Tight End U?

(This is another guest post from Chris Jason, a hopeful future Men of the Scarlet and Gray Blogger. Until we can get a proper account set up for him and he can make his formal introduction, I’ll continue to handle his posting “duties”. Also, note that this was submitted before it was announced that Jake will be listed as a “wide receiver”. The point remains the same.)

Buckeye fans across the country salivated when Urban Meyer was hired as the new head coach. Dreams of Braxton Miller lining up in shotgun, leading Meyer’s complex spread offense that broke scoreboards at Utah and most notably Florida have players ecstatic for what their role in this offense will be.

One player who will thrive in Urban’s spread offense this year will be tight end Jake Stoneburner.

Ohio State is certainly not “Tight End U,” but they have had talent there, that has succeeded more in the NFL than at OSU. Ben Hartsock is in his 9th year in the NFL and Jake Ballard had a great rookie campaign before tearing his ACL in the Super Bowl.

Stoneburner has all the tools to break out this year in this spread offense if Meyer can trust Braxton Miller to throw the ball at an efficient level. Stoneburner is a converted wide receiver out of high school where he caught 15 touchdown passes his senior year to compliment his 74 catches. He has great hands and a knack for the end zone as half of his receptions last year went for 6 (7 TD’s!)

A player who Stoneburner can resemble in a past Urban Meyer offense is current New England Patriot, Aaron Hernandez. Although Stoneburner is three inches taller than Hernandez, they weigh roughly
the same and if given the chance, Stoneburner could produce the same results that Hernandez did at Florida. Hernandez went from 34 receptions to 68 receptions his final year at Florida and he was named the Mackey Award Winner as the nation’s best tight end.

Meyer wants his tight ends to be versatile enough where he can put them in the slot or as an H back and create mismatches with either the opposing linebackers or safeties. A player like Stoneburner using his size and strength will be a mismatch with safeties and his speed will create a mismatch with linebackers. Fans will also see Stoneburner line up as an H back a lot throughout the season, as Meyer likes to run his zone read out of that look.

Jake Stoneburner is quoted as saying, “It’s like a dream come true. You want to come to an offense where the tight end is almost the focal point. I wouldn’t say we’re the focal point, but we’re definitely going to get the ball a lot.” There really is no such thing as the prototypical big, slow, blocking tight end getting the majority of the snaps anymore. The tight end position has transformed as a result of the spread offense and a player like Stoneburner is the perfect weapon for this offense to run how it is engineered to.

Yes Buckeye fans, this coaching staff finally knows how to create offensive mismatches for their tight ends and just like his teams at Utah and Florida, the Buckeyes will look to break the scoreboard this season. (Just watch the different ways that Meyer used Hernandez and the different formations that he lines them up in.)

Comments

  1. @Dave when this guest writer wrote the article last week Stoneburner was still a TE…. 🙂

  2. @Dave hopefully that means with Stoneburner moving over to WR, someone else steps up to the plate at the tight end position. We’ve been hearing real good things about Vannett, too.

  3. A couple reasons Stoneburner moved to WR:

    1. Heuerman and Vannett have proved to be very good TE’s.
    2. Still a lack of playmakers in the WR corps lead to the switch.

  4. I am clearly in the minority but I think we have some really good WRs. Devin and Evan are playmakers. Philly Brown and Chris Fields are cagey veterans. Mike Thomas is a star in the making. Riquan Southward may be injured and also is very much in the Santonio Holmes/Terry Glenn mold. If we could get Tyrone “TY” Williams to live up to his potential and his physique he could be all everything http://photo.the-ozone.net/details.aspx?SeasonID=11&SportID=4&CollegeID=0&SortType=0&EventTypeID=0&SportEventID=a9a83f4c-4bb3-43c2-9f11-f0fc09fd4fe2&TeamMemberID=00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000&PhotographerID=0&ReturnRowCount=12&ReturnPageNumber=5&RowCount=1&PageNumber=57

  5. @Kade – another thing to consider — Stoneburner was recruited as a WR and moved to TE, so this is sort of a lateral move any way.

    And I’m mostly with @SYR, I think we will have some WR stars in the making. BUT, they are as of yet still unproven, so time will tell.

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