yards per reception average this past season suggests he is figuring out how to get open.  Winning the battle to do so on every play—as Hodge did so well—should be the primary focus.  A dedication to doing the small things could lead to a big year.  There is no lack of talent in Markeith Summers.

Breaux is much in the same boat: Loads of talent—with the extra advantage of elite speed—whose stats do not tell much of a story.

There were many things that factored into Jevan Snead’s struggles this year, but his inaccuracy on the deep ball was all him and it may have been the most costly.

If there was a stat for Almost Touchdowns, Breaux would have led the team.

A true deep threat is paramount at this level.  Having the ability to challenge corners and safeties vertically puts outside linebackers on slot receivers and interior ones on running backs.  Offenses will win those match-ups most of the time.

Not to mention what it does for tight ends, but I’ll get to that in a bit.

Breaux, for all his speed, did struggle to get open consistently.  At 6’0” and 198 lbs, Breaux is not physically going to overwhelm the cornerbacks covering him.  He cannot rely solely on his explosiveness, but must concentrate on learning proper technique in hand battles and using body angles to create separation.

The more Breaux is able to learn how to play like a bigger, slower receiver off the line, the more likely he will have opportunities to prove he is anything but.

If you want to know how important that second receiver slot is to the Ole Miss offense, just look at Mike Wallace’s numbers from the last six games of 2008 and compare them to all other games for that position the last two years.

Any coincidence that span also happened to be Snead’s best run?

That spot across from Summers is crucial, and Lionel Breaux is going to be that guy.

For now.

Pushing both players is a deep pool of young—again, untested—receivers possessing a nice blend of size and speed.  The two most prominent, rising sophomores Jesse Grandy and Pat Patterson, can claim comparable game experience to Summers and Breaux, and could challenge for starting time.

Outside of McCluster, it was Grandy that proved to be Ole Miss’ most dynamic player, with an ability to score from any position on the field.  Grandy had four touchdowns this past season—none through the air.  Two kickoff returns and two rushing scores from the Wild Rebel displayed not just his top end speed, but an intuition for utilizing space to his advantage.

While the temptation to use Grandy much the same as McCluster in the Wild Rebel is great, his leaner frame is not suited to handle the bulk of interior tacklers on a consistent basis.  Having Grandy run the speed sweep with either Raymond Cotton or possibly Randall Mackey quarterbacking the formation would be ideal.

Patterson did not have the same impact other highly rated freshman receivers have had around the conference in the last couple of years.  He seemed to struggle with the speed of the game a bit, but did haul in 12 catches for 180 yards and a score.  The best part of Patterson’s game outside his size—6’2” and 215lbs—might be the improvement curve he showed from the beginning of the year to its end.

Ole Miss Fans hope the trend continues.

Two other names to file away are 6’7” Melvin Harris and Hodge disciple Ja-Mes Logan.

Is this the year Coach Nutt remembers the tight end? 

Rising redshirt freshman Z Mason, at 6’5” and 265lbs, might be the best prospect on the entire team.  Mason's size belies his athleticism—he received over 30 Division I basketball scholarship offers—both of which should pose real match-up problems among defenders.

The TE position has been highly unproductive in the passing game the last couple of years, relegated to nothing more than an extra lineman.  Using the tight end, especially to challenge outside linebackers and safeties, is one of those smaller things Ole Miss needs to do this next season to free receivers open.

It is hard to know right now (the day the story broke) what OC Kent Austin’s decision to leave for the head job at Cornell means to the overall offensive scheme.  Considering the heavy input by Coach Nutt, it may mean little.  However, Nutt’s choice to fill the role could change everyone else’s role too.

One thing that does matter quite a bit to the receiving corps is spring practice.  Hopefully the receivers and prospective quarterbacks will become best of friends. 

Coach Dickerson has a big task in front of him, but he, and Rebel Fans, should be very excited about the talent he will be working with.