It didn’t take Tate Smith long, once he stepped foot back on the west side.
Odessa High’s newest receivers coach came in late, joining the Bronchos’ staff in late July, with two-a-days and the 2017 season just around the corner.
Of course, at first, he wasn’t sure exactly what to expect in his first season back with the program.
But once he met his new receivers, he knew right away.
‘Oh yeah. This’ll be fun.’
Odessa High’s receivers and their fiery, confident and boisterous personalities meshed in an instant with their new coaches, and now together the corps is making big play after big play to help key the Bronchos’ passing game.
Those Bronchos receivers will look to put together more explosive plays tonight when Odessa High hosts San Angelo Central at 7:30 in Ratliff Stadium.
“It’s the swag group,” Bronchos wideout Tyrone Caufield put it simply, with a slick smile. “The receivers are the swag group.”
The ever-vocal junior stood on Coleman Field just after a practice this week, and another workout with his fellow receivers — and another day which saw that crew make plenty of commotion on the field just like they plan to do every game night.
There’s Caufield on the outside, the one who’s always quick to grab the microphone at Friday morning pep rallies. There’s junior Julian Galindo in slot, quick to challenge his teammates on the practice field. There’s cool, calm Jacob Munoz, the hoss in run blocking and as a red zone threat at tight end. There’s another seen-it-all senior on the outside in Zay Brown — and the rest of the receivers behind that group bring plenty of their own fire.
And they fit right in with Smith, the former Permian quarterback now into his second stint on the Odessa High staff, and co-receivers coach Kyle Wolfle, up from helping coach Bronchos’ freshmen the past two seasons, who can both find themselves getting excited right there with those players.
“It all jives,” Smith said.
It’s worked just fine on the field so far this season, too.
Galindo leads the Bronchos in receiving with 24 catches and 333 yards. Munoz has a team-best three touchdown catches. Caufield has 117 yards on five catches, the deep threat averaging 23.4 yards per catch, while Brown has seven catches for 107 yards. They both have two touchdowns catches, as does Galindo.
Together, the Bronchos are only 103 yards shy of surpassing last year’s team receiving yards total, and their energy and attitude this season is a big part of why.
“They’re always telling us to get hyped — and when we do something, they get hyped with us,” Galindo said of Smith and Wolfle.
With five games down and five games left to go in the regular season, they’re all sure there’ll be plenty more plays to get excited about soon enough.
“It’s a lot of confidence — and early on it took them a while to get it, but once they got it, gah-lee, they’ve got a lot of confidence in what they do now,” Smith said.
“If you ask them on Friday nights, ‘Who’s open?’ All of them. All four of them will sit there and go, ‘I can beat my guy.’”
Of course, their confidence didn’t come from nothing, and it hasn’t just been all about glamorous touchdowns for the Bronchos receivers this fall.
For this crew, it starts with hard work in practice, and the physical presence it brings to the outside in run blocking and in blocking for fellow receivers.
The Bronchos receivers might like to talk, but they like to back it up, too.
“It was kind of one of the things, this summer, when Coach Servance called and asked me to come back, was to instill a tough mentality in our receiver corps,” Smith said, thinking back to when he first got back on Golder.
“They wanted me to bring a tough mentality back to our receivers in blocking and everything, and that was one of the things that I had to tone-set early with them, that we were going to be able to block well — and if we block well, and we get into the DB’s heads, then we’re able to come open in our passing game.
“It’s shown in the first five games that that’s what happens, and we have the ability to make the big plays downfield with the ball in the air.”
Smith’s right. Plenty of the Bronchos’ success through the air has come through that physical mindset. Look at Brown’s 30-yard touchdown against Lubbock Monterey, which came on a screen set up in part by fellow receivers making their blocks to open his running lane.
Galindo may well have seen most of his receiving yards come after the catch, and that’s another credit to Bronchos receivers making selfless blocks downfield.
Caufield’s 51-yard touchdown against Lubbock Coronado came on play action, a result of that physical run-first play setting up the big score.
It’s started with that mindset — and that attitude the Bronchos receivers have brought with them to the field this fall.
“We’re going to come get in your grill, cut you, block you, run routes on you, catch touchdowns on you — that is the mentality that they carry with them,” Wolfle said, noting it was tough for the Bronchos to keep in that mindset through a tough season last fall.
“It’s good that they have that, because last year it was hard to pick them up and get their spirits up, and now every day, it’s ‘swag,’ they’re pumped, they’re excited, they’re having fun. Smith definitely brought that dynamic.”
Now, Smith and the receivers are bringing that dynamic to games.
“I think that the right mixture is on the field — the experienced guys with Zay and Jacob in there, and then you’ve got the vocal guy in Tyrone, and then you’ve got the silent but deadly guy in Julian,” Smith laughed. “When you get them all out there together, they mix well with each other, and that’s one of the things that’s pretty neat.”
Brown said, with Smith and Wolfle leading them, the receiving crew won’t be slowing down any time soon.
“We’re always looking to make big plays, and when our numbers called we really just want to make something happen,” Brown said. “We’re going to do what these coaches tell us, and trust in that process.”
“We’re going to keep making plays,” Munoz said. “Big-time players make big-time plays.”
Of course, they’re confident that’s just who they are.
