The freshman receiver’s latest big game added to a six-week run that deserves a closer look. Jesse Legree is making the introduction easier every week.
Oregon State’s Jesse Legree Is Giving People a Reason to Pay Attention.
Oregon State’s freshman receiver caught 10 passes for 191 yards and three touchdowns against San Diego State, helping the Beavers to a 66–14 victory. For anyone just discovering him, that was an impressive place to begin. It was also far from his first productive afternoon.
Six Games Have Produced a Substantial Body of Work
Legree’s latest performance included a 71-yard touchdown reception. It followed receiving totals of 136 yards against Houston, 240 against Texas Tech, 100 against Montana, 109 against UTEP and 156 against Colorado State.
Through those six games, he had 38 catches, 932 yards and 12 touchdowns. Every one included at least 100 receiving yards.
Those numbers deserve attention without much decoration. One big afternoon can introduce a player. Repeated production makes him worth following. Legree has supplied the latter. The opponents and circumstances have varied, but the production has kept coming. His performance against San Diego State added to the case rather than creating it.
The Interesting Questions Now Require a Closer Look
The next step is to examine how it happens. How is Oregon State creating Legree’s opportunities? What are defenses trying against him? What changes when opponents devote more attention to limiting his touches?
Those are film and reporting questions. The receiving totals cannot answer all of them, but they establish why the questions are worth asking.
There is no need to reach for an award prediction or a professional comparison before doing that work. The season he is having is interesting enough. A careful look at the production will tell us more than a hurried attempt to place him beside somebody else. Legree deserves to be evaluated for what he is doing, not used as an excuse to reach for the first familiar name.
Attention Should Arrive While the Story Is Developing
College football has no shortage of familiar names. Finding room for a new one should not be particularly difficult when the production warrants it. Legree has earned that room.
The sensible approach is to acknowledge what he has done, investigate it and keep watching. That allows the story to develop without pretending his future is already settled.
It also avoids waiting until everybody knows his name before deciding he was worth covering. There is room to be impressed by the start and careful about what comes next. Oregon State’s win over San Diego State supplied another reason to look. The first six games supplied a reason to stay.
