What’s the Catch?

Photo by Joe Howell
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Eleven wide receivers from Tennessee take a break after an early morning voluntary workout. Front row, from left, Tyler Maples, Todd Campbell, Gerald Jones and Josh Ray. Casey Woods is in the center. Back row, from left, Ahmad Paige, Quintin Hancock, Brent Vinson, Austin Rogers, Josh Briscoe, Denarius Moore, Kenny O’Neal, and Lucas Taylor.

Twenty-nine catches. It’s a pretty unimpressive number in the world of football. A possession receiver might have that many in a season.

Or a tight end.

But that’s how many catches Tennessee’s three most experienced wide receiver — juniors Lucas Taylor, Josh Briscoe and Austin Rogers — have in their entire careers. Combined.

For comparison’s sake, Robert Meachem had that many catches by the end of September last year.

With Meachem gone early to the NFL and stalwarts Jayson Swain and Bret Smith out of eligibility, the Vols are left with those 29 catches.

Well, kind of.

While there’s not much in the way of experience coming back, the Vols signed a bevy of talented receivers.

And they have a pair of reliable tight ends in Chris Brown and Brad Cottam.

“I think that however it shapes out, we’re going to have a lot of speed and agility outside,” UT quarterback Erik Ainge says. “We won’t be as big or as strong. We don’t have the 215-pounders like Meachem and Swain, but we got 4.3 (speed). We’ve got a bunch of guys who can run, who can run with the ball after the catch.”

“However it shakes out, they’ve shown a lot of speed and they catch. I’m excited, to be honest with you.”

Ainge would know.

Since the first freshmen began arriving on campus in June, he and his fellow quarterbacks have been giving them a crash course on Tennessee’s offense.

Perhaps even more impressive is the fact that returning players like Rogers and Taylor have done the same.

“It’d be easy for some of those guys to shut their mouth and do their own thing. Say, ‘I’m not going to help this new guy come in and take my spot,’ ‘‘ Ainge said. “It’s not like that.”

Taylor was UT’s leading wide receiver last year with 14 catches for 101 yards.

Yet his most memorable play in 2006 came when he completed — not caught — a 48-yard touchdown pass to LaMarcus Coker against Florida.

The rest of the numbers aren’t good, either.

Briscoe finished with five receptions for 53 yards.

Rogers, who missed the final 10 games due to injury, got all of his five catches and 69 yards in his lone start of the season against Air Force.

Sophomore Quintin Hancock, who emerged as a potential playmaker in spring practice, caught just two passes for 29 yards and missed the final nine games with injury.

Two players that remained healthy all season were tight ends Brad Cottam and Chris Brown.

Brown was one of UT’s most sure-handed targets last season, catching 31 passes for 239 yards and a touchdown.

Cottam, a speedy 6-foot-8, 270 pound senior, is poised for a breakout year after catching 14 passes for 182 yards last season.

During spring practice, Brown said the tight ends want to catch about 90 passes between them, a total that would relieve pressure a lot of pressure on an inexperienced group of wide receivers.

And there’s more than just reliability at tight end, Brown says.

“We like to call ourselves playmakers,” he said. “When we get the ball, we don’t just want to catch it and go down. We’re trying to get 5, 10 yards and hopefully spring a long run after the catch. We’re trying to make big plays and score touchdowns.”

Then, of course, there is UT’s incoming class.

Gerald Jones, Ahmad Paige, Denarius Moore, Brent Vinson and junior college transfer Kenny O’Neal could all contribute.

One of the class’s gems, defensive back Eric Berry, could see some action on offense as well.

And while they’re inexperienced, they’re plenty fast.

“It’s legit,” Ainge says of the hype surrounding the incoming players. “They’re crazy athletic. Kenny and Brent and Denarius, all of them. They’re all fast.”

“We’ll definitely be faster at receiver this year than last year. We’ve got four or five guys who can run low 4.4 (times in the 40-yard dash), high 4.3 right now.”

The question, though, is how fast they’ll get on the field.

Tennessee’s track record with freshmen contributors at wide receivers isn’t great.

Ainge said that improvement, not perfection, will be the most important thing for UT’s incoming players when fall camp begins in August.

“Everyone’s going to bust an assignment. Meachem ran wrong routes all the time, in practice,” Ainge said. “We’d make him do it so many times that we’d get in the game and he’d be doing it perfect and looking like a hero.

“The sooner they can prove they can learn from their mistakes. They can screw up in practice, go correct it in the film room and come back the next day and do it right, the sooner they’ll have confidence in them.”

Speed will only go so far.

Ainge says it will help when teams commit eight players to stop the run and play man-to-man coverage on the outside.

But no amount of speed can replace a player’s ability to run the route or adjust a route to coverages.

“If he’s not going to run the right route or not on third and 10 versus Florida at Gainesville, there’s no way he’s going to play — whether he’s 4.3 or not,” Ainge said. “Whether he can make Randy Moss catches in the end zone or not, if you don’t know what he’s going to do, they won’t let him play.”

Drew Edwards covers University of Tennessee football. He may be reached at 865-342-6274.