AUBURN, Ala. – Terry Beasley. Frank Sanders. Karsten Bailey. Courtney Taylor. Darvin Adams. Darius Slayton. Those are just a few of the names that pop up when you look back at some of the greats who have played wide receiver for Auburn over the years.
In another year or two, that list might include a few more names.
Eli Stove. Seth Williams. Anthony Schwartz.
The trio has elevated the wide receiver position at Auburn over the past couple years, making highlight-reel catches, showing off world-class speed and scoring plenty of touchdowns. But they don't want to just be another good group of receivers and move on. They have their sights set on leaving a much bigger legacy.
"We want to leave here as the best wide receiver corps that Auburn has ever had," Schwartz said. "We want to put up the most yards and score the most touchdowns in Auburn history at the position."
Schwartz, a dual-sport athlete who also runs track, is the fastest of the three. He might be the fastest player in all of college football. Just go back and watch the tape from his freshman season against Tennessee when he ran a curl route, broke a tackle, and raced down the sideline 60 yards for a touchdown. To this day, it remains his favorite touchdown at Auburn.
But there's more to Schwartz than just speed. This year, he's worked on becoming a more complete wide receiver, and through the first five games, the junior has already caught 34 passes for 299 yards. Last year, he finished with 41 catches and 440 yards for the season.
In Auburn's win over Arkansas, Schwartz enjoyed a career-day with a team-high 10 receptions, 100 yards and a touchdown.
"I know Flash, he had it in him all the time," Williams said. "It was his first 100-yard game, but I knew it was going to come. It could have happened last year or the year before last. He's special. He can do it many more games. I just like watching your brother have a good game."
Williams knows a thing or two about 100-yard games. The junior has five for his career and two this season, including last week against Ole Miss when he went for 150 yards on eight catches. Looking at the record books, he's already climbed to 10th on Auburn's career receptions list, and with his performance last week, he joined Beasley and Sanders as the only players in program history with two career games with 150 yards receiving.
At 6-foot-3, 211 pounds, Williams is a different type of wide receiver than Schwartz or Stove. He's a bigger body who can make tough catches and go up and get the 50-50 balls. But that's what makes him such a perfect complement to his counterparts.
"With Seth, you can just throw it up to him, 50-50 balls, and we know he's going to come down with it," Schwartz said. "He's going to go over the middle a lot because he's a big body and he can run routes. With me and Eli, we know that we can stretch the field vertically and horizontally with our speed. We just know what our role is. We know what we can do."
For Stove, that role on the team has changed some this year.
It's not changed in terms of ability. Stove is still just as fast and elusive as he's ever been. If anything, he too has become more well-rounded in his game as evidenced by his 7-catch, 60-yard performance against South Carolina. But as the lone senior among the three, Stove has assumed more of a leadership role in the wide receiver room.
"I think that's the biggest thing I've taken on this year," he said. "Really, it's about being positive. If something's breaking down, I'm picking everybody up."
Knowing it's his senior year at Auburn, there's a love for the game that might not have been there when Stove first arrived on campus as a wide-eyed freshman from Florida.
"When you're younger, everybody always says 'I want to go to the NFL and make a lot of money.' But when you start getting older, I feel like that goes out the window," Stove said. "You start loving the game more, honestly. The money's going to come, but the money's going to come because you love the game.
"I really just love the game. All my years being here, I don't take it for granted anymore."
So why does this group believe it has a chance to be the best wide receiver group to ever play at Auburn? Because it's not just one of them trying to make history. It's all three.
In the season opener, Williams had 112 yards receiving and two touchdowns. The next two weeks, it was Schwartz who led the team in receptions. The week after that, Schwartz caught a team-high seven passes and found the end zone. And last week, Williams scored the game-winning touchdown to put an exclamation point on a record performance.
"The three of us, we have a lot of playing time under our belt," Schwartz said. "We're kind of like the veteran guys, so we know everyone depends on us. As long as one of us does something good, we all feed off it. One game it could be Seth. The other game it could be me. The other game it could be Eli. We want each other to succeed and when we see one guy eating, we all want to eat."
If Schwartz, Williams and Stove keep eating, Auburn will keep winning games, and maybe they can add their names to the record books as the best to ever do it.
