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| From Dailyme.com |
I need to start with a bit of a disclaimer. The wide receiver position is incredibly difficult to predict for Northwestern. It seems every year excellent wide receivers rise out of nowhere only to then graduate, leaving the position in apparent shambles. But, in phoenix-like fashion, new wide receivers rise from the ashes to perfectly fill the rolls of their predecessors. It's a cool cycle, and I'm not going to complain, but it makes my job of predicting the upcoming year difficult. You might actually be better off ignoring everything I'm about to write. That being said, I'd appreciate if you didn't.
Last Year: We saw outstanding performances out of two receivers: Andrew Brewer and Zeke Markshausen. Brewer entered NU as a quarterback, but did fairly miserably at the position his freshman year. He was then transferred to wide receiver, but put up no stats in '07. He played a small role in '08, but didn't break through until '09. Finally living up to his potential, Brewer was Northwestern's go-to deep threat, ending the season with 925 yards (39th best in the country/4th Big 10). He also averaged a very good 16.2 yards per catch, a notably good number considering Northwestern's favorite pass was a short route into the flat. That 16.2 was the 51st best in the country and 5th best in the Big 10 (stupid Iowa had to take 2 of the top 5 spots...). Markshausen is a former walk-on engineering major who had exactly 1 catch before last season. How many did he have last season? 91. 91! That's a 9000% improvement! He went from total anonymity to the best receiver in the Big 10 in terms of receptions (number 10 in the country). However his yardage and touchdown numbers were not as nearly as impressive as Brewer's simply because the two played very different roles. While Brewer beat guys deep and made occasionally beautiful catches, Markshausen was simply the epitome of consistency, running short routes that drove other teams, and fans, crazy (just ask my friends at Iowa). While these two were certainly the primary targets in the passing game, three other receivers made notable contributions. Sidney Stewart looked very good at times, showing excellent athleticism. He really broke out at the end of the year with 94 and 97 yards, against Wisconsin and Auburn, respectively. Jeremy Ebert played a fairly small role but generally looked good. He also broke out at the end of the year, albeit to a lesser degree. Demetrius Fields was a freshman who put up numbers very similar to Ebert's, although he put up most of his stats at the beginning of the year. Generally, I felt fairly confident with the ball going to him. All-in-all, the entire receiver corps looked very good last year. They were by far the most pleasant surprise on the team .
This Year: This is where it gets difficult. The top targets will apparently be Ebert and Stewart, and they will almost certainly fill roles very similar to Zeke and Brewer, but I have no idea which receiver will fit which role. My inclination would be Ebert fills Brewer's role, because I believe he has better speed than Stewart, but I don't think I'd even bet a penny on that guess (except I hate having pennies so I might just want to get rid of it). I would expect Demetrius to have an impact as well, but I'm not sure what role he'll play either. My tentative guess is that he'll run a lot of routes across the middle. I also expect a few throws to Drew Moulton, who will be playing his first season after redshirting last year. I know little about him, but he looked decent in the spring game.
Improvement?: Psh, I don't know, but I would guess yes. And if that is true, then that is a very, very good thing. I have few complaints about our receivers last year, so any improvement would be outstanding. I expect an improvement simply because our incoming top-targets have more experience than the top receivers had entering previous years. Again, though, I won't pretend I know more than I do. I'm just as curious about how this position will turn out as any of you are.
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