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Why Baylor Bears WR Corey Coleman will shatter NCAA TD record

By Patrick Schmidt

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Baylor Bears wide receiver Corey Coleman is on pace to break the single-season touchdown record and is arguably the nation’s best player.

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It only took six games for Baylor wide receiver Corey Coleman to break the program’s single-season touchdown record with 16 and the Bears explosive playmaker may be the nation’s most dominant player.

Coleman has 41 receptions for 877 yards and the 16 touchdowns and other than LSU Tigers running back Leonard Fournette, widely considered the Heisman front-runner, has there been a better player in college this year.

After Coleman torched the West Virginia Mountaineers defense to the tune of 10 catches for 199 yards and three touchdowns, Dana Holgorsen was convinced his team just played the best player in college football.

"“You can put me on record that Corey Coleman is the best player in college football,” Holgorsen said after the 62-38 loss. “If you double-cover one receiver, they have three others that are pretty good.”"

It’s a pick your poison deal for the opposition when Baylor is on the schedule. The Bears lead the nation in scoring with an absurd 63.8 points per game behind first-year starting quarterback Seth Russell, running back Shock Linwood and Jay Lee and KD Cannon complimenting Coleman on the perimeter.

As great as Russell and Linwood have been this year, it’s Coleman who makes this defense unstoppable. He has the quickest feet you’ll see from a wide receiver and makes opposing cornerbacks look silly with his ability to get in and out of his breaks and separate from the defense. And he can make impossible things look routine.

Coleman is in the Heisman Trophy conversation but it’ll be difficult for him to be the first receiver since Tim Brown in 1989 to win the award normally reserved for quarterbacks and the occasional running back. But Coleman can have his name etched in the history of college football by shattering the record for receiving touchdowns in a season.

The record is held by Troy Edwards who caught 27 touchdowns at Louisiana Tech in 1998, one year after Marshall receiver Randy Moss set the record with 26. Coleman’s 16 in six games puts him on pace to score 32 touchdowns in the regular season.

If Baylor can make it to the College Football Playoff and advance to the championship game, Coleman is projected to score 37.3 touchdowns. His 2.6 touchdowns per game are more than 120 FBS teams, according to ESPN’s Brett McMurphy.

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So will he break the record?

Baylor’s remaining opponents: Iowa State, Kansas State, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, TCU and Texas present a mix of very soft pass defenses like Iowa State and Texas who rank ninth and tenth in the Big 12 with 16 and 17 touchdown passes allowed, respectively.

Meanwhile, Oklahoma State, TCU, Oklahoma and Kansas State rank in the top in fewest passing touchdowns allowed.

As good as the secondary’s are on those teams through the first half of the season, none of them have played a receiver as talented and productive as Coleman, an offense as explosive and dynamic as Baylor’s or a team with a commitment to running up the score at will.

I don’t think there’s any defense that can slow down Coleman so much that he won’t be able to get at least 12 touchdowns in the next six games to break Edwards’ record in the regular season. Bowl stats count too, so he can leave no question about who had the best season by a receiver with a monster game or two to boost his numbers to the next stratosphere.

If Coleman is the second best player to Fournette in a year when the LSU running back is on pace to break Herschel Walker’s SEC single-season rushing record of 1,891 yards set in 1981, there’s nothing wrong with that.

When Coleman was asked whether he agrees with Holgorsen’s assessment that he’s the best player in college football, he played it cool and without a hint of arrogance saying, “I’ll let you know at the end of the season.”

He may have 30 touchdowns, a Heisman Trophy and a national championship by then.

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