30 best college football wide receivers of the 21st century

15. Marqise Lee – USC Trojans

Marqise Lee is someone who was on his way to being one of the best maybe ever. He was dominating the Pac-12 as a freshman and a sophomore. Before he even entered his junior year, he had more than 2,800 yards in his NCAA career.

Lee had his coming out party against Arizona his freshman year. He put up 144 yards and a touchdown in a huge bounce-back win. He was off to the races from there. Lee ended the season with 1,143 yards and 11 touchdowns. That includes 11 catches, 224 yards and two touchdowns against cross-town rival UCLA. He was named on the second team All Pac-12 team.

His sophomore season was even better. The awards shelf started to get pretty full after this year. Lee won the Biletnikoff, he was named an All-American, he made the first-team All Pac-12 and he was named the Pac-12 Offensive Player of the Year. He deserved all of it. He had 1,721 yards, 14 touchdowns and added another 856 yards returning kicks.

This was a rough season for USC overall, but Lee wasn’t going to be denied. In a loss against Arizona, Lee caught a ridiculous 16 passes, 345 yards and two touchdowns. Again, somehow USC lost that game. He broke the 100-yard mark eight times that season, going over 150 yards in six of those games.

Going into his junior year, he was supposed to be even more dominant. Unfortunately, there was a mess at the top (Lane Kiffin was fired. Ed Orgeron took over before stepping down when he didn’t get the job. Clay Helton took over, but the job eventually went to Steve Sarkisian full time.) An MCL sprain in September really hampered his season as a whole. His career finished with just 791 yards, but the preceding two years were amazing. If he played for a program like Oklahoma or Alabama, he might have been one of the greats.