BYU Football: How Tight-Ends Are Impacting the Cougar Offense

Football is a very nuanced sport. A minor failure in execution by one player can cause a play to go awry. When you think about the complexity, it’s a wonder coaches can get 19-24-year-old kids to be orchestrated enough to complete any plays, let alone a game’s worth.

That’s why we love it.

The Tight-End of the Line

One of those lesser-understood cogs in the football offense is the tight-end.

BYU has long been a factory for producing tight ends that have gone on to NFL careers, most recently Dennis Pitta, who is seeing significant playing time for the Baltimore Ravens.

From Todd Christensen to Chad Lewis and Itula Mili to Johnny Harline and the aforementioned Pitta, BYU’s decades-long process of creating great tight ends has been consistent.

And key to the success of those players has been their ability to both catch passes and block. In fact, many BYU tight ends fine a niche in the NFL as block-only players. Daniel Coates is a good recent example.

Times Tight at Tight-End?

But what about this season? Does BYU have the talent at tight end of the past?

They certainly have the size. And volume.

There are 10 tight-ends on the roster, and they average about 6’5" and 220 pounds. But the most startling column in the depth chart is that these guys are all freshmen and sophomores.

Austin Holt and Marcus Matthews have emerged as the primary tight-ends in the offense. Richard Wilson was seeing success on the field before going out for the season with a knee injury. Devin Mahina went down in fall camp.

So youth and inexperienced were coupled with injury and led to a corps that came into the season well behind the good offenses of years past.

You can see a detailed breakdown of tight-end use this season by quarterback and opponent in a recent Cougar Stats blog post. 

Critical Role of TE in the O

What many fans (and media) don’t fully comprehend is the importance a good tight end plays in that orchestration of the overall offensive scheme, particularly one like BYU runs (and especially the pro-set they called for Jake Heaps).

Oversimplified, the tight-end has four roles, vital to BYU’s offensive success:

Run-blocking: Handle blocking schemes and assignments, sometimes as a lead blocker for the run-game.

Rush-blocking: Taking an assignment or picking up the pass rush

Chip blocking: This may be the hardest job of a tight end. It involves getting in the way of a pash rusher enough to slow him down or knock him out of the way, but then releasing into the flat or on the edge to catch a pass.

Pass catching: Either through a planned route or on a block-release, get open and catch a ball. Can be from the slot (like Dennis Pitta) or from the traditional end position.

With Brandon Doman’s pro-set offense, the role of the tight-end is heightened. Since formations are similar on the line and the run attack is critical, BYU’s TEs have to be great blockers.

Much room for improvement in 2011

Without really solid play from this corps, the offense sputters. A poor block can kill a run play. A missed pickup on a corner blitz gets the QB sacked. A poor chip on a release route allows the lineman to tip a ball. And a bad read of the defense doesn’t allow the TE to find a hole in a zone.

Watching the tape, it’s easy to see that early in the season BYU badly missed a great blocking tight-end. While the roster has strong potential, in early games, the blocking wasn’t as sound as it should be, especially in the run game.

Beyond that, the tight-ends didn’t chip well, either, and on improvised routes, were clearly out of sync with Heaps.

Talent Must Develop

The fact is, most tight-ends aren’t utilized to the same degree in high school. As a result, it’s the rare TE that comes into spring practice ready to play in all these aspects (Daniel Coates was the rare exception).

The fact that the offense changed drastically midseason when Riley Nelson came in has made for additional pain in the learning curve.

Now the Cougars must continue to let Austin Holt and Marcus Matthews learn the blocking schemes and find their groove in all four parts of their assignment.

Once they do, the offense will really click. And another tight-end will find his place in a long tradition of greats.

Follow Ryan at Twitter.com/SportsGuyUtah