Tight ends, receivers look to improve on dropped passes
Jerry Hoffman“To me, 43 drops are like turnovers or any part of the game that’s bad. You don’t go forward ... you’re at a standstill,” he said.
“New England Patriots Head Coach Bill Belichick said that his team had ‘the drops’ in training camp and here’s a Super Bowl Champion team. But we have caught the ball well in training camp.”
With a no-huddle offense, an incomplete pass or a drop gives the defense time to rest.
“We need to eliminate the number of dropped passes,” said senior Rob Turner. “With all the drops, we have been slowing the offense down. We need to keep the pressure on their defense and keep the tempo up all the time.”
Turner returns as the Chippewas leading receiver. Last season he caught 50 passes for 668 yards. He averaged 13.4 yards per catch for an average of 60.7 yards per game.
“We are going to do a lot of the same (short routes), but at the same time, we would like to stretch the field,” said Turner, first team Verizon Academic All-American.
Fellow senior Rod Means returns as well. In nine games Means caught 23 passes, ranking fourth on the team and second for wide receivers.
Juniors Willie Hill and Steve Messam, sophomore Jacob Brown and redshirt freshmen Scott Gibson and Justin Harper round out the receiving core.
Last season, CMU was unproven in the tight end position, but this season the Chippewas return The Sporting News’ second-team Freshman All-American Tory Humphrey, Drew Donaldson and Dave Kurzen.
“Dave (Kurzen) is pushing Humphrey right now for the starting position,” DeBord said.
The 6’3”, 235-pound Humphrey caught 24 passes for 247 yards and three touchdowns last season. Kurzen had three catches for 24 yards and one touchdown.
Donaldson, a walk-on who was redshirted, has worked his way to third-string tight end. The 6’4”, 234-pounder added 20 pounds since last season.
Junior Derrick Vickers is the starting quarterback for now, but with the possibility of two or more solid quarterbacks, the Chippewas receivers won’t have trouble adjusting.
“It doesn’t matter at all to me, as long as the best quarterback is on the field. The only difference would be with Kent Smith because he is a lefty and puts a different spin on the ball,” Turner said. “The only other difference is that Vickers may scramble a little more.”
Name
Rob Turner (WR)
Kenan Lawhorne (RB)
Tory Humphrey (TE)
Roderick Means (WR)
Willie Hill (WR)
Robbie Mixon (RB)
Dante McKnight (DB)
Season total
