Grant Gellatly
The
Ivy League has had a nice allotment of top receivers in recent decades. And a
good number of them have made it to the NFL, albeit at other positions.
The
talent looks good at the wide receiver position at a lot of the Ivy schools
this season. The two players who make 1st Team All Ivy at WR
are going to really have to earn it.
But
1,000 yard receivers are still a rarity, and they may be again this year. Let’s
look at the top contenders to hit that mark in 2013:
-Cornell’s
Grant Gellatly almost hit the 1,000 echelon last year with 940 receiving yards.
And now, he’s the most experienced WR returning to play in QB Jeff Mathews
super-charged air attack. Gellatly may not be the best overall WR in the
league, but the senior is the best bet to hit 1,000.
UPDATE: I just learned that Brown's Tellef Lundeval will be back for a 5th year for the Bears. That makes him a strong contender to be the statiscal WR leader in the Ivies. Last season, he had 72 catches for 718 yards... but just three TD's.
UPDATE: I just learned that Brown's Tellef Lundeval will be back for a 5th year for the Bears. That makes him a strong contender to be the statiscal WR leader in the Ivies. Last season, he had 72 catches for 718 yards... but just three TD's.
-Columbia
junior Connor Nelligan is the leader among returning Ivy wide
receivers in receptions per game, (6.2 last year). He was the Lions top go-to
target last season, but with a new starting QB coming in this season, things
could change. My bet is that Nelligan will remain Columbia’s top receiver in the
total catches category, but I’m not so sure he’ll improve that much on his 682
yards from last year because of the crowded list of talented Lion receivers.
-Penn’s
Conner Scott, has an outside chance to get to 1,000, but only if Quaker QB
Billy Ragone throws the ball a lot more in 2013. Scott is another great athlete
who means a tremendous amount to his team and hitting 1,000 yards isn’t really
something that’s necessary for him and the Quakers to have a great season.
The
other strong wide receivers returning include Dartmouth's Ryan McManus, Yale’s Cameron Sandquist, and Princeton’s Roman Wilson.
8 comments:
Reilly has exhausted his eligibility. His "fifth year" was actually the 2012 season. He's gone.
He will be missed by Dartmouth. His numbers may not have been great, but he made some incredible catches for touchdowns or first downs.
That being said, Dartmouth should be fine at WR with McManus and several others returning.
Thanks... I was really under the impression that he was coming back.
Jake, I know this is unrelated to this discussion, but do you know which game Homecoming/parents day is this year? I thought I remember you saying it was the Penn home game.
Thanks
I don't think they've made the official announcement yet, but Homecoming will almost surely be the Penn game.
Cornell had 3 of the top (yardage) WRs in the league last year. Look how far up the standings it got them. Cautionary tale.......yardage stats can be misleading. IMHO the receiver from Penn looked to be the most accomplished and polished WR in the league last year.
Jake, this comment really goes to your analysis of the top running backs rather than the WRs. My concern is whether we have enough size at the LB and safety positions to bring down the Vargas and the Pierres. Our LBs seem to be in the 210/215 range, for example.
The linebacker position is one of my top concerns for this season. Olinger is a super player, but he can't do it alone. Losing Waller and Murphy to graduation is serious.
As pleasant as it is to discuss the relative merits of the most talented players in the Ivies, the key to success in the Ivies is the achievement of mediocrity in ALL sections of the offense (QB, OL, RB, R) and the defense (DL, LB, DB, S). Take a look at Penn's team stats from last year. Every section of the offense and the defense was mediocre. They won the title because, with the exception of Harvard, they faced Ivy teams which had one or more sub-mediocre ("sub-mediocre" sounds so much nicer than "God-awful") sections. By "sub-mediocre", I mean IVY "sub-mediocre" (which can be pretty damn God-awful). Football, especially in the Ivies, is a team sport in which talent-rich sections often have limited ability to offset the failures of the other sections. For example, it appears that the Lions will have an embarrassment of riches at QB, RB and R this year. If the OL can only raise their game to the mediocre level, we can look forward, at the very least, to a lot of thrills and a lot of points on offense. If, however, the OL pass-blocks as it did last year, Nottingham is going to look like Bambi in a forest fire.
I haven't looked at the sections of each team, but based on past years, I would expect two all-mediocre (or better) teams to compete for the title, three teams with one sub-mediocre section on either offense or defense to make up the middle of the pack and three teams with at least one sub-mediocre section on both offense and defense to fight to avoid last place. I wouldn't be surprised if one team (hopefully, not the Lions) "achieves" TWO sub-mediocre sections on BOTH offense and defense (which, as the Orwell fans among us would know, would be "doubledoubleplusungood").
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