I really like Peña in terms of both his speed and his hands, but Ross is a bit of a disappointment. His evaluation was almost solely based on his Iowa game last season, which may not have been the best metric to use. Hudson is as advertised, good hands and merely average speed. Overall, I think you may be accurate that the group is not necessarily a large upgrade over Wallace and Evans. Circling back to Peña, he may be the only receiver in the group that can beat a good secondary.
It seems like they re force feeding the 3 new guys at wr reps, which is understandable but l don t understand why they didn't use these three games to get more 1st team reps for Denmark and Howard. Both have shown playmaking ability albeit at practice but they re doing it against a stout defense.
Just keep winning, only stat that matters is the win/loss column.
ND has two losses, he needs to forget about that game.
We have had three scrimmages. Let’s see what happens on opening night. The good news is the Defense is showing signs of being elite with young guys at DT and DE playing well. Tackling looks real good all around.
It will be big for the offense if the short area quickness and speed that Pena has shown in the OOC games holds up against better defenses.
I think the new WRs have looked pretty good but of course it's a small sample size against overmatched opponents. Hudson seems like a good hands guy. Pena has good speed. Not much from Ross yet at WR but he's looked good on KR.
I attended the FIU game up in the EGU section of the stadium and Drew‘s problems were very evident from my own vantage point. Receivers were open, but he locks down on the primary receiver so often and loses his peripheral vision of the rest of the field.
I know we don't have a Marvin Harrison or Jeremiah Smith type WR but this group should be better than last year.
If you ever listen to an interview he gives then you know he is a student of the game. He knows all the intricacies of coverages and plays, etc. Almost like he can't see the forest through the trees because he is so into the weeds. Peyton Manning was a real student of the game and it turned out great for him.
Ross has done well on punt returns. As far as his WR play, he hasn't been targeted as much as the other two. Too early to grade his WR contributions. Let's see how the first three B1G games go.
I also would have liked to see Denmark and Howard get WR reps. Part of the issue is that the FIU game and the Nova game were kinda close through halftime. Nevertheless there were opportunities to do that in the 2nd half.
CHF mentioned in yesterday's presser that Denmark us ready now for an increased role. Howard's issue was he wasn't or isn't still showing he can or isn't willing to contribute on Special Teams and that is a prerequisite for increased PT. Urban Meyer had the same expectations for his Freshman: work on your Special Teams duties and earn PT.
I am in the camp that the WRs are better versus last year but it is certainly a worthy debate. Pena has the ability to run that jet sweep and can get open. However he has not been tested by an elite defense or for that matter a P4 defense so we don't really know. Hudson seems to have great hands and is a physical guy. I compare those two to Wallace and Evans and believe it is an upgrade. Then we have Ross and last year who did we even have as our #3?
I watched the Villanova game yesterday that I recorded. Like FIU, what I saw didn't support the uproar. First, PSU forced a lot of long balls when the WR was well covered. And while we didn't have a lot of yards in penalties, we got behind the sticks with bad offensive penalties that we didn't have in games 1 and 2. To me, it looked like a practice. You don't practice what is working; you practice what is not working. I also note that CJF stated in his post-game presser that Vill played defense to take away our WRs. The TEs were wide open. As a result, our TEs had six receptions for 103 yards while our WRs had nine for 114 yards. You would expect WRs to have more receptions and yards. I noted four long throws where the WR was well covered. Three were incomplete, and one was for a TD.
I may be greedy, but getting serious separation (2 yds+) will be necessary against the quicker DBs they'll be seeing. I like it better when receivers are open by a mile. More mesh routes and sneaking the TEs into the seams can help here.
Everybody would like that but it's unrealistic
Howard is a true freshman who just arrived on campus 8 months ago as a 3* 99th rated WR. Denmark just enrolled last June as a 3* 85th ranked WR in the country. I certainly hope that these guys eventually emerge and play beyond their ratings but it might not be realistic for them to replace experienced players like Hudson & Pena.