'26 MS WR Tristen Keys (lsu commit)

He’s had 1 good season. Cordarrelle’s 2021 was as good. We’re fixin to start putting impact WRs in the league regularly, tho. Don’t worry.
He’s only played 1 season. Barring injury he’s only going to get better. Also Patterson’s 2021 season was as a RB, not a receiver. As far as that last part goes I’ve seen nothing to this point to make me believe we’re going to start putting 1000 yard receivers into the league on a consistent basis. I’d love to be wrong, but long as we’re running the veer and shoot it’s going to be extremely hard to do simply because guys won’t have much experience if any at all playing in multiple spots and won’t have much experience running a professional route tree.

If you want proof of that just look at the Giants. Jalin Hyatt won the Biletnikoff award and will likely get a statue built for him at some point. He’s been a non factor while Malik Nabers on the other hand came from a legitimate offensive system that prepared him for the NFL and ended up as one of the top receivers in the league last year. That should be all anyone needs to see to realize Hyatt’s professional woes haven’t been the fault of Daniel Jones or the franchise he plays for. Because another receiver that seemingly wasnt as good as Hyatt in college came in and made it look easy
 
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Not saying he won’t be a good player for us. I just prefer Jackson out of the two because Smith looks slow to me and what speed he does have is because of his strides, and long stride receivers typically don’t get in and out of their breaks as quickly
If you look at his physique he doesn’t have long legs for a 6’3” guy.

That’s part of the reason people thinks he’s slow. Tall torso, legs are developed but not long for his height.

4.55 isn’t blazing but there so much more to players like him. He was dominating CBs all around Atlanta that were faster than him.
 
He’s only played 1 season. Barring injury he’s only going to get better. Also Patterson’s 2021 season was as a RB, not a receiver. As far as that last part goes I’ve seen nothing to this point to make me believe we’re going to start putting 1000 yard receivers into the league on a consistent basis. I’d love to be wrong, but long as we’re running the veer and shoot it’s going to be extremely hard to do simply because guys won’t have much experience if any at all playing in multiple spots and won’t have much experience running a professional route tree.

If you want proof of that just look at the Giants. Jalin Hyatt won the Biletnikoff award and will likely get a statue built for him at some point. He’s been a non factor while Malik Nabers on the other hand came from a legitimate offensive system that prepared him for the NFL and ended up as one of the top receivers in the league last year. That should be all anyone needs to see to realize Hyatt’s professional woes haven’t been the fault of Daniel Jones or the franchise he plays for. Because another receiver that seemingly wasnt as good as Hyatt in college came in and made it look easy
You don’t know what Ladd will do, u prob thought Hunter Renfrow was HOF bound. Patterson was a WR at Tennessee, my point was 1 good season is all you have to go on rn so it’s a premature statement at best.

I take your point about the WRs recently but we also saw the offense at its full potential in 22 and Hyatt is a deep threat whereas Nabers is a possession, YAC guy. Of course Hyatt isn’t gonna have success as a deep threat with Daniel Jones and Tommy Devito. He’s also a slighter built guy, there may be other reasons he hasn’t shown out. Tillman was having a nice second half last year before injury and I think Thornton and Palmer could be poised for nice years in their respective situations. Point being again, JH is just now getting his guys cycled through and Ladd McConkey has played exactly 1 year of football. Why don’t we revisit your trolly statement in another 5 years and see if it still holds up?
 
"I just feel like choosing development over money is a smart business decision, honestly," Keys added. "When you get on the field, make plays, more opportunities come."


"When it comes to money and development, of course I'd take development first because we trying to get to that big money, which is NFL," Keys said. "When it comes to 700 to seven figures, and the production is there with the 700, I would take it because I want to be ready and prepared for the next level as fast as possible. So development is No. 1 for me, for sure."
 
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"I just feel like choosing development over money is a smart business decision, honestly," Keys added. "When you get on the field, make plays, more opportunities come."


"When it comes to money and development, of course I'd take development first because we trying to get to that big money, which is NFL," Keys said. "When it comes to 700 to seven figures, and the production is there with the 700, I would take it because I want to be ready and prepared for the next level as fast as possible. So development is No. 1 for me, for sure."

Need to hear it from Keys that TN is a real threat to flip. Seems like it will take two or more visits to close it. Otherwise he seems pretty stuck on LSU.
Having been in this position before for top WRs, it just feels like it's not going to be us in the end. I hope it is, but it feels eerily similar to other recruitments that didn't go our way.

Without Keys, we still have a solid class. Fairly similar in ranking to last year's class. Which is good in that we're not taking a step back, but we're not taking a step forward either. Recruiting has to get better if we want to compete against Texas and Georgia for conference and national championships.
 
Having been in this position before for top WRs, it just feels like it's not going to be us in the end. I hope it is, but it feels eerily similar to other recruitments that didn't go our way.

Without Keys, we still have a solid class. Fairly similar in ranking to last year's class. Which is good in that we're not taking a step back, but we're not taking a step forward either. Recruiting has to get better if we want to compete against Texas and Georgia for conference and national championships.
Well I mean like AP called out the Adidas deal.

IMG_1683.jpeg
 
Ladd is better than any receiver we’ve had since the adoption of the internet

2002
Peerles Price. (Buffalo Bills)
94 rec 1,242 yards 9 TDs
(16 games)

2024
Ladd McKonkey (LA Chargers)
82 rec 1,149 yards 7 TDs
(18 games)


@VawlIn
Why are you wasting your time trolling a Tennessee Vol football board?
This is the 5th time ive caught you spewing absolute NONSENSE out of your mouth.

Who has time for that?? This is YOUR life
and this is how you’re choosing to spend it?
 
In the transfer-NIL era... there's no good reason to get upset over losing a HS recruit no matter how many stars. In two years, you can go on the market and find someone with similar talent who has proven they can excuse. I would love to have the guy but if not he'll be replaced on UT's roster in a couple of years by some 2* whose talent wasn't recognized.
 
2002
Peerles Price. (Buffalo Bills)
94 rec 1,242 yards 9 TDs
(16 games)

2024
Ladd McKonkey (LA Chargers)
82 rec 1,149 yards 7 TDs
(18 games)


@VawlIn
Why are you wasting your time trolling a Tennessee Vol football board?
This is the 5th time ive caught you spewing absolute NONSENSE out of your mouth.

Who has time for that?? This is YOUR life
and this is how you’re choosing to spend it?
He is 100% a troll UGA fan.
 
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A friend of mine with connections to our staff told me that by the way
A friend of mine with connections to our staff told me that by the way
What staff? The UGA staff?

I’ve got connections too big guy. You’re trolling.

Let me know where you will be in MB next Saturday and I’ll stop by on the field. If you don’t, please ban yourself and stop posting.
 
Who have we had that was better? We’ve had 1 1000+ yard receiving season in the NFL since the late 90s, and that was Peerless Price his fourth year in the league. Ladd went for 1150 and 7 TDs his Rookie year as his teams top receiver. I hate Georgia more than any program in the country. If their plane crashed it wouldn’t bother me a bit, but it’s just a fact that Ladd is better than anyone we’ve sent to league. College production to me isn’t an indicator of how good someone actually is at their position. What they do in the NFL when there are very few exploitable players on the other side of the ball is the real barometer for how good someone is. Just look at how average or just outright bad players like Tebow, Mariota, Manziel, LaMichael James, Colt McCoy, Michael Crabtree, Sammy Watkins, DeAnthony Thomas etc have been once they got to the big leagues. Systems and matchups within big games can make a player look better than they actually are, and that fact is actually why Keys is committed to LSU right now rather than us

When Gunnar Stockton ***** the bed and those wittle puppies get spanked in Neyland and Travis Smith has a TD catch, I'll be sure to come back to this post.
 
If you look at his physique he doesn’t have long legs for a 6’3” guy.

That’s part of the reason people thinks he’s slow. Tall torso, legs are developed but not long for his height.

4.55 isn’t blazing but there so much more to players like him. He was dominating CBs all around Atlanta that were faster than him.
Yep. And plenty of star NFL WRs are 4.55 or slower. Jerry Rice was 4.6.
 
No, but he is getting paid more and playing better in the league than Hyatt is. Also let’s just be honest with ourselves, Marvin Harrison Jr was the best receiver in college football that year, and it really wasn’t close. Their numbers were just too close together for Hyatt not to win it after putting up a historical game against Bama. Hyatt wasn’t the best receiver in college football that season though. Hell I remember seeing people on here entertain the idea that Squirrel would end up as the better receiver because he had more wiggle and Hyatt was a 1 trick pony for the most part 😂
Hyatt had more:
Yards
TD's
YPC
Yards per Game

All while competing against better teams. What are you talking about? Most obvious troll post
 
No, low IQ is thinking otherwise. Of all the Tennessee WRs to play in the NFL the last 30 years we only have 1 1000+ yard season. Ladd did that last year as a rookie. It’s not even an argument
I personally have never cared about what a guy does in the NFL when talking about them as college players.

you are literally using events that hadn't happened yet, NFL stats, as reason why someone shouldn't be considered better in college. it doesn't make any logical sense.

There is a reason Tebow was listed as the best QB in college football the last 100 years and Patrick Mahomes was not. College. we are a college forum, discussing members of a college team, and college play. that is what is relevant.
 
AP said if it's not before the start of the season, it could be later in the year. It was already mentioned that Keys may go to some games this year. Kinda like the Hezekiah Harris recruitment, we may have to wait closer to ESD to see Keys flip.
Think he wants to see how our WRs perform this year and if Kelly sucks at LSU as usual. Brazzell going off this year would really help.
 
His HS film didn’t impress me at all. Jackson stands out 10 fold in comparison to what’s on his highlights
To me, highlights can look way different for the same player when they’re competing against vastly different levels of competition. Smith competed at a much high level of talent last year versus Jackson’s competition. I’m super excited about both these guys, but I’ve always got to see them playing at UT in order to get a true evaluation. All staffs miss each season on a few recruits and they evaluate for a living. A bit narcissistic to determine I’ve got a player all figured out just from HS highlights. JMO
 
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