Ranking the Top 16 College Football Wide Receivers of All Time | News, Scores, Highlights, Stats, and Rumors

Jerry Rice is proof that players don’t have to attend large schools to excel. In the early 1980s, the Mississippi native escaped the grasp of larger in-state schools and wound up at Division I-AA Mississippi Valley State. He grabbed NFL scouts’ attention with a stellar career.

Rice wound up with 301 career catches for 4,693 yards and 50 touchdowns. He set I-AA single-season records as a junior and senior. In 1983, he made 102 catches for 1,450 yards, and a year later, he smashed his own numbers with 112 catches and 1,845 yards, as well as 27 touchdowns which was, at the time, an NCAA all-divisions record. That season, Rice had two games with five touchdowns.

The Delta Devils’ level of competition was questionable, but Rice’s talent isn’t. He was a first-round pick of the San Francisco 49ers and went on to become one of the greatest receivers in NFL history and a first-ballot Hall of Famer in 2010.