Last night, I stumbled upon this poll that we took after Colin Larmond Jr. was lost for the season to injury back in August. Back then, we were trying to gauge who we thought would step up and fill Larmond Jr.'s shoes as the Eagles go-to receiver. Boy, were we all off.
Here's a look at those poll results back in August, compared with the current receiving yards for all BC receivers through the first 7 games of the season:
| Pos | Player | Class | Votes | Pct | Yards |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| WR | Bobby Swigert | Fr. | 16 | 8 | 347 |
| WR | Johnathan Coleman | R-Fr. | 16 | 8 | 201 |
| TE | Chris Pantale | So. | 40 | 20 | 165 |
| WR | Alex Amidon | Fr. | -- | -- | 144 |
| WR | Ifeanyi Momah | Sr. | 42 | 21 | 137 |
| WR | Clyde Lee | So. | 29 | 14 | 130 |
| RB | Montel Harris | Jr. | -- | -- | 71 |
| TE | Lars Anderson | Jr | 15 | 7 | 64 |
| RB | Sterlin Phifer | Fr. | -- | -- | 35 |
| TE | Jordon McMichael | Sr. | -- | -- | 30 |
| WR | Shakim Phillips | Fr. | 19 | 9 | 9 |
| WR | Billy Flutie | Sr. | 17 | 8 | 0 |
| WR | Ryan Lindsey | Sr. | 3 | 1 | 0 |
| WR | Donte Elliott | So. | 1 | 0 | 0 |
A couple things jump out at me. First off, few saw freshman Bobby Swigert leading all receivers with 347 yards receiving, a full 146 yards ahead of the second highest receiving total (201 yards from Johnathan Coleman). Most readers had Momah pegged as the Eagles' leading receiver, yet he is behind three first year receivers. Momah's performance this season has been pretty disappointing, but I don't think anyone would have guessed that three freshmen would be outgaining him through seven games.
The other thing is why isn't Tranquill using our talented tight ends in the passing game? With the lack of depth and inexperience at receiver, you'd figure we'd be using guys like Pantale, Lars Anderson and Jordon McMichael more in the passing game. However, in the past few weeks these guys have been extremely underutilized.
Finally, and someone mentioned this in the comments section the other day, why aren't we using a guy like Billy Flutie in the passing game? I'm not going to stand on a soapbox and say he's the most talented WR on the roster (clearly, he's not), but at least he has some valuable in-game experience and could be an asset in the passing game. Heck, eight percent of readers thought that Flutie would finish as the Eagles' leading receiver. Why isn't he seeing the field more?