What Could Be Done with Five Tight Ends
5 comments so far
May 28, 2009 by
If there’s a consensus as to which position on the team is the deepest, it’s probably tight end. Give credit to Ron Brown, arguably the most proven coach on the NU staff. Mike McNeil returns and is getting some buzz as a possible all-conference prospect. He’s sure to be a major weapon in the passing game. Dreu Young and Ryan Hill both made the game day depth chart in 2008, each scoring touchdowns. Ben Cotton starred in the Spring game, leading the red team with four catches, one of which went for a touchdown. Kyler Reed had the highlight of the Spring game, showing some speed on a 71-yard touchdown where he outran most of the Red team defense.
Two tight-end sets are nothing new in college football. Missouri was pretty explosive in 2007 with that look featuring Martin Rucker and Chase Coffman. Three tight-end sets are seen occasionally when teams are in short yardage situations and are seeking to make room for ball carriers. But four and five tight end sets are not something you see in a typical college football game. In fact, there’s little reason to think that lining up ten men shoulder to shoulder is desirable (or even legal). But from a Husker personnel perspective, four or five tight ends would simply mean that four or five of the names above take the field at the same time and could line up as a back or receiver, in addition to tight end.
Putting aside some of the drawbacks of leaving out your receivers or running backs, what would a defensive coordinator do if he saw Nebraska’s five tight ends enter the game at the same time? Would they have to burn a timeout simply to figure out their own personnel? And what kind of personnel would you use? Do you insert two safeties for linebackers? You can see where it might cause a defense some confusion.
Then look at the skill set. Each player should be a good blocker and good receiver. A tight end matched up on a smaller cornerback, could probably “box out” and have the edge on jump balls. Then one good stiff-arm by a 245 lbs. tight end might send the defensive back to the ground. And the downfield blocking after the catch? Fuhgeddaboutit. If Zac Lee indeed has running back speed (as Quentin Castille had mentioned), we could see the return of the isolation play that Eric Crouch used with such success. Reed could probably be a ball carrier. McNeil could line up out wide. The possibilities are intriguing.
While it’s fun to imagine, it’s not bloody likely either. Do you really want a tight end to stand in for Roy Helu or Niles Paul? Can’t Menelik Holt box out most corners anyhow? There’s a reason we haven’t seen five tight ends. Then again, there’s something to be said for being wildly different and unpredictable. The All-11 offense that we’ve heard about in recent years is just one example, of unpredictability over athleticism. Touchdowns are usually the product of defensive mistakes and when you see something you’re completely unprepared for, mistakes will happen. So you wouldn’t trot out five tight ends with any regularity, or even in more than one game.
Instead, you save it for just the right moment, and spring it on an unsuspecting opponent, like maybe Oklahoma. Eric Crouch could tell us about a gadget play the Huskers ran against the Sooners back in 2001 involving an extra quarterback. That one worked pretty well.
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Misha May 28 09
Interesting thoughts, Steve. This may be the first time in my life I even imagined a five-TE set. I could see a balanced formation, out of which is run a triple-option or a run/pass option. But as the set wouldn't be used often, the players would probably be more prone to mistakes.
iggy May 28 09
I think something as simple as running a normal I formation with McNeill and Reed out wide, Young at RB and and Cotton at TE would be hard enough to a Defense to deal with. You have the FB back to block and you send all the TEs out on routes.
What about a five wide no back shotgun formation of all TEs in a goaline situation or a short yardage situation. The defense has to honor the pass threat but it opens things up for a guy like Lee to exploit on the draw.
The good thing about all of them is they all have speed (especially Reed) on the same token, having that kind of depth means all of your heavy sets have mulitple passing catching threats in them. Which by itself makes it hard on teams to avoid mis matches somewhere. Hopefully Wats and Lee are up to the challenge of finding it.
That depth also makes me more comfortable about our WR situation. I think we'll see a return to what they were tryign to do early last year on offense becuase we have the strength and Depth to do it. As much as I like foru wide Ace and Shotgun formations I feel much better when we don't have to do that.
James Moore May 28 09
Let's call it the "Wild Husker": put Reed in the single-wing, Cotton and McNeil flanked outside, with Young and Hill lined up alongside Reed in the Backfield. Motion Hill out to use as a lead blocker for a possible pre-snap, zone/stretch read, pull a Guard and run a single-wing 3/4 iso. Reed follows Young into the 4 and you have a counter with a lead. . .
That was my best shot at it but a good food for thought article. What could you do (in theory) if we had 5 down with 5 Burkhead or Mendoza-types, lined up spread?
OU7times May 29 09
Steve,
I laughed when I saw the story topic. Can't say I've ever even seen four TE's in a single play before.
One good quality Tight End on a team is a trick, let alone five, I would think. I understand your theory but "what COULD be done" is a 5 win season as opposed to a 9 win season. When you figure in a non seasoned QB, then it would be a risky situation for a coach coming off a 9 win season (a system that already works).
Of course, it also depends on how good of run/pass blocking skills they would have.
If you were a coach would you try this during the non-conference portion of the season or pop it on a conference team that you would expect to possibly lose to, anyway?
Greg Morrow May 30 09
Reed is totally in the Tracy Wistrom (pre knee) and Matt Herian (pre lower leg) category, speed wise. A very impressive down the sideline dart, in the sping game.
Tight end is, to me, like the small forward in basketball. When I watched basketball, my favorite team was Golden State, around '90, '91. They routinely ran with a squad with no one taller that 6-6. Fun to watch.
Like small forward, tight end gives you a good opportunity for a mismatch. Which, I think is Steve's point in this article.
Remember when Colorado lined their tight ends outside of the WRs, in '94? That team's season's offense was designed just for the Nebraska game, to create a mismatch. Maybe, they thought they could exploit Barron Miles. Good for 7, anyway.
That Ron Brown is overseeing this, is a cherry on the cool whip. I love your observation Steve, on him being the most proven. Natch.
5 tight ends, all of whom should letter and a possible star, in McNeil. There hadn't been a lot of very good tight end depth, since back when they were blockers with deadly play-action capability.
Probably just a coincidence...