Ryan Wolfe

[ToughJ.Riggins]

Thought I'd start a poll on Ryan Wolfe who I want to learn more about from other posters. He's been a VERY productive player for UNLV and NFLdraftscout currently has him ranked as a 6th or 7th rounder. I saw him play only for half of one game. He appeared to be a very good route runner who was agile, fearless and tough with good hands. NFLdraftscout has his 40 time listed at 4.56- so he may be more of a Flanker than a Split End since he lacks ELITE NFL WR deep speed. He has a sturdy frame at 6'1 210 lbs. That's almost like a RB type build. Apparently this guy has a beastly work ethic to boot and could very well improve his very average speed for an NFL WR some. Here is a great article on Wolfe about his work ethic and draft stock!:
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No time for a break for Ryan Wolfe
By Steve Guiremand
Posted Wednesday, May. 20, 2009 at 10:11 AM

This is supposed to be time for a break for UNLV football players like Ryan Wolfe.

The 6-foot-1, 205-pound senior All-American candidate received his diploma in kinesiology earlier this month and summer conditioning drills for the Rebels don't officially begin until June 1st. But Wolfe along with about two dozen other football players were busy pumping iron under the supervision of strength coach John Grieco at the Lied Athletic Complex when I stopped by earlier this week.

"It's great to just get back into the swing of things,"Â￾ Wolfe said between sips of a protein shake. "As Coach Cink (wide receivers coach Kris Cinkovich) says, it isn't that hard to get back into shape if you never allow yourself to get out of shape. I'm just trying to maintain and work on some little things and kind of get these young guys going a little."Â￾

With his degree already in hand, it would be easy for Wolfe to be back home in southern California relaxing on the beach until June 1. But the man who already holds school career receiving records for catches (209), receiving yards (2,735) and 100-yard receiving games (10) said he'd rather get a head start on his final season in a UNLV uniform.

"Being an athlete, for me at least, I get kind of stir-crazy if I don't have too many things going on,"Â￾ Wolfe said. "If I went home and just hung out on the couch all day, I'd be over it in three days and want to come back and start working out again. It's good to find some positive things to keep your time occupied."Â￾

Wolfe plans to start work in graduate school this summer for a degree in sports education and leadership. He says he's working out now so he can be ready to go when the team's official summer conditioning workouts begin in two weeks.

"It's great to get a crash course now so you're not struggling in June,"Â￾ he said.

Wolfe also has perhaps more riding on his senior season than any other Rebel. NFLDraftScout.com currently ranks him the 25th best wide receiver prospect for the 2010 NFL Draft and ranks him as a potential 6th or 7th round pick. Of course, that can change dramatically between now and next April. Just ask former Rebel running back Frank "The Tank"Â￾ Summers who wasn't even on the NFL radar at this time last year but wound up getting drafted in the fifth round by the Super Bowl champion Pittsburgh Steelers.

"That's so far away right now,"Â￾ Wolfe said of the NFL Draft. "Right now I'm just focusing on the guys around me. I'm real happy for Frank and all the other guys I know who made it on some NFL teams but right now I'm just focused on this team."Â￾

 

[ToughJ.Riggins]

I wasn't sure whether to vote yes- or top 15. With some new info I have gathered & what I've read on NFLdraftscout previously- he seems at least on the cusp of the top 10 IMO. I'd like to hear other poster's Scouting reports/views on Wolfe that have seen him play more than me. Thanks.

 

[whiteathlete33]

I have to start watching more college football this upcoming season.I won't be watching many NFL games that is for sure. I have never even heard of many of these white receivers.

 

[ToughJ.Riggins]

Yeah WA33- I must say myself- I didn't get really into college football until last season. I got into it a bit towards the end of the 2007 season.
But it's much better than the (N)ATIONAL (F)orbidden (L)IGHT-SKINNED-PERSON'S league.

 

[celticdb15]

Wolfe could work his way up as a sleeper, ala Jordy Nelson? I had never heard of Jordy until his senior year and he used his great year to sky rocket up and get sleected early! Good luck to Mr. wolfe, have a great season!

 

[Don Wassall]

<H1 ="articlehed1">Despite Kiper's praise, Wolfe focused on task athand</H1>
<H2 ="articlesubhed1">Senior wideout with pro aspirations rapidly becoming a householdname</H2>

By <CITE>Ryan Greene</CITE> (contact)
Friday, Aug. 7, 2009 | 2:30 a.m.
For a college football player with legitimate NFL aspirations -- say, UNLV receiver Ryan Wolfe, for example -- Thursday morning was probably a huge help.


Wolfe and the rest of the Rebels veterans were eating breakfast together at the Thomas &amp; Mack Center on Thursday morning while the team's newcomers were practicing at Rebel Park.


On a television tuned to ESPN with the volume off, the room's attention was grabbed when images of junior quarterback Omar Clayton and Wolfe flashed during a segment in which analyst Mel Kiper Jr. discussed four potential sleeper teams for the 2009 season.


"It's cool to see us up there, but I don't think we've done the best in past years with positive publicity," the ever-humble Wolfe said following the veterans' first practice session of the fall camp on Thursday evening. "So it's all preseason stuff. We've just got to do our jobs and not worry about what other people think about us."


Even if Wolfe &amp; Co. can tune it all out, there's no question that thousands upon thousands of college football fans who had never heard of the Rebels' all-time leading receiver will now have his names somewhere on their brains this season.


Especially following the high praise Kiper -- maybe the biggest name in projecting where college players will fit in at the next level -- gave him in just a few seconds.


"If Omar Clayton, their quarterback, can stay healthy and get the ball to Ryan Wolfe -- Ryan Wolfe is a senior wide receiver, one of the best clutch performers in all of college football with those great hands -- UNLV, I think, can go bowling for the first time in a long time and be a factor in the Mountain West Conference," Kiper said.


Wolfe certainly earned the kind words from the scouting guru.


The 6-foot-2 Santa Clarita, Calif., native, enters his senior season as UNLV's all-time leader in receptions (208) and receiving yards (2,735), and is less than 1,000 yards away from being the Mountain West's all-time receiving yardage record-holder.


And being talked about by Kiper, who during the months leading up to the NFL Draft each April gets more face-time on ESPN than anyone not named LeBron or Kobe, can do nothing but help Wolfe.


Among those who saw the mere 15-second clip on Thursday morning could have been anyone. NFL coaches? Scouts?


Wolfe doesn't have time to think about it.


"If people know who I am, then that's good, but ever since you're a kid, you dream of playing on TV on Sundays," Wolfe said. "So, I mean, if it gets to that point, I'm gonna try and play as hard as I can, work as hard as I can, just like I have been the last four years."


"It's cool to hear your name, especially when it's positive like that, so I've got to live up to that, that's what I see it as. If people are gonna say it, I'm gonna make sure they're not wrong."


Wolfe sees that as the attitude the whole team has taken on.


And in his eyes, it didn't take Kiper name-dropping the Rebels to make them think that, though he did point out that UNLV hasn't been to a bowl game since 2000.


That streak could have been broken last season, when the Rebels flamed out in a 42-21 loss to San Diego State with a potential bowl appearance on the line.


"I think the main point is the way we dealt with positive publicity last year," he said. "Coming off of two straight wins towards the end of the season and needing a win (at San Diego State) to be bowl eligible, I think we let the hype get to our heads, and we learned a big lesson.


"I mean, I would have loved to win that game, but we almost got more out of losing than actually winning. I think we're definitely way more mature than in past years, so I don't think that's something we'll have to worry about this year."


How much more mature?


Well, coach Mike Sanford -- who was on the practice field with the newcomers when the segment aired, but saw it later on his computer -- said it's something that he feels doesn't even need to be addressed in a meeting setting.


"I think that's one of those deals that just takes care of itself," he said. "To me, we know who we are, we know who we can be, and we're excited that people are seeing that, but it's something that we've got to prove on the field."
Ryan Greene can be reached at ryan.greene@lasvegassun.com or702-948-7844.
http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2009/aug/07/despite-kipers-praise-wolfe-focused-task-hand/

Edited by: Don Wassall

 

[ToughJ.Riggins]

I hope he gets drafted, but I fear he might get the "too slow" label. NFLdraftscout only has his 40 at 4.65. I think he'll run a little better than that, but we all know it's any excuse to "excuse" a white player from playing in the NFL. The DWFs will have a heyday with an open bashing session on any faults of a white skill player, but "excuse" blacks for the same exact thing.

 

[Jimmy Chitwood]

Wolfe becomes nation's leading active receiver

UNLV senior receiver Ryan Wolfe became the nation's leading active receiver last weekend after grabbing eight catches for 96 yards and a touchdown at Wyoming.

He now has 240 career receptions, which is one more than Central Michigan senior Bryan Anderson(another White receiver), and 3,119 yards, which is just ahead of the 3,038 by Buffalo senior receiver Naaman Roosevelt.

Wolfe needs just 23 more catches to break J.R. Toliver's (San Diego State) all-time Mountain West record of 262, which he set after playing from 1999 to 2002. Wolfe needs 516 more receiving yards to break David Anderson's (another White receiver, from Colorado State) league mark of 3,634 yards set from 2002 to 2005.

Through four games this fall, Wolfe has 31 receptions for 384 yards.

Wolfe has gotten open all those times and picked up all those yards, according to the following article, despite having "average" talent ...

can you count how many instances of castespeak occur in this "complimentary" piece?

Blue-collar receiver paces Rebels, league

When UNLV receiver Ryan Wolfe takes his position split wide or in the slot and sets his eyes down field, he effectively sees a dance-step diagram.



He knows exactly where he will plant his left foot on his eighth step and make his cut on a skinny post route, and he knows exactly where he will plant his right foot on his sixth step and spin on a curl route.


It's more than just his feet, though. He's a precise route runner, but he also has near-perfect hands and an absolutely selfish attitude about the ball. When it's in the air and it's headed in his direction, it's his.


He has to have these qualities because he's probably not going to out-run anyone.


"I'm probably middle of the pack," the 6-foot-2, 210-pound senior said, referring to where he would rank in the 40-yard dash among his receiver teammates.


The nation's top receivers each year seem to be the tall, lanky, speed-burners who can run past a defender or out-leap him, players like Texas Tech's Michael Crabtree, Georgia Tech's Calvin Johnson and the one who calls himself Ochocinco, formerly Oregon State's Chad Johnson.


Wolfe doesn't fit that mold, but he enters Saturday's game against Nevada as the nation's active leader in career receptions (240) and career receiving yards (3,119). He's a Biletnikoff Award candidate, an All-America candidate and, in the coming weeks, will likely become the Mountain West Conference's all-time leader in receptions and yards.


And there is no shortage of teammates and competitors alike lining up to sing his praises.


"Ryan Wolfe is an excellent player," UNLV coach Mike Sanford said. "He's a guy who comes every day to practice and games. He's a blue-collar football player. ... I think he's the best receiver in the country. He's a complete receiver."


"He reminds me a lot of when we had Bryan Reeves here," said Nevada coach Chris Ault, referring to the receiver who played at Nevada from 1991-93 and played briefly in the NFL. "He's their go-to guy. He just makes clutch catches for them. ... He's just a really good receiver."
<DIV =gpagediv id=GPage2>


"He's always playing hard and working hard," Rebel linebacker Starr Fuimaono said. "He's always the first guy in and the last guy to leave. He sets a great example for us."
To Wolfe, there's a fairly simple reason why he's been able to rack up such big numbers.


"It's probably just being where the quarterback is expecting me to be on every play," he said. "The chemistry between a quarterback and a receiver should always be first in line."


His name might suggest that he ended up at the wrong Silver State college -- "It's kind of an odd coincidence," he said -- but he didn't have much of a choice. He missed his junior year at Hart High in Santa Clarita, Calif., because of a torn knee ligament, and UNLV was the only school to officially offer him. He said Hawaii and Boise State both showed some interest.


"(The injury) set me behind as far as recruiting is concerned," he said.


And although the rivalry has been one-sided -- no current UNLV player has experienced a victory over Nevada, which has a four-game winning streak in the series -- it hasn't been Wolfe's fault. He had his best game of 2008 against the Wolf Pack -- eight catches for a season-high 167 yards and a touchdown -- and his 30-yard touchdown reception with 1 minute, 2 seconds to play tied the game in Reno in 2007. The Pack won, 27-20, on a 43-yard touchdown pass from Nick Graziano to Kyle Sammons 35 seconds later.


"Just playing this game there's always going to be added intensity and attention toward the game," he said, explaining his success against Nevada. "That along with preparation, just being in the right place at the right time."


He's got that down to a science.


"He's always playing hard and working hard," Rebel linebacker Starr Fuimaono said. "He's always the first guy in and the last guy to leave. He sets a great example for us."



To Wolfe, there's a fairly simple reason why he's been able to rack up such big numbers.


"It's probably just being where the quarterback is expecting me to be on every play," he said. "The chemistry between a quarterback and a receiver should always be first in line."


His name might suggest that he ended up at the wrong Silver State college -- "It's kind of an odd coincidence," he said -- but he didn't have much of a choice. He missed his junior year at Hart High in Santa Clarita, Calif., because of a torn knee ligament, and UNLV was the only school to officially offer him. He said Hawaii and Boise State both showed some interest.


"(The injury) set me behind as far as recruiting is concerned," he said.


And although the rivalry has been one-sided -- no current UNLV player has experienced a victory over Nevada, which has a four-game winning streak in the series -- it hasn't been Wolfe's fault. He had his best game of 2008 against the Wolf Pack -- eight catches for a season-high 167 yards and a touchdown -- and his 30-yard touchdown reception with 1 minute, 2 seconds to play tied the game in Reno in 2007. The Pack won, 27-20, on a 43-yard touchdown pass from Nick Graziano to Kyle Sammons 35 seconds later.


"Just playing this game there's always going to be added intensity and attention toward the game," he said, explaining his success against Nevada. "That along with preparation, just being in the right place at the right time."


He's got that down to a science.

 

[Don Wassall]

With 279 receptions, Wolfe is now one catch behind Troy Edwards for 12th all-time. He's 176 career yards (he has 3,634) behind all-time MWC leader David Anderson, now of the Houston Texans.