30 best college football wide receivers of the 21st century

28. Golden Tate – Notre Dame Fighting Irish

Notre Dame is another university that has a surprising amount of really good wide receivers. They are known as a team that always just seems to be in the mix without having the flashy superstars, although they once had Randy Moss on the squad. Golden Tate is one of the receivers that dominated the country at a time where Notre Dame was looking to get back its gusto.

Tate’s three years coincided with the final three years of the Charlie Weis tenure at Notre Dame. Despite a coaching staff that seemed outmatched and a hodgepodge of quarterbacks in his sophomore year, Tate still built himself as a talent that was hard to stop. Despite having a combination of true freshman Jimmy Clausen, Demetrius Jones and Evan Sharpley under center, Tate was still able to break 1,000 yards in his sophomore season with 10 touchdowns. In the bowl game against Hawaii that season, he really broke out for 177 yards and three touchdowns.

This led to some hype for Notre Dame coming into the 2009 season. They were ranked, Clausen would be taking over at quarterback full-time and Tate was ready to truly break out. Well, at least one of those things would work out well for the Fighting Irish.

Tate was great in his junior year. As he developed chemistry with Clausen, he was a big-play receiver in just about every way. The team was losing despite Tate’s performance. He had 100 yards or more in 9 of his 12 games. Against then-6th ranked USC, he had eight catches for 117 yards and two touchdowns. Tate scored a touchdown in every single game that season. That’s insane for a receiver, especially for a team that lost six games. Tate rightfully won the Biletnikoff Award and was a unanimous All-American. He did everything he could to lift that Notre Dame team. It’s just a shame he wasn’t able to stay for one more year to play with Brian Kelly.