Trio of Gators listed among ESPN's top pass-catchers of past 50 years

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Florida football has a rich history when it comes to the passing game, even predating Steve Spurrier's fun-and-gun offense introduced at the beginning of the 1990s. While the quarterback is a key position in the aerial attack, it is also necessary to have superlative players on the receiving end as well.

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ESPN's Bill Connelly recently took on the task of ranking college football's top 60 pass-catchers of the last 50 years, with a pair of Gators wide receivers plus a talented tight end earning mentions among the best to play at the position. The two wideouts are Wes Chandler (1974-77) and Reidel Anthony (1994-96), while the tight end is Kyle Pitts (2018-20).

Chandler, who checks in at No. 36 on the list, played for Doug Dickey in the mid-70s and helped UF amass a 23-11-1 record while in Gainesville. The receiver from New Smyrna Beach, Florida, pulled in 93 catches for 1,994 yards and 22 touchdowns, while also adding 356 rushing yards and six scores on the ground for the Gators.

"How good did a receiver have to be to earn Heisman votes from a run-heavy offense in the 1970s?" Connelly asks. "Well, Chandler was that good. He caught 44 balls for 967 yards and 10 scores as a junior before finishing 10th in the Heisman voting (and going third in the draft) as a senior."

Chandler played a total of 11 years in the pros after the New Orleans Saints selected him in the 1978 NFL Draft, making four Pro Bowl appearances. His high-water mark came during the strike-shortened eight-game 1982 season with the San Diego Chargers, when he was named First-Team All-Pro, NFL Wide Receiver of the Year and NFL Player of the Year by the NFL Alumni Association.

Higher on the list at No. 16 is Reidel Anthony, who benefitted from Spurrier's wide-open offense during the mid-90s and was an instrumental contributor to Florida's first national championship in 1996. The Pahokee, Florida, native hauled in 126 catches for 2,274 yards and 26 TDs, along with 56 rushing yards, one rushing TD and one kick return TD during his UF tenure.

"It's hard to know what to do with the bounty of great receivers Florida produced under Steve Spurrier in the 1990s," Connelly offers. "From 1995-2001, eight different Gators WRs recorded 1,000-yard seasons, and only one did it twice. Nobody, therefore, had standout career numbers. But of those eight receivers, nobody was as frightening as Anthony in 1996. He averaged 18 yards per catch with an SEC-record (at the time) 18 touchdowns for Spurrier's lone national title team."

Anthony was selected with the 16th overall pick of the 1997 NFL Draft by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, with whom he spent the entirety of his five-year professional career.

Finally, there is Pitts, who flourished under Dan Mullen at the end of the 2010s, made the list as an honorable mention due to technically not being a receiver. Still, the Abington, Pennsylvania, product's achievements with the Gators cannot be overlooked on a list of the top pass-catchers of the last 50 years.

"In just eight games in 2020, Pitts caught 43 balls for 770 yards and 12 scores — a pace for 1,250 yards over 13 games — and gave Florida nonstop matchup advantages," says Connelly. "The problem: He was a 6'6, 245-pound tight end."

Pitts became the highest-picked tight end in NFL draft history when the Atlanta Falcons selected him at 4th overall in 2021, and has remained in the ATL for the entirety of his six-year professional career so far. He earned a Pro Bowl nod after his rookie campaign in 2021 and was named a Second-Team All-Pro in 2025.

ESPN's top 10 receivers of the last 50 years

  1. Randy Moss, Marshall (1996-97)
  2. Jeremiah Smith, Ohio State (2024-26)
  3. Larry Fitzgerald, Pittsburgh (2002-03)
  4. DeVonta Smith, Alabama (2017-20)
  5. Justin Blackmon, Oklahoma State (2009-11)
  6. Desmond Howard, Michigan (1989-91)
  7. Michael Crabtree, Texas Tech (2007-08)
  8. Tim Brown, Notre Dame (1984-87)
  9. Calvin Johnson, Georgia Tech (2004-06)
  10. Marvin Harrison Jr., Ohio State (2021-23)

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This article originally appeared on Gators Wire: Trio of Gators listed among ESPN's top pass-catchers of past 50 years

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