Miami Hurricanes WR Mark Pope ready to become complete receiver
Miami Hurricanes wide receiver Mark Pope caught one pass for 11 yards as a freshman in 2018. He is ready to use what he learned and take a big step forward as a sophomore in 2019.
Pope was a consensus four-star signee in 2018 and given five-stars by Rivals.Com. Pope is only one of two five-star players on the Miami Hurricanes roster. Pope will be a second-team wide receiver in 2019 barring a major change in the depth chart.
Graduate transfer K.J. Osborn and juniors Jeff Thomas and Mike Harley are certain to be the first-team wide receivers in 2019 unless they have an injury or extreme ineffectiveness.
Pope, fellow sophomores Brian Hightower and Dee Wiggins, freshman Jeremiah Payton and redshirt sophomore Evidence Njoku will compete to contribute behind the Hurricanes top three receivers this season. Miami desperately needs to improve a passing game that was one of the worst in college football in 2018.
One of the ways the Hurricanes have done that is to hire an all-new offensive coaching staff. Dan Enos is the new offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach. Former Purdue All-American Taylor Stubblefield is the new WR coach. Stubblefield replaced Ron Dugans who was fired and is now at Florida State.
Stubblefield has been working with Pope on the new playbook.
The Hurriccanes new WR coachwas asked
if Pope has a better understanding of the playbook than last year. Wiggins received the most playing time among the freshmen WRs in 2018 largely because of his propensity to block. Hightower dealt with injuries in 2018.
"“I think mastering the playbook won’t happen in year one even with the brightest guy. One of the things that we talk about in my room is understanding the what, the how and the why in order to become a complete receiver. What we did in the spring was trying to learn what to do.Now we’re at the part now where we’re trying to learn how to do it. Based off what the technique is that the defense is showing, reading our triangle, reading what the whole coverage is, the technique that the DB may be playing. Mark and the rest of the guys, there’s going to continue to be install.So yeah, there’s be sometimes when we’re not as sharp as we need to be. But we’ve also shown flashes when we’ve been pretty sharp.”"
Miami has a deep and talented, but inexperienced WR corps behind Osborn, Thomas and Harley. The Hurricanes have the luxury of easing the backup WRs into the game plan this season if the starters stay healthy. Pope should be a big part of the future for Miami at WR. He had a long touchdown run on a reverse in the spring game.
Pope did play in nine games last season. He was able to get a feel for what happens but not able to make an impact. There were high expectations for Pope as a freshman in 2018. As Stubblefield said mastering the playbook for anyone in the first season is difficult. Now, everyone on the Miami roster has a new playbook to learn.
Next. Miami football needs more explosive passing plays. dark
It will be easier for the upperclassmen than the younger players on the Miami Hurricanes roster to learn the playbook. The juniors and seniors know what to expect. Osborn has been a huge influence and quickly become a leader in the Miami WR room. Pope can pick up on that and become an impact player in the future.