Position U: Ranking the Top WR Schools of All Time | News, Scores, Highlights, Stats, and Rumors
William Burgess There are 48 players in NFL history with 10,000 or more career receiving yards, and Miami is the only school that can claim at least four of those players as its own.
Even more impressive: Three of those four players were at The U together for the 2000 season.
Reggie Wayne (14,345 yards, 82 touchdowns) and Santana Moss (10,283 yards, 66 touchdowns) were seniors on that team, and each was then selected in the first round of the 2001 draft. Andre Johnson (14,185 yards, 70 touchdowns) was merely a freshman who barely saw the field, but he was the third overall pick two years later after a 1,092-yard junior campaign. Getting to throw to those guys (and tight end Jeremy Shockey) makes Ken Dorsey the luckiest college quarterback ever.
The fourth member of that 10,000-yard club came more than a decade earlier, but Michael Irvin (11,904 yards, 65 touchdowns) is probably the most famous of them all.
Just between those four players, there are 19 Pro Bowls and more than 50,000 career yards.
But while Miami has seven wide receivers with at least 4,000 career yards in the NFL, Ohio State has 11 and a top tier that can at least hold a candle to Miami's. That extra depth was enough to give the edge to the Buckeyes.
One massive caveat to note, though: Since we disregarded tight ends and only looked at wide receivers—that was decided before digging into the data—it royally screwed over Miami, which has produced four tight ends—Greg Olsen, Jimmy Graham, Jeremy Shockey and Kellen Winslow II—who had at least 5,000 career receiving yards in the NFL. Ohio State, on the other hand, has just one tight end (Rickey Dudley, 3,024 yards) with more than 700 career yards.
If we were looking for Pass-Catchers U, Miami would have won easily. For Wide Receiver U, though, the 'Canes check in at No. 2.