Texas wide receiver Ryan Wingo feels like he has something to prove.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He played as senior quarterback Arch Manning\u2019s main guy last season, and while Wingo showed flashes of his true potential, the junior struggled with dropped passes at times. He knew he was not playing to the standard his coaches expected, or the one he expected from himself.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI just feel like I was dropping the ball a lot,\u201d Wingo said. \u201cThat wasn\u2019t the reason that (head coach Steve Sarkisian) recruited me. That wasn\u2019t the reason that (wide receivers coach Chris Jackson) recruited me here, so I feel like I was doing them a disservice not catching the ball and not making the plays that came to me.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Entering this season, Wingo wants to make sure Texas fans don\u2019t hold their breath whenever Manning throws his way.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
And in Saturday\u2019s first win of the season against Texas State, he offered an early sign that those days may be behind.\u00a0<\/p>\n
While much of the anticipation centered on the debut of junior wide receiver Cam Coleman, a superstar transfer from Auburn, Wingo was the top receiver of the day. He finished with seven catches for 121 yards and one touchdown.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Texas State will be far from the toughest defense Wingo will face, with a matchup against Ohio State\u2019s secondary soon to provide a greater test. But at least against the Bobcats, Wingo looked more cool, calm and collected than he did at times last year.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He reminded Texas fans of the dangerous, deep threat he can be, highlighted by an explosive 45-yard reception in the second quarter.<\/p>\n
To eliminate those mistakes that frustrated him, Wingo knew his routine needed some change.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He increased his workload, going from 200 passes per session to a daily 500-pass routine on the jugs machine in order to stop the sporadic drops.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Wingo and Manning also spent the offseason strengthening their connection, and Manning praised Wingo and the rest of Texas\u2019 receiving corps for the work they put in throughout the week.<\/p>\n
\u201c(Wingo) works really hard,\u201d Manning said. \u201cHe works tirelessly with other receivers. (I\u2019m) really proud of him. He\u2019s putting in a lot of work. He strikes it so hard. All those guys strike really hard, which is nice for a quarterback getting them to run full speed throughout the week. I\u2019m really excited for (Wingo).\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Sarkisian also noticed the immediate rapport between the two, particularly on those deep passes. The connection they have developed has translated into what Sarkisian described as \u201cbeautiful\u201d deep balls, building confidence that the reps in practice can carry over to Saturdays.<\/p>\n
Last season, Wingo drew almost all of the defensive attention from the opponents, forcing Texas to work harder to get him the ball. Having Coleman line up on the other side is a luxury, forcing defenses to have another elite wide receiver to account for.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
The addition of Coleman could create more one-on-one opportunities for Wingo while also allowing Sarkisian to get creative with how he uses Wingo\u2019s speed and ability with the ball in his hands.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis guy\u2019s been working hard,\u201d Sarkisian said. \u201cPeople forget this guy was a second-team All-SEC receiver last year. (Coleman) is a fantastic player too, but Ryan Wingo was pretty good, and I think he probably reminded a few people of that today.\u201d<\/p>\n
When asked about Sarkisian\u2019s confidence in his players, Wingo smiled, calling his head coach the best play-caller in the country.<\/p>\n
Wingo left a lot on the table last season. One game against Texas State doesn\u2019t erase that, but it can be the first step in rewriting his own narrative. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Texas wide receiver Ryan Wingo feels like he has something to prove.\u00a0 He played as senior quarterback Arch…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":428464,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[27,29,28],"class_list":["post-428463","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/428463","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=428463"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/428463\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/428464"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=428463"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=428463"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=428463"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}