White WRs/TEs 2009

Draftdaddy's first three articles of the day featured4 white wideouts. Here's the Eric Decker article.

<H1 id=articleTitle ="articleTitle">Minnesota's Eric Decker tearing up the Big Ten</H1>
<DIV id=articleSubTitle ="articleSubTitle">Shutting down the highly-regarded wide receiver Saturday will be a tall task for Penn State.
<DIV id=articleByline ="articleByline"><a href="mailto:fbodani@ydr.com?subject=The%20York%20Daily%20Record:%20Minnesotas%20Eric%20Decker%20tearing%20up%20the%20Big%20Ten" target="_blank">By FRANK BODANI
Daily Record/Sunday News</A>
<DIV id=articleDate ="articleDate">Updated:10/14/2009 07:36:10 PM EDT

<DIV ="articleer">
<DIV id=article ="article">It turns out that a tiny town in the middle of Minnesota has produced the best receiver in the Big Ten.


One of the best receivers in the nation.


And one of the top two-sport athletes anywhere.


The 6-foot-3 Eric Decker has been tearing up the league for three years now at the University of Minnesota, and he has caught the attention of Penn State's defensive backs for weeks now, in preparation for Saturday's homecoming game in Beaver Stadium.


He's so good in football that he leads the Big Ten in receptions per game (7.67) and receiving yards per game (114.8).


He's so good in baseball that even though he played just two years as a college outfielder and slugger, he was drafted both times, first by the Milwaukee Brewers and then by the home state Twins in the 27th round.


He's even made a name for himself, among teammates, for his pingpong skills.


"I'm real good, I'm telling you," Decker said with a laugh about pingpong. "I think I might go on that professional tour."


And to think that this all began in Cold Spring, Minn., a town of 2,500 people -- about the same size as York County's Manchester.


The kind of place where kids grow up and marry and have their own kids and never leave.


Decker, a senior, still looks forward to driving an hour north to go home to fish and hang out on the lakes with friends and watch amateur baseball.


"God's country, I call it," he said.


"It's just the family atmosphere you get. Everybody knows everybody. You don't take things for granted, that's the biggest thing I learned. I enjoy going home to see family and friends because everyone's so supportive there."


It was in Cold Spring where he learned to play sports and was given the gifts of family. His father played Division II football and basketball at St. Cloud State. Baseball and basketball players are sprinkled through both sides of the family.


He also had the early incentive of living up to the athletic accomplishments of his big sister, Sarah, two years older. She went on to run track and cross country at Columbia University.


"She was always a role model for me," Eric Decker said. "To see her work ethic and the success she had. I wanted to do the same for myself."


Ever since, the story almost seems too perfect.


The kid with the movie-star good looks from the small town decided to stay close to home and become the hero for the state university.


He's good enough with the books that he's been named to the Big Ten All-Academic team.


He's so good in football that he finished sixth in the league as a sophomore with 67 receptions and led everyone as a junior with 84.


"He's very meticulous with the way he approaches practice and games," said Minnesota defensive tackle Garrett Brown. "He does everything to a 'T' and makes sure he's doing everything 100 mph.


"He's good for a one-handed catch in practice pretty much every day."


Decker is good enough in baseball to hit .329 and lead the team in walks in 2008, his first year in program. This past season he hit four home runs and batted .319.


"He's just good at everything he does," his sister said.


But football is his priority for now.


"That's why I came back (to school) this fall."


And so far he dominates on most Saturdays, so long as quarterback Adam Weber can shake free of constant pressure and get him the ball.


Decker is one of the most talked about players in the Big Ten.


"I couldn't stop thinking about him since the Illinois game (two weeks ago)," said Penn State cornerback Knowledge Timmons, a William Penn grad. "We have to be able to strap him down. From what I see there's no corner who can slow him to a few catches."


"There's a chemistry with him and the quarterback," said Penn State coach Joe Paterno. "And the quarterback has so much confidence in him, he'll make throws to him that you ordinarily wouldn't make. You got to know where he is all the time."


Certainly, he'll make his share of catches on Saturday, like always, and move on.


The NFL Draft will come soon enough next spring.


And wouldn't it just be the perfect fit, once again, if the Minnesota Vikings happened to need a ball-catching hero from a small town not too far up the road.
fbodani@ydr.com; 771-2104
Edit* I don't think ive ever read a more complimentary article that this!


Edited by: celticdb15

Jordan Shipley http://espn.go.com/blog/big12/post/_/id/5063/shipley-making-up-for-lost-time-as-longhorns-key-offensive-weapon

Rob Gronkowski! http://espn.go.com/blog/ncfnation/post/_/id/10061/gronkowski-first-round-or-back-in-2010

BTW show our white TES some love in Draftdaddys poll on the side of the page! Jermaine Gresham is running away with it!

Here's the link to the DD page with the poll. Dennis Pitta is currently second with 17 fewer votes than Gresham.

http://draftdaddy.com/blog/nfldraft.htm

Blair White of Michigan State had a pretty decent game.
12 catches, 186 yrs, 2 tds.

Not too bad for a former walk on. Edited by: Fightingtowin

hehe, that is awesome! now let's see how eric Decker does. he is going against a shut down corner.

Briggs Orsbon, Ball State
5 catches for game high 76 yards
Ball State lost to Bowling Green, 31-17. And BSU's coach, Stan Parrish, STILL hasn't won a football game in 20 years (Ball State is 0-7 this year).

What is up with Ball State this year? Geez i hope they get better for Briggs remaining two years so he can get some exposure in bowl games.

Konrad Reuland, Stanford: 2 catches for 58 yards

He's listed at 6-6 and 250 pounds, but he looked like a lean, 240 pound wideout! I'm glad that Stanford is finally using this Junior's TALENT.


Ryan Whalen, Stanford: 5 catches for 91 yards and a TD


Lars Anderson, Boston College: 2 catches for 42 yards


David Douglas, Arizona: 7 catches for 92 yards and 2 TDs

I think that Jimmy Chitwood may have mentioned him before?

Robby Parris, Notre Dame: 9 catches for 92 yards

Deadlift I am not familiar with Notre Dame. Is Robby Parris one of the white receivers Notre Dame recruited who hasn't been getting much playing time?

Kansas' WR Kerry Meier (brother of former NFL TE Shad Meier) was breathtaking last night against the all-black Colorado secondary.

The announcers for the game were the least castean I've ever heard in my entire lifetime for any sporting event....

They mentioned RB Jake Sharp's 4.3 40 time repeatedly....saying he's one of the fastest guys in the NCAA.

They basically devoted the entire night to bragging about WR Kerry Meier (who used to start at QB for Kansas but switched to WR) and super-athletic QB Todd Reesing.

Kerry made some outrageously tough catches, and the announcers were drooling like he was a black afflete. All night, they referred to Meier as an "unstoppable force," and said he's so athletic that "he'll be able to play WR, QB, and ST in the NFL for many years."

Also, they called Kansas' black WR, Dezmon Briscoe as "deceptively fast." I couldnt believe my ears. Briscoe is big, tall, fast, and is overall a very good WR....so perhaps they were trying to completely reverse CasteSpeak, if only for one night.

Also, they kept calling Todd Reesing "the most exciting QB in college football." They're correct, I'd personally draft Reesing over Tim Tebow and Colt McCoy.

It was an exciting game, even thought Kansas lost because of a last-second Meir TD catch being called back after a dumb penalty by another black WR. Also, Kansas' all-black secondary basically lost the game and allowed Colorado's athletic QB Hansen to run and pass all over the field.

Overall, awesome game. Meier and Reesing will play in the NFL.Edited by: Thrashen

Reesing will not play quarterback in the NFL. He is only listed at 5'11 so I am guessing a switch to receiver or safety is in his future.

whiteathlete33 said:

Reesing will not play quarterback in the NFL. He is only listed at 5'11 so I am guessing a switch to receiver or safety is in his future.

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WA33 all it takes is one coach who has the balls to take a chance on a 5'11 quarterback. I am not convinced you have to be 6'3 to be a QB in the NFL. If Reesing can make the correct reads, have a quick release, and show leadership skills, If I were an NFL GMI would take a chance on him. But hey what do I know.

You have a point celtic. Vick and Brees are only 6'0. However if he would get moved to safety or wr it would only benefit us. We need more whites at the caste positions.Edited by: whiteathlete33

whiteathlete33 said:

Deadlift I am not familiar with Notre Dame. Is Robby Parris one of the white receivers Notre Dame recruited who hasn't been getting much playing time?

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Robby Parris is a Senior this year. Ever since Michael Floyd (black) has been at Notre Dame (2 years), Robby Parris has been on the bench.

Think about it. Robby Parris, a very capable receiver, was benched COMPLETELY. That is treachery.

I should have added that Robby is only playing now because Floyd suffered a broken collarbone 4 or so weeks ago.

Wow Thrashen...sounds like a game finally called as it should be! It's indeed a rarity to hear annoucers openly giving credit to White athletes.

Nice article about U. of Texas WR Jordan Shipley. Nicknamed "ESPN for his highlight catches" and credited with "blazing speed". They must think that he's black.

A Texas Star Finds End Zone and His Voice
By THAYER EVANS

DALLAS â€" Jordan Shipley is a realist. Among all the recruiting rankings, all-American lists and All-Pros, there are not a lot of star receivers who are white.

So Shipley consumed himself with football during high school. He won every wind sprint, did 11 repetitions while lifting weights when 10 were required and always ran to the end zone when catching a ball in practice.

By the time he was finished at Burnet High School, about an hour from Austin, Shipley was Texas' career leader in catches, receiving yards and touchdown receptions, records that remain intact. Upon arriving at the University of Texas in 2004, he impressed his teammates.

He arrived with the nickname the Great White Hope. Vince Young nicknamed him ESPN for his highlight catches and Cedric Benson, seeing his blazing speed, began calling him White Chocolate.

But Shipley, 23, did not become a complete player and person at Texas until leg injuries kept him off the team in 2004 and 2005, nearly ending his playing days. Facing football mortality, Shipley found himself. On Saturday, he will play in his fourth, and final, Red River Rivalry when No. 3 Texas meets No. 20 Oklahoma at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas.

"There just came a defining moment in his life where he made the decision that his commitment to football was not going to define him as a person,"Â Bob Shipley, Jordan's father, who coached Jordan in high school, said in a telephone interview. "And that's really when he really started being successful."Â

Texas Coach Mack Brown said he considered telling Shipley to give up football.

But Shipley took his time away from the game to develop in other ways. He discovered a passion for music as a guitar player, a singer and a songwriter. When football was taken away, "I had to kind of figure out who I was as a person and what I stood for,"Â he said in a telephone interview.

On the field this season, Shipley has dazzled, prompting talk that he may be a more worthy Heisman Trophy candidate than Longhorns quarterback Colt McCoy, his housemate. While McCoy's numbers are pedestrian compared to the ones he put up last season, Shipley has soared, catching 47 passes for 583 yards and 3 touchdowns and returning two punts for touchdowns. He is tied for second in the Football Bowl Subdivision in receptions per game and fourth in yards per punt return (18.9).

"He's awesome,"Â Colorado Coach Dan Hawkins said of Shipley in a telephone interview. "He's obviously very talented, but he's got that divine spark."Â

Shipley's rhythm on the field is in sync with his life off it. Shipley describes his music as a mix of country and Americana, styled after musicians like John Mayer and Jack Johnson. He has stopped watching television because he prefers to play his Alvarez acoustic guitar while singing and writing songs at his house.

He sometimes plays songs by the country singer George Strait on his guitar while McCoy sings. On occasion, McCoy even plays Jimmy Buffett's "Margaritaville."Â Music, which Shipley calls a "healthy distraction,"Â gives him a release from football and school.

"It really just soothes me,"Â Shipley said.

Shipley recently started playing in a band at Fellowship of Christian Athletes worship meetings at Texas, and has written nearly a dozen songs and recorded a few of them. In July, it only took him a few hours to write his first song, "Moving On,"Â about being stuck in the city and longing to get away.

Shipley did not start playing seriously until he saw his former teammate Buck Burnette play a guitar in a university dormitory.

"Man, I'd love to get better at the guitar,"Â Burnette recalled Shipley telling him.

After that, Shipley and Burnette played together several times a week. When they first started, Shipley only knew a few chords, but he can now listen to songs and play them by ear, Burnette said.

"He's gotten exponentially better," Burnette said in a telephone interview. "He is very talented on the guitar. It tickles me to death because people say, ‘Hey, I heard you taught him.' He's self-made. I got him started, but he took off after that."Â

Shipley and Burnette take their guitars when they and McCoy go fishing and hunting on a 6,000-acre cattle ranch that Burnette's family owns just outside Dripping Springs, Tex.

Burnette, Shipley and McCoy often dash away to the ranch. They have gone twice this season after Texas games. Burnette was dismissed from the team last season for making a racial slur on his Facebook page about Barack Obama's victorious election.

During those trips, Shipley and Burnette usually end up sitting around a campfire for hours, playing their guitars under the stars.

The seeds of Shipley's musical interest were sown when he was a boy. His father, who aspired to be a musician, would take him to Nashville and introduced him to many forms of music. All the while, they listened to music in the car.

"He was like a dictionary of classic rock,"Â Bob Shipley said of his son. Jordan's interest in music has also rekindled his father's songwriting. The two work on songs together by sending sound files to each other.

"Nowadays instead of him being anxious about, ‘Oh, can I keep up this pace?' or ‘Golly, somebody mentioned my name for the Heisman' or whatever, we never even talk about that," the elder Shipley said. "It's like, ‘Hey, Dad, listen to the hook I've got on this song. I think it's really going to be good.' "Â

Shipley's music has also drawn interest from other musicians. This past summer, the country singer Aaron Watson invited Shipley to his house in Abilene, Tex., and the two sat on the back porch playing acoustic guitars into the early hours of the morning.

"He claims that he hasn't been playing the guitar very long, but he's outpicking me already,"Â Watson said in a telephone interview from a tour stop in Huntsville, Tex. "Maybe I'll be opening up shows for him someday."Â

For now, Shipley's top priority is football, but someday he plans to make a demo of his songs. He is also hopeful that the rest of this season gives him more material.

"It doesn't have anything about a train or being drunk or his momma or anything like that,"Â Bob Shipley said of his son's career. "So I don't know how much of a county music song it'll make, but then again the final verse hasn't been written yet."Â

Perhaps a national championship by the Longhorns could provide inspiration for a No. 1 hit.

backrow said:

hehe, that is awesome! now let's see how eric Decker does. he is going against a shut down corner.

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Decker hasn't got ANYONE else to help him on that Minnesota team. did anyone else catch any of the Minn-Penn State game? in addition to placing their top cornerback on Decker where ever he went (the Nittany Lions usually leave their corners on one side of the field or the other), they also kept one of their two very good White safeties over the top all night long, and often had a linebacker dropping into coverage underneath.

this means that on every snap Decker was facing at least a double-team, and often was facing a man corner while bracketed by 2 or more players in a zone. that, sirs, is respect. and it is why he only had one catch.

Minnesota has to find something else in their offense in order to at least keep a defense somewhat honest.

Update for National leaders in the "Year of the White Receiver":

Greg Salas - 42 for 791 & 5 TDs (2nd)
Eric Decker - 47 for 731 & 5 TDs (5th)
Blair White - 45 for 635 & 6 TDs (17th)
Jordan Shipley - 51 for 605 & 3 TDs (19th)
Kerry Meier - 54 for 580 & 6 TDs (22nd)
Ryan Whalen - 32 for 554 & 3 TDs (24th)
Ryan Wolfe - 50 for 539 & 1 TD (30th)
Max Komar - 33 for 538 & 2 TDs (31st)
Brett Hamlin - 40 for 520 & 1 TD (32nd)
Kevin Jurovich - 37 for 476 & 0 TDs (T38th)
Derek Moye - 27 for 472 & 4 TDs (41st)
Dennis Pitta - 34 for 471 & 5 TDs (T42nd)
Zeke Markshausen - 50 for 459 & 1 TD (49th)

David Leonard, Cody Slate, and Bryan Anderson are all within 50 yards of the top 50.

*Up 1 in the top 50 from last week. Moye and Markshausen in and Leonard out. All in all not as bad a week as some of you guys may think. Plus, the amazing Kerry Meier keeps rising up the ranks every week*

Yea Jimmy, I've seen quite a few Minny games this season and your team analysis is accurate. The other receivers are terrible and the running game is a joke. It's literally just Weber and Decker out there. The D is fairly solid on a side note.

Minnessota game just started. When they were going over the players announcer describes decker as being a smart reciever. I mean im sure erics an intelligent guy, but c'mon.

SuperSpeed23 said:

Minnessota game just started. When they were going over the players announcer describes decker as being a smart reciever. I mean im sure erics an intelligent guy, but c'mon.

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Hehe. Just another typical phrase used to describe a white athlete.