Hungry Jaguars

• By JOSEPH SCHIEFELBEIN
• Advocate sportswriter
• Published: Aug 7, 2008 - UPDATED: 6:35 a.m.

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Southern wide receivers coach Eric Dooley describes his group as hungry.

They ought to be.

“The next guy has to step up. They’re feeding off the opportunity to play,” Dooley said.

The Jaguars have 12 wide receivers in preseason camp, and only two of them caught balls last season.

Those two are senior Del Roberts (42 catches, 474 yards, two touchdowns) and junior Juamorris Stewart (23 catches, 237 yards, one TD).

Though neither has put together a dominant season, the roommates were on the preseason All-Southwestern Athletic Conference teams, with Roberts, a former North Carolina transfer, on the first team and Stewart, a former Southern Miss transfer, on the second team.

“You see it. You see it in this camp right now,” Dooley said. “I see where (Stewart is) stepping up and taking that leadership role. The little things. He’s calling guys together in his room, watching a little film.

“Del is the same way. Del has the talent. It’s not a question. He just has to stay healthy.”

While Roberts and Stewart have more experience than the rest of their 12-man group, they are like the others in that none has blossomed.

“They want the opportunity. They’re guys who have been waiting around,” Dooley said of his wideouts.

The entire group seems on the cusp of something special and, with the SWAC’s preseason offensive player of the year in quarterback Bryant Lee throwing them the ball, that could be possible.

“They’re expected to play well, so they don’t have a choice,” Dooley said.

Junior Clevan White has yet to get cleared academically and is not in preseason camp.