Duke & Sammie

[AURex 2,032]

I really like our guys and hope they have a phenomenal season. But (1) there is a long season ahead, which means opportunities to succeed or fail or get injured, and (2) you guys are going on like there are no other receivers out there in the world of college football. Why not just let the season unfold and enjoy watching these guys in action? Trying to predict now what might happen next year is premature.

[Dual-Threat Rigby 8,758]

Only our fan base could have one of the best wr in the conference and we talk about him not being good enough to go to the nfl and moving him from wr.....lol.

Lot of you did the same thing about Tre Mason as well though.....

Not sure who said that, you mind going back and telling me where I said he wouldn't be good?

I remember saying "If Sammie even has an average year, he probably still could go round 4, I know some teams will probably try to use his physicality at other positions

That doesn't sound anything like I said he'll be bad does it?

[metafour 4,969]

The NFL is not HS football. They have players to fit positions. Sammie Coates is a WR, will be drafted as a WR, and will play WR in the NFL.

[cole256 17,084]

Only our fan base could have one of the best wr in the conference and we talk about him not being good enough to go to the nfl and moving him from wr.....lol.

Lot of you did the same thing about Tre Mason as well though.....

Not sure who said that, you mind going back and telling me where I said he wouldn't be good?

I remember saying "If Sammie even has an average year, he probably still could go round 4, I know some teams will probably try to use his physicality at other positions

That doesn't sound anything like I said he'll be bad does it?

Dude I said WE. And if you read the thread some were saying he has to get better at catching the ball before being drafted, hence not good enough now. I don't know how anybody else do it but if I don't personally say your name then it's not personal. Stop being so freaking emotional I didn't say YOU particularly said anything did I? You don't see that anywhere do you?

[Auctoritas 2,828]

You do realize that when someone says "he needs to get better catching the ball", it doesn't necessarily mean that people think he'll go all 256 picks without his name called, right? Do you think that it's either #1 overall, or he'd better go ahead and retire? I'm honestly confused.

[Dual-Threat Rigby 8,758]

I don't remember any particularly bad drops Coates had during the season outside of that missed potential touchdown against Texas A&M

Matter of fact, almost all of the drops I do remember came from the ball being put behind him and getting dislodged.

[MaxP 137]

LMAO at some of you folks. Duke hasn't played a down of D1 football and you're so sure he's NFL bound after one season?? Don't get me wrong it could happen, but there's no way of knowing at this point. I'm gonna need to see more than a good spring game against 2nd and 3rd stringers to believe he's a first or second round draft pick.

Duke is gone because it's pretty well known that he only wants to play 1 year and then head to the draft (I will look for my link to that). It has nothing to do with ability, compared to anyone else or as an absolute.

We had another juco receiver who everyone thought would be one and done and never saw the field. Coates has even more ability than Julio Jones. Demaryius Thomas is the closest NFL receiver to Coates I can think.

[MaxP 137]

I don't remember any particularly bad drops Coates had during the season outside of that missed potential touchdown against Texas A&M

Matter of fact, almost all of the drops I do remember came from the ball being put behind him and getting dislodged.

I agree. People must be confusing him with Louis.

[auburntiger1987 759]

Lets just be honest. If either run a Sub 4.4 Oakland will draft them with their first pick

[Tiger 8,830]

LMAO at some of you folks. Duke hasn't played a down of D1 football and you're so sure he's NFL bound after one season?? Don't get me wrong it could happen, but there's no way of knowing at this point. I'm gonna need to see more than a good spring game against 2nd and 3rd stringers to believe he's a first or second round draft pick.

Duke is gone because it's pretty well known that he only wants to play 1 year and then head to the draft (I will look for my link to that). It has nothing to do with ability, compared to anyone else or as an absolute.

We had another judo receiver who everyone thought would be one and done and never saw the field. Coates has even more ability than Julio Jones. Demaryius Thomas is the closest NFL receiver to Coates I can think.

Who was the other juco WR? It seems like Demaryius Thomas might have a little more size on Sammie though, but that is without me looking it up.

[MaxP 137]

Deangelo Benton

[Tiger 8,830]

Deangelo Benton

LOL Oh yeah. He was an easy one to forget. Not sure if our previous staff failed him, and a bunch of other guys, or if he just didn't want to put in the work.

[MaxP 137]

Demaryius was 6'3" 224lbs coming out of GaTech. Sammy is every bit as physical, possibly faster, and runs great routes for a college wr. Both played in a run first offense.

[cole256 17,084]

You do realize that when someone says "he needs to get better catching the ball", it doesn't necessarily mean that people think he'll go all 256 picks without his name called, right? Do you think that it's either #1 overall, or he'd better go ahead and retire? I'm honestly confused.

Well clearly you chose not to read the previous posts or you wouldn't be confused. You're actually grasping for straws. Even though I'm sure you were being sarcastic no I don't think it's #1 or bust.

Now I'll just pick a couple of quotes that I read when I said what I said. One guy said Sammie will have to work on his catching BEFORE he gets drafted.....What do you take from that? I took it as he doesn't catch the ball well enough to be drafted now.

Another quote said something like Sammie needs to catch the ball better 30 something wr went undrafted last year because the nfl looks for quality receivers. What did you take from that post? I took it that he's saying Sammie could go undrafted if he doesn't get better, hence him pointing out the number of guys that went undrafted....

Hope that helps on your confusion and I now wonder your reply if they were talking about Coates not getting called after 256 picks, it seems ludicrous does it not?

[N2AUtigers 5]

With this offense and NM it was hard to truly judge a receivers ability last year. Marshall was just plain erratic at times but other times he was spot on target. I hope to see him become more efficient this season so this corps of receivers we have can truly shine. Or give us a clearer picture of who needs to improve.

[cole256 17,084]

I don't remember any particularly bad drops Coates had during the season outside of that missed potential touchdown against Texas A&M

Matter of fact, almost all of the drops I do remember came from the ball being put behind him and getting dislodged.

I almost wrote this exact post yesterday

[chimesAU 89]

I think there's a lot of misunderstanding going on in this thread.

[Best5zach 2]

Sammy is gone this year.

Sammy has produced at the top level for a year. Sure, he had some dropped bad passes. But the NFL firmly believes they can fix that. They can't help but see what all he has done on and off the field.

If Duke has a great year, he is also gone for sure. But if he has a 20 catch and 4 TD year or less, he will be back.

[BJ17 0]

Will be hard to cover. Enough said.

[Auctoritas 2,828]

You do realize that when someone says "he needs to get better catching the ball", it doesn't necessarily mean that people think he'll go all 256 picks without his name called, right? Do you think that it's either #1 overall, or he'd better go ahead and retire? I'm honestly confused.

Well clearly you chose not to read the previous posts or you wouldn't be confused. You're actually grasping for straws. Even though I'm sure you were being sarcastic no I don't think it's #1 or bust.

Now I'll just pick a couple of quotes that I read when I said what I said. One guy said Sammie will have to work on his catching BEFORE he gets drafted.....What do you take from that? I took it as he doesn't catch the ball well enough to be drafted now.

Another quote said something like Sammie needs to catch the ball better 30 something wr went undrafted last year because the nfl looks for quality receivers. What did you take from that post? I took it that he's saying Sammie could go undrafted if he doesn't get better, hence him pointing out the number of guys that went undrafted....

Hope that helps on your confusion and I now wonder your reply if they were talking about Coates not getting called after 256 picks, it seems ludicrous does it not?

I think you're reading into both of those, to be honest. "One guy said Sammie will have to work on his catching BEFORE he gets drafted" could also be read as "he needs to work on that before the draft" not the absolute assumption that he will not get drafted if he doesn't work on his catching. It is a fine statement, if you look at it from the loss of money for Sammie if he falls to the 2nd or 3rd round. Either way, it's a silly thing to argue about since it's a draft projection based off of a year of work that hasn't even happened yet. All we have to go on right now is his freshman and sophomore years.

The second was a factual statement - there were 33 WRs taken, and an additional 36 WRs went undrafted in last year's draft. In addition, 19 of those 66 were underclassmen, and of those, 5 went undrafted and 3 went round 3 or later. Granted, that leaves 12 that were drafted in round 1 or 2. The NFL looks for quality receivers - I don't think that point is under debate, nor should it be under debate that since they look for quality receivers, quality receivers will be drafted higher (and thus, receivers with things to work on will be drafted lower).

Thus, the point of that post could very well be that there's going to be serious competition at the WR position, so ANY receiver, Sammie included, needs to work to separate himself from the pack.

Neither of those quotes necessarily mean that he's going undrafted. You just chose to read them that way so you could muster up some righteous indignation over something. If anyone is grasping at straws here, it's you.

Just because someone offers an honest critique (over something that was pretty well documented, at least for his freshman year - seriously, nobody remembers the LSU game where he had a perfect pass go through the breadbasket?) doesn't mean they're an idiot, or a bammer, or are unfairly casting aspersions on the players. I am pretty sure everyone here would agree that he's getting better, and he's a hell of a lot better than anyone we've had in a long while, but if he had nothing to work on to get better then they wouldn't even have had to hold the Heisman vote last year.

[cole256 17,084]

I didn't call anyone an idiot or a bammer so you're still grasping at straws or maybe you said that for dramatic purposes Idk but I said only here will you have one of the best wr in the sec and you would have talk of him changing positions and not being good enough to go in the draft. And other people agreed so at least a few at the least had similar thoughts so I doubt if anything I said was outlandish or anything

The fact that you're even saying it could be looked at this way and that way is YOU wanting to argue. A guy says he needs to work on being consistent catching the ball before he is drafted and want to argue that he didn't necessarily mean he wouldn't be drafted......lol ok. You look at it the way you want and I'll look at it the way I want. Don't like what I said sorry. I may not like what you say either but I'm sure you wouldn't care the same way I don't

[McLoofus 35,182]

I'll say this: we've had some pretty heated arguments about who our best QB, RB and now WR will be. That's rare and awesome.

[cole256 17,084]

I know! Having talent on the team that has actually produced is great isn't it brother?!

[WarEagle84 0]

Glad to see how well this topic has been doing, very compelling to me...In Gus's run first offense how could both go to the draft after this season, could sammie really have leverage from the previous season that makes him need only to have a solid year or does he need to prove something this season?, will one year of D-1 be good enough for duke in a run-first offense?

Draft status for both Sammie and Duke will be based on what they do with the opportunities they have (including downfield blocking on running plays) and how well they measure/test at the NFL Combine. NFL scouts will take into account the type of offense they play in and rank them based on ability/potential, not statistics. I could easily see both guys going in the first two rounds next year, even if our run/pass ratio does not change from 2013 (though I'm pretty sure it will).

[JwgreDeux 1,279]

Sammie will be a combine freak and will get drafted in rd 1 or 2 from his combine numbers alone. At this stage we have nothing to evaluate Duke on other than A-day and something he said in the past. I have no idea about his motivations, but I hope he has a good enough year to go pro early, because that means he helped us win games.

Love to see our guys play on Sundays.