For fans of patience and a blue collar work ethic, you have to be rooting for Auburn senior wide receiver Ricardo Louis. Seemingly on campus the past seven years, Louis carved out a niche as the utility man, or third banana, for some pretty good Tigers offenses.

Do you remember when he caught that over route as a sophomore in 2010 from the great Cam Newton in the BCS Championship Game? Just kidding; he’s not that old.

But the Miami, Fla., product has had some memorable plays. When you think about it, it makes perfect sense that Louis was on the receiving end of the famous — or infamous from my vantage point — “Prayer at Jordan-Hare,” the undoubted catalyst to one of the finer seasons we’ve seen on the Plains.

I can also think of numerous Overs, Skinny-Posts and 9s that Louis caught from former quarterback Nick Marshall and current teammate Jeremy Johnson. And he’s electrifying on Jet-Sweeps in head coach Gus Malzahn’s two-back, spread offensive sets.

But it wasn’t until this season that I began to recognize just how complete of a receiver Louis can be after the subsequent in-season suspension of former No. 1-receiver, Duke Williams — due to repeated violations of team rules.

The 6-foot-2, 215-pound Louis compares favorably to another former Auburn star receiver in Sammie Coates as they have the uncanny ability hit their zero-to-60 speed as quick as an M3 despite their length.

But where Louis’ skill set differs is in his natural ability to catch the ball away from his body. As great as Coates was, it was hard not to notice how often he trapped the ball to his body, which definitely played a part in his precipitous drop to the fourth round of the past draft — despite his measurables.

Louis is a natural hands-catcher who plucks the ball out of the air with some of the largest mits I’ve seen on a receiver.

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Look at how he performed this 5-route (i.e., out route): He attacked rather aggressively at the onset, which gave the impression of a post or fly, and truly sold the route was of the in-breaking variety. Furthermore, after bending and cooking the corner back to the outside, he showed his natural catching ability by plucking the ball out of the sky and displaying his catch radius.

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Speaking of catch radius, here we see Louis doing what he’s mostly become known for: reeling in deep balls. It can be stated that Louis is as fast as Coates with similar route-running and catching ability to Williams.

It’s hard to not root for someone whose career arc was more of the slow-grind type and is peaking at the right time. As Auburn continues to attempt to solidify itself at the QB position and on defense, having a versatile inside-out rushing attack complemented by a No. 1 receiver who can work the quick game and is a deep-ball nightmare will be worth its weight in gold.

And let’s not gloss over a road win against a Kentucky team that plenty were high on, too. There’s a ton of ball to be played, and it’s not a foregone conclusion that Auburn won’t have a say in the matter.