The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
Football
- Title:
- Wide Receivers
Andre Coleman, who spent the majority of the 2019 season as an analyst at Texas and is a former offensive coordinator and receivers coach at Kansas State, was promoted from interim wide receivers coach to the full-time position on Jan. 13, 2020.
In 2020, despite injuries affecting almost every player in the wide receiver group at some point Coleman tutored a balanced group with seven different players reaching double digits in receptions, including four with 20 or more, and eight different players recording a touchdown pass. Sophomore Joshua Moore’s nine touchdown catches matched the highest single-season total since Jordan Shipley pulled in 13 in 2009. The four players with over 20 receptions included Moore (30-472-9), junior Brennan Eagles (28-469-5), sophomore Jake Smith (23-294-3) and freshman Jordan Whittington (21-206-0).
Coleman was named an interim coach on Dec. 1 and directed the receivers unit throughout bowl practices and during Texas' victory over No. 11 Utah in the 2019 Alamo Bowl. In that game, the receivers caught nine passes for 165 yards and two touchdowns.
Before joining the Texas staff as an analyst in February, Coleman spent the previous six years at his alma mater Kansas State coaching wide receivers, including two as pass game coordinator (2016-17) and one as offensive coordinator (2018). Coleman was instrumental in the growth of the Kansas State offense and return game under head coach Bill Snyder and coached a position group that recorded the most receptions and yards ever by a Snyder-coached team in 2013 before shattering both those marks in 2014 with 230 receptions for 3,097 yards.
In 2018, the Wildcats' rushing game flourished, especially in the last seven weeks of the season when it averaged 208.6 yards per game and totaled 16 touchdowns on the ground. Running back Alex Barnes led the Big 12 in rushing yards (1,355) and rushing yards per game (112.9 ypg) and earned second-team all-conference honors, while OL Dalton Risner was named Big 12 co-Offensive Lineman of the Year and collected the last of his three-straight first-team All-Big 12 selections.
One of Coleman's top pupils, wide receiver Byron Pringle, finished his two-year career in 2017 after becoming the 30th Wildcat to top 1,000 career receiving yards. He set the school record for single-season yards per catch (24.13) – a mark that ranked third nationally – while his career mark of 19.64 yards per catch ranks second in Kansas State history. Coleman also helped guide Pringle in returns as he finished sixth in school history in career kickoff return yards (1,076) and average (27.6), while he returned two for touchdowns to tie for fourth in Kansas State history. Pringle earned honorable mention All-Big 12 honors as a kick returner and currently plays for the Kansas City Chiefs.
A former NFL kick returner who returned a kickoff for a touchdown in Super Bowl XXIX, Coleman helped develop D.J. Reed in the return game en route to 2017 second-team All-America honors from the Walter Camp Football Foundation, while he earned first-team All-Big 12 honors and votes for Big 12 Special Teams Player of the Year. Coleman helped guide Reed to second in the national rankings in both kickoff return average (34.2 ypr) and punt return average (14.9 ypr), while he returned each for a touchdown during the season.
Coleman also recruited and helped develop wide receiver Isaiah Zuber, who placed in the top five in school history in freshman (24; 5th), sophomore (51; 3rd) and junior (52; 4th) catches during his first three years at Kansas State. Zuber led the Wildcats in catches in both 2017 and 2018, and had already moved into a tie for eighth on the school's career receptions list with 127 and its receiving touchdowns list with 11 by the end of the 2018 season. In those same years from 2016-18, wide receiver Dalton Schoen's average of 18.0 yards per reception from his freshman to his junior year ranked fourth on the school's career list, leading to two of the top four career averages having been under Coleman at that time.
Tutoring a young position group in 2016, the top two receivers – Pringle and Dominique Heath – were both sophomores, while Zuber, a redshirt freshman, was fourth on the squad. Pringle's season totals were buoyed by a 126-yard performance in the regular-season finale at TCU and a 107-yard outburst against Texas A&M to help Kansas State win the 2016 Texas Bowl. Each of those contests featured one of the longest receptions in school history as he had an 83-yard touchdown against the Horned Frogs and a 78-yard score against Texas A&M, the latter setting a Kansas State bowl record.
Pringle finished seventh nationally in kickoff-return yards in 2016, while his 659 kickoff-return yards ranked fifth in school history. Pringle, who had a 99-yard kickoff return touchdown against Texas Tech, went on to earn first-team All-Big 12 honors, the fourth-straight year Kansas State had the first-team honoree at returner.
The 2014 season proved to be the best year for Wildcat wide receivers in school history as the one-two punch of All-American Tyler Lockett and All-Big 12 performer Curry Sexton became the first duo in school history to go over 1,000 yards in the same season and were the top receiving duo in the nation during that season. Lockett, a semifinalist for the Biletnikoff Award, finished third in the country and tops in the Big 12 with 1,515 receiving yards to go along with 11 touchdowns, another top mark in the league. Lockett also hauled in the second-most receptions in a season in school history with 106.
Lockett left Kansas State as the all-time leader in career receptions (249), yards (3,710) and touchdowns (29), just three of the 17 school records he set in his four-year career. Lockett, who went on to become an NFL Pro Bowler and finalist for NFL Rookie of the Year in his first season with the Seattle Seahawks, also earned Big 12 Special Teams Player of the Year honors for a second-straight season and was a consensus All-American as a returner under Coleman. Lockett also excelled in punt return duties as a senior by leading the nation with a 19.1-yard average, while returning two for touchdowns.
Sexton ranked 25th nationally and fourth in the conference with 1,059 receiving yards. He recorded the two best seasons of his career under Coleman as he had a three-year total of just 564 yards entering his senior season, 446 of which came as a junior, Coleman's first season on staff. Sexton teamed with Lockett to record five of the school's double 100-yard games, while he finished fourth in school history in single-season receptions (79) and seventh in yards.
The 2013 group was paced by Lockett, who ranked 11th nationally with 105.2 receiving yards per game and 19th in the NCAA with 11 touchdown receptions en route to All-America honors. Lockett, who was a candidate for the Biletnikoff Award, set the school's single-game receiving yardage record at Texas (237) before smashing his own mark later in the season against Oklahoma (278). He also tied the single-game school record with three receiving touchdowns on three occasions. The 2013 Big 12 Special Teams Player of the Year, Lockett set the school's single-game all-purpose yardage record with 440 against Oklahoma, a mark that ranked as the fifth-most in FBS history.
Although Lockett was the driving force behind Coleman's successful receiving corps in 2013, he was hardly the lone threat as Sexton and senior Tramaine Thompson gave the Wildcats solid second and third options. Thompson, who left Kansas State No. 12 on the all-time receiving list, was an honorable mention All-Big 12 kick returner under Coleman.
Coleman was also instrumental in helping coach a third-straight Big 12 Special Teams Player of the Year honoree in kick returner Morgan Burns, who went on to earn first-team All-America honors in 2015. The latest in a long line of dynamic kick returners, Burns ranked first in the nation with four kickoff return touchdowns and third with a 33.5-yard average.
Prior to returning to Kansas State, Coleman spent the previous three seasons at Youngstown State. In 2011 and 2012, Coleman worked with no seniors and only one junior as he coached multiple freshmen and sophomores who were called into action early in their careers to the tune of 109 total receptions by underclassmen. He helped YSU post a 7-4 record, including a 31-17 victory at Pittsburgh, which served as the school's first-ever victory over a BCS opponent.
During his first season as the receivers coach in 2011, Coleman guided a group that caught 22 of a school-record 27 touchdown passes, while the Penguins' 227.5 passing yards per game were the second-most in school history and the highest since 1972. Christian Bryan set school freshman records in receptions (46) and yards (722) under Coleman's watch, while his yardage total was the most by a freshman at the FCS level that season. Coaching the tight ends in his first season on the staff in 2010, Coleman's group hauled in 17 receptions and two touchdowns, helping YSU's offense set a then-school record at 412.0 yards per game.
A 1993 All-America and All-Big Eight performer, Coleman left his mark at Kansas State during his four years (1990-93) by accumulating 3,443 all-purpose yards, including 1,556 receiving yards and 12 touchdowns on 95 receptions and 1,458 kickoff-return yards on 60 returns. He still sits in Kansas State's top 10 in 12 offensive or return categories, including ranking first in both single-game all-purpose yards per play (27.0 vs. Missouri in 1993) and career all-purpose yards per play (18.2), third in career kickoff return attempts and a fourth in kickoff return yards.
The Hermitage, Pennsylvania, product was drafted in the third round of the 1994 NFL Draft by San Diego and put together a solid five-year professional career playing for the Chargers, Seattle Seahawks and Pittsburgh Steelers. A two-time Pro Bowler and 1994 NFL All-Rookie squad honoree, Coleman helped the Chargers win the 1994 AFC Championship and earn a trip to Super Bowl XXIX. In that game, he established eight Super Bowl records at the time, including a then-record 98-yard kickoff return touchdown. He became the first Wildcat football player to score a touchdown in a Super Bowl.
Coleman completed his degree in social sciences from Kansas State in the summer of 2011. He has three daughters – Shyla, Kyla and Brielle.
