Impressive WR Corps
August 26, 2003 04:50 PM | General
August 26, 2003
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – West Virginia coach Rich Rodriguez believes Wisconsin’s wide receiver trio of Lee Evans, Jonathan Orr and Brandon Williams is as good as any the Mountaineers will face all season.
That includes Miami and Pitt's Larry Fitzgerald.
“Having Lee Evans coming back makes them as good as any receiver crew we’ll play all year and maybe as good as anyone in the country,” said Rodriguez. “That’s a big concern for us. They’ve got some NFL players, especially a guy like Evans.”
Last year Wisconsin proved effective throwing the ball without Evans, a 5-foot-11, 202-pound senior who missed the entire year after sustaining a major knee injury during the spring game.
Last year the Badgers passed for 291 yards against a Mountaineer secondary still trying to get comfortable in a new defensive system. It also didn’t help that Wisconsin quarterback Brooks Bollinger had as much as 11 seconds to throw on some pass plays.
“We’ve got to try and do some things to get some pressure on the quarterback,” said Rodriguez.
“They just found weaknesses in our defense,” said senior cornerback Lance Frazier. “On top of that, we just didn’t get any pressure on the quarterback.”
According to Frazier, Wisconsin’s three top receivers each bring something different to the table.
“Lee Evans is an all-around, good athlete and good receiver; Orr is pretty good at going up and out-jumping guys for the ball; and Williams is more of a possession receiver who is good at finding holes in your defense,” said Frazier.
All three have been extremely productive, too.
Before his injury, Evans considered leaving college early for the NFL draft. He is already UW’s career receiving leader with 2,255 yards, including a Big Ten record 1,545 yards in 2001. He is the last Wisconsin player to go over 200 receiving yards in a single game against Michigan State (228) in 2001.
Rodriguez says Evans reminds him of a former player he had at Clemson in All-American Rod Gardner, now playing for the Washington Redskins.
“He has the ability to go up and beat one-on-one coverage and make plays that maybe aren’t there,” said Rodriguez. “We just can’t put one guy on him and say, ‘Okay Brian King or Lance Frazier, you’ve got him.’ We’ve got to try and do some things coverage wise and also try and get some pressure on the quarterback.”
 Lee Evans UW photo |
Although Evans hasn’t played in a game in more than a year and has had to undergo two knee surgeries, Frazier expects Evans to be full-go for the opener.
“Maybe he’s questioning himself, I don’t know how well he did in fall camp,” said Frazier. “But I’m pretty sure he’ll bring his ‘A-game’ and he’ll be ready to play.”
Orr, a 6-foot-3, 190-pound sophomore, came on in Evans’ absence last year by producing a UW freshman-record 842 receiving yards. In the West Virginia game, Orr caught touchdown passes of 19 and 43 yards.
And Williams, a 5-foot-11, 170-pound sophomore, produced a team-high 52 catches for 663 yards as an effective alternative to Orr. Williams had a career-high of 125 yards in the 34-17 win against West Virginia.
Because Wisconsin has such an impressive fleet of receivers, there have been rumors coming out of Madison that the Badgers have added some spread formations to their offensive attack.
Rodriguez says West Virginia must be prepared for just about anything.
“They may do some different things,” he said. “They may run some spread offense because of their group of wide outs they have.”
Frazier agrees, “They’ve got some pretty good guys in addition to Lee Evans. We’re trying to get a beat on that (spread) and we know we’ve got a major task ahead of us. I think the guys are up for it, though.”
Briefly ...
“Chances are they are going to play a lot of football for us this year,” said the coach.
“Several of them are playing multiple positions which is something we waited until recently to do so we could move them around,” he said. “Aaron Neal, Miquelle Henderson and John Pennington … those guys are playing more than just the one receiver position. We’re creating depth that way.”
“We’ve mentioned that as a fact in recruiting,” he said. “We’re not as big as we need to be at this level in Division I-A, but there’s nothing we can do about it right now other than lift during the season and try to maintain our size. What we’ve got to do is to be sound technically and try to get lower on their pads. If you let a big guy get leverage on you you’re going to be finished. We can’t let size and leverage be factors Saturday.”
