There may be a number of reasons why Taylor Stubblefield is no longer Penn State’s wide receivers coach after three seasons in Happy Valley.
Recruiting prowess and success, ability to attract wide receivers in the transfer portal, development of a younger cadre of receivers and ultimate program/head coach fit may be a few of the reasons Stubblefield was fired by James Franklin and replaced by former Virginia assistant Marques Hagans.
But production by Stubblefield’s wide receiver corps — especially based on their 2021 numbers — certainly isn’t No. 1.
Just a season ago, as Penn State limped along to a 7-6 record without a running game and an under-performing tight end room, Stubblefield’s wide receiver group — led by eventual NFL first-round draft pick Jahan Dotson — had one of the best-ever statistical seasons by a Nittany Lions WR corps.
That 2021 corps, which included Dotson (91 receptions, 1,182 yards), Parker Washington (64-820) and KeAndre Lambert-Smith (34-521), was the best in Penn State history in a number of categories — total catches (200), total yards (2,676), average yards per game (206) and TD receptions (20, tie for No. 1).
See the chart below of a complete breakdown of WR corps’ performance in the Franklin Era, as well as other such standout years as 1982, 1994, 2008-09, and 2013. A caveat: We’re talking wide receivers only, with the following stats not taking into account catches by running backs and tight ends. (*denotes 9-game pandemic-shorted season.)
WIDE RECEIVERS ONLY: BY THE NUMBERS
Year WR Coach Rec. Yds. Avg. Yds. Rec./Game TD Top Receiver 1982 B. Brooks 92 1,598 17.4 / 133 13 Jackson 43-732-7 1994 K. Jackson 118 2,277 19.3 / 175 16 Engram 57-1081-7 2008 M. McQueary 153 2,286 14.9 / 176 20 Butler 47-810-7 2009 M. McQueary 139 1,957 14.1 / 151 16 Moye 48-785-6 2013 S. Hixon 150 2,056 13.7 / 171 12 Robinson 97-1432-6 ***** 2014 J. Gattis 173 2,083 12.0 / 160 7 Hamilton 82-899-2 2015 J. Gattis 149 1,689 11.3 / 130 16 Godwin 69-1101-5 2016 J. Gattis 141 2,469 17.5 / 176 17 Godwin 59-982-11 2017 J. Gattis 175 2,484 14.2 / 191 18 Hamilton 53-857-9 2018 D. Corley 129 2,084 16.1 / 160 12 Hamler 42-754-5 2019 G. Parker 121 1,818 15.0 / 140 13 Hamler 56-904-8 2020* T. Stubblefield 116 1,647 14.2 / 183 14 Dotson 52-884-8 2021 T. Stubblefield 200 2,676 13.4 / 206 20 Dotson 91-1182-12 2022 T. Stubblefield 160 2,048 13.0 / 158 13 Tinsley 51-577-5
THE 2022 SEASON
Granted, Penn State’s wide receivers were not as effective in 2022 as they were in 2021. But with a big-league and productive running back duo on hand, and a tight end unit that mostly lived up to its potential, they did not need be. In 2021, the wide receivers had 69% of all Penn State receptions; in 2022, that number dropped to 59%. Credit O-coordinator Mike Yurcich and QB Sean Clifford for doing a better job of distributing the ball through the air (as well as the ground).
And remember, those WR numbers are in part without the full services of Parker Washington, who missed the last three games with a broken leg a few weeks after exploding for 11 catches for 179 yards and a TD against Ohio State.
In 2021, Penn State’s offense averaged only 107.8 rushing yards and 268.5 passing yards per game. In 2022, with freshmen Nicholas Singleton and Kaytron Allen rushing for 1,928 yards and 22 TDs, Penn State averaged 181.1 rushing yards per game and 252.5 yards passing.
Among wide receiver groups in Penn State history, the 2017 corps — featuring Juwan Johnson (54-701), DaeSean Hamilton (53-857) and DeAndre Thompkins (28-443) under WR coach Josh Gattis — is the closet comp to the 2021 group. That ’17 group, which helped lead Penn State to an 11-2 record identical to the 2022 group, had 175 receptions for 2,484 yards, with 18 TDs and an average of 191 yards per game.
FRANKLIN’S WR COACHES: WHERE ARE THEY NOW?
Speaking of Gattis, here’s a look at where the four former wide receiver coaches under Franklin at Penn State (2014-2022) are now:
JOSH GATTIS (2014-2017) — That 2017 season propelled Gattis, who was with Franklin in 2012-13 at Vanderbilt, to a gig in Alabama as WR coach and co-offensive coordinator. Since then, he’s been at Michigan — where, as O-coordinator, he won the Broyles Award as the top assistant in 2021 — and Miami (Fla.). He was fired late last week as the O-coordinator by Hurricanes’ head coach Mario Cristobal.
DAVID CORLEY (2018) — Originally hired as the RB coach by Franklin in January 2018, he was moved to WR coach two weeks later after Franklin hired Ja’Juan Seider to coach the backs. Corley lasted less than a year. In 2019, he was the NFL Bill Walsh Diversity Coaching Fellow under Bill O’Brien at Houston. In 2020, Cprley coached RBs at South Carolina State, followed by a stint coaching backs at Richmond in 2021. In 2022, he was the assistant QB coach with the Pittsburgh Steelers.
GERAD PARKER (2019) — Parker lasted nine days shy of a year at Penn State. After coaching PSU WRs for the 2019 season, he left to be West Virginia’s O-coordinator and WR coach in 2020-21. In 2022, he went to South Bend to coach Notre Dame’s tight ends.
TAYLOR STUBBLEFIELD (2020-22) — Penn State was Stubblefield’s 12th assistant coaching job, in a peripatetic career that included one season (2019) when he was the WR coach at Miami (Fla.) under the Hurricanes’ head coach at the time, Manny Diaz, who is now D-coordinator for Penn State. Stubblefield finished his playing career at Purdue as the NCAA’s all-time leading receiver (with 325 receptions).
