Drew Mehringer decided to make an example of Collin Johnson last year because he apparently, in Mehringer's world, got too full of himself and wasn't "aligned". Being buddies with Foreman didn't help him. The WR unit got the worst of the 2017 coaching premise that they were going to beat the shit out of the team until the entitlement wore away. The side effects of that approach included Hemphill-Mapps getting completely disenfranchised and randomly suspended on multiple occasions to the point where he checked out from attending classes by November; Devin Duvernay negging the program to recruits on official visits; and Collin Johnson losing track of which way was up and not knowing where the next kick to his crotch was coming from by the staff. The near total team revolt ahead of the Texas Bowl was a wake up to many on the staff, including Herman.
Some lessons were learned, but not all of them. During film session with WR recruits and their dads this spring, allegedly, Mehringer made a point of talking shit about the existing talent, including Johnson, to the tune of turning the families off completely, or damn near so.
I'm interested in seeing whether the coaches have improved on their personnel choices on offense this year. Last year was a fucking joke in term of selecting personnel. The number of empty sets in which we slotted out a non-functioning TE instead of rotating in another WR was astonishing. The amount of carries and snaps Kyle Porter received because he had "the right attitude" sent the message to everyone, fans included, that the best players won't often play. Naashon Hughes doing nothing for hours on the field while others rode pine. Taking forever to get Gary Johnson steadily on the field. The WR rotation overall was a fucking joke. I keep waiting to see Kyle Porter start creeping up the depth chart due to some amorphous notion associated to team spirit or "picking up the rush", which were used last year, even as he often failed to pick up the rush. If that dude remains 5th on the depth chart, and we hear about freshman getting 1st and 2nd team snaps on offense all over the field right up to Maryland, I'll start to think maybe we turned a corner.