ADay Receiver Fundamental Problems

[Hoopie 6]

This is a copy of my take on the receiver fundamental problems I saw at the Aday game that i originally posted on another site.

I purposely only watched the receivers and Qb's. i normally love watching the line play, but just think that we don't have any problems there and I wanted to see how we are doing now that CTF is there.

Receiving: The receivers look stronger, after only 2 months of winter workpouts. The receivers did much better today watching the ball all the way into their hands. This was a scrimmage, not the SEC season, so we'll hope they keep that focus during the season. This offense creates space and the receivers got open many times by a significant space, so without film study it was hard to tell if they are getting seperation (big problem last year)because of physical ability/route running or just because of the offense.

Receiving Fundamental Improvements needed: The receivers as a group still catch the ball with their hands against their body(alligator arms) rather than extending them out to catch the ball. Extending the hands does 4 things; a) improves eye-hand coordination(ex: baseball catcher), allows the arms to move freely to adjust to last minute ball movement, c) If the ball is bobbled, it can be recovered rather than bounce off pads d) extending the arms reduces the ball flight time and mves the point of reception closer to the qb and away from the defender.

The other receiving fundamental improvement needed is for the receivers to move back toward the qb on under thrown balls. Probably 50% of todays passes were underthrown. The receivers either stand and wait for the slowly thrown ball to come to them or continue to run the route and slow down enough to allow an underthrown ball to fall gently into their arms. In both cases the receivers need to move back toward the ball and catch the ball sooner/higher in order to prevent the defender an opportunity to interfere. Rod Smith did this well last year. CSlaughter caught a touchdown pass today. He was very open and the pass was under thrown. He slowed down and let the ball fall into his hands that were firmly locked against his body. If he had been playing against someone other that the 3rd string, this wouldn't work. He needed to move back toward the QB, extend his hands and catch the ball with body position that makes it tuff for defenders. This needs to be done always so that it becomes a habit.

I apologize for acting as if I'm a coach, but I'm disappointed that we still haven't fixed these problems. UGA has these same type of receiving problems every year...........Florida doesn't.

The team I saw today really only has the Qb/receiver weaknesses. The entire defense, Oline and RB's will be fine. I think that fixing these problems is the difference between being good (9 and3) and being great (12 and 0).

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[autiger4life 3]

Fantastic post.

I agree that it is the small things that take you from good to great. It is hard to see a touchdown pass and say, no no no, but a lot of times if you slow down and wait, the ball will get tipped or intercepted.

[otterinbham 0]

What I want to know is, what happened to Gabe McKenzie's hands? It might just be me, but it seems as if everything thrown his way was either dropped or bounced out.

[nanatiger 3]

Is Greg Knox still receivers coach?

[Hoopie 6]

Gabe is an incredible physical specimen. He obviously works hard in conditioning. I can't understand why he's not catching the ball(he doesn't turn his head before the abll gets there and uses his hands). I will say that one drop was really the QB's fault. Gabe made such an athletic move to adjust to the ball thrown behind him on a crossing route, that it made the ball look much more catchable than it really was.

[WREGL3 0]

Is Greg Knox still receivers coach?

ahhh! I see someone has pinpointed the problem. Sadly, Yes he is.

[SouthLink02 8]

I read somewhere that AU's QB's pissed off the OC due to not relying signals.

Is that correct?