Clemson Football: WRU being overlooked in 2020
Clemson football has no receivers on the 2020 Biletnikoff Award watch list.
If you have paid any attention to college football over the last decade, you know that Clemson football is “WRU”. Sure, some programs have come close to matching the Tigers in that area, but none have matched them.
The Tigers currently have 11 wide receivers on nine NFL rosters, most of any college football program in the country.
When looking over the list of those that made the Biletnikoff Award watch list, it’s hard to fathom that Justyn Ross would not only have been mentioned but would be the betting favorite to win the award. In 2019, both Ross and Tee Higgins were on the Biletnikoff Award watch list, neither was a semi-finalist.
The 2019 winner, Ja’Marr Chase will be back in 2020 and it would have undoubtedly come down to him and Ross for the award. It would have been one of the best side races in college football had Ross not been ruled out for the year.
2021 will see three Clemson football players on the Biletnikoff Award watch list.
Should Justyn Ross decide to come back for 2021 and forego the NFL one more year because of his surgery and rehab, he will join Joseph Ngata and Frank Ladson Jr.on the 2021 Biletnikoff Award watch list.
In the 25 year history of the Biletnikoff Award, only one Clemson football wide receiver has ever been named a finalist and that was Sammy Watkins back in 2013 when he joined winner Brandin Cooks from Oregon State and Mike Evans from Texas A&M.
As many receivers as Clemson has turned out, it is crazy that only one has even made the final cut. Since 1994, the Tigers have had five receivers taken in the first or second round of the NFL draft – Rod Gardner, DeAndre Hopkins, Sammy Watkins, Mike Williams, and Tee Higgins, yet only one was even a finalist for the best receiver in the college award.
ACC not well represented
Overall, the ACC only had five nominees on the 2020 Biletnikoff Award watch list.
- Tutu Atwell – Louisville,
- Dyami Brown – UNC
- Dazz Newsome – UNC
- Sage Surratt – Wake Forest
- Tamorrion Terry – FSU
Next. Potential ACC realignment in store for 2020 season. dark
Receiver play from both a conference and Clemson football perspective with shock a lot of people in 2020. From top to bottom, the ACC has the best quarterbacks in the country and some of the best offensive coordinators and while they may not be well represented on awards lists in 2020, they will be in 2021.