FSU football needs another playmaker on offense, and Chop Chat’s Sam Tschida is here to take a look at who FSU fans should expect to see lined up at tight end in 2020
Over the past several weeks, I have been previewing what the FSU depth chart will look like come fall practice time in 2020. You can read all the defensive position posts here.
Now that defense is done, the offense is next up in the preview series (sorry special teams). I already went over the offensive line, which you can read here. Today, I’ll take a look at tight ends.
The last two offensive schemes have featured the tight end to varying degrees. In Jimbo’s pro-style/spread hybrid, Nick O’Leary was always a solid second option for EJ Manuel and Jameis Winston, while Ryan Izzo’s impact was felt much more as a blocker than pass-catcher.
Fisher emphasized the tight end more than the previous regime, but aside from O’Leary’s junior and senior seasons, they were mostly used as blockers.
Under the previous coaching staff, which ran two slight variations of the “Baylor Spread”, the tight end saw around the same amount of action, albeit not in the traditional way. Tre McKitty and Cam McDonald both played the traditional tight end role, and combined averaged 27.5 catches in the two years under Taggart. This was slightly more than under Fisher, whose tight ends would normally total anywhere from 20-25 catches in a season, with exceptions for studs like O’Leary.
In addition to the traditional tight end role, the previous scheme used an H-back instead of traditional fullback, which does seem to fit in with Norvell’s scheme as well. Gabe Nabers excelled in the H-Back role last season, emerging as a reliable blocker and acted as the quarterback’s “safety valve” on most passing combinations, as we can see here.
Norvell’s scheme does use the tight end, but not any more than the two previous offensive schemes. Most plays that Memphis ran with Norvell calling the play were either RPOs, play-action passes, or variations of inside zone/the shotgun-power run game.
The starting tight end last season, Joey Magnifico (the best name in college football), caught 20 passes and two touchdowns. During Norvell’s tenure in the Mississippi delta, his tight ends averaged around 30 catches per season, with the only outlier being 2019 after the Tigers lost Sean Dykes to graduation in 2018.
The past Memphis offenses mostly used 11 personnel, which is when the offense features one running back and one tight end, along with three receivers.
The alignment above is a variation of the most basic formation Memphis runs, with the tight end stationed on the short side of the field. On most of the offensive plays that I watched, the tight end was almost always used as either a run blocker or 3rd/4th option.
In a similar vein to Jimbo Fisher’s offense, the tight end in Mike Norvell’s offense is normally only the primary option off of play-action passes. Norvell also lines up his tight ends as an H-back when the Tigers would run inside zone, seen below:
When lined up like this, the tight end almost always was either a lead blocker or ‘sealed’ at the back end of the line, which was key against quick outside linebackers and athletic defensive end. As stated earlier, Gabe Nabers filled this role the past two seasons, sometimes being replaced by Tre McKitty.
In Norvell’s offense, the primary tight end almost always filled the H-back role. In this formation, Norvell’s offense also would sometimes run a ‘shovel option’, a play made famous by Tim Tebow and Aaron Hernandez at UF.
Most of the time, Memphis did not run with two tight end sets, only using two in short-yardage situations. They did run play action out of that set, but it was not frequent.
Basically in Norvell’s offense, the tight end does not need to be a fantastic route runner, because the scheme will get them open a lot of the time. Now that we know how exactly the tight end will be used, let’s look at what the depth chart might look like.
Tight End
With the transfer of two-year starter Tre McKitty, there is now an opening at the starting tight end spot, and the competition should be good throughout fall practice. Sitting in the drivers’ seat for this spot is Cam McDonald, who is the only tight end with collegiate on-field production.
McDonald was a surprise pull from Willie Taggart’s first recruiting class in 2018 from Long Beach Poly in California. A four-star recruit, it was not expected that McDonald would contribute right away, but fans did hope they would see him featured in the offense more this past season.
Instead, McDonald was rarely featured in the offense, catching only six passes in just six games played. McDonald has the size needed to be an offensive weapon for FSU football, but his run blocking prowess remains to be seen. This isn’t a knock on McDonald as much as it means we haven’t seen the sophomore have to run block too much.
In Norvell’s offense, Magnifico was used as a jump-ball specialist as well as a reliable run blocker. Magnifco had fantastic athleticism and earned All-AAC honors last season for the Tigers. I could see McDonald being used similarly as Magnifco was, albeit as less of a run blocker. McDonald is supremely athletic for a tight end and does possess good hands. Hopefully, this will be a breakout year for him, and in Norvell’s offense, it is possible.
Backup / H-Back
Behind McDonald sits not a single player with in-game experience at tight end. The competition for the backup job will be between Carter Boatwright, a tight end from the 2020 recruiting class, and Wyatt Rector, the QB-turned-utility player who looks to fill in as an H-back.
Boatwright is the most likely-backup since he has experience at the position and can be an early contributor. Boatwright is a three-star talent out of south Georgia who could be an effective run blocker after a year in the weight training program. He should develop into a capable pass-catcher as well, and expect to see a lot of Boatwright by his second year in the program. However, in 2020 he should be used primarily to give McDonald a rest.
The wildcard in this group is Rector. Rector started as a quarterback from Leesburg High School, and anyone from Central Florida will tell you he was one of the best high school players in the area his senior season. He went on to commit to Western Michigan as a QB, then transferred to Lenoir-Rhyne before finally coming to FSU as a walk-on QB. With the additions of two freshman quarterbacks plus the Jordan Travis transfer last season, Rector would probably sit as the fifth-string QB, so a move does make sense.
It was reported that Rector runs slightly below a 4.6, which is on track for a speedy H-back or tight end. He stands at 6’1, a little short for a tight end, but when he does have one he did not use a ‘true’ H-back a lot of the time.
Norvell has shown the ability to adapt to his personnel. It’s doubtful Rector will get a lot of snaps this season as a “true” tight end, but expect to see him used a fullback/tight end hybrid lined up in the backfield throughout this season.