College Football: Top 50 players for 2017

A converted defensive back, Courtland Sutton has thrived as a wide receiver at SMU. He finished among the leaders in the American Athletic conference in nearly every major statistic. Sutton was third in receiving touchdowns, fourth in receiving yards, fourth in yards per reception (16.4), seventh in receptions and eighth in total yards from scrimmage.

What’s working against Sutton is his inconsistent offense. Quarterback Ben Hicks completed only 55.5 percent of his passes and had a pedestrian 19:15 touchdown to interception ratio. It should go without saying that it’s hard to catch passes that don’t reach your general vicinity.

While he might not have been accurate, Hicks pumped the ball to Sutton at an extremely high rate. Sutton was targeted a team high 127 times, that was more than 40 more than the next closest Mustang. To put that into perspective, only 23 pass catchers had more targets in 2016 than Sutton. Of those above him, only three reached averaged more yards per catch than he did.

Chad Morris has shown a greater propensity than most to the run the football in his two seasons at SMU. The Mustangs ran the football on 487 out 735 plays (67 percent). When SMU does throw, it’s headed straight to Sutton.