[BostonCard]

The real issue is Irwin, the second WR. He is #78 in the country in catches per game. Some of this may have to do with tempo of offense and plays per game, but Stanford simply doesn't use its WRs near as much as other top programs do.

This is a bizarre complaint.  If he is #78 in the country, then since there are more than 78 teams in the country, by definition our #2 receiver ranks higher than many teams' top receiver.  I'm not going to look at all FBS, but if you look at the Pac-12, Irwin ranks #9 in catches per game, which means he ranks higher than the top receivers for Cal (Vic Warton III, who has 31 in 7 games), USC (Tyler Vaughns has 30 in 7), and UCLA (Caleb Wilson has 29 in 7); he's also tied with Oregon State's top receiver.  In fact, no #2 wide receiver has more catches per game than he has (Washington State's second leading receiver is a running back, at least positionally).

If you want to make a complaint about Stanford receivers not being featured forget JJ Arcega-Whiteside or Trenton Irwin; it's that after the top 2, we have a very steep drop-off.  Our third and fourth leading targets are both tight ends, and our third highest wide receiver (Osiris St. Brown) has fewer receptions (6) than games (7).  And it goes down from there: Michael Wilson has 3, and Weddington, (to be fair, injured) has just 1.  Washington State, which is admittedly an outlier in these things, has six wide receivers with 3 or more catches per game, and two more have more receptions than our #3 receiver.  But even Utah has four wide receivers with 2 or more catches per game and Washington has three wide receivers with ≥2 catches per game, and another 2 who have more catches than Osiris St. Brown.

I think there is a value proposition for a talented receiver to come to Stanford; such a wide receiver has a good chance of being on the all-Pac-12 team (barring a collapse in the second half, the first teamers will be Colorado's Shenault and JJ Arcega-Whiteside). What you won't see a lot of is four and five wide receiver sets where our QB will spread the ball around and you will see a stat line where 7 guys caught at least one pass.  So yeah, if you aren't an exceptional receiver, you aren't likely to see the ball regularly, since not only are you competing with other wide receivers on a team that whose personnel set is usually 21 or 12, and thus only has two wide receivers on the field on most plays, even if you are in the game, you are frequently competing with tight ends and, when we have them, pass catching wide receivers (McCaffrey was the team's leading receiver only three years ago).  But if you are a top 100 wide receiver, as Higgins is, and you work hard, you can easily be "featured in Shaw's offense", as JJ Arcega-Whiteside is.

BC

[BostonCard]

The real issue is Irwin, the second WR. He is #78 in the country in catches per game. Some of this may have to do with tempo of offense and plays per game, but Stanford simply doesn't use its WRs near as much as other top programs do.

This is a bizarre complaint.  If he is #78 in the country, then since there are more than 78 teams in the country, by definition our #2 receiver ranks higher than many teams' top receiver.  I'm not going to look at all FBS, but if you look at the Pac-12, Irwin ranks #9 in catches per game, which means he ranks higher than the top receivers for Cal (Vic Warton III, who has 31 in 7 games), USC (Tyler Vaughns has 30 in 7), and UCLA (Caleb Wilson has 29 in 7); he's also tied with Oregon State's top receiver.  In fact, no #2 wide receiver has more catches per game than he has (Washington State's second leading receiver is a running back, at least positionally).

If you want to make a complaint about Stanford receivers not being featured forget JJ Arcega-Whiteside or Trenton Irwin; it's that after the top 2, we have a very steep drop-off.  Our third and fourth leading targets are both tight ends, and our third highest wide receiver (Osiris St. Brown) has fewer receptions (6) than games (7).  And it goes down from there: Michael Wilson has 3, and Weddington, (to be fair, injured) has just 1.  Washington State, which is admittedly an outlier in these things, has six wide receivers with 3 or more catches per game, and two more have more receptions than our #3 receiver.  But even Utah has four wide receivers with 2 or more catches per game and Washington has three wide receivers with ≥2 catches per game, and another 2 who have more catches than Osiris St. Brown.

I think there is a value proposition for a talented receiver to come to Stanford; such a wide receiver has a good chance of being on the all-Pac-12 team (barring a collapse in the second half, the first teamers will be Colorado's Shenault and JJ Arcega-Whiteside). What you won't see a lot of is four and five wide receiver sets where our QB will spread the ball around and you will see a stat line where 7 guys caught at least one pass.  So yeah, if you aren't an exceptional receiver, you aren't likely to see the ball regularly, since not only are you competing with other wide receivers on a team that whose personnel set is usually 21 or 12, and thus only has two wide receivers on the field on most plays, even if you are in the game, you are frequently competing with tight ends and, when we have them, pass catching wide receivers (McCaffrey was the team's leading receiver only three years ago).  But if you are a top 100 wide receiver, as Higgins is, and you work hard, you can easily be "featured in Shaw's offense", as JJ Arcega-Whiteside is.

BC