Steve Spurrier’s Florida teams changed the way the SEC looked at offense, and that era is a big reason Florida put two receivers on ESPN columnist Bill Connelly’s list of the top 60 college wideouts of the last 50 years.
The two Gators who made it were Wes Chandler and Reidel Anthony. But with the amount of talent Florida has rolled out at receiver, it’s fair to wonder if the total should have been higher.
Percy Harvin was the first obvious omission. Connelly acknowledged that call right away, writing, "Others like Florida's Percy Harvin and Notre Dame's Rocket Ismail didn't make it because they were more RBs than WRs -- both ended with more career rushes than receptions,"
That explanation makes sense, even if plenty of Florida fans won’t love it.
Chandler came in as the first former Gator on the list, and his inclusion makes a strong case on its own. He played before the Spurrier years, which may have helped him stand out even more.
Connelly pointed to how rare it was for a receiver on a run-heavy team in the 1970s to draw Heisman attention, noting, "How good did a receiver have to be to earn Heisman votes from a run-heavy offense in the 1970s? Well, Chandler was that good.
He caught 44 balls for 967 yards and 10 scores as a junior before finishing 10th in the Heisman voting (and going third in the draft) as a senior,"
Chandler was taken No. 3 overall by the New Orleans Saints, then found far more success once he got to Dan Fouts, the San Diego Charger, and Air Coryell. Over seven seasons with the Chargers, he posted 6,132 yards and 41 touchdowns, made three Pro Bowls, and was first team All-Pro in 1982.
Florida’s other representative, Reidel Anthony, landed at No. 16.
Connelly had to sort through a deep group of Spurrier-era pass catchers to settle on one name, and he explained the choice this way: "It's hard to know what to do with the bounty of great receivers Florida produced under Steve Spurrier in the 1990s. From 1995-2001, eight different Gators WRs recorded 1,000-yard seasons, and only one did it twice.
Nobody, therefore, had standout career numbers. But of those eight receivers, nobody was as frightening as Anthony in 1996.
He averaged 18 yards per catch with an SEC-record (at the time) 18 touchdowns for Spurrier's lone national title team,"
Even with that reasoning, it’s easy to make the case for more Florida names. Jabar Gaffney was dangerous in his own way.
Bubba Caldwell brought real production. Ike Hilliard being left out feels tough to justify.
Chris Doering, meanwhile, finished as Florida’s all-time leader with 31 touchdowns, and so many of his catches seemed to come at the perfect moment, either moving the chains or reaching the end zone.
No ranking of this sort will satisfy everybody - Randy Moss topped Connelly’s list - but the Gators’ history at receiver speaks loudly enough on its own.
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