With the conclusion of the 2019 football season, the Liberty football team saw the end of careers of some of the best players to ever wear the Liberty jersey.
That got us thinking, who are the best at each position to ever play at Liberty? We started with the quarterbacks, and last week we discussed the running backs. Today, we move to the wide receivers, probably the deepest position group in school history.
To get an idea of how deep the WR talent pool is, here’s a few names we left off – Fred Banks, Tony Dews, and James McKnight, all three went on to NFL careers. Not to mention we could have included our #3 all-time QB Mike Brown who began his career as a WR and played in the NFL as a WR.
McKnight finished his career in the NFL with 122 games played, 222 receptions, 3,595 yards, and 18 touchdowns. Fred Banks had 105 receptions for 1,636 yards and 10 touchdowns in his 80 game NFL career.
Here’s our ranking, be sure to let us know where we messed up and who we left off:
5. Pat Nelson (1988-1991)
The competition for the 5th spot on this list was very intense. The odd goes to Nelson who ranks 4th in career receptions, 5th in career receiving yards. He also has the most consecutive 100-yard receiving games in school history with 5 and is 4th on the career list with 9 total 100-yard receiving games.
4. Kelvin Edwards (1982-1985)
Edwards was the first star receiver to wear the Liberty uniform. Edwards, Darrin Peterson, and Antonio Gandy-Golden are the only receivers in school history to lead the team in receiving for 3 seasons. Edwards did so in 1982, 1983, and 1985. He’s 4th on Liberty’s career receiving list, and the numbers he put up are even more impressive when considering he played during a time that teams were much more run dominant than now.
Edwards went on to a productive NFL career where he played for the New Orleans Saints and Dallas Cowboys. He was part of Liberty’s Inaugural Hall of Fame Class in 2009 and had his jersey retired in 2019.
3. Darrin Peterson (2012-2015)
After Chris Summers came in and captured all the Liberty receiving records, Darrin Peterson came in right on his heels and claimed them for himself.
Petey is one of only two Liberty receivers to lead the team in receiving for three consecutive seasons (the other one checks in at No. 1 on this list). Peterson had three straight seasons with at least 800 receiving yards and had a monstrous junior campaign with 1,379 yards and 12 touchdowns. Those two numbers rank 2nd for single season marks in school history.
His career marks of 215 receptions, 3,170 yards, and 27 touchdowns are 2nd in school history, ranking just behind one person on each of those lists.
2. Chris Summers (2008-2011)
Summers entered Liberty as one of the highest rated recruits Liberty had ever had by the time he arrived on campus. He originally committed to Louisville, but had a change of heart and landed in Lynchburg under former head coach Danny Rocco.
He would go on to have one of the more outstanding careers of any Liberty receiver, ranking 3rd on the school’s career list for receptions, receiving yards and touchdowns. Summers also had the athletic ability to play basketball at the collegiate level, suiting up for the Flames for one season.
1. Antonio Gandy-Golden (2016-2019)
One of the biggest reasons we started these GOAT lists, was due to departing seniors AGG and Buckshot Calvert. We had Buckshot as the school’s best ever QB and now we have AGG as the school’s best ever WR.
Liberty’s most recent draft pick, Gandy-Golden rewrote the record book for wide receivers over the past four seasons. He’s the only Liberty receiver to finish with three 1,000 yard receiving seasons, doing so in each of his final three seasons. He’s also the school leader with 17 100-yard receiving games.
Not to mention, he’s the only receiver on the list to put up these type of numbers against primarily FBS competition, as Liberty made the move to football’s highest level prior to his junior season.