TCU position outlook: Post-Doctson, options abound at receiver

The Star-Telegram takes a look at the 2016 TCU football team position-by-position as the season approaches. The first game is at 7 p.m. Sept. 3 vs. South Dakota State at Amon G. Carter Stadium.

There’s no Josh Doctson in the receiver group at TCU anymore, but there is a Deante’ Gray and a Ty Slanina. Both veterans are back and healthy after either missing a year (in Gray’s case) or most of it (in Slanina’s case), joining a group that already has one of last season’s most productive freshmen, Kavontae Turpin, and two others who emerged down the stretch, Jarrison Stewart and Jaelan Austin.

TCU also added four-star freshman Isaiah Graham, junior college standout Taj Williams and LSU graduate transfer John Diarse to a mix of other veterans that includes Emanuel Porter and Desmon White. Last season’s second-leading receiver, Shaun Nixon, will miss the year because of injury, but he was due to move back to running back, anyway.

The personnel

Starters

X-receiver: Taj Williams (6-3, 180, Jr.), rated the No. 1 junior college receiver in the nation last season. Caught 128 passes, 20 for touchdowns, in two years at Iowa Western.

Y-receiver: Ty Slanina (6-0, 195, Jr.), suffered a broken collarbone in Week 4 at Texas Tech. Enters 2016 with the most catches of any player on the roster.

Z-receiver: Emanuel Porter (6-4, 210, Jr.), the tallest wide receiver on the roster and finished 2015 on a roll with four catches in the Alamo Bowl, including an overtime touchdown.

H-back: KaVontae Turpin (5-9, 153, Soph.), second on the team in touchdown catches last year with eight. Also gets handoffs and returns kicks.

Primary backups

Freshman XR Isaiah Graham (6-1, 185), sophomore YR Jarrison Stewart (6-0, 188), junior YR John Diarse (6-1, 209), sophomore ZR Jaelan Austin (6-2, 200), senior H-back Deante’ Gray (5-10, 183), junior H-back Desmon White (5-7, 160).

Key stat

32 Catches by Shaun Nixon over the last five games of 2015, most on the team in that stretch, coinciding with Josh Doctson’s injury at Oklahoma State. So Nixon’s production must also be replaced — he is missing the season because of injury.

What they’re saying

“We’ve got so much depth that we can roll in and roll out. We know it’s going to help us be a better team. The defense doesn’t really sub in that much, but we have the ability to bring in three or four guys at each spot and stay healthy, stay fresh the entire game, always stay fast. We’re excited. We know how much this depth is going to help us this year.” — Receiver Ty Slanina

“I think we’ll be just fine at receiver. I think we’ll be more than fine, actually. The list goes on and on. It’s just our job to get it in their hands at the right place at the right time.” — Quarterback Foster Sawyer

“You’ve got Deante’ Gray back. You’ve got Jarrison Stewart. Ty Slanina is back. Two of those three were not part of our football team at the end of the season last year. All of them as far as size are bigger, stronger, smarter. You add Isaiah Graham, Taj Williams. Isaiah Graham was probably the surprise of the spring.” — Coach Gary Patterson

“We didn’t have the depth maybe at times last year that we do now. We have a lot of different weapons, some depth at the position. It could be a good year.” — Co-offensive coordinator Doug Meacham

Final analysis

TCU starts without three of its top four receivers from a year ago but figures to attack the problem with numbers. KaVontae Turpin, Jarrison Stewart, Desmon White, Emanuel Porter, Ty Slanina and Jaelan Austin all caught passes a year ago, and only two were kept out of the end zone. Stewart made a high-degree-of-difficulty touchdown catch in the rain against Baylor. Austin and Porter each had four catches and a touchdown in the Alamo Bowl. Freshman Isaiah Graham was the standout of the spring. Taj Williams had the only touchdown catch in the spring scrimmage. Graduate transfer John Diarse also entered the picture, although sports hernia surgery slowed his summer. And Deante’ Gray is back from knee surgery, giving TCU another speed element to pair with Turpin in the slot. The Frogs may or may not replace the playmaking and production of Josh Doctson. But there are a lot of places to start looking.

This story was originally published August 23, 2016 at 12:31 PM with the headline "TCU position outlook: Post-Doctson, options abound at receiver."