But things change in collegiate athletics, and for UVa football, that means the tight end position became a whole lot weaker. Once considered the only bright spot in an atrocious receiving core, treasured tight end Jake McGee left our program in May (after graduation) to complete his final season in Gainesville at the University of Florida.
In one sense, I cannot really blame him -- he left because he had a beef with the coaching staff. After missing a lot of spring ball before last season due to a conflict with a major-required class, he and tight end coach Tom O'Brien never mended their relationship. It didn't help that he was injured for much of last season and seemed to take a big hit every time he caught the ball.
Furthermore, "the kid" wants to play in the NFL as a tight end. While his blocking is a bit of an unknown, he certainly has the receiving prowess to do so. But at UVa in 2014, he would have essentially been a slot receiver -- not a tight end. It would be tough to convince NFL teams to take a chance on him when he hadn't even played the position for a year. UVa just didn't fit what he wanted in a football program any longer.
While it is easy to mourn his departure (he's leaving a giant hole at tight end), perhaps we should try to be a little more optimistic and thankful for his career at Virginia. After all, he was headed to Richmond before Mike London took the UVa job. He also was originally a quarterback, but was moved to tight end his redshirt season.
And finally, without the heroics of McGee, we probably would have just completed our second consecutive two win season. In 2012, we don't beat Penn State or Miami these catches by McGee.
But now, let's get down to reality -- McGee is gone. Left on the post spring depth chart are just two tight ends -- Swanson and junior Rob Burns. We only have one more tight end on the roster -- sophomore Mario Nixon.
If this group is to have any success receiving in 2014, most of it will have to be contributed to tight end's coach Tom O'Brien (who is also the associate head coach for offense). It was thought O'Brien could be the guy to put us over the hump and turn our program into one that goes bowling every season. After all, he has over 40 years of coaching experience and he forwent retirement to coach here in Charlottesville.
But as we know, last year didn't go according to plan. We might have settled on a quarterback, but it was probably the wrong one. The tight ends weren't really all that productive -- and now McGee has transfered. And we still had occasional midgame clock management miscues that he was supposed to solve.
Still, I like the fact that O'Brien is on our staff. Firstly, he has coached some of the better NFL quarterbacks during their college days -- like Matt Ryan, Russell Wilson, and Mike Glennon. Secondly, he also helped to turn around the NC State and Boston College programs during his stints as head coach.
The man knows and loves football, but I worry that we simply don't have the talent at tight end for his impact to really be felt. The only way I see him getting any credit is if we fire London midseason and O'Brien takes the reins to finish the season (but we're UVa, so that will never happen).
On a roster of 90+ players, O'Brien is really only responsible for three. And I'm not convinced these three guys will have any positive impact on this team in 2014.
Tight End likely starter: Zachary Swanson (Sr.)
With McGee now playing in the SEC, our unquestioned starter at tight end is Zach Swanson. Swanson, oddly enough, technically has been starting for years. Last season, he started nine games. The season before -- three starts. It seems odd upon first realization, but when you think about it, O'Brien has always preferred a more natural tight end -- a guy that can block as well as he can catch. McGee made some great grabs, but he was never known as a blocker -- that was Swanson.
The coaching staff made it evident how much they value Swanson's blocking during his redshirt freshman season when he essentially was a glorified fullback. Despite being rated as a three-star tight end out of high school (No. 22 tight end according to ESPN), he was an H-back in 2011. However, at 6'6" and 260 pounds, he was not nimble enough to play in the backfield. There's honestly no doubt about it -- he's a tight end.
He has never been asked to do much receiving in his career. In total, he has 27 catches for 261 yards in three seasons (19 catches for 173 yards a year ago). However, that will need to change this season. I'm not asking him to haul in 45-50 receptions, but I think around 30-35 is a must. Lambert's weapons on the outside are questionable. Kyle Dockins in the slot will act as a tight end, but his job will be to stretch the field. We'll need Swanson to be that guy who runs short, five-yard hitch routes to pick up that critical third and short. Hopefully he'll be able to beat a linebacker on a short out-route or crossing pattern, but if he can simply find the hole in the zone just a few yards downfield, he'll be filling his role just fine.
Are these expectations realistic for Swanson? I think so. I'm not asking him to be an All-ACC performer or anything, but with his frame and experience, he needs to help out in the middle in the passing game. I'm not worried about his blocking -- he's proven his worth there. But for Lambert to be successful (remember, Lambert's only a sophomore), he'll need his safety blanket on checkdowns. While we have running backs that can catch, nothing beats the old reliable tight end.
Depth
While we would all love to have back McGee, I'm fairly comfortable with Swanson starting. In our offense, the tight end's role has been reduced anyway. Swanson should be able to meet expectations. The area that really scares me here is our depth -- or lack there of.
We have three tight ends on the roster. THREE!!! If Swanson goes down, we're in trouble. Long story short, I don't have much confidence in the guys behind Swanson.
The only other tight end on the depth chart is junior Rob Burns. Burns was a unanimous three-star defensive end out of Ashburn, Va. After redshirting his freshman season, he moved to tight end in the fall camp before his sophomore season. It looked like he might have some promise after an impressive touchdown in last year's spring game where he ran over the defender into the endzone. But stuck behind McGee and Swanson, Burns rarely saw the field last season.
Burns technically started against Pitt, but that might have been the worst UVa offensive performance this decade. From an offensive point of view, there were no positives against Pitt. He made his first and only career reception against UNC -- for no gain.
So despite his size (6'7" and 260 pounds), I'm not sure how much confidence I have in Burns. As a former member of the defensive line, he has what it takes to be an effective blocker. But from a receiving standpoint, you have to be a little concerned. Burns has only been running routes and catching passes for just over two seasons. Could he turn out to be a decent receiver? Sure. But until we see proof, I won't pretend like I have a whole lot of confidence.
The only other tight end on the roster is sophomore Mario Nixon. But while Nixon might be a sophomore, he really has no more experience than a freshman. After redshirting in 2012, he missed all of last season with a lower extremity injury. Along with the lack of experience, Nixon will struggle with his lack of size at the tight end position. At 6'4" and 225 pounds, he's definitely on the smaller side for in-line tight ends.
For Nixon, this has been an issue since coming out of high school. He played wide receiver in high school and was given three-stars by Scout and Rivals, but ESPN gave him three-stars as a tight end, where he now plays for UVa. The hope is when you have a smaller player at tight end is that they develop into a speedy, mismatch nightmare for defenses (like Shannon Sharpe). But more often than not, this doesn't come to fruition.
My best guess is that London and Fairchild would have preferred to make Nixon a slot receiver (now that we are going big in that area). However, it would be foolish to leave only two tight ends on the roster.
We have incoming freshman Evan Butts (three-stars), but Butts -- like all tight ends -- would certainly benefit from a redshirt season. Tight end is one of the harder transitions to make from high school to college because not only are you required to block much bigger OLBs/DEs, but you also have to run more complicated, precise routes against much better athletes. The position takes time to learn.
Conclusion
To be blunt, I'm not all that thrilled about tight end in 2014. Now if McGee was still here, this would be a whole different story. We would have Swanson as depth and another season for Burns to learn and hopefully contribute his senior season. And we would definitely redshirt Butts and bring him along at his own pace.
But McGee's loss has ripple effects all across the roster. And from a pass catching standpoint, the tight end position took a huge blow. I think Swanson can do just fine. He's no McGee (he won't have those acrobatic catches like in the videos above), but he should do a fine job on short, checkdown routes.
But behind Swanson, we have three guys that have a total of one career catch. And two of them aren't even natural tight ends. Assuming Swanson stays healthy, we'll survive 2014. But for 2015 and beyond, I am genuinely scared at this position. Next season -- with Swanson's departure -- we'll have Burns, Nixon, and Butts as our tight ends, presumably with Burns as the starter. Now maybe Nixon will become a solid pass catcher so Burns can focus on blocking. And maybe Butts doesn't redshirt, progresses well, and becomes a reliable sophomore target. But we cannot rely on any of these happening because let's face it, they're not likely.
Like I said, at times it's best to be curt -- I don't like our tight end situation. And a lot of that traces back to Mike London. Listen, it's hard to recruit true tight ends -- the good ones are few and far between. However, London has recruited two natural tight ends -- Swanson and Butts -- in his five seasons as coach. You have to do better than that. Even though McGee had success transitioning positions, more guys fail than succeed.
We should be okay this season, but 2015 and beyond isn't looking too bright at tight end.
Next Week: Offensive line
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