Correction appended
Eight-hundred-fifty-eight receiving yards, seven touchdowns, and
58 receptions.
Those were the combined statistics of now-departed and current
NFL wide receivers Tab Perry and Craig Bragg in 2004.
They are lofty numbers by any standards, but particularly
difficult for a young group of wide receivers that have 14 career
starts and six career touchdowns among them.
“We know those (departed) receivers will be missed,”
offensive coordinator Tom Cable said. “But we are fully
confident that the players we have now will have a similar type of
production.”
Turnover is a natural part of the college game, but the
departures of Perry and Bragg have particularly hurt the Bruins
this season.
Leading the core of wide receivers returning for the Bruins is
senior Junior Taylor, who has 70 receptions and 932 receiving yards
in his career.
Taylor played a pivotal role as the Bruins’ third receiver
last season, and now is ready to fill the role of senior leader
among an unproven, yet talented young receiving corp.
“My role this year is to lead by example,” Taylor
said. “The way I do everything, the way I play, the way I
come out here to practice and work.
“I have to show these younger guys how to do it, and I
have to do it right all the time.”
Taylor has been relatively unknown in his first three years for
the Bruins and has yet to live up to the lofty expectations that he
had coming out of high school, when he was rated as the No. 3
receiver in the West by Prep All-American magazine as a senior.
This year Taylor realizes that he must fulfill his potential and
he has come to embrace the pressure.
“It’s something I look forward to,” the
6-foot-1 senior said. “I know everything I do is going to be
criticized, but I’m the senior leader and that’s the
way it should be.”
Behind Taylor at the wide receiver position are junior Joe
Cowan, sophomore Marcus Everett, sophomore Brandon Breazell, and
freshman Gavin Ketchum.
The depth chart became thinner last week when it was announced
that Everett would miss two to three weeks with a separated
shoulder. In his place, freshman Jamil Turner has emerged as a
capable replacement.
“The depth is not where we like it to be right now,”
Dorrell said. “But injuries happen in football. We are fully
confident in the players we have.”
Luckily for the Bruins, both freshmen, Baumgartner and Ketchum,
have shown signs of the athleticism that Bruin fans have grown
accustomed to over the years from the wideout position.
Ketchum, a 6-foot-4-inch split end from Oak Park, CA, is
considered the real x-factor for the Bruins’ receiving corps.
After recovering from a shoulder injury earlier in fall camp,
Ketchum has recently worked his way onto the first team during
practice.
“I didn’t expect to get this opportunity right
away,” Ketchum said. “But I fully expect to make the
most out it.”
Ketchum, along with the rest of the receivers, will have to make
the most of his potential if the Bruins are going to come close to
reaching the high standards that the now-graduated wide receivers
have left for this year’s young Bruins.