On the final day left before practicing in full pads, the Wide Receiver room was on display. A focal point of Head Coach Zach Kittley’s offense will be the receiving corp. While we have not seen true scrimmages, our viewing period on Monday gave us a glimpse of the Owls wide receivers.
With the drills being individual, wide receivers worked on throwing catching in the end-zone, toe-tapping drills, and heard strong coaching throughout. One of those vocal voices was WR Coach DJ McCarthy.
Coach McCarthy shared that the group overall “was a great mix.” But during his availability on Monday, the wide receivers coach compared his bunch of guys to the 2019 FAU CUSA championship team. “This group here I just talked to them about [the 2019 team], listen, we got a chance to be better than that group we had in ‘19…”
The WR Room
That “mix” of players consists of many different backgrounds. Transfers, Incoming freshmen, and players that are now tenured Owls making up the room. Below is the full breakdown of the position group.
The Freshmen
Jade Card – 6’3, 200 lbs
Branden Hoch – 6’3, 193 lbs
Mykel Calixte – 6’4, 200 lbs
McCarthy touched on the Freshman class so far in Fall camp, “They’ve been awesome. It’s hard to say, any other non-Power Five or G5 School has these three types of guys that came in as freshmen and those guys are going to play.”
The biggest highlight for the group was the final part of the comment. A statement on how much someone was going to play was not made, but Coach McCarthy did remind everyone of the redshirt rule where each freshman can play up to four games and keep their extra year of eligibility.
When asked about the freshmen WR class as a whole McCarthy shared that the trio has “been awesome.” But coach spoke highly of Hoch’s work ethic dating back to the Spring, “Branden came in, he freaking was learning [the offense]. He was calling during the off season. He’s getting on the Zoom. He came up here. He still was in school, learning.”
The Returning Owls
Out of the 14 FAU receivers entering the 2025 campaign, 6 were here last season:
Redshirt Sophomore – Jabari Smith, 5’10, 170 lbs
Redshirt Junior – Jayshon Platt, 6’1, 195 lbs
Redshirt Junior – Dom Henry, 5’11, 185 lbs
Redshirt Junior – Joseph Young – 6’ 1, 195 Ibs
Senior – Jett Coolman, 6’0 180 lbs
Senior – Devarious Mitchell, 5’ 10, 180 Ibs
On Monday, Jabari Smith spoke after the Owls practice. Smith is FAU’s largest returning wide receiver thanks to his production from last year. The redshirt sophomore played in 10 games and had 17 receptions for 296 yards with 3 touchdowns.
When asked about the wide receiving group, Smith said, “I feel like these guys in the room can go out there and give you 100% if they wanted to. It’s all about trying to find the role in the offense and how you fit into this offense with Kittley.”
While Smith is not speaking for every Owls holdover from last season, the redshirt sophomore did share that he “feel(s) like this offense is way more explosive than our last offense.”
That statement gives a feeling of confidence in the Owls receiving room for those who have rode out the waves of Florida Atlantic football over the past handful of seasons.
Another WR returning for the Owls is Jayshon Platt. While Platt only managed to earn 4 receptions last season, he has been highly praised during Fall Camp.
The redshirt sophomore’s name was mentioned multiple times during the interviews on Monday including a pat on the back from Easton Messer; “Platt, great receiver, going to be huge for us this year. Going to have a great year. We just put our head down at work, and that’s just kind of who we are.”
#FAU WR @jayplatt5 making it look easy working on his toe-tap game 💯 🦉🏈 pic.twitter.com/SKiyzYWmrJ
— FAU Owls Nest (@FAU_Owls_Nest) August 4, 2025
The Transfers
Redshirt Sophomore – Asaad Waseem, 5’11 175 lbs
Redshirt Junior – Easton Messer, 5’9 190 lbs
Senior – JR Wilson, 6’4 212 lbs
Redshirt Senior – Quincy Brown, 6’4 210
The remainder of the wide receiver room has a lot of talent and high expectations entering the 2025 season. For players like Messer and Asaad Waseem, FAU was seen as a place to play in a bigger role.
Messer was asked about being brought in as a leader for Florida Atlantic, “I’ve always been more of a quiet guy in the group. I never was the number one per se, or the oldest guy. So I never had to have that role. But, that’s one thing McCarthy and Cris Carter want me to take on.”
Last season Messer averaged over 14 yards per catch on 55 receptions. While a very good output for a wide receiver, Messer expects more at FAU; “Yeah, I definitely am going to have a little bit more, but that’s what I want. You know, that’s why I decided to come here and play here, is because I know I can handle more than 52 catches and 700 yards.” For Messer, the expectation is to be the Owls number one or two wide receiver, although he emphasized one.
The other transfer WR we had the opportunity to catch up with was Asaad Waseem. During his playing time at Colorado, Waseem saw limited action in 2023 before his redshirt season last year.
Coach McCarthy spoke on what he liked about the redshirt sophomore, “So he has a really, really good feel of craftiness, of getting in and out, of breaks and finding soft spots. And he just finds a way to get open and make a play where there is no play, right? He does a great job.”
Waseem also shared his experience with sharing a locker room with LaJohntay Wester at Colorado, “Watching them boys kind of like set an example, especially with LaJohntay, because he came from FAU and came to Colorado and put up big numbers. And seeing him work and seeing him do all that inspired me.”
One of the older players on the roster, Quincy Brown, has been around his fair share of Fall camps. After two full season stints at TCU and Nicholls State, the Louisiana native came to paradise.
Although Brown has not been in Boca Raton long, he has already made impressions with the staff and teammates. Jabari Smith highlighted Brown as one of the “older guys” he has learned from to improve himself while in camp.
Up Next
The first practice in full pads takes place tomorrow evening at the Schmidt Family Complex. Head Coach Zach Kittley and two Owls will speak about Fall camp so far and their first day in pads. With no position coach expected to speak we will focus on some interesting bits from the past three camp days before picking up with Special Teams on Thursday.