Wednesday, May 13, 2009

Observer Position Review: Carolinas' wide receivers

Each day this week, The Observer will rank the top five prospects in the Carolinas by position as we track their recruiting. Today brings us to the big play guys, the wide receivers. The first four are members of their state’s Observer Top 25 prospects list. If you have a question or think of a player we’ve missed, email me at solson@charlotteobserver.com.

WIDE RECEIVERS

1/MARTAVIS BRYANT, Anderson (S.C.) Hanna:
The best of an unusually thin Carolinas crop of top-flight wideouts, the 6-foot-4, 184-pound Bryant has 4.41-second speed in the 40-yard dash and the shiftiness to get open. Last season he caught 47 passes for 803 yards and also returned punts and kicks. He was an early commitment to Clemson.

2/ANTHONY CREECY, Southern Durham: He had a strong junior season, with 48 receptions for 863 yards and five TDs. That was enough to rank him No.8 on The Observer’s first N.C. Top 25 prospects list of the year. Creecy is a solid 5-11 and 196 pounds. His current favorites are N.C. State, Duke and Wake Forest.

3/JOE CRAIG, Gaffney: We were ready to put him on our top five athletes list, but Craig (6-0, 170) insists he’s a wide receiver, and was an early commitment to Clemson because the Tigers say they will play him there. Last season, he caught 17 passes for 228 yards and three scores in limited work at WR.

4/BRANDON BRAXTON, Providence: Expect him to be a prototype big receiver at Duke, where he committed in February. Braxton has good bloodlines; his dad David played in the NFL. He played mostly safety last season at Providence, but showed flashes when his offensive opportunities came, and the Blue Devils like him at WR.

5/TEHVYN BRANTLEY, Durham Mt. Zion Christian: He’s not big at 5-8 and 165 pounds, but Brantley is a younger version of the Carolina Panthers’ Steve Smith, a scrapper who always seems to come down with the ball. Recently, he was named Offensive MVP of the Scout.com Combine in Charlotte. He’s drawing interest from a large number of BCS schools.

--Stan Olson

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Stan, you are an idiot. How can you rank several of these kids as the best receivers in the area when they barely played the position during the season? You are just as bad as Mike farrell from Rivals. As long as a kid is big you automatically assume he is a diamond.TEHVYN BRANTLEY, does look good in the combines but he competes against 1A talent. I also heard that this kid has re-classed twice so doesn't that make him around twenty or so?