W
Wes Mitchell
Guest
South Carolina co-offensive coordinator and wide receivers coach Bryan McClendon has completely turned over the Gamecocks wide receiver roster and flipped the position from question mark to strength in just over a calendar year.
While recruiting and evaluation are much more art than science, all coaches have an idea going into the evaluation process of what they're looking for in a prospect.
What does McClendon look for when evaluating a wide receiver? I asked him.
Hands - "One, you want to see how naturally he catches the football. And it's not just a simple, 'Hey, did he catch it?' I think in this league in particular, you get so much man-to-man, you get so much tight coverage, you have to have the ability to catch the ball in traffic and make those traffic catches. And so being able to catch the ball with someone on you or pulling on you helps. Do you naturally reach out and catch the ball with your hands? That's really important. Or do you let everything kind of get into your body. People who do that, it's going to be a little bit harder once they're translating to the college game, because the coverage is so much tighter, defenders get longer and windows get smaller."
Ability to get open - "Being able to do that, I think you have to have the ability to be able to separate. Meaning if the guy is running straight ahead and he stops to change direction, does he have to slow all the way down in order to change direction? Can he just put one foot in the ground and just change direction? Does he take 19 steps in order to do it? You have to be able to see if a guy is going to be able to stop and start and then sink his hips and then move, because you have to be able to separate."
Run after the catch - "And then one of the biggest things I think is, how good is he, once he has the ball in his hands? Because it's a lot more than just catching it. How many times do you catch the ball where you're just in the end zone? You know? You have to catch the ball and try to put it in the end zone, so how good are you at that part of it too?"
Explosiveness - "I think you have to look at those things and the ability for a kid to get to full speed. Not so much how fast a kid is, but how fast does he get to full speed? Those guys that kind of take a while to kind of get there, they may seem to struggle a little bit. You'd probably rather have a guy who may not have the top end speed, but can get to top speed really, really, really fast, because that's the game you play - being able to stop and start and get going."
The final conclusion - "I think you have to look at all of that stuff and so some guys are maybe better at one part of it than others and you have to feel like with your ability as a coach to kind of develop them in those weaker areas, because there are very few that just have it all. And then there's some that you would rather have over others if you could take and prioritize certain things. And that's up to individual coaches."
McClendon's receiver recruits since arriving in Columbia:
Class of 2016
Conway (S.C.) four-star WR Bryan Edwards
Atlanta (Ga.) Mays four-star WR Randrecous Davis
Moultrie (Ga.) Colquitt County four-star WR/ATH Kiel Pollard [Recruited as WR - playing H-back]
Tyrone (Ga.) Sandy Creek three-star WR Korey Banks
Duncan (S.C.) Byrnes two-star WR Chavis Dawkins
Class of 2017
Mount Pleasant (S.C.) Wando four-star WR OrTre Smith
Union (S.C.) four-star WR Shi Smith
Dallas (Ga.) North Paulding four-star WR Chad Terrell
Class of 2018
Greeleyville (S.C.) C.E. Murray three-star WR/ATH Darius Rush
While recruiting and evaluation are much more art than science, all coaches have an idea going into the evaluation process of what they're looking for in a prospect.
What does McClendon look for when evaluating a wide receiver? I asked him.
Hands - "One, you want to see how naturally he catches the football. And it's not just a simple, 'Hey, did he catch it?' I think in this league in particular, you get so much man-to-man, you get so much tight coverage, you have to have the ability to catch the ball in traffic and make those traffic catches. And so being able to catch the ball with someone on you or pulling on you helps. Do you naturally reach out and catch the ball with your hands? That's really important. Or do you let everything kind of get into your body. People who do that, it's going to be a little bit harder once they're translating to the college game, because the coverage is so much tighter, defenders get longer and windows get smaller."
Ability to get open - "Being able to do that, I think you have to have the ability to be able to separate. Meaning if the guy is running straight ahead and he stops to change direction, does he have to slow all the way down in order to change direction? Can he just put one foot in the ground and just change direction? Does he take 19 steps in order to do it? You have to be able to see if a guy is going to be able to stop and start and then sink his hips and then move, because you have to be able to separate."
Run after the catch - "And then one of the biggest things I think is, how good is he, once he has the ball in his hands? Because it's a lot more than just catching it. How many times do you catch the ball where you're just in the end zone? You know? You have to catch the ball and try to put it in the end zone, so how good are you at that part of it too?"
Explosiveness - "I think you have to look at those things and the ability for a kid to get to full speed. Not so much how fast a kid is, but how fast does he get to full speed? Those guys that kind of take a while to kind of get there, they may seem to struggle a little bit. You'd probably rather have a guy who may not have the top end speed, but can get to top speed really, really, really fast, because that's the game you play - being able to stop and start and get going."
The final conclusion - "I think you have to look at all of that stuff and so some guys are maybe better at one part of it than others and you have to feel like with your ability as a coach to kind of develop them in those weaker areas, because there are very few that just have it all. And then there's some that you would rather have over others if you could take and prioritize certain things. And that's up to individual coaches."
McClendon's receiver recruits since arriving in Columbia:
Class of 2016
Conway (S.C.) four-star WR Bryan Edwards
Atlanta (Ga.) Mays four-star WR Randrecous Davis
Moultrie (Ga.) Colquitt County four-star WR/ATH Kiel Pollard [Recruited as WR - playing H-back]
Tyrone (Ga.) Sandy Creek three-star WR Korey Banks
Duncan (S.C.) Byrnes two-star WR Chavis Dawkins
Class of 2017
Mount Pleasant (S.C.) Wando four-star WR OrTre Smith
Union (S.C.) four-star WR Shi Smith
Dallas (Ga.) North Paulding four-star WR Chad Terrell
Class of 2018
Greeleyville (S.C.) C.E. Murray three-star WR/ATH Darius Rush
