8/28/2018 football Edit

NC State football roundtable: Who will lead in catches and receiving yards?

Matt Carter and Jacey Zembal

Editors

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Junior Kelvin Harmon caught 69 passes for 1,017 yards and four touchdowns last year. (Ken Martin)

NC State is boasting one of its best receiving corps in years. Junior Kelvin Harmon caught 69 passes for 1,017 yards and four touchdowns a year ago. Redshirt junior Jakobi Meyers added 63 catches for 727 yards and five touchdowns despite sitting out the Furman contest, and fifth-year senior Stephen Louis hauled in 37 passes for 583 yards and two scores despite missing two games with an injury.

Harmon led the team in receiving yards, while Jaylen Samuels, now with the Pittsburgh Steelers, set the pace with 76 receptions.

Who will lead NC State in catches this year? Who will pace the Pack in receiving yards? Matt Carter and Jacey Zembal make their guesses.

Fans can make their voices heard too. We have posted both questions on our premium message board for you to vote on:

• Who leads the Pack in catches?

• Who paces NCSU in receiving yards?

Matt Carter

I don't know if Harmon will get over 1,000 yards again, but I believe his leading the team in receiving yards is the safer bet of the two questions. He averaged a healthy 14.7 yards per catch, and although Louis had a higher average, I think Harmon will be targeted more frequently. With some options on the shorter routes elsewhere, Harmon should be allowed to run deeper routes, too.

The trickier question for me is who will lead the team in receptions. If Meyers not have been informally suspended for the Furman game (he was benched due to an ineffective week of practice), he would have been right around Harmon's season total in catches. With Samuels gone, I can also see Meyers getting some of his routes that worked so well.

Thus I lean towards Meyers leading the Wolfpack in catches and Harmon having more yardage.

Jacey Zembal

I'll have some fun with this and predict that both Harmon and Meyers will reach 1,000 yards this season, but part of that is likely from a decline in rushing yards this season.

NC State will do its darndest to have a balance in play-calling between rushing and passing, and that will likely hold true up to a certain point. However, there will be a stretch where airing it out just makes sense for the Wolfpack, and that will benefit the receivers and quarterback Ryan Finley.

I will also go with Meyers leading the team in receptions, but Harmon in yards this season. Meyers had at least seven catches in four of his last five games, with the Boston College secondary of pro prospects holding him to one catch. Meyers should average six catches a game, which would translate to 78 receptions on the season.

Harmon had 1,017 receiving yards and that included five contests where he had 33 yards or less. If he gets rids of the valleys and sticks with the peaks, he could add another 150-200 yards this season.