Bailey, SMU WRs experiencing 'higher standard' this spring

As Jake Bailey enters his third, and final, season at SMU he knows there is a new standard to live up to this year.

Every wide receiver except for two this spring have been on the roster for at least two years. They know what to expect, they know the standards and they know they have to take another step in their development and production.

“I think there’s a higher standard this time around. Having a year under our belt with everybody,” Bailey said. “We kind of know how we all operate, what we respond to and what we don’t. So, it’s raising that standard and then continuing to hold everybody accountable and pushing everybody to hold that standard up and do it every day, which is hard in spring. It could get mundane, it gets hard going at the same guys, doing the same routes every single day. Being able to maintain that competitive stamina is what we’re trying to focus on and do this time around.”

Bailey was SMU’s leading receiver last year in terms of catches and yards with 42 for 528, including five games with at least 50 yards. He started in 13 of the 14 games and was a team captain.

“Both of those guys are guys you could use to run option routes out of the backfield or at the slot position,” SMU receivers coach Rob Likens said of Bailey and Roderick Daniels Jr. “And then I count on them as being leaders. As they go out and lining up the outside receivers at the perfect spot because those two guys are just phenomenal football guys and they understand the details of football. So they can line everybody up and just having those guys, it’s a tremendous luxury.”

At this point Bailey knows the playbook and the calls. Instead the focus has to be on those little things that add up to make a big difference.

“It’s the details day in and day out. Coming in and not getting tired of doing the little things right,” Bailey said. “From the warm up to pat and go, that carries into the live periods and the team periods. So trying not to be in that switch on, switch off mode, where you try to click into that more intense person. Trying to have that all the time and be locked in as much as possible all the time.”

He also gets a nice push from Daniels and Carter Campbell as the veterans at the slot position. They are able to push each other while keeping it a friendly competition.

“It’s a great competition. Me, Rod, Carter, we have one of the deepest slot receiver rooms in the country,” Bailey said. “And it’s amazing because we’re not, it’s never any energy, it’s never any ill will. It’s always kind of collaborative and building each other up and bouncing ideas off each other and how can we do this better. I think it gets all of us so much better. It’s a good, nice thing.

Just like the end of last season, this spring has allowed the receivers to get extra work with both Kevin Jennings and now redshirt freshman Keldric Luster. Both have impressed Bailey.

With Jennings it has been about all of the outside practice things that he does with the receivers.

“(Jennings) is so willing and eager to get in that extra work and as many of these little reps as possible before practice, after practice, after the walkthrough, on non-practice days,” Bailey said. “So he’s all about the extra work and building the chemistry that way, which I really appreciate because it translates right into our live periods, our 7-on-7 stuff. If we like something or we don’t like something, we talk about it right away, we get it fixed.”

When it comes to Luster, it’s about how he approaches each play and his style under center.

“I think Keldric’s been amazing so far,” Bailey said. “I think one of the things that he does, or that I really appreciate about him, is his fearlessness back there. When he sees something he likes, he’s going to rip it regardless of what he’s seeing here or there, if he likes it he likes it. I can appreciate that, that gunslinger mentality, a no fear approach like that.”

While the season is still five months away and it will be another month after that until SMU plays its first ACC game, the players know what is coming. It’s not their sole focus this spring, but it’s certainly there.

“I think absolutely every day it’s in the back of our mind,” Bailey said of preparing for the ACC. “Within every rep it’s, ‘We’re going to be going up against a completely new beast — bigger, stronger, faster, whatever the case may be.’ I think it’s always somewhere thinking about it. Obviously, we’re focused on ourselves and getting better at our craft every single day, but knowing what’s coming in that, we’re going to be in the fire soon. I think it’s all exciting, but we’re preparing for it as well.”