Do we ACTUALLY favor our top WRs too much? (We Don't) Extreme TL;DR

[LouderVol]

Someone needs a hobby.

or a job that doesn't stick an over qualified person in a meeting to essentially hit the Page Down button in a presentation because the intern called in sick.

 

[LouderVol]

bumping this thread, because another year, another set of data points. and guess what?

we still don't favor one WR too much or not rotate guys.

we had 5 WRs catch 10 or more passes.
we had 5 WRs catch 2 or more touchdowns.

compared to the Top 10 passing offenses:
5 of the Top 10 only completed 10 or more passes to 4 WRs
2 completed 10 or more passes to 5 WRs, just like us.
2 completed 10 or more passes to 6 WRs
1 completed 10 or more passes to 8 WRs

its pretty similar in the TD category
5 of Top 10 completed 2 or more TDs to 4, or fewer, WRs
1 completed 2 or more TDs to 5 WRs, just like us
3 completed 2 or more TD to 6 WRs
1 completed 2 or more TDs to 7 WRs

for comparison each one of those schools completed more passes than us.
4 completed ~50 more passes,
5 completed ~100 more passes than us
1 completed nearly 130 more passes than us. they actually completed more passes than we ATTEMPTED.

the ONLY problem with our passing offense is that we don't throw it as much, and when we do we are more efficient than the top passing offenses in the nation. our yards per completion is longer than 6 of those top 10 passing offenses.

STOP the incredibly lazy arguments that we don't feature our WRs enough.

 

[LouderVol]

another category,

we completed a pass to as many, or more WRs than 6 of the Top 10 passing offenses.

Considering those other teams also complete far more passes we probably PROPORTIONALLY feature more WRs than many of the top passing offenses. I didn't actually check the math on that, but seems a certainty given that we completed passes to as many or more WRs as 6 of the Top 10 passing offenses but threw fewer passes.

 

[BernardKingGOAT]

I ain't worried bought no recruiting. Let Hyatt start blowing up in the NFL and TN will be WRU all over again.

Edit: not to mention that other WR that was drafted right after Hyatt, I think he will be a good one as well.

This has aged well

 

[VOLINVONORE]

Well what about pure # of catches? Maybe that changes things. I will go ahead and tell you they don’t.

Number of Catches for the Top 10 Passing Offenses in the nation

Washington was #1. Top 4, 79, 75, 41, 37
Western Kentucky was #2. Top 4, 101, 68, 63, 52
USC was #3. Top 4, 59, 50, 40, 39
Georgia Southern was #4. Top 4, 87, 66, 58, 35
Tennessee was #5, Top 4, 67, 52, 37, 31
Arizona was #6, Top 4, 85, 66, 39, 36
SMU was #7. Top 4, 96, 37, 28, 28
Houston was #8, Top 4, 109, 41, 38, 38
Wake Forest #9, Top 4, 81, 47, 42, 39
Mississippi State) #10, Top 4, 53, 46, 44, 40



Looking at the pure number doesn’t change anything from the percentages, which shouldn’t be a shock to anyone. One thing to note here is that our Number 1, the Biletnikoff winner (AKA best WR in the nation), had 9 guys in this list of 40 names catch more passes than him. Which includes two teams having two guys catch more passes than Hyatt. Again impossible to say we ball hog anyone.

there isn't a team out there that is actually THROWING to that much more to guys 5-10 than us. If you took the least percentage of catches and applied it to our offense, It averages out to 3 more catches PER GAME for the guys down the list. if 3 catches split between 5 guys is making a decision for players they need to look at their priorities.



The numbers do begin to highlight one thing that separates this offense from the rest that MIGHT explain why a WR wouldn’t want to come here. We don’t throw it that often.

The begging problem was the average yards per catch was way down this year, compared to the last 3 year completions. The other problem was the # of penalties on the offense this year which ment we had 3 and Lon more often than in previous years.

 

[iuvol]

Extreme TL;DR coming in. so much so I am breaking this into multiple posts.

I have seen the argument WAY TOO often that Heupel’s system does not use enough WR’s. The narrative is that we only play our top 4 guys, because we rarely substitute. And thus we won’t get good WRs because they don’t want to wait their turn or never get thrown to if they aren’t one of the guys on the field “all the time”. It gets thrown out all the time here in the FF, in the recruiting forum, and even by all media and website gurus. and guess what, its simply wrong.

It is simply false. It is one of a number of bad, and false, narratives about our offense. Its one thing for opposing fans or the media to use lazy arguments; but we as UT fans should not fall victim to the lies put out there. So I am here to TRY and teach you guys some truths about our offense so that we can at least not feed into the disparaging remarks about our offense.

There are a bunch of different categories you can look at and easily see we don’t fall outside the norm. Percentage of Catches, Pure Number of Catches, Number of Yards, number of TDs, are some of the most common that make sense to me that I will examine below. I only look at the Top 10 passing offense, obviously it doesn’t make sense to compare our offense to Auburn or one of the Triple Option teams, or some team that just doesn’t produce. So I focused on the best passing offense teams, fwiw we are #5 passing offense, so we are in the elite company that would be attractive enough to steal away WRs from us with stats if we favor our starters too much. For what little its worth I have done similar break downs with Bama, UGA, and Ohio State, you can find those in the Recruiting forum, I don't feel like recreating them here as there is enough information in this rant already.

Take into consideration that we had the best WR in the nation last year. So it makes sense IF we fed him too much. You always feed your top guys more, lets see how we look.

Look at how Bama used their freshman WR, passed the ball to him almost exclusively against us. They may have other WRs on the field but he was the one who got all the targets.

 

[wmcovol]

Please list the backup receivers that when given the chance due to injury (and Vols have had them) that have stepped up & shown they could play top level SEC besides Brazzell & Matthews.

Facts are the last two years Wrs have been average or worse after the initial starters have gone down.

 

[LouderVol]

Please list the backup receivers that when given the chance due to injury (and Vols have had them) that have stepped up & shown they could play top level SEC besides Brazzell & Matthews.

Facts are the last two years Wrs have been average or worse after the initial starters have gone down.

name any school that can reliably count on the back ups being as good as the starters. There is a reason the starters start. they are better.

even along the DL where we have great depth, probably the best in the SEC and maybe nation, there is still a drop off from the 1s to the 2s to the 3s. Its not a big drop off on the D line, but its there.

RB, after Sampson Bishop and Lewis are good, but they aren't sampson.
TE, after Kitsleman Staes and Davis are good, but they aren't Kitsleman
LB, after Pili went down, no one has really filled his shoes
CB when McCoy and Gibson aren't out there there is a noticeable drop
Safety drops off quickly.

you are holding an impossible standard.

 

[JRich]

Not too sure about all that, but I do know that I’ve seen a lot of drops and a lot of overthrows the last two years.

Also seems like UT’s WR’s are fragile, except for Bru. Need more of those big body dudes that always come out of Ole Miss.

 

[wmcovol]

name any school that can reliably count on the back ups being as good as the starters. There is a reason the starters start. they are better.

even along the DL where we have great depth, probably the best in the SEC and maybe nation, there is still a drop off from the 1s to the 2s to the 3s. Its not a big drop off on the D line, but its there.

RB, after Sampson Bishop and Lewis are good, but they aren't sampson.
TE, after Kitsleman Staes and Davis are good, but they aren't Kitsleman
LB, after Pili went down, no one has really filled his shoes
CB when McCoy and Gibson aren't out there there is a noticeable drop
Safety drops off quickly.

you are holding an impossible standard.

You missed my point. My response was to those questioning why Tennessee doesn’t play more receivers & as you said “the starters are better”.

The drop off at WR was as deep as any position on the field the last 2 seasons IMO.