by Jeff Metcalfe - Sept. 19, 2012 08:05 PM
azcentral sports
Arizona State's wide receivers are catching more heat than passes in this still-young season.
The message that they must be more productive -- whether it's coming from coach Todd Graham, position coach DelVaughn Alexander or even from fans spoiled by ASU being in the top 15 nationally passing in the previous two seasons -- is being received loud and clear.
"I feel there's a lot of pressure on us right now," senior Jamal Miles said. "They're starting to say we're one of the lowest positions on the team. I don't take that lightly. I feel like we've got to go out and prove ourselves every time we go out on the field. I'm just going to try to make everything out of every opportunity I get."
Miles is the top returning receiver -- 30 catches for 361 yards and six touchdowns in 2011 -- at a position group that lost Gerell Robinson (77 catches, 1,397 yards, seven touchdowns), Aaron Pflugrad (44 catches, 665 yards, five touchdowns) and Mike Willie (36 catches, 566 yards, three touchdowns).
Mix in new quarterbacks replacing Brock Osweiler and a new coaching staff that is willing to play to ASU's rushing strength, and the steep learning curve for the passing game at this point is understandable.
H-back Chris Coyle has almost as many receiving yards (239) as the wide receivers total (277) through three games. Coyle and three running backs have a total of 473 receiving yards, 63 percent of the passing-offense production.
"The standards are high, the talent is high, but as far as our production goes, it's been average," Alexander said. "There's got to be a sense of buying in and urgency. There's got to be a consistency out of me as a coach letting those guys know I trust in the techniques I'm teaching. We've got to bridge that gap from the practice field to the game field real fast."
Miles, who sat out the season opener because of a suspension, entered the season with 24 career starts. No one else on the receiving depth chart had more than three. Quarterbacks Taylor Kelly and Michael Eubank are in their first playing season.
"It's going to take time because we've got a lot of inexperienced players," Miles said. "Eventually, we're going to come around and be a strong part of this team. It's just chemistry. We're got to make the quarterback feel comfortable out there and have him trust in us. Once we get all that together, it'll be a special deal."
Or maybe Graham needs more recruiting time to rebuild the receiver corps, and ASU simply will have to make do with what they have in his first season.
"I think they're going to make progress one way or another," Graham said. "Rick Smith is a young guy getting better every day. We feel Alonzo (Agwuenu) has had his best week. (Rashad) Ross and Miles are working hard. We've challenged Kevin Ozier to not just be a journeyman, step up and get better, don't just stay the same."
Ross, with track sprinting speed, is the outside receiver expected to stretch the field. But he had more drops (at least two) than catches (one for 16 yards) last week against Missouri, leading to some soul searching.
"I worried about it all weekend," Ross said. "When you drop your first pass and you drop your second pass, it's going to be pretty hard to catch your third pass because all you're thinking about is 'I've got to catch the ball, I've got to catch the ball.' It's like when you try too hard, it's not going to happen."
20 Sep, 2012
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Source: http://www.azcentral.com/sports/articles/2012/09/19/20120919arizona-state-wide-receivers-pushed-step-up-game.html
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