Can 410-Pound LaQuan McGowan Really Start at Tight End for Baylor?

Oh, yes. Your wildest big-man touchdown-catching fantasies are on the verge of coming true on a regular basis. And the Baylor Bears will be the offense that delivers them to you oh-so beautifully.

Everyone loves when the so-called big uglies get involved in an offensive game plan. Usually, it's in the form of a trick play. But when the Bears threw an 18-yard touchdown pass to 410-pound lineman LaQuan McGowan in the Cotton Bowl, there was no trickery.

Baylor simply lined up and threw the ball to the wide-open big man, who then became a college football legend of sorts, as profiled by B/R's Adam Kramer:

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It was not by chance or luck. In fact, it was quite the opposite. It took months of preparation and a player large enough—and freakishly gifted enough—to pull the whole thing off.

“It was the brainchild of Art Briles,” the younger [offensive coordinator Kendal] Briles said of the play. “It was one of his babies.”

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It would appear, though, that the legend will continue. This is no fluke, no one-time thing never to see the light of day again. No, this doesn't appear to be one of those springtime experiments that eventually gets shuffled to the backburner.

Baylor seems dead set on having McGowan at tight end. And, well, that's just fine with us. 

The fifth-year senior was on display during the Bears' open scrimmages and has a real chance of seeing the field as a pass-catcher in 2015.

"You can throw a ball as hard as you can at Quan, and he's going to catch it like this," Baylor offensive coordinator Kendal Briles told Jake Trotter of ESPN.com. "It's incredible."

On Baylor's post-spring depth chart, McGowan is listed as a co-starter at tight end along with Tre'Von Armstead.

Can McGowan actually start at tight end for the Bears? Absolutely.

Consider the most important part of this equation: the tight end's role in Baylor's offense. Baylor routinely trots onto the field with four- and five-wide receiver sets. To say that McGowan would start at tight end doesn't mean he's going to be on the field every single down. 

Since Art Briles became the head coach of the Bears, the tight end has had a limited role when it comes to catching passes.

The most prolific season a tight end has had for the Bears in recent history came via Brad Taylor, who caught 20 passes for 269 yards and a pair of scores in 2010. It's not uncommon for a Bears wide receiver to pick up those kinds of numbers in a single game these days.

Name	Year	Stats
Justin Akers	2008	14 catches, 167 yards 2 TDs
Justin Akers	2009	27 catches, 249 yards, TD
Brad Taylor	2010	20 catches, 269 yards, 2 TDs
Jordan Najvar	2011	15 catches, 146 yards, 2 TDs
Jordan Najvar	2012	10 catches, 80 yards, 2 TDs
Jordan Najvar	2013	10 catches, 85 yards
Tre'Von Armstead	2014	5 catches, 62 yards, TD

McGowan has shown good hands and can move for a guy of his size. He may not catch 50 passes next season—or half of that, or even a quarter of that—but he will be a receiving option. Now that opposing defenses have seen what he can do, his presence on the field won't go unnoticed. He can be used to draw focus away from other players and create mismatches on the field that weren't there previously.

Who knows? Baylor might ask him to pancake a defender or two along the way.

McGowan entered the Cotton Bowl as a backup lineman and emerged as a superstar. With Briles and Co. seemingly dead serious about giving their battleship of a tight end some playing time, you can bet there will be more moments like that next season.

Ben Kercheval is a lead writer for college football. All quotes cited unless obtained firsthand.