“Why can’t we be more like Stanford?”

If the University of Utah had a dollar for every time that a fan went to the narrative of wanting to become a more power-oriented, pro style offense there’s a good possibility that Mark Harlan would’ve paid cash for the south end zone renovation like he was Uncle Moneybags from the game Monopoly. It’s easy to envy the successful offenses of other teams when you believe that your offense was “just the WORST” and if your source for that kind of information was social media, there’s not much argument against it. Perception becomes reality really fast when you need six points and your offense can’t put the ball across the money line to win games, and being the new kid on the Pac-12 block, the desperation to win and prove you belong overrides even the most sensible of fans. Without causing too many painful flashbacks from winnable games lost on the goal line(It rhymes with AL), there’s a singular factor that can both help Utah win games in 2019 and moving forward that really will help us to become more like Stanford.

Tight End U?

Pop quiz, what school is currently tied for most Tight Ends in the NFL? Surprise! It’s Stanford, along with Notre Dame, Miami, and Washington (shout out to Harvard, the Stanford of the East for having three TEs in the NFL as well). If you count JJ Arcega-Whiteside and Trent Irwin, who closely resemble tight ends on the field, that bumps the number up to seven, the highest amount of NFL players Stanford has placed at any position. (Disclaimer: Off-season rosters change almost daily, these totals are subject to change.) It’s no secret that a good tight end can help offenses in a variety of ways. In the run game, versatile blockers can help set the edge in a zone run play, or be moving blockers in split zone or counter/power, using their size, strength and athleticism to block athletes in space while forcing defenses to adjust coverages and alignment due to their position on the field.

In the passing game, anyone who plays fantasy football knows the value of a good tight end in the red zone, the best at the position become touchdown factories for fantasy owners (RIP, Yo Soy Fiesta). Scoring in the red zone is good, scoring touchdowns in the red zone is better. While there are a ton of factors that go into putting the pigskin in the end zone, there’s a light correlation between programs with good tight ends and efficiency in the red zone. Last year, with one of the best units in recent memory and Hulk Moss, Utah ranked 10th overall in the country in red zone efficiency, with Stanford following up at 15. In 2015, Utah also ranked 10th in red zone efficiency, while featuring a deep group of tight ends in Harrison Handley, Siale Fakailoatonga, and Evan Moeai that had it been able to avoid some catastrophic injuries, would have cemented a legacy of tight end production begun by Jake Murphy*. Going into 2019, with an offense built around Zack Moss and using plenty of tight end sets, Utah should be well-poised to cement the position again and continue the success in the red zone, and becoming more “multiple” with sets will open the doors for the young, talented wide receiver corps to make their mark as well. Speaking of the next generation of Utah tight ends...

*The tight end position at the University of Utah has a bit of a Defense Against the Dark Arts feel to it during the Pac-12 era. Jake Murphy, Westlee Tonga, Evan Moeai, Siale Fakailoatonga, Harrison Handley, Chad Hekking, were all players who had the talent level to be productive and possibly play at the next level, but injuries derailed almost all of them. The curse of Dudley LaPorte may have finally been broken, the how is something we’ll have to look into deeper down the road.

“We feel like we’ve got some really good players.”

For the poker players out there, you’ve been there before. You get dealt a hand and you think it might be pretty good, but you want to wait and see. You don’t want to jinx it, especially because that jerk Chris(err, let’s call him Mr Peterson) across the table from you has been living on the river all game long and keeps stealing the pot at the last minute, but you’ve got pocket aces and letting slip a little bit of a smile isn’t the worst thing right now as he clearly doesn’t know what he has. That’s the essence of the above quote from Kyle Whittingham this spring regarding his tight end group, one that as a group exceeded the production from the year previous by almost five times(127 yards and 0 TDs in 2017, 503 yards and 5 TDs in 2018) mostly due to the arrival of freshmen Brant Kuithe and Cole Fotheringham. The freshman duo combined for 417 yards and three TDs, roughly 83% of Utah’s production from the group overall. Both return and have positioned themselves well to take full advantage of the offense Andy Ludwig has created, which Fred Whittingham said “utilizes the tight ends in an authentic way” to our Supreme Leader of the Nation UteZone Dan Sorensen after this spring’s football activities. That’s likely good news for the two, but if KWhitt’s plan was to keep this part of the offense secret, the cat unfortunately is out of the bag, thanks to Pro Football Focus. **Disclaimer: Take PFF’s grades with either a grain of salt or a gallon of Kool-Aid, depending on how they favor you**

Utah returns two of the top three highest-graded tight ends in the Pac-12 this season in Cole Fotheringham and Brant Kuithe. pic.twitter.com/F6nc9nJ2ht — PFF College (@PFF_College) May 30, 2019

It’s one thing to return a productive tight end on a division championship team, but returning two?? Especially two that graded out as well as Fotheringham and Kuithe, both by way of PFF and by way of my eyes, in a system built for running backs and tight ends to excel?? Pass that Kool-Aid this way!!! Except...who even uses tight ends anymore?

Positionless Football

You can blame Urban Meyer. He might not have been the inventor of the Spread Offense(all hail Papa Mumme and the Air Raid), but he was the Don King of the evolution, bringing it to the forefront of college football in 2004 while busting down the BCS walls en route to an unclaimed National Championship caliber season. By the time he’d actually won a Natty or two at Florida, the Spread had...well..spread across the nation as the new evolution. While basic spread concepts such as zone read and four verticals still exist in most offenses and likely always will, the spread has evolved into multiple offenses and sets, anchored down by the idea of positionless players fluidly able to move about through a formation and play and do multiple things in order to not only confuse defenses but to always put the offensive player at an advantage to make a play. Mike Leach described the type of player who fits this role as only Mike Leach could;

"We want to throw it short to people who can score."

This seems to be in contrast to what most Utah fans have demanded for years and what most NFL teams had targeted at wide receiver, but the trend is real. Trent Dilfer, former journeyman NFL QB and head coach of the Elite 11 QB competition camp, mentioned on the Ryen Russillo podcast Dual Threat back in October(check in about the six minute mark for the full take, or twelve minutes for the specific note) that the trend of football is getting smaller, twitchy guys into space where they can take advantage of bigger, stronger players and create advantages that allow them to continually gain yards. What’s readily confirmed by Dilfer’s analysis is the massive availability of those kinds of players in comparison to the big, strong, athletic receivers of years past. For over a decade, the Patriots were ahead of this curve with the Wes Welker/Danny Woodhead/Julian Edelman types that could always get open within five yards and keep drives moving. The rest of the world has caught up to what Brady/Belichick have been doing for years and adapting how to use it from the college game, with six of the eight NFL playoff teams implementing these concepts, essentially confirming that the idealogy is indeed sound and here to stay. What is conspicuously absent from the take is the importance of a versatile, athletic, expert-blocking tight end. It’s not hard to see that almost every team that made the NFL conference finals had a tight end that fit this profile(Rob Gronkowski, Travis Kelce, Tyler Higbee/Jared Cook who are phenomenal players overshadowed by other talent on the team), as well as the majority of playoff teams. If position-less football is to really thrive, it is wholly dependent upon tight ends who can block, line up on the line of scrimmage, in the slot or out wide, can catch and have some sort of twitch that allows them to separate themselves from defenders and get open in pass routes. If you peruse the offense that Troy Taylor put together at its’ peak, it was built upon all the tight ends being able to do exactly that. Both Fotheringham and Kuithe can do a little bit of both, with Kuithe being the modern brand of a hybrid between an H-back and a tight end that is more common in college football than ever. Kuithe even took the ball on a handoff at one point last year, and having added a few extra pounds in the off-season, could be as unique a player as Utah has seen in years. What will allow him to be used in this manner is the absolute command that Cole Fotheringham has of the OG tight end position. He can set the edge in run-blocking, he can move and motion, he can run all the routes and he’s virtually unguardable in short yardage. He’s also an explosive leaper, as he showcased against UCLA reeling in a gorgeous touchdown grab from Britain Covey. There’s intriguing depth with Thomas Yassmin, a naturally gifted athlete who is still learning the game albeit much more accelerated than maybe initially thought, and Bapa Falemaka who is back at tight end and recovering from shoulder surgery. Though Falemaka has had his struggles, there’s always hope that the light might come on in his final season at Utah. On the recruiting trail, Utah has offered several dynamite options for the 2020 class to continue to build the pipeline even deeper. Hopefully this leads to more shirtless Fred pics during snow games, or at least a few more games with the all-white ensemble.

Though the Utes will likely never go full Stanford (no one ever goes full Stanford, not even Harvard) there’s a lot to indicate that they’re taking the steps to be a destination for tight ends going forward. With an offensive coordinator the capability of Ludwig, the continuation of bringing in dynamic running backs, and a stout and unforgiving defense that continues to lead the conference, and a developing quarterback pipeline which looks to be very promising, Utah is poised to become a destination for the position for years to come. Sometimes the best things come to those who wait.

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