We didn't have a true #1 WR, nor was there any great speed at that position. Without those two factors, then there was no existence of a deep threat at all. This is one of the biggest reasons why Ian Book's deep ball never developed, simply because there was nobody to throw to, and he simply didn't have a strong enough arm to hurl those tossup balls.
When it came to speed receivers, Braden Lenzy, Lawrence Keys, and Kevin Austin were basically unavailable for almost all of the season, and when they did see the field, they weren't nearly at full strength. Avery Davis was probably our fastest guy out there, and even then, his speed is definitely a couple of notches below the 4.4 range that you would want out of a speed guy.
Javon McKinley did come on strongly towards the end of the season, but he was almost invisible during the last two games against the best competition. He could never break away from the defensive backs, and Patrick Surtain all but engulfed him during the Rose Bowl. The jump he made wasn't nearly as pronounced as what Boykin and Claypool did in their final years here.
All in all? I think Tommy Rees and Ian Book did about as good of a job as anyone could have under these circumstances, especially against the heavyweights. The playcalling was based off a strong ground game, along with exploiting the short and medium range passing lanes, throwing to strong handed, big receivers.
I will say this, that Tommy Rees does a pretty good job of finding mismatches, and playing to our strengths, instead of trying to fit round pegs in square holes. He wasn't making foolish mistakes that Brian Kelly did with the QB's, such as thinking Malik Zaire could be a precision passer, or that Dayne Crist could be a zone read runner.
I think he'll be able to bring out some pretty good things with Tyler Buchner this coming season, and with some really good, speedy talent coming up (Johnson, Watts, Colzie, Styles, Thomas), and hopefully, the veteran guys being healthy,