I think that pointing out the importance of velocity is pointing out the obvious. However, Gov mentioned Cooper Johnson who is a true freshman, shutdown catcher at Ole Miss this year. He's their starting catcher and, at one point during the season, he had a .470 caught stealing percentage. On Cooper's Perfect Game profile he was the number 3 catcher in the nation before he graduated from high school. The profile indicates he had "consistent low 1.8 pop times on the bag, best defensive catcher in the class." His best pop time was 1.81 and his highest velocity was 84 MPH. You certainly don't have to touch 90 to be a shutdown catcher.
If you check Perfect Game showcases, the majority of the catchers are in the 70's and there is example after example of sub 2.0 pop times with mid to upper 70's velocities. Good pop times are a result of good receiving skills, good footwork, good transfers, with a good/powerful load into a quick and accurate throw. Although Velocity is god given, just because you have velocity doesn't mean that you will be able to do the rest of those things to consistently put the ball on the bag in less than 2.0.
Although mechanics can be taught, if you don't have them, your a project. If your polished with mid/late 70's velocity/sub 2.0 pop times, your a known quantity. There are lots of examples on PG in that category that have committed D1.
Below is the 2016 PG National Showcase workout results: If you sort the table by pop times, you'll see times from 2.1 to 1.78 and velocities from 71 to 86 MPH. There are Commits to Vandy, Rice, Notre Dame, OSU, and Coastal Carolina on the list just to name a few.
The 2.1 pop time with a 71 MPH velocity committed to Coastal Carolina, the 2016 College World Series Champs. Hmmm.
The second best pop time was 1.81; one of the players who achieved that time had a best velocity of 77 MPH. His name is David Lamanna, and he committed to Notre Dame.
https://www.perfectgame.org/ev...ults.aspx?event=3645