25 / 48
inside.hokiesports.com
23
Tech staff
hoping younger receivers
FOLLOW LEADERSHIP
of veteran
Phillips
by
Jimmy Robertson
At roughly the halfway point of the Hokies’
spring practice, media members made a
request to talk to receivers coach Holmon
Wiggins. He received an array of questions,
which comes as no surprise given that the
receiving corps lost Isaiah Ford and Bucky
Hodges from this past season.
Wiggins wants to get his positions in as
good of shape as what he had at Memphis,
where he played seven or eight receivers
throughout the course of a game the final two
years there.
“Will we get to that point?” he said. “I’m
still trying to get to the point where I can trust
four or five guys.”
Most of the concern of head coach Justin
Fuente about his team centers not on the
quarterbacks, but on the players around him.
That obviously includes the receivers.
Tech returns one stalwart in Cam Phillips,
who caught 76 passes for 983 yards and five
touchdowns in 2016. Phillips lined up mostly
in the slot last season, but Tech’s staff moved
him around quite a bit this spring—lining
him up wide, lining him in the slot and using
him on jet sweeps and reverses.
Phillips assumed the leadership role of
this young unit really by default. Outside of
him and C.J. Carroll, who started one game
last season and missed spring practice with
an injury, no other receiver started a game
and only two others (Henri Murphy and Sean
Daniel) even played in a game. But Wiggins
liked what he saw from Phillips, both on the
field and from a leadership perspective.
“He has his sights set on a lot of good things
for us,” Wiggins said. “This being his last year,
he wants to do some things. I told him that he
couldn’t be perfect. That’s the one thing. He’s
striving to seek perfection, and he may be
overdoing a few things, but the leadership has
been awesome. He’s been helping our young
quarterbacks and helping our wideouts. He
wants to make a play every play. I like the fact
that he wants to be the guy, and he’s going to
be our go-to guy this year.”
Wiggins spent most of his spring worrying
about the rest of the group, and toward the end
of spring, a few started to emerge as potential
playmakers. Specifically, he liked what he saw
from rising sophomore Eric Kumah before an
injury limited him in the final couple of weeks
and rising redshirt freshman Phil Patterson.
Kumah, in particular, caught not just the
eye of Wiggins, but also of others. He played
in 13 games as a true freshman, but most of
the action came on special teams. In several
scrimmage situations this spring, he out-
jumped Tech cornerbacks to make a nice
catch, displaying athleticism and good hands.
“He was making plays,” Wiggins admitted.
“At the end of the day, we’ve got to produce.
As coaches, we’ve got to win games. As
receivers, you’ve got to catch the ball and bear
fruit and produce. He was doing that. When
his number was called and the ball was in the
air, he did a good job of fighting and scrapping
and taking it out of the air.”
In addition to Kumah and Patterson,
Wiggins saw progress from Samuel Denmark,
a rising redshirt freshman. Also, Kalil
Pimpleton, a freshman who graduated from
high school and enrolled early, received a lot
of meaningful reps this spring.
Pimpleton lacks size, standing 5-foot-
8, 153 pounds, but he brings an element
2017
(in numerical order)
5
Cam Phillips
(6-0, 199, Sr.)
8
Phil Patterson
(6-2, 180, r-Fr.)
12
Henri Murphy
(5-10, 175, Jr.)
27
Dominic Benson
(6-2, 183, r-Fr.)
30
Jordan Jefferson
(5-8, 170, r-Fr.)
39
Sean Daniel
(5-9, 183, r-So.)
41
Kevin Henry
(5-10, 165, r-Fr.)
81
Samuel Denmark
(6-0, 183, r-Fr.)
83
Eric Kumah
(6-2, 210, So.)
86
C.J. Carroll
(5-8, 167, r-Jr.)
87
Bodhie Long
(6-3, 200, r-Fr.)
88
Kalil Pimpleton
(5-8, 153, Fr.)
Receivers
of explosiveness. Tech’s staff worked him
primarily in the slot position, and he figures
to see the field this fall.
“He’s a smart kid,” Wiggins said. “He
loves ball. That’s the one thing. A kid with
his measurables, you’ve got to have a chip on
your shoulder, and I think he plays with that.
He’s smart, he’s tough and he is dynamic with
the ball in his hands.
“It was good to see him hold down the
information that we threw at him. He got a lot
of reps, and he did a good job of taking the bull
by the horns and learning as much as he could.”
Hopefully, Carroll and Murphy, who also
missed much of spring practice with an injury,
return to full strength. Those two, combined
with Phillips, Kumah, Patterson, Denmark
and Pimpleton, give the Hokies seven
receivers—provided the younger guys in that
group develop into consistent playmakers.
If they do, then they should enable the
Hokies to overcome the large losses of Ford
and Hodges.
“I think those guys are eager to showcase
what they can do,” Wiggins said. “Will
we have three dynamic guys, like we did
last year? I don’t know. That’s yet to be
seen. Hopefully, we’ll be able to fill those
shoes, maybe by committee or maybe by
three guys.”
CAM
PHILLIPS
