A quick glance at the wide receiver position on Idaho’s depth chart and one thing is apparent — it’s not lacking depth.
Idaho struggled to put points on the scoreboard last season, averaging 18.2 points per game, which was good for 115th in the country. The team significantly lacked production in the passing game, only managing to score 15 touchdowns through the air last season — a number that has already been eclipsed by the wide receivers during the first two spring scrimmages.
“For the most part we’ve been pretty good,” offensive coordinator and wide receivers coach Kris Cinkovich said. “We weren’t fast last year and we got to be fast to throw the ball effectively. So if we’re fast, discipline and coachable, we’ll be in good shape.”
The 15 passing touchdowns last season were spread around the wide receivers, tight ends and running backs. In the first two spring scrimmages, the wide receivers alone scored 18 times.
Senior Dezmon Epps is responsible for six of those 18 touchdowns, which gives him two more than he had all of last season — when he led the team with four.
Along with his six touchdowns, Epps racked up 365 receiving yards during the two scrimmages. Epps said the offense is looking better than last season and with all the weapons they have, he thinks the defense isn’t able to key on just one guy.
“If I’m doubled teamed, that should open up the other guys,” Epps said. “We should score more points and our offense should be more deadly. You can’t stop everybody, and when you got more than one receiver who’s going to produce, it’s kind of hard for a defense to contain everybody.”
Covering all the receivers has proved a difficult task for the defense this spring. Despite losing two key contributors in graduated seniors Najee Lovett and Roman Runner, the Vandals still possess depth at receiver.
Along with recruiting, the coaching staff added to the group by getting creative with two current players on the roster — Richard Montgomery and Joshua McCain.
Montgomery is listed as running back on the depth chart, but lines up at both running back and wide receiver. With nine catches for 117 yards and one touchdown, the 5-foot-8 and 180-pound sophomore has been flourishing in the hybrid role.
McCain made the switch to receiver, after playing quarterback all throughout his high school and junior college career, and last season for the Vandals. At 6-foot-2 and 185 pounds, the senior from San Jose, Calif., has made the transition from quarterback to receiver look easy — which is no surprise to his coach.
“He’s a really good athlete,” Cinkovich said. “When I recruited him out of California, his junior college coach told me he’ll make a great receiver. We were hoping he would be a great quarterback, but it’s a tough transition with the volume of our offense.”
With 15 receptions for 291 yards and five touchdowns in two scrimmages, McCain is making his junior college coach look very smart.
Over the course of the two scrimmages, nine different receivers have contributed with at least one catch. Epps has led the way with 28 receptions, but right behind him is sophomore Deon Watson with 20 receptions.
At 6-foot-4 and 213 pounds, Cinkovich said Watson has the size that’s made him versatile in a way that he can play both at outside and inside receiver, creating favorable matchups.
Idaho will add to its depth once fall comes, with two high school recruits and more notably, the two junior college transfers — 6-foot-4 Jermaine Johnson and 5-foot-9 Kenny Torrence.
“They both run well,” Cinkovich said of the two junior college transfers. “They bring more competition to the position and we’ll just see what happens. It’ll be depth for a great training camp when those guys arrive.”
Including McCain, Idaho will have added five newcomers to the receiving core for the upcoming season.
“Depth creates competition,” Cinkovich said. “If a guy isn’t getting it done or a guy is dinged up, then somebody else is going to take that job, and we needed that. We’re getting there, we got six more practices and we sure need them all … We got plenty to work on.”
Korbin McDonald can be reached at [email protected]