Ole Miss Rebels

Scouting the 'Noles: Wide Receiver

Published Jun. 30, 2017 6:28 p.m. ET

foxsports

We continue to preview the Ole Miss/FSU game. Today, we take a look at the Seminoles Wide Receivers.

If you have been following Ole Miss football the past two seasons, you know the Rebels lost a lot of players in the secondary. Gone are Mike Hilton and Trae Elston. In are Zedrick Woods and Myles Hartsfield.

For Woods and Hartsfield, they will be challenged by the Florida State wide receivers on Labor Day. This group is a good but not great position unit for the Seminoles. They return their top five leading receivers from a year ago, but will have a new quarterback under center on Monday night.

Travis Rudolph is the leading returning receiver for Florida State (59 catches, 916 yards, 7 TD). Rudolph had two 100-yard receiving games a season ago, with his best performance coming in the Chick-Fil-A Peach Bowl against Houston where he hauled in seven catches for 201 yards and a touchdown.

The Seminoles also return Kermit Whitfield, who was a 1B receiver of sorts a season ago (57 catches, 798 yards, 6TD). Whitfield also had two 100-yard receiving games, against Louisville and NC State, respectively.

The third leading receiver for the Seminoles will be Jesus Wilson (58 catches, 622 yards, 3 TD). Wilson did not have any 100-yard receiving games last season. Like Rudolph, Wilson’s best performance came against Houston in the bowl game where he brought in eight catches for 68 yards and a touchdown.

Prognosis: The key for Ole Miss will be a healthy Tony Conner. It was obvious how much he was missed by the Rebels defense when he went out with a knee injury. The Seminoles wide receivers aren’t great by any stretch, but can present problems if Ole Miss isn’t on their ‘A’ game.