Earl Bennett, Jr. Vanderbilt If
Bennett played for Florida or LSU, he'd likely be everyone's
preseason First-Team All-American. The two-time All-SEC star has
been unstoppable catching 161 passes for 2,022 yards and 15
touchdowns in his first two seasons, and has the attention of
NFL scouts that first saw him work well with Jay Cutler in 2005.
At 6-1 and 202 pounds, he has the size to outmuscle most corners
to go with the speed to run by the mediocre ones. Few players in
the nation are better when they get into a groove with nine
career games with eight catches are more. Just ask Kentucky how
hard it is to handle the junior, who caught 24 passes for 319
yards and six touchdowns in the two meetings with the Wildcats.
Mario Manningham, Jr. Michigan A
case could've been made that the 6-0, 181-pound Manninghamwas the best player in college football over the first half
of the season before he suffered a knee injury against Michigan
State. After starting off the year with five catches for 71
yards and a touchdown in wins over Vanderbilt and Central
Michigan, he exploded with three straight 100-yard games and
eight touchdown catches in four weeks, including a 113-yard,
two-score effort in the pivotal win over Wisconsin and a
four-catch, 137-yard, three score performance against Notre
Dame. He returned late in the year, but wasn't quite the same
despite catching 12 passes for 165 yards against Ohio State and
USC. Most known for his last second touchdown catch to beat Penn
State in the 2005 classic, he's a big-play target with sub-4.4
speed. Now he has to prove he can hold up.
Preseason 25
Best Receivers 1.
Mario Manningham, Jr. Michigan
2. Earl Bennett, Jr. Vanderbilt
3. DeSean Jackson, Jr. California
4. Davone Bess, Jr. Hawaii
5. Malcolm Kelly, Jr. Oklahoma
6. Sammie Strougher, Sr. Oregon State
7. Dorien Bryant, Sr. Purdue
8. Limas Sweed, Sr. Texas
9. Adarius Bowman, Sr. Oklahoma State
10. Percy Harvin, Soph. Florida 11. Keenan Burton, Sr. Kentucky
12. Jarett Dillard, Jr. Rice
13. Marcus Monk, Sr. Arkansas
14. Harry Douglas, Sr. Louisville
15.James Hardy, Jr. Indiana
16. Andre Caldwell, Sr. Florida 17. Early Doucet, Sr. LSU
18. Taj Smith, Sr. Syracuse
19. Todd Blythe, Sr. Iowa State
20. Jason Rivers, Sr. Hawaii
21. Greg Carr, Jr. Florida State
22. Chris Williams, Jr. New Mexico
State
23. Darrius Heyward-Bey, Soph.
Maryland
24. Mario Urrutia, Jr. Louisville
25. Darius Reynaud, Sr. West Virginia
2007 CFN Preseason Second Team All-Americans
Davone Bess, Jr. Hawaii The Hawaii
receiving corps is loaded and should blow up with an even bigger season.
The best of the bunch is the 5-10, 195-pound Bess, who led the team with
96 catches for 1,220 yards and 15 touchdowns at the inside H. That's a
career for most receivers, and his two-year total is something
otherworldly with 185 grabs for 2,344 yards and 29 scores. He's
lightning quick, always open and as glue fingered as they come. A
consistent scorer, with at least one touchdown in seven straight games
last season, he also shows up in prime time with some of his biggest
games coming against Boise State, Nevada, Purdue and Oregon State. He'll
play at the next level.
DeSean Jackson, Jr. California The headliner of the
great Cal receiving corps will once again be Jackson, arguably the
single most flammable offensive player in the country. The definition
of a long ball hitter, he parlayed 59 receptions, 1,060 yards and nine
touchdowns into a spot on the All-Pac-10 first team. Also a great punt
returner and runner, he'll get the ball in his hands in a variety of
ways.
2007 CFN Honorable Mention All-Americans
(in alphabetical order)
Adarius Bowman, Sr. Oklahoma State Bowman
should be in the NFL. The 6-4, 220-pound former transfer from North
Carolina has the speed and talent, along with the athleticism to play on
the OSU hoops team, to go to the next level right now, but he chose to
come back for his senior season and should be one of the nation's most
productive receivers after catching 60 passes for 1,181 yards and 12
touchdowns highlighted by a jaw-dropping 13-catch, 300-yard, four score
performance against Kansas. As good as he was, his production dropped
off in a big way over the second half of they year and only finished the
season with two-100-yard games.
Dorien Bryant, Sr. Purdue There
isn't a player in America who's produced more and received less national
love than Bryant. All he's done is catch 205 passes over the last three
seasons for 2,612 yards (12.7 yards per catch) and 13 touchdowns. He
might not be a scorer, but he's rock-solid steady in the slot making
play after play with only one game with fewer than four grabs last
season. While not necessarily a deep blazer, he's lightning quick and
tremendous at finding the openings.
Percy Harvin, Soph. Florida While
Andre Caldwell will likely lead Florida in receiving, Harvin will bethe star of the corps. A 5-11, 181-pound bolt of lightning, he took
a little while to heat up in his true freshman season before becoming a
dangerous playmaker as both as running back and a receiver. He was the
star of the SEC title game with 105 yards and a score, along with five
catches for 62 yards and a touchdown against Arkansas, as part of a
great run to end the year with four scores in the final three games. The
key will be staying healthy; he has to prove he can take a consistent
pounding.
Malcolm Kelly, Jr. Oklahoma The
Sooner receiving corps is big, fast, and really good. The biggest and
best of the bunch is the 6-4, 217-pound Kelly, who might be the first
receiver taken in the 2008 NFL Draft if he leaves early and if he has
someone getting him the ball on a consistent basis. The big unknown is a
knee injury that he suffered early in the Fiesta Bowl that kept him out
of spring ball, but assuming all is fine, the sky's the limit. He caught
62 passes for 993 yards and ten touchdowns, highlighted by an 11-catch,
153-yard, one touchdown day against Texas Tech, and a ten-catch,
142-yard, two touchdown day against Nebraska in the Big 12 Championship.
How important is he? In his six worst games of the year, OU had to
battle to beat UAB, lost to Oregon, lost to Texas, beat Texas A&M by one
point, struggled to get by Oklahoma State, and lost to Boise State
Sammie Strougher, Sr. Oregon State In dire need of a
successor to all-timer Mike Hass, Strougher filled the void with a
sensational breakout year in 2006, leading the Beavers with 74 catches
for 1,293 yards and five scores. More than just your garden variety
deep threat, the 6-0, 183-pounder is a complete receiver that runs great
routes, catches everything, and is dynamic in space. In other words,
he’ll be new quarterback Sean Canfield’s best friend this fall.
Limas Sweed, Sr. Texas The
Longhorns were loaded last year, and the top four receivers return. The
leader and star is the 6-5, 219-pound Sweed, who seems like he's been
around for 13 years. He's big, fast, and almost certain to be a top 50
pick in the 2008 NFL Draft. Now he has to play like it. Oh sure, he led
the team with 46 catches for 801 yards and 12 touchdowns, averaging 17
yards per catch, but his production fell precipitously over the final
five games of the season, and was nowhere to be found in the loss to
Texas A&M with just one catch for 14 yards. He's not the next Roy
Williams, and there are other great receivers around him taking away
work, but he's good enough to be more of a difference maker in big
games, like he was against Nebraska with eight grabs for 119 yards and a
touchdown.
