This is more like what I was expecting from the "Uugghh" post thread............

I agree, ughhh. ...and the guys they brought in to play TE in this class were both grayshirts, the Leurhman brothers, so they won't be on the roster until January.

One thing is that Mangen hasn't redshirted, yet, so he will be able to use that this year.

That brings us to Mason Morgan, who I think has a lot of potential. It's time for him to step up and have a breakout season.

Ditto on the "ughhh" thread...

Thankful for Heitzman right about now.

The defenses Ohio faced last year were a large part of that. Without a strong running game, the teams weren't biting on the play action, and were often sitting back in a nickle defense. There were only about half the normal number of throws to tight ends last year, and only 1 or 2 throws all year were in the direction of Mason. With a stronger running game, there will be more throws to the tight ends this year.

He's certainly a capable receiver, so I'm not concerned by the lack of catches. I'm guessing Morgan will end up with at least a couple TD catches this year.

Anyone know when Mangen is supposed to get an MRI?

Wait, speed? What? Speed??? I would have sworn this was your kind of guy:
http://espn.go.com/video/clip?id=13396089

As pointed out above, Malik Rodrquez, a former WR is one of the tight ends now. He was reported to run a 4.5 40 when he was recruited back in 2012. The roster lists him at 6'3" 205, but he's bigger than that now (205 was his weight in Fall 2012, which was the last time his weight was changed on the roster). My guess is that he's in the 220-230 range, which is slightly smaller than Andrew Mooney, who was reported to be 6'3" 237.

Just because he's fast, and can catch the ball, that doesn't make him a good TE, however. Unfortunately I have to point out that Ohio has tried a couple times in the past to "make" TEs out of wide receivers, and thus far it hasn't worked out all that well. Here are some people that were converted to TE, and their career stats at Ohio:

WR Kody Carr - 6'5" 199; no stats
WR Jahan Olyaie - 6'3" 228; 4 Receptions, 67 yards, 0 TD
QB Miles Schlicter 6'1" 230; no stats
QB Derek Robak 6'3" 233; 13 Receptions, 179 yards, 1 TD
DE Davon Henry 6'2 232; injured, no stats
DE David Carter - 6'5" 255; 33 Receptions, 414 yards, 5 TD
DE Keith Heitzman - 6'4" 255; Just arrived

I'd have to call Robak and Carter the biggest successes, and hopefully after this year we can add Heiztman to this list, and who knows, maybe Rodriguez, too.


Zero catches by a Freshman TE, who played mostly as a 2d TE in blocking situations does not concern me, no. I think he only had two passes thrown in his direction all season. If I recall correctly, he should have caught one, but the other was not catchable. I expect that he will have more passes thrown his way this year, and I'm confident that he can catch passes, so I'm not worried.

As an addition to my comments above, note that Carter was primarily a blocking TE. Despite being primarily a blocker, he managed a respectable 33 receptions for 5 TDs. Why? Because he was used primarily as a blocker, and because other teams respected Ohio's rushing attack, other teams' linebackers and safeties were focused on Ohio's running backs, and were frozen by play action fakes. That allowed the tight ends to often be able to slip into the open with no coverage at all.

If you look back at the history, the years when Ohio had the most effective running games, the TE was always an effective weapon as well. Where I do agree with Monroe's comments above is that, in years when Ohio has had a less effective running game, the tight ends were only effective when they were fast, and good receivers on their own merit.

I expect Ohio to have a very effective running game this fall. Therefore I think that Ohio's TEs can still be an effective weapon even if they aren't speedy and elusive.

Adding one more name to this list:

WR Kody Carr - 6'5" 199; no stats
WR Jahan Olyaie - 6'3" 228; 4 Receptions, 67 yards, 0 TD
QB Miles Schlicter 6'1" 230; no stats
QB Derek Robak 6'3" 233; 13 Receptions, 179 yards, 1 TD
DE Davon Henry 6'2 232; injured, no stats
DE David Carter - 6'5" 255; 33 Receptions, 414 yards, 5 TD
DE Keith Heitzman - 6'4" 255; Just arrived
MLB Cody Grillot - 6'0" 220; Just moved

Apparently Grillot and Heitzman will primarily be blockers, while Brown, Morgan, and Rodriquez will be the ones primarily targeted for passes.

Wes, that list is from all prior years, of player converted to TE from other spots. The point was that some turn do get a reasonable number of receptions, others don't. From that list, Heitzman and Grillot will be playing TE this fall.

None of the players who will be at TE for Ohio this year have ever caught a pass while at Ohio. They will catch some before the end of the year, but which ones, and how many I don't know. I do know that if the run game is solid, tight ends catch a lot of easy passes off play action.