BIG STEPPER SZN: Kennesaw State's "DO-IT-ALL" Slot Receiver
Replacing a player like Gabriel Benyard is always difficult due to the amount of volume the player handled through a myriad of different forms, but Kennesaw State's Zion Booker can probably do it.
I took the top off, I'm dripping like hot sauce.
- Gunna, musician
Former Western Carolina transfer Zion Booker was the final receiver that I drafted in the 2025 Golden Pig Invitational draft last summer. I selected him with a 26th round selection—a range that saw other players like Georgia Southern’s Camden Brown and FSU’s Duce Robinson selected as well. While a couple hit, most players in that range ended up being busts..
Booker turned out to be a solid player, for a short while at least, though not as good as the two others mentioned in that range. Spurred on by a glowing review from a Tulsa beat writer via the G5 Hive Podcast, and some cool vibes from Booker’s social media accounts, I figured he was worth taking a flyer on.
His first game was very promising. Booker secured six of his nine targets for 67 yards and a score, which was about 19 points in the PPR format of that league. He then saw double digit targets over his next three games, however he failed to reach the end zone or eclipse 100 yards receiving in any of those appearances. In fact, he never hit 100 yards receiving in any game during the 2025 campaign.
His role with the Golden Hurricanes was clear, operating as an underneath chain mover who was basically an extension of the run game. In fact, he actually received several direct carries with Tulsa in 2025. He was the type of player who had a low ADOT, and was expected to make defenders miss with the ball in his hands.
That sounds an awful lot like Kennesaw State’s primary playmaker in 2025, Gabriel Benyard, who himself averaged a yards per target of 9.8 (Booker’s was 6.1). Though, Benyard was much more effective in his offence, finishing ‘25 with four games of 100+ yards receiving. Granted Booker only played in eight games due to injury while Benyard appeared in 14, so there is a bit of an apples to oranges comparison.
But the stylistic comparison is more so about the way each player was used. Booker demonstrated a lot of the same attributes in Tulsa’s offence that Benyard did with KSU, suggesting he could take over that role in 2026.
As a refresher for everyone’s memory, Benyard finished last season with an average of over 16 PPG in PPR formats, catching 60 of 92 targets for 949 yards and nine scores; additionally, he rushed 17 times for 117 yards and another score.
However, Booker was not the only player KSU brought in at WR via transfer to replace Benyard. Other notables include Virginia Union’s Keon Davis, Tennessee State’s Devaughn Slaughter, Northern Colorado’s Brayden Munroe, and Georgia Southern’s Dylan Gary.
As always, let’s take a quick look at the staff.
COACHING & SYSTEM
The current Kennesaw State staff worked under Josh Heupel at Tennessee. In the case of head coach Jerry Mack, he was the RBs coach from 2021 to 2023; the OC, Mitch Militello, was on the offensive staff from 2021 to 2024, apparently working closely with the QBs (per his bio).
Mack also spent one season coaching in the NFL as the RBs coach with Jacksonville, but outside of that season the rest of his experience came in college. Prior to Tennessee he was with Rice as the OC from 2017-2020, and head coach of FCS program North Carolina Central (2014-17).
I asked ClaudeAi to parse through the individual stats of players under him at each of his stops where he was the OC or HC. Here’s what it found:
No WR hit the 1,000-yard threshold or 70+ receptions under Mack’s play-calling in any of these seasons.
The closest performers I could verify:
Bradley Rozner, Rice (2019): ~57 rec, 770 yards, 5 TD — led the team
Austin Trammell, Rice (2018): 62 rec, 632 yards — led the team
Austin Trammell, Rice (2019): 60 rec, ~600 yards
NCCU (2014–17) and UAPB (2010) were run-heavy FCS programs where team passing totals were too low to support a 1,000-yard WR. Rice was a struggling 2-11 and 3-9 program, and the 2020 season was only 5 games.
Bottom line: Zero qualifying WR performances under Mack’s play-calling tenures.
The 2025 season was outside of the scope of Claude’s search, but we already know Gabriel Benyard had a solid season, albeit he did not hit 1000 yards or 70+ receptions. So it’s fair to say that this system hasn’t been historically great for WR production, but recency bias is a thing, and I already liked Zion Booker when he was at Tulsa, hence, here we are.
But one redeeming factor of the Mack-Militello (M&M) system is that it is a fast paced philosophy. The Owls finished 2025 42nd in total plays run per game, and 23rd in seconds per play (SPP) with an average around 24 SPP.
Unfortunately for the WRs, the historical play calling typically skews heavy to the run. When Mack was the OC at Rice, for example, his Owls (not to be confused with KSU) averaged around 57% run plays. With Kennesaw State, M&M skewed even heavier towards running the ball, with a 67% run rate.
Obviously, it’s going to be harder for WRs to perform at a high level when the overall team play-calling composition is postured in favour of the run, but when the WR1 is averaging over 30% target share, this can still work.
The PPG numbers at Rice are not going to ‘wow’ anyone, but eight targets per game is nothing to scoff at. As seen with KSU this past season, if the player in question is a baller, this type of input volume can result in elite production.
Anyways, who even knows if Booker will end up being a starter for the Owls at this point, but the vision from the staff regarding his acquisition seems pretty clear to me.
This isn’t a program I’m expecting a lot of camp updates out of, so I’d imagine consumer sentiment on the WR room won’t really change four months from now when most CFF drafts take place. Booker is someone I’d advise drafters to keep in mind in the latter rounds of drafts. ◾
If you enjoyed this content and would like to read more, I recommend joining the Pigpen, a community of thousands of degenerate college football fans: