Aggies look to make up for its lost production at receiver in the aggregate

LOGAN — Any coach who conducts enough public interviews will develop certain catchphrases and talking points.

For Utah State coach Blake Anderson, his go-to response to any and all questions regarding his wide receiver room has been to share a specific stat. At spring ball interviews, on radio shows, at media days, or even post-practice media scrums at fall camp, his response roughly goes as follows:

"Well, you lose 30-plus touchdowns. I don't know how many catches, a bunch. So that was a big concern."

Anderson is referring, of course, to three receivers who graduated after last season: Deven Thompkins, Derek Wright and Brandon Bowling, who combined for 31 touchdown catches and 3,328 receiving yards last season.

And speaking to coaches and people around the program, you'd be led to believe that losing those "big 3" from the Aggies offense is akin to the Oakland A's losing Jason Giambi, Johnny Damon and Jason Isringhausen to free agency in 2001.

It will indeed be next to impossible to replace 1,704 reception yards and 11 touchdowns from Thompkins, 835 yards and 10 touchdowns from Bowling, and 789 yards and 11 touchdowns from Wright.

Fortunately for Aggies fans, the team had a plan this offseason.

The Utah State's winter staff meetings may have gone similar to the scene in Moneyball where Billy Bean, played by Brad Pitt, is telling his scouting team how they're going to replace their 2001 All-Stars.

"Guys, you're still trying to replace Giambi," Pitt's character said. "I told you we can't do it. Now what we might be able to do is re-create him. We create him in the aggregate."

The production numbers from Utah State's graduated trio will have to be made up for in the aggregate if the Aggies want to recreate a 102-win — scratch that — 11-win season. But there's a good chance of it happening because, arguably, the 2022 receiving corps remains the deepest position group on the entire roster.

Returners include Justin McGriff, Kyle Van Leeuwen, Ny Ny Davis and Otto Tia, among others, while receivers coach Kyle Cefalo and offensive coordinator Anthony Tucker helped bring in three newcomers: Maryland transfer Brian Cobbs, Alabama transfer Xavier Williams and junior college transfer Terrell Vaughn will likely make an immediate impact.

"It may look different than DT making 100 catches and Derek Wright. It may look different than those guys," Anderson said. "But as a group, there's a lot of different pieces that can be explosive. We're maybe even a little bit bigger."

It begins with Cobbs, the graduate transfer who will be the starting at Z receiver. Perhaps the most heralded newcomer on the roster in spring ball, Cobbs is 6-foot-2, 220 pounds — an inch taller and 15 pounds heavier than Wright — and has all the tools to be one of the most productive receivers in the Mountain West.

The former Terrapin receiver had 25 receptions for 241 yards last year and has adequate speed and excellent ball skills. Joining a pass-heavy offense that helped similarly tooled Wright go from 1.8 receptions per game in 2020 to 3.4 in 2021 should pay dividends. And if perfectly placed deep throws from Logan Bonner keep arriving as they did at last Saturday's scrimmage, he will easily put up his career-best numbers.

The starting X receiver belongs to McGriff, the 6-foot-6, 215-pound senior. The former roommate of Thompkins leads the group in returning production. McGriff has had its ups and downs, with spurts of unreliability catching the ball, but he had six touchdown receptions last season.

Credited by Anderson, who said he had a "phenomenal spring," Mcgriff has enhanced his work ethic over his Aggie career and has the potential for a memorable senior season.

Set to start at the H-slot is junior Kyle Van Leeuwen. The Timpview alum would have been a major contributor last year had he not been behind Thompkins and Bowling. Similarly framed to Bowling at 5-foot-9, 175 pounds, Van Leeuwen was a favorite target of quarterback Cooper Legas in spring ball and was targeted several times by Bonner in the first fall scrimmage.

Sure, there is no comparison to Thompkins, the former All-American who is currently battling for a roster spot with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. But this year's overall depth takes a step forward. That was clear Saturday.

While VanLeeuewen, McGriff and Cobbs sat out for the majority of the scrimmage, others in the group made plays against a first-team defense that, beyond the receiver-secondary matchup, won the day.

Davis, a redshirt freshman out of Attalla, Alabama, had seven receptions for 96 yards. Williams caught four passes for 92 yards and Vaughn had four receptions for 57 yards. In total, 13 different players (including the tight ends) had receptions on the day.

Williams and redshirt freshman Otto Tia, who has made major strides while in the program, will likely back up Cobbs and McGriff, while Vaughn and Davis may both see time in the slot position opposite Van Leeuewen.

Consider Vaughn, a 5-foot-7, soft-spoken junior out of Ventura College a dark-horse candidate to be one of the standout players on the Aggies offense this season. Yes, reader fatigue from a statistics overload may dilute the following numbers, but Vaughn is a kid who caught 58 passes in 11 games last season in junior college; and with an admittedly small sample size, he has shown he has the speed to get open against Division-I talent in the secondary.

While the depth in the running back room and at the offensive line are unproven, there is little concern about the depth in the wide receivers room. Thirty-plus touchdowns are tough to make up for, but the preseason observation is the coaching staff could not have done a better job replacing it in the aggregate.

"We're all friends. You know, everybody wants the best for everybody," Vaughn said. "We're gonna get it this year. Even though like the other guys left last year, we're gonna keep it up."

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