Position: WR
Height: 5’10”
Weight: 175
Year: Redshirt Sophomore
Hometown: Purcellville, VA
Counting the incoming freshmen, there are 19 WRs on the Hoos’ roster. Eleven of those guys are on scholarship. The top returning WRs are Olamide Zaccheaus (21 receptions last year) and Keeon Johnson (13 receptions last year, 46 for his career). Those two, along with Andre Levrone, are the most likely candidates to start at WR. But there will be competition for those spots, with guys like David Eldridge and Doni Dowling leading the way. As we’ve discussed previously in these player profiles, that doesn’t leave a lot of room for a walk-on WR to see the field.
Braedon Urie is in that group of unlikely contributors. Urie is a small, quick WR. There is a use for that player. Urie’s problem is that he’s smaller and slower than his competition. At his size, he’d need to be faster and more elusive to see the field. Something like either Zaccheaus or Smoke Mizzell.
Here is Braedon’s Hudl page with his junior season highlights. Urie also played DB, and a lot of the players in the highlight reel are of him on defense, including a pair of pick-sixes. Most of his highlights at WR involve him blocking. Whether that is a function of the offensive scheme his school ran, or if he simply doesn’t have many highlight reel plays as a WR, I do not know. Despite his size, he does come off as a very physical player. He appears to be both a good blocker and a willing blocker, and that physicality shows up on defense as well.
His physical nature would show up on special teams, and that is likely his only road to the field. It would take quite a few injuries for Urie to see the field at WR, and even then he probably wouldn’t end up with many passes thrown his way. Such is the nature of being a walk-on WR in college football.