DAILY CLONE: Offensive Position Group Grades with Chris Williams

[OscarBerkshire]

If there's one thing that's been a constant for like 20 years of ISU is that our fanbase always overrates our WRs.

My evaluation of the WR group is that they simply aren't making tough catches. Watch power conference football, and WRs making tough, contested catches is the norm. Our guys aren't there yet.

Yeah but we've had very consistently good WR play at ISU the entire Campbell era. Not always top end NFL guys but borderline. Eskildsen, Overby, Townsend, Sowell are all clearly there athletically. Can they put it together? History says yes. What was the worst year since 2017 in terms of WR room?

 

[OscarBerkshire]

Under Matt Campbell our WRs have been pretty good and I'd argue our WR talent the last 8 years has consistently been one of the best groups in the Big 12. Before that though.... I agree with you 100% on overrating WR talent.

I believe except for 2019 there has always been an NFL WR on the team. and 2019 had Tarique Milton, Deshaunte Jones, La'Michael Pettway, and Sean Shaw. not a shabby room at all

 

[AuH2O]

FWIW, I dont think UND is bad per se. Played last years runner ups to the wire, and hung 50 on Portland St. For the record, BYU hung 69 on them

I don’t think they are bad, but I do think we need to recalibrate FBS vs FCS. The days of FBS power conference guys going to FCS to avoid sitting out are over. The FBS, and particularly P4 to FBS gap is growing. Not that close calls or losses won’t happen, but in the context of an otherwise 0-3 start it doesn’t look good.

 

[Aclone]

Under Matt Campbell our WRs have been pretty good and I'd argue our WR talent the last 8 years has consistently been one of the best groups in the Big 12. Before that though.... I agree with you 100% on overrating WR talent.

We perennially had one good wideout a year. Not a “top unit”.

Two, with Higgins and Noel—and that’s as far as it went.

That’s about to change.

 

[VeloClone]

I'm not too concerned about the Ark State game. Sure, they laid a huge egg vs. Arkansas, but I don't think they are terrible. And that was a crazy 4 weeks leading up to a road game at a dead stadium.

But the KSU thing matters. It's in Ireland, so another huge layer of strangeness, but we thought ISU beat a good team at the time, but it turns out KSU is a trainwreck right now.

No reason not to be happy with the 4-0 start given all that it took to get there. But there isn't a win that you'd say is all that good yet. Really looking forward to the Arizona game.

I have never been a fan of Avery Johnson. He isn't a leader and when things go sour he is a leader in the wrong direction. He pouts and looks abused or scared. If they had started off the season with a win I really think they would have had better success in some of the following games. They are in a downward spiral and they don't have a leader at the helm who instills confidence when things go sideways or can will them out of their deathspiral. Compare him to that one kid leading the Cyclone team.

 

[VeloClone]

Yeah but we've had very consistently good WR play at ISU the entire Campbell era. Not always top end NFL guys but borderline. Eskildsen, Overby, Townsend, Sowell are all clearly there athletically. Can they put it together? History says yes. What was the worst year since 2017 in terms of WR room?

Before the ASU game they had a shot of Mouse warming up his TEs. He was beating them up as they caught passes trying to knock it away forcing them to make catch after catch through contact that often would be DPI. I'm sure the WR room does something similar but I wonder. Someone mentioned them being soft in contact and that seem like a good call. I just think about some of our previous WRs who would not be denied. Even Jaylin would rip the ball away from bigger defenders - but of course he proved at the combine that he was stronger than most TEs even.

 

[Aclone]

Yeah but we've had very consistently good WR play at ISU the entire Campbell era. Not always top end NFL guys but borderline. Eskildsen, Overby, Townsend, Sowell are all clearly there athletically.

Just gonna toss in here…

Last week, CMC was talking about the WR room, mentioned that they still had some guys they think have “superstar potential”, who haven’t gotten a chance yet.

The quote was his words, the rest is as close as I can get.

As far as I can tell, that would be Zay Robinson, Karon Brookins, the injured Michael Parkes, and probably Dyllan Malone.

And the current commits are in the same mold.

This WR room (like pretty much the whole team) is a brand new thing from what it has been.

 

[bosco]

this feels like an extremely negative look at things here

If KSU is 3-1, is this a conversation? Not ISU's fault they've been bad

The Cyhawk game is a rivalry game, weird **** happens. literally can make no takeaways from this game

The Ark St game was bad, but if you couldnt tell, this team was exhausted, and played a TON of bodies. Again, hard to make takeaways here

I understand the skepticism, but ISU is 4-0 in back to back years with another chance to have a special season. That wasnt by accident. IMO the start of this season should be looked at no differently than last, except Dublin adds an extra wrinkle. I have no idea how many games this team will win this year, but there is a realistic chance they arent even looked at as an underdog until they play @ TCU

I feel it is objective if you take into account what the opponents have done vs our performance.

Of course it would change my perception if KSU went 3-1 but they didn't. KSU is stinky doo doo right now.

Jury is still out on Iowa. You are right you can't take anything out of that game result other then how we executed and it wasn't good, it wasn't bad either.

The performance against Ark St was not good. Given the circumstances probably understandable but, again it didn't materialize.

The team so far has the makings of last season's basketball team. A bunch of potential that hasn't materialized yet. It could, but like others have said Arizona will be another test.

 

[AuH2O]

Yeah but we've had very consistently good WR play at ISU the entire Campbell era. Not always top end NFL guys but borderline. Eskildsen, Overby, Townsend, Sowell are all clearly there athletically. Can they put it together? History says yes. What was the worst year since 2017 in terms of WR room?

I'm thinking more of the Rhoads era, Lazard aside.

I think the current group can and will be pretty good. But I don't think they've played all that well so far.