Offensive Coordinator Gerad Parker believes that high tide raises all boats.

And that level of competition is going to be necessary for the West Virginia wide receiver group to take the next steps after a very uneven 2020 campaign.

The Mountaineers return eight of the top ten pass catchers from a season ago in terms of snaps played but the group from top to bottom has to be more consistent.

The upside is certainly there as it was on display several times during the year, but as a whole the unit was charted with well over 30 drops on the season and plagued with inconsistency.

Of the returning players, West Virginia welcomes back the top four in the area of usage with Bryce Ford-Wheaton (479 snaps), Winston Wright (401 snaps), Sean Ryan (366 snaps) and Sam James (348 snaps).

The wide receiver group also has players such as Sam Brown, Isaiah Esdale, Reese Smith while true freshman Kaden Prather spent the spring with the team.

Competition has run rampant across the board in that position room which has only further elevated the play of the group in the early stages of fall camp.

But there’s still questions that need answered.

And if the offense as a whole is going to take the next step forward, it has to start with the wide receiver unit playing up to its potential and being a reliable cog in the machine. That was the focus during the off-season and early returns have been positive with the unit on reeling the football in when it’s thrown.

“The guys have really put in the work from January until now. They’ve caught over 110,000 balls. They have put in a great deal of work that they have done and charted on their own to put themselves in position to have confidence to catch the ball consistently,” offensive coordinator Gerad Parker said.

Remedying drops is something that is more of a mental battle than anything and while it’s still going to happen at times in games, the response is how players will be measured.

“How many happen is based on our mentality to respond when it does,” Parker said.

But it hasn’t just been a mental approach either, as wide receivers have worked with both quarterbacks and the new robot quarterback to practice in-game catches. With the state-of-the-art machine, wide receivers can essentially get in work as if they were on the football field while saving their legs at the same time. That’s because the unit can fire passes down the field and put the ball in position where the pass catchers have to make the most difficult types of catches.

“A lot of people believe catching the football is an art by just catching the ones in your clock but really the most difficult ones to catch are the ones that are over your head and involve tracking the football with one eye and those things,” Parker said.

That way players can create game-like catches on downfield throws and it will drop those passes right on the money so they can practice that type of situation.

There is no question becoming a more complete unit was a focus, but now the onus is on the wide receivers to showcase the steps that they have made on the field. The tide is high and now it’s time for the wide receiver unit to show that they’re ready to rise.

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