Drage rarely played against it, Drage also benefited from playing with very good QB's and played in an offense that college teams didn't have a lot of experience playing against at the time. And if you don't think Drage had trouble getting open at times, you probably should have paid closer attention. And Collie got open a lot and very very rarely had a bad game, and that innate ability to get separation you are talking about? Collie was praised for having that ability in the NFL, you are just flat out wrong on that. Collie had average at best speed for an NFL WR, probably a little below average, it was his route running, his ability to fight off press coverage and his ability to set up defenders that got him open.

The reason we lost to TCU the one time we lost to them when Collie was here is because we couldn't run the ball or protect the QB very well, and because Gary Patterson figured Anae out after playing him a couple of times and adjusted, and Anae didn't adjust to Patterson's adjustments.

But you say you can't remember Drage getting open, here's just some quick stats for you to show you that you are wrong.

His Sophomore year, his second year with Detmer, he had two catches for 12 yards against UCLA and he was a main target, that suggests he struggled to get open. Against Penn State that same year, he had one catch for 11 yards, again I would say that suggests he struggled to get open. Against Air Force that same year, he only had 2 catches for 19 yards.

His junior year, which was his best year. He had 2 catches for 62 yards against UCLA, only 2 catches for a #1 WR? That says he struggled to get open. That same year against Notre Dame, he had 3 catches for 25 yards, not good numbers for a #1 WR. He had 2 catches for 31 yards against Air Force that year, he had one catch for 19 yards against Utah, he had 4 catches for 29 yards against Kansas.

His senior year, he had 1 catch for 14 yards against Utah State, he had 4 catches for only 28 yards against Utep.

Now Collie had his sub par games as well, but Drage had just as many or more, and one could easily argue Collie produced more against better opponents. You say Drage was the best ever at getting open, well that is very clearly up for debate, and even if it were true(I don't think it is) Collie is still clearly the best WR to ever play at BYU.

Collie had more yards, catches and TD's in 3 years than Drage had in 4 years. Drage had a redshirt year, Collie was ready to play right away and set records for a freshman at BYU, Drage never had to deal with getting rid of mission legs, Collie did.

By every objective measure, Collie was better, in fact he was much better. This is not any disrespect towards Drage, but it was just not close. I think you are probably only remembering the good things Drage did, the good games and plays stand out over time, the bad games and plays are generally forgotten. And it's been a long time since Drage played, it's easy to forget the bad games and plays in that time.