THE BYE WEEK TAPE: KDot Sets the Tempo. Jaydon Smith Changes the Math
Put the preseason brochure in the glove box. Four games in, we got tape now.
That’s what The Bye Week Tape is about. UTRGV gets a Saturday without a game, so DITV is going room by room through what we’ve actually seen. Production, usage, flashes, stuff that travels and stuff we still need to see. No letter grades. No depth-chart politics. Just a fan who watches this team way too much pulling up the receipts and talking ball.
We’re starting outside, and Kyran “KDot” Lee, No. 12, has set the tempo. His 22 catches, 338 yards and three touchdowns lead the room, but it’s the consistency that hits different. At least four catches every Saturday. Two 100-yard games. Different quarterbacks, different flow, same No. 12 somewhere in the middle of it. KDot isn’t living off one big night. He’s stacking production, and four games in, he’s the receiver UTRGV has been able to count on every week.
Then Jaydon Smith started putting bass in the speakers. Ten catches for 239 yards is already nice. Then you realize that’s 23.9 yards every time he catches one. Since being shut out in Week 1, he’s gone 2-68, 4-90-1 and 4-81, with long grabs of 53, 36 and 39 yards. Three straight weeks of making somebody in the secondary turn around and run. Smith doesn’t need volume to wreck the geometry. One catch can flip the field, move a safety and create grass somewhere else.
Corey Holmes is the one I’m watching coming out of the bye. He came out the gate swinging: 11 catches for 187 yards in the first two games, including 119 against UTPB. The last two have been quieter — four catches, 45 yards — but we already saw the spark. It didn’t disappear; it just hasn’t burned as bright lately. If Holmes catches another heater while KDot stays steady and Smith keeps stealing chunks of grass, somebody on defense is going to have to decide what problem they’re willing to live with.
And remember, we still haven’t seen this room whole. Tavian Cord gave UTRGV 7 catches for 90 yards and a touchdown in two games before getting hurt. Truthfully, we still don’t know exactly what his full role looks like because the injury interrupted the evaluation.
Then there’s Clint Thomas Jr., maybe the feature everybody’s been waiting to hear. He hasn’t played while coming back from a broken collarbone, but the JUCO tape is why there’s real anticipation. Last year at Southwestern: 47 catches, 824 yards, eight touchdowns and 17.5 a catch. Different level? Absolutely. But burst is burst, and his tape had plenty of it. Now we need to see if that juice travels.
Christian Sabsook is at 8-57-1, and he’s caught a pass in every game. There are flashes there, but his role still feels like it’s being written. He’s playing enough that he clearly matters; now we find out exactly where he fits when everybody is available. Alex Green is 3-11, and I’m not putting a label on him yet. We need more. More snaps, more targets, more chances to actually see what Tulsa brought to the room.
The rest of the production: Cameron Glenn 3-29, Braden Baize 2-16, Jaxon Baize 1-15, Hunter Luke 1-9 and Keilan Sweeny 1-4.
Now pull the camera back.
UTRGV has completed 81 passes for 1,086 yards and six touchdowns. The wide receivers own 73 catches,
1,040 yards and every single touchdown.
That’s the room.
KDot sets the tempo. Jaydon changes the math. Holmes still has a match in his pocket. Sabsook is carving out his lane. Green needs more opportunity. Cord needs to get healthy. And Thomas is still the feature we’ve been waiting on.
Four games gave us plenty.
And we still haven’t heard the whole thing.
THE BYE WEEK TAPE by DITV
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