Marcell Ateman: ‘We’re Going To Light It Up This Year’

Marcell Ateman is a senior. Finally. I’m pretty sure.

[double checks the roster]

Yeah, he’s a senior, and he’s primed for a big season (again). Ateman caught 45 passes for 766 yards and five touchdowns last season. He was third on the team behind David Glidden and James Washington in both catches and yards.

He knows he could be the primary target for Mason Rudolph in a variety of situations now that The President is no longer a national secret. No. 3 seems pretty confident in that role.

“James is a tremendous player, tremendous athlete, great guy,” Ateman told ESPN recently. “We work well together, push each other. We’re going to light it up this year.”

Ateman also gave some love to his quarterback.

“His mindset, how he approaches the game is like something I’ve never seen,” said Ateman. “He really wants to win. He works extremely hard. He just wants to see the best of us and himself. Just a great guy. He’s starting to really just put it on a dime. Even more so.”

Ateman is not the Pokes’ most important player, but he will need to be incredibly valuable if this team has any aspirations of being great again (and it does). Like we discussed last year, depth at wideout is great, but it’s better to have one or two elite pass-catchers. Ateman can be that for sure. Time to light it up.