D. Miller's pass catching technique

[Widescreen]

Last season I noticed that Miller, particularly on slant routes, leaves his feet to make the catch even when the pass it right at his numbers. He was doing it again last Saturday. I'm not a receiver expert but I'd think it would be better to keep your feet so you can run after the catch. Every time he leaves his feet, he gets tackled whether he catches the ball or not. Is this some kind of coaching technique to shield the ball or just a bad habit?

[gaylordfan1]

Last season I noticed that Miller, particularly on slant routes, leaves his feet to make the catch even when the pass it right at his numbers. He was doing it again last Saturday. I'm not a receiver expert but I'd think it would be better to keep your feet so you can run after the catch. Every time he leaves his feet, he gets tackled whether he catches the ball or not. Is this some kind of coaching technique to shield the ball or just a bad habit?

I'm no WR coach either, but I'm guessing a bad habit. He is tall enough not to have to jump to catch most balls.

[NormanPride]

He uses his stomach to catch the ball. His first catch he had to catch like 4-5 times because of this.

[jumperstop]

Now that you point it out, it makes sense. He doesn't really get too many yards after catch. I was wanting to see more of him on Saturday though, he's still pretty good about finding a way to get open down field. I thought he would be a starter for sure after the way he was playing at the end of last season.

[SoonerDood]

I'm not a receiver expert but I'd think it would be better to keep your feet so you can run after the catch.

That's the first rule of playing WR. Never leave your feet. It's either a sign why Miller isn't on the field more, or that we need a new WR coach.

[sooner KB]

From my very limited experience from playing football, it seems to be what a lot of receivers tend to do--I always hear it called catching the ball with your "body" instead of your hands.

The surest way to catch a football is to let it come into your stomach and then kind of entrap/cradle it with your arms. When the ball is coming towards your chest or a little higher, sometimes receivers want to jump a little so they can do this, since you need your arms to be below the ball (think about how players receive punts). When the ball is coming towards your chest or higher, you are forced to catch it with just your hands if you don't jump (your hands come together and form a triangle with your thumbs and index fingers.)

I think receivers that do this are showing that they lack confidence in their catching abilities. Any starting receiver should be able to snag balls with their hands without using their body at all.

The benefits of catching it with your hands are obvious. Besides the fact that you can take of running after the catch more easily and quickly, its actually easier to catch it with your hands, once you can do it. With the other way, you have to jump a lot, meaning you have to time your jump right, and the ball is more likely to come out when someone hits you, since snagging it with your hands is instantaneous. Catching it with the body is kind of the safe way of doing it. Every once in a while you'll see a good receiver or pro receiver catching it this way when they are open in the endzone just for safe measure.

I think it could also be that players can be a little timid on a sub-conscious level on raising their hands up and leaving their middle section exposed to being hit when they "hear footsteps." I'm purely speculating here, as I was a sideliner back in my high school days.

I think I've noticed this exact thing in Cameron Kenney as well. The receivers that always catch it correctly are the ones that are also good with yards-after-catch, just think about Broyles or back to Mark Clayton.

I don't specifically remember Miller doing this, so I could be way off, but that's my two cents.

[goingoneight]

I don't know if it's a mistake, an adjustment or a technique. If it's a technique, it sure looks like he's trying to throw his back Michael Irvin style into safeties over the middle. 6'5 220 is a lot of man flying at you at I'm guessing 4.6 at worst.

If it's an adjustment to the ball, some guys reach back with one hand to catch a pass behind them... neither is something that will make a good WR coach happy. I noticed in the KSU 09, the Stanford game, and last week that it's almost like a deliberate playcall. It's always like a little stop and go that clears however many people he can run over backwards. He catches the ball with his hands really well on all the other routes.

I'll take any CATCH over a drop, though...

[Blue]

I could see this guy being a beast. It's frustrating not seeing him more involved.

[Crucifax Autumn]

I don't give a crap if he catches the ball with his feet as long as he does it consistently.

[SoonerPr8r]

Also catching with your body (mainly the chest) will cause the ball to bounce off the pads and either be incomplete or an INT. Also Stills was doing this a lot.

On the other hand Landry seems to throw a majority of his passes high

[rawlingsHOH]

Interesting Michael Irvin was mentioned, because he swears by body-catching/craddling the ball. You never hear coaches teach this, but he insists it's the surest way of securing the catch.

[JRAM]

One should never catch the ball with the body. ALWAYS CATCH IT WITH THE HANDS. That is why they work with the tennis ball machine so they will catch the ball in the correct manner.

[rawlingsHOH]

One should never catch the ball with the body. ALWAYS CATCH IT WITH THE HANDS. That is why they work with the tennis ball machine so they will catch the ball in the correct manner.

Harder to hand catch when you are getting blasted. Irvin has a point.

[Sooner04]

When I was at OU, the jumping to catch every pass was the FIRST habit the WR coaches tried to break incoming freshman of when they arrived on campus.