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Texas WR/TE Passing Offense Talk


LTtxfan

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1 hour ago, LTtxfan said:

 

Please, please, please let's get the ball to JWhitt while he is moving. No passes to him while stationary. No passes to any stationary WRs, TEs, RBs, MILFs, or WTFs. Have I made myself clear? 

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14 minutes ago, JFKFC said:

Please, please, please let's get the ball to JWhitt while he is moving. No passes to him while stationary. No passes to any stationary WRs, TEs, RBs, MILFs, or WTFs. Have I made myself clear? 

Unless it's Worthy.

Against OU.

For a 75yd TD.

On the 1st play of the game.

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24 minutes ago, JFKFC said:

Please, please, please let's get the ball to JWhitt while he is moving. No passes to him while stationary. No passes to any stationary WRs, TEs, RBs, MILFs, or WTFs. Have I made myself clear? 

Quoting from James McMurtry, "The good part's always better if you're movin' when it happens... ain't it?"

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Scipio Tex

Texas Longhorns Wide Receivers: Finding No. 4, Then Five

Paul Wadlington•07/18/22

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(Photo by Joe Robbins/Icon Sportswire)

Texas has the best starting wide receivers in the league. Xavier Worthy is a star who rewrote the Longhorn freshman receiving records, transfer Isaiah Neyor has already exceeded high offseason expectations and has a proven track record at a lower level of FBS play and, if healthy, Jordan Whittington will be a very good chain-moving complement to the two aforementioned. That trio will guarantee defensive respect, but what about upside and reliability beyond them?

At least two other wide receivers need to step up enough to provide adequate depth and spell the starters in-game. Texas also needs someone to emerge to exploit the potentially ripe opportunities at #4 receiver while also finding an insurance policy for Whittington in the slot.

Why would this be a big deal? Seems peripheral to write about given Texas isn’t sure who their left tackle is yet.

Because it’s the offseason and I want to discuss it. Because it’s not that peripheral if Texas wants to go 10-2 and win the Big 12. Because Texas has the potential to be one of the most formation diverse Longhorn squads in decades. Because when Texas spreads the field with four wide and Bijan Robinson in the backfield, any defense that can’t get to the QB immediately should be in trouble. Worthy demands double coverage, Neyor and Whittington are legit threats and Robinson out of the backfield on a linebacker means we should get Texas Fight ready to play. The #4 receiver is going to be covered by the worst man defender in the secondary or he will find himself negotiating zone coverages slanted towards others. In Man Scenario, Texas wants a #4 who can abuse that exposed defender. In Zone Scenario, they need a fourth option who can understand the coverage, run to open space, and catch the ball for a new set of downs. Ideally, Zone Buster and Man Buster would be the same receiver, but he doesn’t have to be.

As for Whittington insurance, can the athlete play in the slot? Or, conversely, if Worthy moves to the slot, can they present a serious threat elsewhere?

Enter the five most intriguing candidates: Troy Omeire, Tarique Milton, Agiye Hall, Brenen Thompson and…wait for it…Jahleel Billingsley. The five most likely athletes to provide what Texas needs behind Worthy-Neyor-Whittington.

Troy Omeire is coming off two knee injuries that derailed both his freshman and ensuing redshirt season before they started. Offseason word about his speed recovering is encouraging and his big body and strong hands remain unchanged. If he’s fully rehabbed, confident in his knee, and can move laterally out of his breaks, Omeire could pull a Shipley. He’s unlikely to be slot insurance unless his knee is really good, but the idea of Neyor and a healthy Omeire lining up outside is pretty scary for Big 12 corners.

Tarique Milton is a (Cyclone) program guy with a ton of experience. A savvy veteran potential #4, he’s a fit for the “make the smart read, run to easy space, make the catch” scenario posited above. His best football was played as a freshman and sophomore and injuries have plagued him and degraded his athleticism over the years. Is it back? Will a lighter load help keep him preserved? There’s no way to know until Fall Camp begins in earnest. Milton was brought here specifically as slot insurance.

Agiye Hall is a X factor. Any season prediction about him is in the realm of possibility. Dealing with the fat part of the bell curve, If the Alabama transfer is dialed in mentally, has grown up, and will accept that he has to prove himself to earn his snaps, this is the athlete you want matched up on the other team’s worst man pass defender in four wide. To the tune of potentially averaging 20 yards a catch and scoring a touchdown on every 3 or 4 receptions. I don’t see him as a slot replacement.

Brenen Thompson is small, hasn’t developed yet physically, and is inexperienced. May not matter. Because as the potential #4 receiver, his job is to apply his 10.22 100 meter speed on a defender who runs a 4.6+ 40 and see what happens. Thompson can fly and the #4 role shields him from physical press coverage that might exploit his lack of strength. He also has real potential in the screen game, particularly when in trips with effective and willing blockers like Neyor and Whittington. Worthy by himself on the other side guarantees there won’t be an overload. Adds interesting potential on reverses and jet sweeps.

Jahleel Billingsley plays tight end! What’s he doing here? And this guy had the gall to write a Longhorn preview book? Billingsley is here because if you want to narrowly classify a 219 pound athlete whose best use is split out without a hand on the ground, cool. He’s basically the same size as Neyor and Omeire. Billingsley has played a lot of football and could actually be an intriguing big body de facto slot replacement. Not doing quick slot things. Doing big body shielding a smaller defender things. Texas would prefer a true wide receiver breaking out, but coaches don’t mind a 6-4 guy with good hands moving the chains.

Texas fans should be excited about the potential of the starting wide outs, but there’s some fascinating boom/bust potential behind them. There may be more season upside attached to their development than one may think.

 

 

The 10th edition of the Thinking Texas Football season preview is here! It’s time to read the most informative, entertaining, and comprehensive Texas football preview on the planet. Find your copy of the Burnt Orange Bible (written by Paul Wadlington).

 

Purchase a copy of Thinking Texas Football and receive a promo code for 50% off an Inside Texas Plus subscription!

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WOW, sign of the times... On3 assigns an On3 NIL Valuation amount for players now. 

IT Today: Tarique Milton draws praise from former head coach Matt Campbell

Joe Cook•07/18/22

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(Photo by David Purdy/Getty Images)

Welcome to Inside Texas Today! On weekdays, Inside Texas Today will provide the latest on Texas Longhorns sports from around the Forty Acres. This morning, what Iowa State head coach Matt Campbell said about former Cyclone and current Longhorn wide receiver Tarique Milton.

Here’s the Monday, July 18, 2022 edition.

In November of 2021, Tarique Milton decided it was time for him to find another place to play college football. After five years at Iowa State, Milton had his degree in hand and began his search for a new place to finish his career.

In May, Milton decided that place would be the University of Texas.

Even after leaving the Cyclone football program, Iowa State head coach Matt Campbell had nothing but great things to say about Milton when asked at Big 12 Media Days.

“Tarique, just a really talented player,” Campbell said. “Certainly can run. Speed is probably the number one strength that I would say he had. Honestly, my favorite part about Tarique isn’t that he was just this incredible football player, because he was and made big plays for us, but really just who he is as a human, who he is as a person.”

“Really, one of the young men in our program that came in to our program from year one to where he was when graduated Iowa State, maybe one of the most transformational young men I’ve been around. Really proud of him. Who he is, what he is is greater than what he does on the football field.”

In four years at Iowa State, Milton caught 99 passes for 1519 yards and seven touchdowns. His most prolific year in Ames was in 2019, when in 13 games Milton hauled in 35 passes for 722 yards and three scores.

After two impressive seasons in 2018 and 2019, Milton saw his production dip in 2020 and 2021. His combined totals for those two seasons included 30 catches for 380 yards and three scores.

Milton was originally a three-star prospect from Manatee High School in Bradenton, Fla. in the class of 2017. He was ranked as the No. 1906 prospect in the country, the No. 288 wide receiver, and the No. 301 prospect in Florida according to the On3 Consensus.

Milton currently has an On3 NIL Valuation of $21k, which ranks No. 2513 in college football. The On3 NIL Valuation is the industry’s leading index that sets the standard market NIL value for high school and college-level athletes. A proprietary algorithm, the On3 NIL Valuation does not act as a tracker of the value of NIL deals an athlete has completed to date. It rather signifies an athlete’s value at a specific moment in time.I

 

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Thanks for this @westexhorn

Inside Texas Scoop on Skill Depth

Remember years ago when Tom Herman and Tom Hermehringer Jr would constantly rotate receivers, driving the fan base nuts in the process? Rotating receivers isn’t a bad practice, unless you’re making the absolute right call to the absolute wrong receiver for that call, something we saw frequently. Kai Money on the corner fade!

Well, get ready for plenty of rotation this season. But given the weapons, speed, and most importantly, the play-caller, I doubt we’ll hear much griping about too much rotating at the position.

Per sources, Agiye Hall had yet another strong week of work. He’s catching consistently, his smooth off the line of scrimmage, and he doesn’t lack for confidence. He is playing mostly to the field, but has worked in the slot some as well.  Now, he’s not going to unseat Xavier Worthy at field receiver, but he is going to rotate in quite a bit. As for Worthy, he’s been quiet all offseason, mainly because he’s a known commodity and they’re trying to work newer guys into the fold, but housed a 90-yarder in two minute drill this week (dime from Card).  Isaiah Neyor has boundary receiver in a Kung-fu grip, but he can also play to the field.  Of course Whittington has the same grip on slot. Freshman speed demon Brennan Thompson is getting a lot of looks behind him.


We’ll have a ’camp battles’ post up this week, but what won’t be written about is the tension between personnel packages. E.g., what’s the preference, 11-personnel or 12-personnel? In that regard, the position battle is Jordan Whittington (when in 11) versus Jahleel Billingsley (when in 12). For those new to the game, 11-personnel features one running back and one tight end, while 12 features one running back and two tight ends. From there you can deduce 11 personnel has three receivers on the field and 12 only features two.  Your 12 personnel will feature Neyor and Worthy at receiver alongside the running back (usually Bijan Robinson) and the two tight ends, Ja’Tavion Sanders and Billingsley.

When asking further about running backs, IT asked if there were times when Jonathon Brooks and Keilan Robinson would be in competition and the response was, “don’t forget about Jaydon Blue. He is an effortless runner.” It sounds like Blue is going to play this year.  Like with Bijan, you can easily swing Blue out to slot. He has exceptional hands.

A lot is being made about front-line skill talent, but the wave behind the main guys is very promising too.

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Xavier Worthy, Isaiah Neyor named among Top 25 receivers in college football

ByTAYLOR ESTES 19 minutes ago

Texas sophomore wide receiver Xavier Worthy has been racking up loads of preseason recognition leading up to his second year with the Longhorns. Coming off of his 2021 Big 12 Offensive Freshman of the Year campaign, Worthy was named to the 2022 preseason All-Big 12 first team this summer, the Maxwell Award watch list and Biletnikoff Award watch list.

According to Pro Football Focus writer Anthony Treash, Worthy is one of the Top 5 wide receivers entering the 2022 college football season. The sophomore wide out was ranked as the No. 4 wide receiver in college football, placing behind No. 1 ranked Jaxon Smith-Njigba, No. 2 Jordan Addison and No. 3 Kayshon Boutte.

But Worthy wasn’t the only Longhorn recognized by Treash as he listed Wyoming transfer Isaiah Neyor as college football’s No. 17 ranked wide receiver entering the 2022 season.

“Neyor broke out in a big way with Wyoming in 2021 and will now be a key factor in Texas’ passing game in 2022, as his 85.5 receiving grade ranked 17th in the FBS last year," Treash wrote of the junior wide receiver. "The 6-foot-3, 215-pounder is a big, downfield weapon, as his seven deep touchdowns and 15 total contested catches in 2021 both ranked sixth or higher at the position.”

Neyor was also named to the Biletnikoff Award watch list alongside Worthy, and the duo will be lead by first-year WR coach Brennan Marion, who coached the 2021 Biletnikoff Award winner, Jordan Addison, while on Pat Narduzi’s staff at Pitt before joining Steve Sarkisian at Texas.

Worthy wrapped up his true freshman campaign leading the Big 12 regular season with 981 receiving yards, 81.1 receiving yards per game and 12 receiving touchdowns. His most impressive performance went down inside the Cotton Bowl when he put up 261 receiving yards and two touchdowns for Texas against Oklahoma in the Red River Shootout.

Worthy put up 100-yard performances in four games last season. His first 100-yard game went down in the first Big 12 game of the season when he caught five passes for 100 yards and three touchdowns against Texas Tech. He also surpassed the 100-yard mark when he caught four passes for 115 yards and a touchdown against Baylor and had 14 catches for 152 yards and three touchdowns against Kansas.

Worthy’s record-breaking season for the Longhorns in 2021 saw him take over the top spot in several Texas football freshman receiving record categories, including the most single-season receptions (62), receiving yards (981) and receiving touchdowns (12) in program history.

What's next for the Texas Longhorns? Stay in the loop on all the latest Texas scoop and join Horns247 today! New members get 30% OFF your first year of Texas insider scoop OR one month of Horns247 VIP access for ONLY $1!

Prior to transferring to Texas, Neyor had a break out season at Wyoming last year when he finished with 44 receptions for 878 yards and 12 touchdowns. His 19.95 yards per reception and 12 receiving touchdowns both led the Mountain West Conference and ranked No. 6 and No. 8, respectively, in the Football Bowl Subdivision.

The Longhorns will look to show improvement in Year 2 under Sarkisian’s direction when Texas hosts Louisiana Monroe on Sept. 3 at Darrell K Royal – Texas Memorial Stadium.

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From FCB    (Thx for this @Hookem2147 )

WIDE RECEIVER

There’s good news and some not-so-good news here. So, let’s start with the good news: The team’s top three wideouts — Xavier Worthy, Jordan Whittington and Isaiah Neyor — had about as good of a summer as you could’ve hoped for, according to team sources.

Worthy has stayed hungry, sticky-fingered and slippery in his route running and team sources say they’d be shocked if there was any kind of sophomore slump.

“This kid treats every day like a contract year,” one team source said (in one of the best quotes I’ve heard in a long time).

The bigger story might be Whittington not only spending up to three hours extra per day doing things to take care of his body (massage, hot tubs, cold tubs and yoga), but also Whittington becoming more of a vocal leader.

Whittington commands everyone’s respect and isn’t a guy to be messed with.

Iowa State graduate transfer Tarique Milton has also been a pleasant surprise.

"Tarique is a very mature young man," Sarkisian said. "He definitely has real speed. He's got a really mature approach to the game. He's prepared. He's organized. He's got his life in order, and it shows on the field. He knows what he's doing, and so we're glad to have him for sure."

Now for the not-so-good news: Redshirt freshman Alabama transfer receiver Agiye Hall still has a lot to figure out and needs to figure it out quickly, according to two dialed-in team sources. Let’s just say Hall has already gotten to know the leadership council under less-than-desirable circumstances.

When Sarkisian was asked about Hall after practice on Wednesday, he said, “He’s not a finished product, and that’s OK. I don’t expect our guys to be finished products. But what I do expect is growth, and I think we’re seeing that."

 

TIGHT END

Redshirt freshmen Ja'Tavion Sanders and Gunnar Helm are definitely the leaders of this group (more on Alabama transfer Jahleel Billingsley in a moment), and tight ends coach Jeff Banks revealed an interesting nugget about Sanders on Tuesday.

Banks said Sanders was challenged early in spring ball to be more physical and has responded.

“Learning the offensive pass plays and being able to move defenders on the line of scrimmage — those are two things that he just couldn’t catch up fast enough,” Banks said.

“The first five days of spring ball, we were still upset a little bit at his lack of physicality. And, quite frankly, he took that challenge and exceeded our expectations.

“The next 10 practices, I don’t think he dropped a ball, and he was moving defenders and holding his own in the ‘C’ area, which is what we need. He’s provided leadership at a young age. He’s a see-how-I-do-it-follow-me guy. He’s not necessarily a rah-rah guy. But he is vocal when he needs to be, and that’s uncharacteristic for that young of a player. So, with JT (Sanders) and then Gunnar (Helm) next two him, they provide us some much-needed in-line blocking at 245 (Sanders) and 255 (Helm).

“That makes me sleep better at night, knowing we have two kids that were in this program last year that are developing, and we think they can hold their own against the best teams we’re gonna play.”

Think about that last line for a second and picture Alabama’s Will Anderson and Dallas Turner lining up nose-to-nose with Sanders and Helm. High praise from Banks.

Now for some not-so-good news regarding Alabama transfer flex tight end Jahleel Billingsley. I’m hearing from team sources, he hasn’t shown the kind of fire coaches were hoping for.

“Point blank, he’s lazy,” one team source said.

On Wednesday, Billingsley took himself out of practice with what appeared to be a tight hamstring.

Banks said of Billingsley, “He’s shown signs of what he did at Alabama. He’s got to prove it to us the next 30 days that he’s going to continue to grow.

The team’s redshirt freshman flex tight end — Juan Davis — has recovered from a hamstring injury that hampered him all spring and “has had a heck of a summer and looks much better and fully confident post-injury,” according to Banks.

 

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