Mississippi State Football Spring Practice Overview: Wide Receivers
Taking a look at each position group as the Mississippi State Football team gets ready for Spring Practice in 2016.
The Mississippi State football team lost one of its most dangerous red zone receivers in De’Runnya Wilson. But this team still has a wealth of options it can pick from, and it starts with the school record holder for receptions in a season in Fred Ross.
Players leaving from the 2015 Mississippi State Football team
- De’Runnya Wilson (NFL Draft Early Entry)
- Joe Morrow
2016 Recruiting Class Early Enrollees
- None
2016 Returning Players and 2016 Classification
- Fred Brown – Senior
- Fred Ross – Senior
- Donald Gray – Junior
- Gabe Myles – Junior
- Justin Johnson – Sophomore
- Malik Dear – Sophomore
- Jesse Jackson – Sophomore
- Deddrick Thomas – Redshirt Freshman
- Keith Mixon – Redshirt Freshman
- Jonnas Spivey – Redshirt Freshman
2016 Recruiting Class Players on the way
- Jamal Couch
- Korey Charles
- Cameron Dantzler
- All are listed as athletes, so its possible they could be receivers
Dan Mullen and the Mississippi State football coaching staff have tons of options for their receiving corps in 2016. But the first thing they need to decide has to do with the best returning player on the team, Fred Ross.
Fred Ross played in the slot last season and was one of the best receivers in the SEC. Ross accumulated 88 receptions, a single season school record, 1,007 receiving yards, and five touchdowns. It was a highly productive season, but with the departure of Wilson will the coaching staff move Ross out of the slot, and put him back out wide?
The pros for doing so are simple. He had an amazing season in the slot last year, why not keep him there and let him do more of the same in 2016. it makes perfect sense.
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But with the departure of their best playmaker in Wilson, you can also make the argument the Mississippi State football team needs Ross on the outside to up the average per reception and touchdown numbers, even if it means less receptions and overall yards in the long run. This is the first thing many will look at once Spring practice starts.
After they figure out how they want to use Ross, the Mississippi State football coaching staff needs to figure out who else to put on the field and when to put them out there. The Bulldogs have five players returning who caught at least 10 or more passes from the 2015 team.
This is just my guess, and it is strictly a guess, I think they put Ross back outside with Fred Brown and insert Donald Gray into the slot. Gray led the team in yards per catch last season at 18.4 and made some amazing plays. The Mississippi State football team needs to find more ways to get Gray the football. He made big plays whenever he touched the ball in 2015, and the team needs more from him.
Gabe Myles, Malik Dear, and Justin Johnson should all see significant playing time. Mullen likes to put sets of four and five wide receivers on the field, and I would anticipate we would see more of this in the spring. He can use each of these players to do different things, so there is no limit to the formations we could see all of our receivers line up in in 2016.
Having this many options is a good thing. The only issue is trying to figure out which players who play the most give the team their best chance of winning on a weekly basis. The question for the Mississippi State football team isn’t if they get production from their wide receivers, it’s a matter of how much they’ll get.