By Will Vandervort.

While visiting Louisville, Ky., this past January for the American Football Coaches Association annual meetings, Clemson wide receivers coach Jeff Scott learned the Kentucky Wildcats were hosting Missouri 90-minutes down the road in Lexington. He figured this might his only opportunity to see the Wildcats in person.

Kentucky was of course in the midst of its quest for perfection at the time and Scott was interested to watch how head coach John Calipari handled such a talented squad. It was even more impressive than he had imagined.

The Wildcats dismantled Missouri that night by a score of 86-37, but that was not what impressed Scott. What was impressive was the way in which Calipari managed his players. With one motion, he waved for five players to get up off the bench and go substitute the other players on the floor.

“He had one signal for substitution and he had one hand hat went that way, five guys got up and went in the game and the other five guys sat down,” Scott recalled. “I said, “Man! That is pretty impressive.”

About eight minutes later Calipari did it again and five more guys got up and the five on the floor went and took a seat.

“I don’t keep up with basketball a lot, but I was having trouble keeping up which five were the starting five,” Scott said. “I was telling one of the coaches I was with, ‘That is how I want to get our (wide receivers) room.’ I want to be able to be on the sideline, give that signal, and the next three guys go in and there not be a drop off.”

He is almost there.

Currently, Clemson has perhaps the deepest corps of wide receivers in the ACC and it’s about to get even deeper. Ray Ray McCloud and Deon Cain, both five-star prospects coming out of high school, are expected to join the team this summer, joining All-ACC standouts Artavis Scott and Mike Williams as well as well as former five-star prospect Charone Peake, who is finally healthy again after two injury plagued seasons the last two years.

“He has made a bunch of plays this spring and he looks as good as he has looked since he has been here,” Scott said.

Let’s not forget about Germone Hopper, who has an opportunity to be special in his own right, and redshirt freshman Trevion Thompson. The 6-foot-2, 200-pound wideout was a four-star prospect and a top 100 player coming out of Hillside High School in Durham, N.C. last year.

More and more, Scott’s wide receivers’ room is starting to resemble Calipari’s bench at Kentucky.

“I think with the guys here and the guys coming in, in August, we are kind of building to that,” Scott said.

And Clemson’s young coach, who will also handle duties alongside Tony Elliott as co-offensive coordinator this fall, is building it without having to worry about hurting anyone’s ego.

“That is one thing I’m proud of in our room. There is no selfishness,” Scott said. “We have had a lot of talented guys. I think (in the spring game), fourteen different players had a catch. That’s what we want to do.

“We want to be able to spread the ball and have a lot of depth. If you have an injury it does not change the entire game.”

Clemson quarterback Deshaun Watson says having wide receivers and playmakers like he has at his disposal allows him to have one of the easiest jobs in the country this fall. His only concern is not to mess it up.

“I have talent all around me,” he said. “My job is to get them the ball and let them do the rest. I’m very excited.”

And so is Scott because with one wave of his hand from the sideline he can have one superstar go in and replace another and there will be no drop off in production or attitude.

“I’m very pleased with all of those guys. They have been competing very hard and they help each other,” the Clemson coach said. “It is not a situation where the starters keep the other guy from doing well. They like seeing each other do well.

“I was standing over on the Orange side and the White (team) players were making plays and our guys are standing over there cheering for them. You like to see that as a coach. They are hard working guys that are humble, unselfish and go to work every day – they are blue collar guys.”