Anyone think Wheeler will have a good year, breakout? I hope, he deserves it after getting knocked out of last season against Hawaii.
Anyone think Wheeler will have a good year, breakout? I hope, he deserves it after getting knocked out of last season against Hawaii.
I'm really hopeing he can have the year we've been all waiting on. He's a great kid and deserves to have one. I know the potential is in him. I'm not going to expect great things, but I won't be surprised to see some. I can see him as a 3rd or 4th option that defenses will have problems covering with their less experienced nickel backs.
We need a good year out of Wheeler, we aren't exactly neck deep in experienced WRs.
Is Josh a senior this year? Will he be able to get a medical redshirt?
I think he needs to get more physical and stay healthy. If he does those things he can be productive for us.
"More physical" hits the nail on the head. I coached several "track guys" who were great athletes & came out for football. Very few made a significant contribution mainly due to the physical nature of the game. I saw signs in the spring game that Wheeler might be one of those guys who just did not like getting hit. Actually, Roger Carr, a terrific long-jumper out of Cotton Valley who did not play football in high school, was a track guy who did not appreciate the physical nature of the game. However, he was such a great, great talent that we rarely PUT HIM in the position where he had to do something that he did not like to do. We forgot the quick slants to his side, we just asked him to try to get in the way of the DB when he was called on to block, & we utilized his superior skills to BEAT the other team. He was death on the post pattern, the corner, & the "GO," so those were the routes he ran for us, along with the deep comeback routes to the outside. He made a very good living in the NFL for a long time doing exactly the same things.
We KNOW Josh is a great athlete. We KNOW he can run & jump. The trick is, as a coach, is to put him in those spots where he has the best chance to help US succeed, without exposing him to the mulitude of hits that he really does not care for. Troy Edwards was just the opposite---he LOVED the physical part of the WR position, but most do not care for it!
Did he? I don't remember hearing about that. The last I remember reading about it it was still up in the air due to the amount of plays or something that he partcipated in. If he did get his year back, that would be awesome. I'd like, if possible, to use him in a limited role this year to get him adjusted in the manner of use that Coach Mick suggested so that he could better learn how to handle the physical aspect of the game, then by his senior year he could be more productive and possible contribute in a more expanded role, along with having Livas as a very experienced junior and Cruz in a experienced sophomore year, we could be scary productive as a receiving corps.
I'm pretty sure he got it, I certainly haven't heard that he did not get the year back. I really don't think we have the luxury of using him in a limited role. All indications suggest he will start on the outside from the beginning. If he gets isolated on a corner he can pretty much out-jump most in the WAC. He also runs very good routes. If he can keep from being jammed or pushed out of bounds on the sideline routes, he could enjoy a very productive year.
Tech has a long history of great WRs. Yeah, players like Roger Carr and Pat Tilley who starred in the NFL are obvious. But we've had a ton of others that were all great WRs for the Dawgs. I don't want to start listing them out of fear of leaving some off the list! You all can quickly name many of them off the top of your head.
Wheeler has shown flashes of the enormous potential he has. Hopefully this will be a great year for him. I agree, Tech needs him to break-out and join that "list" I mentioned above.