Texas Football 2011 Preseason Position by Position: Tight End

First, thank you for your prodigious effort creating these positional evaluations. Looking at our recruiting as a self-imposed sanction is spot on.

I am afraid we are going to feel like Sisyphus this year with the tight end play, hoping for improvement but praying for no regression. I am a little disappointed to see your evaluation of McFarland and his lack of speed. I was hoping that we had finally turned the corner in our tight end evaluations. Especially in light of no current commits in the recruiting class for next year.

Thanks for these evals, Scip. Can’t believe this offseason is finally coming to a close. Seems like McFarland is a our best hope to me. And the hope of HarsinWhite finding a way to use these guys effectively. If they do, they’ve earned their pay.

Thanks again for passing on Nehemiah Hicks of the nearby Hutto Hippos. He still needs to learn to block, but he’s got the running and catching part of playing TE down. Do you think you’ll use a TE a lot this year to help the OT’s?

If a TE doesn’t step up in a big way (c’mon Irby!), I think Malcolm (6’3", 230) should be the guy. He goes from a solid-blocking head case at WR to a toy at TE. I’d expect to see lots of shallow crossing routes where he doesn’t have time to think while the ball is in flight.

Moving MW to TE leaves us with Davis, Shipley, White, Harris, and Hales at WR — not too shabby in my opinion. Couple those weapons with CoJo at FB and this offense, on paper at least, is infinitely more dynamic than last season.

its unbelievable the glut of wasted ships at this position. even with what we have, a good coach should at least make this position servicable. who is the missouri te coach, we need to snatch him up

Blaine Irby should be listed first for no reason other than the fact he is dating Lacey Stockbauer…

“Thanks again for passing on Nehemiah Hicks of the nearby Hutto Hippos.”

Pissed then and still pissed now. I’m convinced we used to blindfold Greg and have him throw darts. “Looks like Trey Graham! Good work Greg, see you next year!”.

This does beg the question: what does Bruce Chambers do? He must have some great blackmail material.

These position breakdowns are awesome, but I think I’m going to break into a cold sweat after reading each offensive position article.

texasengr -
 
You also need to consider that the TE move with Williams may have been to clear rep space for D White if the coaches don’t expect Williams back for his senior season due to personal issues.

what does Bruce Chambers do?

Inside source for Cleve?

During the coaching drama that followed the 5-7 season, there were rumours that Chambers would take a position somewhere in the Dallas area. I believe his retainment was related to the fact that he is one of the recruiting Coord. (together with Kennedy, I think). It was probably a move to keep some continuity in that area during the shake-up.

Are there any indications that his days are numbered in the 40? The perception during the discussions at the time was that TE is the least technically demanding coaching position where you can park your less efficient teacher, sorta like right-field in baseball. Is this a valid point of view? Is the lack of appropriate talent that is holding down the position or is it indeed coaching? Inquiring minds would like to know.

Never have so many contributed so little.

Hey, isn’t that the mantra of the UAW????

rumours that Chambers would take a position somewhere in the Dallas area.

Something about the DISD AD office. Sounded like a done deal, but DISD discovered they were short a whole lotta cash and decided not to hire. Damn.

If I see Blaine Irby trot out onto the field in a game and stand tall and catch a pass for a first down, I wil literally weep. Of course, if he doesn’t make it onto the field all year I will weep, but for obviously different reasons.

Strong men also cry. Strong me…also…cry

This is a weird phenomenon on the heels of Bo Scaife, David Thomas, and JerMichael Finley.

Actually, the JerMichael Finley Experience makes it not so hard to understand.

8 scholarship TEs, and our greatest contributor there this year may be a WR.

Blaine Irby needs to talk to Mike Wacker.

I would love to see an infographic of contribution (time on field?) vs. allocated scholarship dollars.

First off, great evaluations. Other media outlets obviously don’t think fans care about this stuff anymore.

Let me, in a small way, defend the size of our TE roster. It’s not because we’ve recruited so many tight ends, it’s because we’ve dumped every failed player weighing between 215 and 255 at tight end.

Irby, Howard, Graham and McFarland were tight ends when we recruited them, Howard and Graham probably guys we hoped would be able to carry 290 pounds and play inside. Terrell was somebody someone our staff liked, but he was brought in as a fifth WR in the 2010 class - the one in which we signed 25 players and only two of them were offensive linemen. Matthews was an athlete who figured to be a flex TE or maybe an H-back, except the previous
 staff never figured out how to employ an H-back. We dumped Whaley at TE last year because we didn’t know what else to do with him. We moved Dom Jones over there after recruiting him as a defensive end.

We still don’t know what do at the position. We brought in one last winter, one in the 2010 class if Terrell becomes a player. And we have no TE commits for 2012.

Like Scip said, your guess is as good as mine.

I have a feeling the QB breakdown will invlove heavy drinking on my part.

Thanks for all your hard work on these.

I have a feeling Malcolm Williams and Barrett Matthews will see time in the sort of H-back role that Boise featured some. Joe Bergeron may fit into that role as well. If Howard and Dom Jones can be effective blockers and help out the OTs I think that’s enough. I’m also hopeful that DJ Grant will be the baller predicted before blowing up his knee. (And I thought he only had one injury — first part of fall camp his RS-FR season. When was the 2nd injury?)

My brief football career was ended by recurrent knee injuries a thousand years ago when the procedures that are today done with a scope were handled with flint cutting instruments and cat gut. When Irby takes the field I will at once cheer his perseverance and cringe every time he catches a ball up the middle. Very best wishes for that young man.

Do we know who made the TE recruiting decisions in the past and who makes them now? It is alarming to not have even a sure prospect at that position and no one verballed for the future.

Maybe Harsin and Applewhite will have a surprise for us at the TE position after a long off season to watch film and consider who might fit. Okafor? Dravanti Jones? Where have you gone Randy Peschel?

Fall camp starts on the 8th, right? Does anyone know which of them, if any, are open to the public and how to get in?

Word from Seattle is that Austin Seferian-Jenkins enrolled early and is keeping his weight down and looking fine at tight end, per an SI article. We supposedly coulda had him if we had offered at TE but were worried about his weight and insisted our offer was for OT … if he turns out to be a dominant TE for the Huskies it will be a giant miss for our talent evaluators.

resulting in a Shetland pony TE who doesn’t stretch the field and who doesn’t much like blocking.

Believe you me, had we brough in L’il Sebastian, we’d have been just fine at TE right now.

Damn, Scipio. You’re pumping these things out with Taylorist efficiency.

ASJ was never coming to the 40.

Prior to last year’s regular season, was there any doubt about Barrett Matthews being able to catch a pass? I recall rave reviews from the spring and fall practices, but then when the season started he couldn’t catch anything. I hope it was just a mental thing as you suggest, because he could be the safety net that was absent last year.

love the L’il Sebastian shout out!

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Thanks, man. Though I have to disagree.
 
Terrell was absolutely brought in as a future TE because he can’t play college WR and Ahmard Howard and Tre Graham were not projected to OL. They’re not be confused with Tony Hills or even Marcus Tubbs. Not those kind of frames.

“ASJ was never coming to the 40”

According to Jesus (who has excellent sources and is not often wrong) he was ours if we offered as a tight end … from last August, shortly after A S-J’s visit:

http://recruitocosm.fantake.com/2010/08/16/austin-seferian-jenkins-update-a-glimmer-of-hope/

Max, I had to break it to you, but Lil Sebastian is six feet under. Although his production as an apparition would still be a marginal gain over our TE corps last year.

From BON:

“Then, in a surprise move, AS-J committed to Washington during an announcement ceremony and made some ill-considered comments that basically amounted to stringing Texas along throughout the process in order to draw more attention to Washington, the school he said he had been locked in the whole time.”

Great, funny and tragically sad writeup. I’d laugh out loud if it was a team other than the Horns. My expectations for the upcoming season died just a little bit.

Well, we’re not the only team with a badly overstaffed roster position. Didn’t OU have 5 kickers on scholarship last year?

Look, I’ll joke around with the best of them, but some things are just crossing the line, even on this board. Way too soon for Lil’ Sebastian jokes, you heartless bastards.

The question is who IS going to contribute, not who ISN’T.

It’s hard to tell, since we’re not entirely sure yet how HarsApple will offensify with what appears to be a fairly elastic definition of a role such as TE/FB/H-B with players who shift on nearly every play, mostly on and off the line, but regardless of that, seem to be mostly blockers and receivers, but occasionally ball-carriers. The biggest problem would seem to be not giving away information by having a TE-only player or six who are 98% certain not to receive a handoff. Best case seems to be having multiple players on the field who can fill all three of those roles on any given play… is he going to chip the DE and go after a LB, or run right by the LB looking for a 10-yarder over the middle?