ESPN: Westerkamp Masters the Circus Catch

Mavric

Mavric

Yoda
Staff member
The catch was voted as college football’s play of the year. And this was no one-time event. Ten months earlier at Memorial Stadium, Westerkamp dove to grab a deflection in the end zone, completing a successful Hail Mary from QB Ron Kellogg as Nebraska beat Northwestern 27-24 in miraculous fashion.


Westerkamp is the king of the circus catch.

It’s an art form for the 6-foot junior from Lombard, Illinois. Some people can eat 60 hot dogs in 10 minutes. Others can throw a baseball 100 mph. Westerkamp can catch everything thrown at him.

He displays his talent regularly in practice.

“I’m fully aware of what he can do,” Nebraska cornerback Daniel Davie said. “As a DB, you’ve got to get your hands on the ball before he does, because if he touches it, he’s coming down with it.”
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ESPN

 
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As a resident Jordan Westerkamp lover, so much so I prognosticated he would live Nebraska as it's all time greatest receiver, I want to see him master the non-circus catch. By my recollection, he dropped a few makeable ones last year, a few of which we really needed.

 
husker07 said:
As a resident Jordan Westerkamp lover, so much so I prognosticated he would live Nebraska as it's all time greatest receiver, I want to see him master the non-circus catch. By my recollection, he dropped a few makeable ones last year, a few of which we really needed.
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I'm not sure about even "a few". The one really bad one was the wheel route at Michigan State where he was wide open but dropped an underthrown ball. Right before we really got going on our comeback. Would have been interesting had he brought that one in as he had a lot of room to run.

Other than that, I don't remember any drops.

 
I love me some Jordan Westercamp, but I don't recall him diving for that hail may. I recall it being tapped up into the air and him being in the right place to catch it and fall to the ground.

 
Tomhusker64 said:
I love me some Jordan Westercamp, but I don't recall him diving for that hail may. I recall it being tapped up into the air and him being in the right place to catch it and fall to the ground.
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It wasn't a dive. It was a bit of an awkward jump as he was trying to make sure he caught it.

nebraskahailmary.gif


 
Mavric said:
Tomhusker64 said:
I love me some Jordan Westercamp, but I don't recall him diving for that hail may. I recall it being tapped up into the air and him being in the right place to catch it and fall to the ground.
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It wasn't a dive. It was a bit of an awkward jump as he was trying to make sure he caught it.

nebraskahailmary.gif
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The thing about Jordan that sets him apart and makes him very good as a receiver is that he's able to get a conscious read/react on a situation extremely quickly, which is rare in athletics, which are very instinctual. The jump was kind of funny because he had the thought of needing to make sure he was across the goal line, so he tried shortening his body as much as possible.

He might not have thought all those things through in his head, but his brain was able to actually make sense of them in real time. Players like that are often the best playmakers because the majority of their competitions' brains don't work like that.

 
Landlord of Memorial Stadium said:
Mavric said:
Tomhusker64 said:
I love me some Jordan Westercamp, but I don't recall him diving for that hail may. I recall it being tapped up into the air and him being in the right place to catch it and fall to the ground.
Click to expand...
It wasn't a dive. It was a bit of an awkward jump as he was trying to make sure he caught it.

nebraskahailmary.gif
Click to expand...


The thing about Jordan that sets him apart and makes him very good as a receiver is that he's able to get a conscious read/react on a situation extremely quickly, which is rare in athletics, which are very instinctual. The jump was kind of funny because he had the thought of needing to make sure he was across the goal line, so he tried shortening his body as much as possible.

He might not have thought all those things through in his head, but his brain was able to actually make sense of them in real time. Players like that are often the best playmakers because the majority of their competitions' brains don't work like that.
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That's some Malcolm Gladwell type sh#t.

 


For a long time I've said Matt Davison had the best hands of any NU receiver I've seen. Sure Davison wasn't very big and didn't have blazing speed. But he had great hands. He just didn't miss many catches. I'm starting to think Westerkamp might have better hands.

 
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