2009 Recruiting - Wide Receivers

by BSD on Feb 20, 2008 10:30 AM EST in Recruiting

Let’s move on with our look at the class of 2009 recruiting with wide receivers today. Here is the projected depth chart for 2008.

**Wide Receiver Depth Chart**
First String	Second String	Third String	Fourth String
Deon Butler - Sr	Chris Bell - Jr	A.J. Price - Fr	Graham Zug -Jr
Derrick Williams - Sr	Derek Moye - rFr	Kevin Cousins - Jr	Jesse Alfreno - So
Jordan Norwood - Sr	Brett Brackett - Jr	James McDonald - Jr

You can see there are a whole lot of juniors and seniors on that list. This is why I said Penn State really needed to bring in at least two wide receiver recruits this year. After the 2009 season it appears the only potential Big Ten quality wide receivers we’ll have are Derek Moye and A.J. Price who are both unknowns at this point. If I’m a highly recruited wide receiver I’m looking at that depth chart thinking I have a great chance to play early if I go to Penn State. With Butler, Williams, and Norwood leaving after 2008 and Chris Bell’s lack luster performance his first two years I would have an excellent chance to play right away.

So with 25 scholarships to hand out I expect Penn State to pull in three top notch wide receivers. Two would be ok, but anything less than that would be a complete failure. The good news is that unlike last year Penn State has wasted no time in getting offers out to some of the best receivers out there and they are already seeing heavy interest from some of them. These are the top targets to watch for this spring.

There are a few other athletes Penn State is recruiting who could play either offense or defense as well. So with that here is how the scholarship allocation is adding up.

Projected 2009 Scholarship Allocation

**Top Wide Receiver Prospects for 2009**
Name	Hometown	Size	Junior Stats
Corey Brown	Monroeville, PA	6-2, 185, 4.58	23 catches, 500 yds, 2 TD
Justin Brown	Wilmington, DE	6-2, 190, 4.71	19 catches, 556 yds, 8 TD
Jaleel Clark	Allentown, PA	6-4, 190, 4.5	51 catches, 785 yds, 10 TD
Logan Heastie	Chesapeake, VA	6-2, 192, 4.4	53 catches, 977 yds, 16 TD
Brandon Scott	Woodbridge, VA	6-4, 215, 4.5	Injured – May get late offer
Je’Ron Stokes	Philadelphia, PA	6-1, 185, 4.42	21 catches, 452 yds, 5 TD (5 games)
Todd Thomas	Beaver Falls, PA	6-4, 180, 4.55	1261 yds, 12 TD

Position	Projected Scholarships
Quarterbacks	2
Running Backs	2
Wide Receivers	3
Total	7

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Comments

Somebody out there answer this:

Is it just my dad and me that notice that our receivers tend to slip, trip, and stumble over their own feet when trying to juke somebody out? If it's not my imagination and this is a problem, maybe we should recruit receivers that also have a background in dance.

by Ab4PSU on Feb 20, 2008 12:10 PM EST reply actions

Grass vs Turf

Doesn't the team practice on artificial turf but then play on natural grass. Could this be screwing them up?

by ageing lion on Feb 20, 2008 12:33 PM EST up reply actions

No

I agree with you. I think D-Will gets tackled by the 20 yard line on kickoffs more than he gets tackled by the other team

Pat Devlin in '08

by Nick7 on Feb 20, 2008 12:23 PM EST reply actions

Passes over the middle

A lesser known immutable law of Penn State football; Thou shalt throw passes over at thy receivers feet.

It ties into a quite famous rule; Thou shalt play all zone defense, and hit the opponent's receivers in an attempt to force interceptions

Low passes over the middle don't get intercepted. Frankly, when you have quarterbacks like Michael Robinson, Anthony Morelli and Zack Mills (or every quarterback we've had since the millennium) who are not the most accurate passers, it pays to keep the interceptions down.

From a defensive prospective, it's a frustrating as hell holdout from a bygone era where nobody had a quarterback that could really pick apart a zone efficiently. These days there are freshman that can do it, and we play at least three quarterbacks that can do effectively (I'm looking at Todd Boeckman, who ate us alive) every season.

My point is; it's not always the recievers fault.

For the Glory National Champions 1982, 1986, 1994,

by jesse. on Feb 20, 2008 12:40 PM EST reply actions

Falling Down

I think kids just instinctively expect to get hit as soon as they get the ball. So they're leaning into it expecting the hit, but by the time they turn around and realize they have some space they are already off balance and can't recover.

I can think of maybe three plays where Deon Butler caught a ball without falling down. Part of the problem is that he has never had a quarterback that could hit him in stride.

Mike
Black Shoe Diaries

Hail to the Lion!

by BSD on Feb 20, 2008 12:53 PM EST reply actions

Brackett

Pretty sure Brackett is a redshirt soph, I think he redshirted his frosh year. I remember him playing Jeff Samardjiajzlkmzlka on the scout team and he stayed at WR since then.

by psucrusader on Feb 20, 2008 12:59 PM EST reply actions

You are correct

I just point out the redshirts for the freshmen. I don't bother pointing out redshirt sophomores, juniors, and seniors. Brackett was actually a quarterback his redshirt year.

Mike
Black Shoe Diaries

Hail to the Lion!

by BSD on Feb 20, 2008 3:02 PM EST up reply actions

Your article is a little misleading

You stated "unlike last year Penn State has wasted no time in getting offers out to some of the best receivers out there and they are already seeing heavy interest from some of them" and then you give a list of 7 WRs. Of the 7 only 3 have offers from Penn State.

by aluf on Feb 20, 2008 11:59 PM EST reply actions

Offers

How many offers had we given out a year ago at this time? I think it was late March until the coaches really started handing out the offers.

Mike
Black Shoe Diaries

Hail to the Lion!

by BSD on Feb 21, 2008 8:40 AM EST reply actions

I would hope, and do think

That the staff learned a minor lesson this season: the game has changed and you can't mess around.

Keep in mind, as Mike is trying to show us by using a running total (i think, righ?), you can't simply offer scholys to the top 7 receivers...it's a bad PR move and besides that you have other positions to cover.

The Big Eleventh Blog

by Big 11th on Feb 21, 2008 10:15 AM EST reply actions