KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (WATE) — Everything to everyone, that’s what it means to be a tight end inside Josh Heupel’s offense. That mentality has been cemented into their veterans and is now being embraced by the younger players.
“You get asked to wear a bunch of different hats. You play in the core as a fullback, you play in the slot as a receiver, you play outside as a receiver, you got to play in-line, you got to pass block, you got to run block, you got to perimeter block, you got to run a variety of different routes – vertical choice,” said tight ends coach Alec Abeln, ” You got a lot of different stuff on your plate and it’s happening really fast. As far as information goes, how we get our guys’ information, they probably get the least amount of information. A lot of it is figuring out how you fit in the picture and to have an intelligent guy that really knows what’s going on to be able to go do that at a high level.”‘
Achieving what’s expected of them also has to do with having the personnel that knows how their fit in the system.
“I’d say definitely like my route running ability, you know playing receiver in high school and then just being able to have Coach Ab teach me how to block you know what I mean, how to really understand inside the box so I just feel like I have the tools to be able to work out in space and learn from what I already know and then having Abs being able to teach me everything that I need to learn inside the box or how to block, good position, good technique, things like that,” said freshman tight end Ethan Davis.
