Something Coach Meacham mentioned a few times during Spring Ball was needing more WRs. That was a little bit surprising to me at first. The WR group is arguably the deepest position group on this team. I remember in December, I thought it was a little bit strange why we were going after Kerr Johnson (although to be fair I liked it when we were going after Jalen Guyton). Before NSD, I remember there was some question as to why we would go after Quan Hampton with seemingly other needs on the team.
Granted we were looking at numbers problems across the board which played some into this perception, but it was a little bit strange at the time to continue adding numbers to a seemingly deep position group on a team that really doesn't have much depth at multiple positions. However, when you look at what Meacham did at TCU, it starts to make a little bit more sense why they have continued to pursue WR options and why Meacham has said he needs more bodies at WR.
Since Meacham arrived at TCU, every year he has had 11 guys catch 10+ balls in each of their seasons. The year before he arrived at TCU, they only had 8 guys catch that many balls in the 2013 season. Last year, KU only had 8 guys catch 10+ balls in the 2016 season (noting in 2015 KU had 11 guys with 10+ catches).
Of those 8 guys for KU that caught 10+ balls in 2016, only 5 guys return for the 2017 season. Furthermore, before any new additions (like Kerr Johnson), KU was only returning 9 guys (including Ben Johnson) who came to KU on scholarship that will be receiver types for us. So we do return some talented receivers, but when you consider how many guys Meacham needs for him to run his type of offense and how many guys we return, it makes a lot of sense why KU was going after as many receivers as they did this past year (and also why I think quite a few true freshman play at these skill spots for KU next season).
One small side note about Meacham and what he did at TCU. While he did throw to a lot of different receivers at TCU, who got the receptions among that group varied quite a bit from year to year. This past season, the RB was the team's leader in receptions. In 2015, Doctson was the main focus of the receiving offense having nearly double the number of catches as the next closest person. In Meacham's first year at TCU, Doctson was still the leading receiver but the gap wasn't as big as it was compared to the 2015 season.
In short, that tells me that we know Meacham is going to spread the ball around to a lot of receivers, of which he does need more options in the receiving game to do what he wants, but how this is spread out can vary greatly from season to season - this seems custom fit to the talent on the team on a given year...
Granted we were looking at numbers problems across the board which played some into this perception, but it was a little bit strange at the time to continue adding numbers to a seemingly deep position group on a team that really doesn't have much depth at multiple positions. However, when you look at what Meacham did at TCU, it starts to make a little bit more sense why they have continued to pursue WR options and why Meacham has said he needs more bodies at WR.
Since Meacham arrived at TCU, every year he has had 11 guys catch 10+ balls in each of their seasons. The year before he arrived at TCU, they only had 8 guys catch that many balls in the 2013 season. Last year, KU only had 8 guys catch 10+ balls in the 2016 season (noting in 2015 KU had 11 guys with 10+ catches).
Of those 8 guys for KU that caught 10+ balls in 2016, only 5 guys return for the 2017 season. Furthermore, before any new additions (like Kerr Johnson), KU was only returning 9 guys (including Ben Johnson) who came to KU on scholarship that will be receiver types for us. So we do return some talented receivers, but when you consider how many guys Meacham needs for him to run his type of offense and how many guys we return, it makes a lot of sense why KU was going after as many receivers as they did this past year (and also why I think quite a few true freshman play at these skill spots for KU next season).
One small side note about Meacham and what he did at TCU. While he did throw to a lot of different receivers at TCU, who got the receptions among that group varied quite a bit from year to year. This past season, the RB was the team's leader in receptions. In 2015, Doctson was the main focus of the receiving offense having nearly double the number of catches as the next closest person. In Meacham's first year at TCU, Doctson was still the leading receiver but the gap wasn't as big as it was compared to the 2015 season.
In short, that tells me that we know Meacham is going to spread the ball around to a lot of receivers, of which he does need more options in the receiving game to do what he wants, but how this is spread out can vary greatly from season to season - this seems custom fit to the talent on the team on a given year...
