Taylor Stubblefield discusses takeaways from WR room through two games

By the eye of Penn State wide receivers coach Taylor Stubblefield, Jahan Dotson nearly bent the rules last Saturday with his pair of fantastic, one-handed grabs.

There's an accord within the wide receivers room: "You better come down with it if you go up with one hand," Stubblefield said. "You better come down with it."

Dotson did, sparing him from the wrath of his coach. On Thursday, Stubblefield discussed Dotson's excellent start to the season and more during a conversation with reporters.

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A position group questioned by many before the season, Penn State's wide receivers — buoyed by Dotson's big day — were a bright spot for the Nittany Lions last week, despite their loss to the Buckeyes.

Penn State's wideouts accounted for 235 receiving yards against Ohio State in Week 2 — up from 160 against Indiana in the opener. It was a performance that left Stubblefield encouraged, but with corrections to make nonetheless.

"I think our grades as a group were OK," Stubblefield said. "We have goals that we set in our room that we want to try to attain each week. We were close to hitting them last week, but we didn't hit all of them. We have a very high standard in our room and the very first goal we have is to win the football game.

"Did I see improvement? I did see improvement. But coach [Kirk] Ciarrocca will talk a lot about enacting perfection. If we know the details, no matter what the situation, and we revert back to our training, we will have an opportunity to even be more successful even if the situation, the scenario, wasn't exactly what we practiced."

Stubblefield said he thought his group was better mentally against Ohio State, and he was also pleased by the Nittany Lions' success rate making contested catches.

"I think the guys are a little bit more confident and that they can make some plays," Stubblefield said. "The goal is to get better every single day each week. Hopefully we continue to do that."

With KeAndre Lambert-Smith overtaking Cam Sullivan-Brown on the depth chart this week, Penn State has two true freshman starters at wide receiver alongside Dotson — the other being Parker Washington.

Washington impressed against the Buckeyes, coming down with four catches for 73 yards — including a 31-yarder. He's got six receptions and a touchdown to show for the first two games of his collegiate career.

"I believe we as a program believe in playing the best players," Stubblefield said." And in our room, we talk about the recipe for finding your way out onto the field. And that is one, obviously staying healthy. Two, knowing what to do. And then three, how well do you do it? Another thing that we talk about is being tough, being consistent, and being explosive. And so those are the things that he demonstrated, really all of camp, and so he's earned where he's at on the depth chart, the snaps that he's getting in the game."

As for Lambert-Smith, the impact on the stat sheet hasn't been as big, with four catches for 43 yards over the first two games. But Stubblefield gave a glowing review of Lambert-Smith's potential.

"I think Dre's ceiling is extremely high," he said. "He demonstrates the ability to be very explosive. He has some size to him and he catches the ball pretty gosh-dang well."

Dotson's spectacular catches — the ones that so nearly broke one of Stubblefield's rules — can have a significant impact on his confidence, according to Stubblefield.

It's important that Dotson continues to stay motivated, Stubblefield said, approaching this week like last week never happened.

But to have a player capable of making those elite-level plays can also have an impact on those around him, according to Stubblefield.

"The young guys, they need to see it and be like, you know what, I'm a part of this group," Stubblefield said. "I'm a part of this group and we want to be dynamic receivers that are impacting plays. That's what we want to be. And I do think that seeing a peer that whether you look up to, that you work hard beside, you want to be like, okay, I can do this too. So I think if anything, it's motivating."

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