Purdue receivers can handle high expectations, welcome challenge

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Gerad Parker has never quite had a group like this.

Purdue’s receiving corps is loaded with seniors, four of the top five are in their fourth or fifth season, and though not all have delivered big seasons quite yet, there’s an expectation for that to happen across the board in 2016. Because, Parker believes, there’s talent across the board.

From No. 1 threat DeAngelo Yancey to slot stud Cameron Posey to big man Domonique Young to catch-everything Greg Phillips to versatile Bilal Marshall.

Parker thinks receivers are the strength of Purdue’s team, and his goal is simple: “Just not screw it up,” he said.

“They expect it — and I expect it — to reap production,” Parker said after Friday’s practice, its ninth of camp. “That’s what we haven’t done. There’s a lot of stuff out there that other people have written that we are very much aware of, that are on every wall and every locker in their locker room. There’s not a lot of expectation (outside the program). There is by us, but there’s not by many. So I’ll just grit my teeth, say nothing else but we’re going to produce. We’re going to produce at a high level. They expect to. Then we’ll see where we stand at the end of the year.”

Parker’s mantra to his group, “It ain’t personal but it is,” spread throughout the locker room and the weight room over the summer, with other position groups adopting the phrase. It seemed to fit perfectly with all of the doubting surrounding Purdue’s program after its struggled the last three seasons, winning only six games.

Players and coaches firmly believe the uptick is coming now, buoyed by the strength of the receiving corps, but they also know they need to respond to the criticism and naysayers with production.

The receivers think they will because they offer a versatile group that has big, long, strong outside receivers in Yancey, Young and Marshall and smaller, savvy inside receivers in Posey and Phillips. Marshall can slip inside to the slot, too, and he offers a different body type in that role, with a long frame and long arms but with some evasiveness, too. Either Jarrett Burgess, one of the team’s fastest players, or Anthony Mahougou, another long option on the outside, could emerge as the sixth receiver in a rotation.

The numbers don’t seem to back up the group’s boasting — Yancey’s junior season of 48 catches for 700 yards and five touchdowns is the high-water mark in every category for the posse — but they argue the offseason work, potential and skill sets will.

“Everybody has their own attributes,” Yancey said of the group. “Greg probably has the strongest hands in the country. Jarrett Burgess is probably the fastest receiver in the country. Bilal can shake somebody in the phone booth. So we all complement each other. Me and Domo are big, fast guys.

“So it’s pick your poison with us.”

Yancey is accustomed to matching up with big-time cornerbacks, drawing the likes of current NFLers Ricardo Allen, Anthony Brown and Frankie Williams over his career. He's getting battled this camp by junior Da'Wan Hunte, who's trying to continue what he calls a legacy at the DB position.

But even if Hunte wins a couple of reps, Yancey doesn't change his mindset.

After a junior season that he thought was OK but not nearly as good as it could have been, Yancey ratcheted up his work in the offseason to get faster, stronger and in better shape. He rarely comes off the field on Saturdays anyway, but especially now he'll be able to play at a consistently high level every single snap and execute what's required of him as a top-shelf option: Running deep routes, running intermediate routes, running short routes, winning balls in traffic and in jump-ball-type situations by utilizing his physicality.

"I’m chasing the top," Yancey said Friday. "That’s what I’m doing right now — chasing those top receivers in the country. I’m looking to dominate every cornerback that steps in front of me this season."

Purdue will hold its kick scrimmage at 9:30 a.m. at Ross-Ade Stadium, giving punters, kickers and returners a chance to showcase their skills while also allowing the team to sharpen up its coverage and blocking in each critical special teams area.

Freshman J.D. Dellinger is the top kicker, while sophomore Joe Schopper is the No. 1 punter. But Coach Darrell Hazell says he needs to see more from backups at both of those positions, as well as long-snapper.

Purdue still is searching for players to win the jobs in the return game, too, though newcomer Malik Kimbrough seems to have nailed down punt return without having caught any punts in pads yet this camp.

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