Editor's Note: With preseason practice just weeks away, Warchant is previewing the upcoming Florida State football season by looking at each position group on offense, defense and special teams. The third installment in our preview series is on the wide receivers.
Earlier Previews: Running back | Quarterback |
The Big Picture
Perhaps no position on the Florida State football team is as loaded with talent, yet saddled with questions, as the Seminoles’ wide receiver segment.
FSU returns three veterans who caught nearly 60 passes apiece last season and a group of highly touted talents waiting to emerge, yet the group as a whole hasn’t quite lived up to the hype. The Seminoles' receivers struggled in two primary areas last season -- they weren’t effective at stretching defenses vertically, and they weren’t very dangerous in the red zone.
One of the primary factors in both of those areas, of course, was a lack of size among the primary targets. While leading receiver Travis Rudolph is 6-foot-1 and 189 pounds, the Seminoles’ other top targets were 5-10 Jesus “Bobo” Wilson and 5-8 Kermit Whitfield. FSU, of course, has plenty of other taller options at receiver -- they will have five scholarship wideouts listed at 6-2 or taller this fall. But most of those players struggled to get on the field in 2015, and it remains to be seen how much action they will see in 2016.
If those younger receivers gain the trust of head coach Jimbo Fisher and receivers coach Lawrence Dawsey and earn meaningful playing time, they could give FSU one of the most dynamic receiving segments in the country. If they don’t, Seminole fans will be left to wonder if 2016 will be more of the same.
