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As discussed on the QB thread, it doesn't have to be the 4 best....but it can be.  It's totally up to you.  

4 only.
That's what makes it hard.

Calvin Johnson
Desmond Howard
Tim Brown
Johnny Rodgers (Nebraska, early 70s--first WR to win the Heisman)

I knocked Moss off because his last two years weren't for a major program. Crappy thing to do, but somehow choices have to be made. 

Oh man, Larry Fitzgerald and Michael Crabtree probably would have a thing or two to say about my choices.

I'll go with SF's choices while noting Calvin was shut down when they played the Dawgs.

Calvin Johnson is a weird case... He probably shouldn't have been at Georgia Tech. He was a man among boys out there on the field, and shouldn't have been on an option team for who throwing the ball was merely done to keep a defense honest. 

His final season (his most productive) he only caught 76 receptions. To be in the top 100 single-season receptions leaders you'd need to be >=102. There aren't good stats in CFB on targets, but my guess is that it's not like he had poor reception numbers on high targets; I'd assume he had stellar reception numbers on low targets. Because he was unstoppable when the ball came his way--it just didn't come his way very often. 

So... To your point. For Georgia Tech, throwing the ball was a "constraint play", the thing you do when teams are selling out to stop the option and you want to force the defense to keep you honest--so you can be successful running option. Well, when you're playing a big-boy football team, they can stop the option in base while still covering receivers... So "constraint plays" don't work. 

So I'm not sure UGA "shut down" Calvin. I think they shut down the option, which shut down the entire offense, and thus there was no way for Calvin to have a role. They weren't a passing team. Looking at the 2006 game (Calvin's final season), GT only gained 188 total yards against UGA. For an option-first, run-first team, with Reggie Freakin' Ball as their QB, they weren't built to force feed him in the passing game. It just wasn't their game.

All that said, it possibly limits the degree to which we should consider him a Mt Rushmore candidate. I feel like you want a Mt Rushmore candidate to be the focal point of their offense. And Calvin Johnson wasn't that. He was INSANELY good. But he wasn't the focal point. 

That's a fair reason for not having him on your list. My counterpoint is that when he was on the field, everyone was scared of him (probably even Georgia). Very few WRs in my memory had that effect on the teams they played. The fact that he was the most feared WR in the country while playing for an offense that didn't value the pass is pretty remarkable.

I was a 49ers fan during the Rice years. I'm a true believer that he was the best to ever play the position. But not because of his college years.

Hey, I'm not knocking CJ. I remember him during those years. He'd catch a pass and look like he was jogging while the fastest DB in the field was losing ground on him... He was insane.

He was one of the most physically dominating WR I've ever seen in my life. And while I don't want to piss off OAM by bringing up the NFL, the fact that he was so dominant in the NFL also justifies that what he did in college wasn't a fluke. He got in the NFL and then just started embarrassing people too. 

Man off the top of my head I'd say Randy Moss, Calvin Johnson, Larry Fitzgerald, and the supremely hated Michael Crabtree.

I realize that omits Jerry Rice and Tim Brown and it perhaps should not.

@OrangeAfroMan  -- I'm curious, by Whoa Nelly stats, who are the top 4?

Whoa Nellie simply goes by their actual season stats.  Who was best would be who was the most productive on their own team.  The largest % of receptions of the top 6 on the team times their yards per catch average. 

Option teams tend to have one WR with the bulk of the receptions and almost always have a huge ypc average.

Calvin Johnson
Yes, he was an All-American
Yes, he won the Belitnikoff Award
but
He had 1 first place Heisman vote.
1.
I fear the NFL bias is overwhelming some of you.  I don't know how to help.  I don't know what's so hard about this.
And I'm not criticizing anyone's vote, necessarily.  I want everyone to play. 
1 first place vote, though.
Guys like Florida's Wes Chandler had more, in 1977 (4).
Anthony Carter (UM) had more in his soph year.  And his junior year.  And his senior year.  Each, individually.
Raghib Ismail had more in 1989, without scoring a receiving TD.


Johnson was a 6'5" dude who ran a 4.3.  Terrific.  Monster.  If he's the best you saw, great, put him on your Mt. Rushmore.
But if in your mind's eye he's wearing silver and blue, please don't include him.  Remember, last college game - BOOM - plane crash.  Drink machine fell on him.  Polar bear attack.  Whatever. 

College only.

And no, Heisman votes isn't some special barometer for this.  But it's just used here to paint some perspective.  A TON of guys that won't even pop in your mind for Mt Rushmore of WRs were thought to have been the best player of a season by more people than Johnson was in his big year. 
But they were drafted in the 6th round.  They were on an NFL practice squad.  They had one big preseason game.  They had 17 career catches.
But that's after the fact, when it comes to this exercise.

I'll include NFL performance when I feel like it.