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Eli Lederman, ESPN Staff Writer
JAMARCUS SHEPHARD COULDN’T be sure until he watched Ryan Williams burn past the Western Kentucky secondary in Week 1. But for Alabama‘s first-year wide receivers coach, there were signs in the summer of just how good the Crimson Tide’s 17-year-old, pass-catching wunderkind could be.
Days after arriving at Alabama, Williams told trainers that he wanted to be put on the same training plan as former Crimson Tide wide receiver DeVonta Smith. Soon, the five-star freshman was performing the flexibility and mobility regimen that powered Alabama’s 2020 Heisman Trophy winner.
And when Williams joined Alabama’s players-only training sessions weeks later, the reports of Williams’ playmaking that trickled back to Shephard were difficult to ignore.
“His teammates came off the field and they said, ‘Coach Shep, you should have seen that boy out there,'” Shephard told ESPN this week. “That was the veterans stamping him. That’s when you really started to think that he might have that magic.”
Like Williams, Ohio State freshman Jeremiah Smith‘s promise was clear upon his arrival in Columbus. Same for five-star Cam Coleman at Auburn. Breakout spring camp performances from Texas‘ Ryan Wingo, Clemson‘s Bryant Wesco Jr. and Michigan State‘s Nick Marsh proved early markers for what they would go on to contribute this fall.
Three weeks into the season, Williams and Smith lead their programs in catches, yards and touchdown receptions. At Texas, the top-ranked Longhorns are using Wingo early and often. Coleman and Wesco — leaders of respective youth movements within their programs — have each found the end zone in the early weeks. And Marsh, with 11 catches for 234 yards, has authored a more productive start to 2024 than all but four Big Ten pass catchers this season.
Together, they comprise a select group of first-year wide receivers making an immediate impact on college football in 2024. Among ESPN’s top-100 wide receivers in the 2024 class, just nine completed more than 10 routes across the first three weeks of the season. Within that same group, only 12 first-year pass catchers were targeted at least five times with just three eclipsing 10 total targets.
As first-year wide receivers at large are seeing limited opportunity, the elite of the elite are still breaking through at the highest level of the sport. In Williams, Smith, Coleman, Wingo, Wesco and Marsh, there are six of college football’s great outliers in 2024, standing within an exclusive group of talented freshmen pass catchers carving significant roles this fall.
“Wide receivers take time to develop, but you knew those guys would make an impact,” said one SEC general manager. “They were different at the high school level. Not just from an ability standpoint, but their bodies, too. They were all college-ready. We’re seeing that now.”
IDENTIFYING PRODUCTIVE FRESHMAN wide receivers is a multifaceted challenge for college programs.
A prospect has to meet the physical demands to compete against high-level defenses. But modern offenses also require crisp technique, sharp route running and a firm grasp of the playbook. Not many freshman wide receivers check all three boxes.
However, there was little question about Smith, the Buckeyes’ 6-foot-3, 200-pound phenom.
ESPN’s fourth-ranked prospect in 2024, Smith already possessed college-ready speed and measurables when he logged 88 catches for 1,376 yards and 19 touchdowns in his senior season at Florida’s Chaminade-Madonna Prep. One Power 4 talent evaluator who recruited Smith called him a “physical freak”.
During his early months at Ohio State, Smith showed the Buckeyes staff all the intangible elements they needed to see, too. In Week 1, he was one of only four freshman wide receiver starters across the country, and Smith hauled in six passes for 92 yards with two touchdowns in Ohio State’s Aug. 31 opener against Akron.
Smith has completed 45 routes, more than any other freshman pass catcher. Through two games, he leads Buckeyes receivers with 11 catches for 211 yards and three scores as the latest branch in Ohio State’s vast wide receiver tree.
“He’s built different,” Ryan Day said last month. “Just the way his approach is. You can see his size and speed and all that. But typically somebody with that type of talent doesn’t have the discipline, the focus that he does.”
With top-end physical talent and maturity beyond his years, Smith isn’t a typical freshman wide receiver. His fellow first-year pass-catching contemporaries are outliers, too.
Last fall, ESPN’s top-100 first-year wide receivers from the 2023 class averaged 13.1 total targets, 7.9 catches, 110.3 yards and 0.7 touchdowns in their debut seasons. A quarter of the way into 2024, Williams, Smith and Marsh have already reached 13-plus targets, and Coleman and Wingo — eight targets each — are more than 50% of the way there. Four members of the group have at least seven receptions through Week 3. All six newcomers have already eclipsed 110 yards.
Among the common advantages for these five freshmen: nearly all of them enrolled early.
“I think being able to come in in the spring gives them a leg up,” Auburn’s Hugh Freeze said during a recent SEC coaches teleconference.
OF THE NATION’S six breakout freshmen pass catchers, all but one was a midyear enrollee in January. Williams, who reclassified from 2025 into the 2024 class to land in college a year early, is the only one who waited until June to join his program.
Early enrollment is standard practice in 2024. But the spring semester is when Smith, Coleman, Wingo, Wesco and Marsh set themselves apart, laying the seeds for the respective fall breakouts.
When Coleman began spring practice, Auburn receivers coach Marcus Davis quickly noticed Coleman’s obsession with technique and his commitment to the small details.
Alabama WR Ryan Williams is 17 years old and the youngest player in the FBS and already has 4 touchdowns in 8+ quarters of play 😱 pic.twitter.com/4QMaAd4sbg
— Field Yates (@FieldYates) September 14, 2024
“From the first to second practice, I saw how he picked up on stuff,” Davis told ESPN. “You tell him something in the meeting room and then he’s going to apply it. I don’t even have dang TikTok, but he’s sending me clips of guys in the NFL playing with certain route techniques at 11 o’clock at night. Once you get a guy like that all you’re doing is sharpening that toolbox up.”
At Clemson, Wesco established himself as a slippery playmaker who surprised the Tigers’ staff with his refined route running. Marsh, who Michigan State wide receivers coach Courtney Hawkins recently described as “program-changer,” settled in fast in East Lansing and had three catches, including a 75-yard score, during the Spartans’ spring scrimmage.
For Texas coach Steve Sarkisian, Wingo’s involvement in the Longhorns’ offense in the early weeks of the season — seven catches for 197 yards, including a 75-yard touchdown connection with Arch Manning in Week 3 — is rooted in what Wingo proved in February, March and April, then reinforced in fall camp.
“How you know a guy can play early is, does he make plays when opportunities come his way?” Sarkisian said before Texas’ Week 3 meeting with UTSA. “That showed up in the spring game. That showed up in our scrimmages and fall camp. And he [hasn’t] disappointed.”
With each of the early enrollees, the spring offered signs of Year 1 promise. From there, the next step on each campus was how to prepare the first-year pass catchers for the fall.
At Auburn, Davis pulled Coleman in for extra time in the film, reinforcing the fundamentals they’d honed together in spring camp. In Columbus, the Buckeyes’ staff challenged Smith to compete with the veterans in an elite wide receivers room, elevating himself through the daily battles.
But perhaps the most instructive immersion came with the wide receiver who got to campus last. It took only a handful of big plays and a few fall practices for DeBoer to see what Williams could do for the Crimson Tide. When planning began for Alabama’s Week 1 visit from Western Kentucky, DeBoer and his staff sought to strike a balance for Williams.
“You’re trying to not put too much on his plate but also make sure we give him opportunities to make plays” DeBoer said on the SEC coaches teleconference.
“It wasn’t like holding anything back for the most part when he was out there in Week 1. He’s comfortable pretty much in any spot. There’s packages to get him in certain positions, but really we’re just moving forward like he’s a second, third, fourth-year guy.”
Williams caught two passes against Western Kentucky in Week 1. The first: an 84-yard touchdown before halftime. The second: a 55-yard score after splitting a pair of Hilltoppers defenders.
“The more and more that he made plays, even within the first game, you just had him out there more and more comfortable,” DeBoer said.
THE FIRST SNAP of Wesco’s college career didn’t go well. Jammed straight into the turf at Atlanta Mercedes-Benz Stadium by a Georgia defender, the moment was reflective of everything about the 34-3 beatdown.
“His first college play was not good,” Dabo Swinney said. “They let him know this was big-boy football. But then he settled down.”
Wesco played another 11 snaps against Georgia. A week later against App State, Wesco made his first career reception on the Tigers’ third play and housed it for a 76-yard touchdown.
“He’s special,” Swinney said.
Resilience is part of what comes next for this class of ultra-talented freshman pass catchers. Each has now navigated an early, nonconference slate with much more difficult conference games ahead. Hence why durability is another point that comes up in projecting what’s next for this group.
Coleman missed Auburn’s Week 3 game with a shoulder injury and is questionable headed into this weekend’s visit from Arkansas. Shephard harps on the importance of rest and nutrition, a balance each freshman wide receiver needs to find as they prepare for first runs through a slate of SEC, Big Ten and ACC defenses.
“You’re going to see faster, stronger, more physical people,” Shephard said. “You’re going to take some extra hits. That’s where sleep and recovery and nutrition week-to-week is so important.”
Right on the 💰🤘@ArchManning @_Ryanwingo1 pic.twitter.com/RJYX9ku3At
— Texas Football (@TexasFootball) September 15, 2024
At No. 4 in the latest AP Top 25, Alabama could be staring down another College Football Playoff run, potentially deep into December and January. Williams, who is up to 10 catches for 285 yards and four touchdowns through three games, will be an important part of that success.
No different from their early-season gameplanning, the Crimson Tide aren’t shielding Williams from much of anything. Prior to Alabama’s Week 3 trip to Wisconsin, the Crimson Tide made sure Williams understood the sort of physicality he’d encounter in Madison.
“Our scout defenders got more handsy,” Shephard said. “They yanked Ryan to the ground at one point and Ryan still made the catch. Those are the things that give you the confidence that he’s going to be able to do it in the games.”