All football coaches want that prototypical receiver that is tall, strong body, soft hands, not afraid to go into traffic and make a catch, and has that mental toughness to get open when things break down on a particular play.
Guess what football fans, the Sun Devils have that receiver in Jaelyn Strong. This young man had a breakout season in 2013 and is garnering all sorts of buzz in the college football community. He's put on a lot of muscle as well and that muscle will come in handy as he will get all of the attention from opposing defenses in the 2014 season.
Lets take a look at why the attention is coming his way. After a stellar stint at Pierce College he committed to ASU on Christmas in 2012. Once he committed to the Sun Devils he became someone that the coaches viewed as being a special kind of player, and he has not done anything to change that view by the coaching staff or the fans. He had seven games of over 100 yards catching and ended the year with 75 receptions for a total of 1,122 receiving yards. Five of those seven games of over 100 yards occurred in the first six games of the season. Out of his 75 receptions, 47 of those receptions resulted in a first down which tells me that Taylor Kelly was looking for him when the team needed that first down or when things on a particular play broke down. It also tells me that that Strong is a competitor and wants to succeed because he wants the ball thrown his way when things dicey and close in a game. He wants Taylor Kelly looking for him to keep the drive going. Against some of the best competition, Jaelyn rose to the occasion. Case in point, against Stanford in September he had 168 yards receiving against a very stout defense. His 168 yards were 5th best for a single game in the Pac-12 conference last season. When the Devils took on Notre Dame he had 138 yards on only 8 receptions. That is over 17 yards per catch. As we can see, Jaelyn has put stats on the board that will cause defensive coordinators some long, sleepless evenings.
He will certainly be looking to improve on those statistics and I believe he certainly can based on the type of offense that the Devils run. It will be tough though because he will get the best corner on the opposing team manned up on him with a safety over the top to help out in many circumstances, but with the resolve that this young showed last season he will work to get better at getting off the ball, avoiding the "jam" by the cornerback, and finding the soft spot in a zone defense to make that first down catch or touchdown catch.
Jaelyn Strong is that unique combination of size, strength, and speed that will benefit him for the 2014 and on the next level of football. If Strong stays healthy he will best his record performance from 2013 with ease and be a strong early round pick in the NFL. Go do your thing Jaelyn and bring those Sun Devil fans to their feet game after game!
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