What are realistic expectations for the freshman receivers?

Most of those WR's had a truly great #1 WR working next to them and weren't targeted like we'll most likely target our freshman.

Like some mentioned, a lot of these freshman were playing behind seasoned starters. That should be taken into consideration when looking at these stats. DPJ and Black look like they will be given more opportunities than most, if not all, of the receivers you listed. If one of our WR's don't break the record, I'd be very surprised. 

I think one or both of DPJ or Black will end up with 400-600 yards and the rest of the bulk of the yards will go to Bunting, TWjr, Perry, Crawford, Evans, and Hill. I think if we see both of those guys in that range then we are in for really good things next year. 

This was covered in the WR preview. Basically, HS ball has gotten better so receivers are coming out a little "more" ready to produce and that's "kind of" shown itself with the higher rated recruits.

So, the trend is that there's a pretty good chance they'll do alright. Especially considering we have no one else to catch the ball.

Alice.

will be come more pass centric with these young WR talents, with Pep Hamilton at PGCoordinator and a returning starting RS Jr. QB in Speight.

The reality is that Michigan's strength and experience in 2017 is now concentrated in the backfield.

The talented freshman WRs this year will also have to split potential receptions with Chris Evans, Higdon, Ty Isaac and even  Kareen Walker on screens, and with some talented TEs as well.

I look at things from the opposing defense perspective. Even if UM's young wide receivers have the dropsies on occasion, they are almost all lethally fast and homerun threats for six. So defenses HAVE to account for them and the TEs and the RBs running routes out of the backfield.

This opens a world of pain from Michigan's rushing attack, in my view, which despite the questions along the OL this year, might be one of the Big Ten's most underrated this fall.

Harbaugh loves him some fullback as well, so can't ignore those dudes as potential receivers also.

I'm not too worried about WR productivity and yardage as long as Michigan is getting first downs and scoring TDs, nobody is going to care.

Second, I think QB experience matters a lot in terms of freshman WR performance.

Anthony Carter was still the fastest, and most lethal WR Michigan ever had.  If Michigan had Dan Marino or John Elway on the roster in 1979, then holy shit.

But Michigan was enamored with that Option I offense, and having BJ Dickey and John Wangler operate it.  Not that Dickey and Wangler couldn't throw. Both were highly touted recruits for UM in the 1970s. But Bo's option offense philosophy and three yards and cloud of dust took time to modify, and put the brakes on Anthony Carter's final freshman WR stats at Michigan.

Still, Christ, ever two catches by Anthony Carter in 1979 resulted in his patented high knees dance and clockarm low-five touchdown celebration with his teammates. That's terrifying.

Speight's experience and poise will probably enhance the freshman WR performance this year.

I don't think any of the freshman WRs will have huge numbers. I also don't expect Crawford or Perry to have huge numbers. I think the ball will be evenly distributed.

It would be interesting to look, but I'm guessing that most of those guys also had some upperclassman playing alongside them at the other receiver spot. It sounds to me like Michigan might have two freshman WR's on the field as starters, which I can't imagine has happened very often. 

at MSU seems like a fair comparison.  Blue chip recruit playing as a freshman B/C of depth, etc.

He had about 450 years last year as a freshman, but was playing on a struggling offense with worse QB play.

Michigan's best freshman WRs are a bit above Corley in terms of raw talent.  But Corley was a sought after recruit.

So, given that M has a decent QB and is not dysfynctional on offense, why not 700 yards for which ever Michigan Fr WR ends up as the top producer?

It also depends on what sort of offense M runs.  Pep Hamilton might end up really spreading around the ball to different receivers even more than last year.  OTOH he might pass the ball more than last year. 

They're going to be really good.

It's hard to tell who will break out and who will remain quiet, but I expect serious flashes from Black and DPJ and maybe Martin as well. Black seems to be the most ready, and I anticipate that he will start. I expect him to be reliable from the get-go. 

DPJ came in without knowing all of the routes. Learning the system will take time; he'll be in packages, but there will be times where they need Black just because there will be things Black will know that DPJ doesn't. But DPJ will, hopefully, do a couple of things so magical this year that we'll replay them forever.

And I wouldn't be surprised if, after both of those two had impressive moments tomorrow, Oliver Martin takes a quick pass to the house and people start talking about the receiver class nationally.

We'll see.

2.  Anthony Carter    17 catches, 462 yards, 7 touchdowns

Que ridiculo!

BTW, the proper frame of reference for comparison is not other Michigan receivers at this point; it's other highly rated receivers throughout college football. The comprehensive rundown of 5-star receiver production from a few months ago was fantastic and helpful.

It's not that it's wrong to consider other Michigan receivers, but the world was different in the past. Sammy Watkins is a better indicator of what freshmen will do at Michigan than Anthony Carter.

Caveats obviously apply - we were a much less passing team in the days of these guys. Also, I believe most of them had a corp of veteran receivers ahead of them when they were freshmen.

More interesting comparisson - in recent years, what have other top ranked receivers around the country done in their freshman years? 

Depends on how much they throw it around this year. It's not secret that there will be some spread concepts, and as Brian said in one of his previews (maybe 5 questions) this could be a college version of the Patriots.

Touched on by many is the fact that Kekoa Crawford is still here as are Grant Perry and Chris Evans, who should be in line for a bunch of receiving targets too. De'Veon Smith caught 16 balls last year, I could see Evans doubling that number. And while I don't think Crawford maintains his role as the #1 WR, he'll still be in line for 20-25 by season's end. 

If they do fling it around a lot more I could see Black doing something similar to Chesson last year, around 35 catches. I also expect him to have overtaken Crawford as the #1 WR midway through the season. 

DPJ is a tough one, his route tree is so limited that he probably won't see as many snaps as Black, but his athleticism is so crazy that he absolutely will see a good deal of snaps. 12-15 is where I think DPJ falls. 

I don't think we'll see one or two guys dominate the receptions this year, it should be fairly spread out among 5-6 targets, if not more. Overall I think the passing game will put up better numbers than last year, but we don't have any Darboh (57/862/7) or Butt (46/546/4) type individual numbers.

This diary on 5 star receivers was very informative. 

http://mgoblog.com/diaries/freshman-production-composite-5-star-wrs

Sounds like Black is ready to start while DPJ will get a lot of snaps.  Braylon gave a very honest assestment of Detroit Public School football in the process.  Black is ahead of DPJ in terms of understanding the offense because he understands the WR position better.  He came from a system that taught route trees and other nuances of the passing game, while DPS programs focus more on running the ball and a simplistic passing game.  

Think about Donnie Corley.  He was supposed to be the man, but he was limited in what he could do.  It was probably due to the fact he was behind the learning curve on offense.

As Braylon put it, DPJ has 4.3 speed but not playing at 4.3 speed because he's thinking while playing.  Once he picks up the offense and the offense becomes more natural to him, he will then explode.

My guess is Black has his coming out party during the non-conference season.  DPJ hopefully starts playing at 4.3 speed by the PSU game.

I believe they will struggle - yes they are talented but they will struggle.  Next year - watch out

Did the WR you listed come in their freshman year knowing they were going to be top 4 WR on the team? Doubtful.

Tarik Black and DPJ are different. They are coming in knowing they are primary WRs from the get. Theyve been practicing with 1st team. Theyve been pushing each other.

Also, im going to doubt any of those guys on the list were as highly rated as the two especially DPJ who was obviously the #1 WR.

Nico Collins will be decent just purely because of his size.

Oliver Martin will be a non factor this season