Massachusetts football receiver Tajae Sharpe’s 2014 campaign is earning him a significant amount of attention.

The 6-foot-4 junior leads the team with 697 receiving yards through seven games. He’s caught four touchdowns, reeled in 43 catches (20 more than the next receiver) and made a number of impressive catches. The production earned him a spot on the Biletnikoff Award Watch List, as he was one of nine receivers named as the potential most outstanding receiver in college football.

He’s undoubtedly UMass’ top receiving threat – and other teams are now taking notice.

In Saturday’s 40-17 victory over Kent State, Sharpe caught only two passes in a relatively quiet day. The reason? For the first time this season, an opposing defense specifically ran coverages designed to take Sharpe out of the offensive equation.

“That was something we were really trying to figure out,” Minutemen quarterback Blake Frohnapfel said of Kent State’s defensive decisions.

“You look over there and there’s four guys on him and Jean (Sifrin) and you’re like ‘what are they doing?’ It’s kind of shocking at first when it’s the first time in a passing situation and they’re doing something like that.”

The Golden Flashes combined multiple defensive looks to stymy Sharpe. At times, they would place two defenders on him. Kent State also rolled coverages in his direction, and forced Frohnapfel to look for other options.

He did, and found success utilizing receivers Alex Kenney and Jalen Williams. Kenney finished with five catches for 76 yards, while Williams caught four passes for 64 yards and a touchdown. According to Frohnapfel, he wanted to get Sharpe involved more, but Kent State’s defense didn’t allow it.

“There’s certain situations where, on this play, I may go to him,” Frohnapfel said. “But with the way the coverage is, you can’t do it. With the changes we got, I tried to get him the ball.”

“I’ll tell you that it’s not fun,” Sharpe said of facing increased defensive attention.

“You want to make plays for your team every single week, so it’s definitely not fun. It’s exciting watching my teammates get the opportunity to make plays and they definitely did that.”

Sharpe said both he and the offense adjusted on the fly.

“Last week was the first week where I really got a heavy dose of seeing things that I haven’t seen before,” Sharpe said.

Saturday marked the first time in 2014 that Sharpe failed to amass at least 70 yards receiving in a game. UMass coach Mark Whipple’s discussed Sharpe’s immense talent in the past, and noted that the Minutemen have seen more coverages “rolled” toward Sharpe in recent games.

Whipple said, at least initially, he was surprised by Kent State’s decision to completely focus on Sharpe.

“A little bit, yeah, because (Kent State) hadn’t done that to anybody,” Whipple said.

Whipple noted that it’s difficult to determine how defenses will face UMass because the Minutemen play a pro-style offense, which is significantly different than the rest of the Mid-American Conference.

“We’re probably a little bit different than a lot of teams offensively,” Whipple said. As you see, there are so many spread teams, so you don’t know what you’re going to get.”

Because of the stark differences – and Whipple’s relative inexperience facing other MAC coaches – he’s adjusting as it goes.

“I don’t know the coaches in this league, I really don’t know the backgrounds and how they’re facing,” Whipple said. “So you try to find when you’re breaking down tape, it’s not like we’re totally spread so we’re not looking as much at the spread teams. We’re trying to find some teams that do things similar to us.”

Whipple also said most teams don’t face a receiver of Sharpe’s ability, either.

“A lot of guys don’t have one receiver like Tajae so you don’t know if they’re going to double him or how they’re going to do it,” Whipple said. “So you just have to make adjustments as the game goes on.”

Whipple explained that the added emphasis on Sharpe, especially double-teams, creates one-on-one matchups for other players on the team. It also negates a safety from playing closer to the line of scrimmage and defending the run, which should open up holes for UMass’ run game.

Ultimately, the Minutemen are at their best when Sharpe is contributing consistently. But Sharpe’s content to do whatever is needed for the offense to continue to succeed.

“We can be an electrifying offense when we have 11 guys on the field doing the same thing, coming together as one,” Sharpe said. “When we do that, there’s no limit to what we can do.”

Mark Chiarelli can be reached at [email protected], and can be followed on Twitter @Mark_Chiarelli.