Contested catches a key for West Virginia pass catchers

If the West Virginia wide receiver room is going to make leaps in Graham Harrell’s offensive scheme, one area is going to have to see significant growth.

Last season, the Mountaineers pass catchers struggled to win in contested catch situations. In those 50/50 ball situations, the wide receivers hauled in only 29 of 61 attempts. That’s even more alarming when you consider over half of those catches have since exited the roster.

It was the second year in a row that the position struggled to make those plays when challenged as the group managed hauling in just 27 of 63 attempts during the 2020 season.

Effectively, when the offense has needed the wide receiver group to make a play on the football and come down with the football more often than not it simply hasn’t occurred.

Of the returning wide receivers, redshirt senior Bryce Ford-Wheaton and redshirt senior Sam James had the most success catching six such passes each last year. But sometimes you need the pass catchers to simply make a play in a tough situation and that isn’t lost on them either.

Last season Ford-Wheaton caught only 6 of the 14 attempts he had in those situations for a contested catch rate of only 42.9-percent. James hauled in a slightly better 6 of 13 attempts.

But both believe there is potential for a lot more.

“Making those like 80-20. Just practicing it. And the best way you can simulate it is doing it,” Ford-Wheaton said.

In order to accomplish that Ford-Wheaton worked with his fellow wide receivers this off-season in drills where he would go up and fight for the football at its highest point. The goal was to build mental real estate in those situations so it would translate in game situations. That did occur on back-to-back plays in the Gold-Blue game but the focus is making that the norm and not the exception.

The wide receiver group also spent a lot of time tracking the ball down on the new seeker machine in order to learn how to best position themselves to haul in those difficult passes.

Sometimes simply coming down with tough grabs is the difference between winning and losing. And when you’re equipped with the combination of size, speed and experience that some of the receivers have in that room it makes finding a way to haul those in even more critical.

Harrell is going to take shots down the field as proven in the spring game and finding consistent options that can make those difficult plays routine is at the top of the list of things the offense needs.

The group is certainly working on it and now it’s about putting it into action. Now, it’s about translating that over the long haul onto the field of play.

“Adapt or perish,” Ford-Wheaton added.

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