PROVO — Call the Cougar receiver corps at BYU's 2004 spring football practices "The New Crew."
Oh, sure, there's a handful of experienced pass-catchers coming back from 2003 — seniors Rod Wilkerson and Jason Kukahiko, juniors Chris Hale and Breyon Jones and sophomore Andrew Beck. But the aforementioned five comprise all the returning lettermen for the 17 receivers listed on the Cougars' 2004 spring roster.
The rest — a handful of players with squad experience, a trio of redshirts, a couple of freshmen and three highly touted junior-college transfer receivers. Three have been reassigned to other positions already in the first week of spring drills, but three more freshmen and another JC will join the receivers once August rolls around.
BYU receivers coach Todd Bradford says having so many wideouts on board — a half-dozen more than last year — sends a signal that head coach Gary Crowton wants a more potent passing performance that that of last year's 5-7 campaign.
"We need to make some bigger plays," said Bradford. "You know, we don't want to go three yards and a cloud of dust on every drive. That's not who Gary is and that's not what our offense is, so we're expecting those wide receivers to make some plays and push the ball up the field."
The increased quantity is something learned from last year. "We wanted to add talent to the pool so that we're able to do some of the four- and five-wideout things we weren't able to do last year after early season injuries," Bradford said. "We know we're going to have injuries and get guys banged up, and we want to still be able to run our whole offense, so we felt like we had to build that spot up."
The quantity of catch-happy comrades doesn't seem to bother the Cougar receivers. "No concerns. Just the best man gets the job — that's what we were told," said newcomer Michael Morris, a JC transfer from Mississippi's Itawamba Community College. "I have no problem with sharing — as long as we play as a team and win, that's all I care about."
What Bradford cares about right now is for the transfers — Morris and Todd Watkins (California's Grossmont College) and Riley Weber (Arizona's Glendale Community College) is to learn on the fly. "The thing these first couple of days is to teach them how we practice, the tempo we practice at and the effort we expect from them, along with the fundamentals of playing the position," he said.
Something the JC guys have already experienced is the rigorous condition and lifting demands of strength coach Jay Omer. "They were here right after Christmas, so Jay got them geared up," Bradford said, adding "they're all much stronger than when they got here, and will be much stronger by the time we start playing."
While calling the conditioning efforts "a challenge," Morris said learning the myriad of plays is proving to be even more difficult. "It's the number of plays and the way he calls out the plays is so fast, you're trying to catch it — it's a challenge right now and it's going to take me a little bit to get used to."
Added Watkins of his early adjustments: "It's mainly the mental preparation — getting in the film room, breaking down the plays and knowing exactly what you're doing out there. There's more plays and the variations, routes and coverages — it's a whole different ballgame than JC, and the toughest thing for me is absorbing."
Watkins has been talking to former Grossmont teammate Joe Griffin on what to expect when the latter arrives later this summer at BYU and has to play catch-up on conditioning and learning.
"I'm telling him these are the most intense practices, the most intense workouts he's ever going to do," Watkins said. "I'm telling him to be ready when he gets out here — but there's no way he's going to be ready."
E-mail: taylor@desnews.com