Mississippi State football: Jamire Calvin reunites with Mike Leach in crowded WR room
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Jamire Calvin flourished in the Air Raid offense at Washington State under head coach Mike Leach. As a graduate transfer, he took advantage of the freedom to follow Leach to Mississippi State in hopes of rekindling his football career.
With 2 years of eligibility remaining, the former 4-star recruit out of Los Angeles has headed to the Southeast, reuniting with Leach and a system he is familiar with and blossomed under, posting career highs in 2018 with 42 catches for 497 yards and a touchdown. He’s hopeful that playing under a system he knows will be beneficial to himself, Leach, and the Bulldogs team.
It surely hasn’t been a smooth ride for Calvin in the sport he loves. A foot injury that required surgery, and was later reinjured, kept him sidelined for all of 2019 and he ended up redshirting in Leach’s last season at Wazzu. But he still managed to post some impressive numbers over the 3 campaigns in Pullman. Calvin totaled 92 pass receptions for 980 yards and 5 TDs for the Cougars.
Now, it’s almost like going home again. Because Leach brought with him most of his assistants from the Air Raid offense at Washington State, Calvin not only rejoins his head coach but also his position coach, Dave Nichol, who played a key role in recruiting him out of high school.
Both Leach and Nichol identified his abilities and were correct in calculating that they would play in their system.
“He’s a real sudden guy and is real good coming out of his cuts,” Leach said in describing Calvin’s attributes. “He can stop and go real fast. He just needs to be a consistent guy and also gives us a little depth.”
But Calvin has company. He is the second wide receiver to transfer to Mississippi State this year. Former California pass-catcher Makai Polk came to campus in the spring and scored a touchdown in the Maroon and White game.
With his work certainly cut out for him, Calvin is among a large group of talented receivers vying for playing time. All 7 of the Bulldogs’ top WRs return from last season, including Jaden Walley, their leading receiver (52 receptions for 718 yards). In addition, Austin Williams is also back after adding 43 catches for 372 yards (3 scores) in 2020.
Malik Heath (37-307) and Tulu Griffin (12-110) return to give Leach more than just a few options at that position. And that’s a good thing considering the Bulldogs lost receivers Javonta Payton and Geor’quarius Spivey to the transfer portal.
The beauty of Leach’s offense, of course, is while there still is only 1 ball, it’s typically thrown more than 50 times a game. That’s a lot of opportunities.
Listed 2nd on the depth chart at the H receiver behind Williams, as Polk, Walley and Heath work with the 1s at the other receiver spots during the first handful of days in fall camp, Calvin is counting on his 4.4 speed to make up for a lack of size at the demanding position. It’s not only catching passes that the slot receiver is tasked with, but Leach calls for as much blocking as pass-catching from the slot.
At 5-10 and 160 pounds, Calvin isn’t exactly your prototypical inside receiver, yet he still possesses the tools to succeed at the position.
“You need a guy that understands space,” Leach said of his slot receiver spot. “It’s a more complicated position than some. You want guys that have a good change of direction. Sometimes low center of gravity guys have that, but they don’t have to be, as long as they can get out of their cuts and change directions.”
So size isn’t the biggest factor, and that’s a good thing since many of the Bulldogs receivers are similarly Smurf-like in stature. MSU has 7 wide receivers under 6 feet tall and 10 WRs measure 6-1 or under.
“Lot of them are the same size and sometimes speed and ability,” Nichol said. “It’s like, hey who can be the most consistent. So it’s a nice little competition.”
Glenn Sattell is an award-winning freelance writer for Saturday Down South.
