Hawaii Bowl Preview: Receivers

Both teams have great hands, but approach the receiving game very differently.

Thursday, May 26th 2011, 12:06 pm

By: News On 6

Originally Published: Dec 21, 2010 9:58 PM CDT

Bobby Lewis
Oklahoma Sports Reporter

TULSA, Oklahoma – Both teams like to chuck it. Hawaii and Tulsa combined to hoist a staggering 999 pass attempts to the sky this season. Both teams have a lot of talent on the edges of the formation. Hawaii is filet, Tulsa is lobster, and their receivers give opponents indigestion.

The host team has two stud wideouts that will give Tulsa’s defense fits. Hawaii throws to Greg Salas and Kealoha Pilares a lot. Both guys logged over 1,300 receiving yards, but they aren’t the only Warrior weapons. In all, a dozen players caught passes for Hawaii and four of them logged at least 500 receiving yards.

Salas caught 12 touchdowns while Pilares led the team with 15. Hawaii’s quarterback, Bryant Moniz, completed over 66 percent of his passes, which speaks to the kind of hands that the Warriors catching corps has. Hawaii doesn’t like to toss it five yards and let speedy little guys outrace the bigger, slower defenders.

No, they go deep.

Seven of Hawaii’s receivers have a reception of at least 39 yards this season. Tulsa has six players with a play of that distance. The Golden Hurricane likes to let it fly too, under first-year offensive coordinator Chad Morris. Junior quarterback G.K. Kinne passed for over 3,300 yards this season and 28 touchdowns. The most impressive thing about his numbers is how he spread around the wealth.

Charles Clay, Damaris Johnson and Trae Johnson each have over 2,000 career receiving yards and each caught at least three touchdown this season. Along with that highly-touted trio, ten other players in blue and gold caught passes. Eight Tulsa receivers caught passes for 200 or more yards and nine different guys scored.

Both teams pick up mega yards per attempt. Tulsa goes for 13 yards per catch, while Hawaii betters that at 13.8.

MORE HAWAII BOWL PREVIEWS:

Quarterbacks

Running backs