Huskers hoping for tight end resurgence in passing game

One of the storylines of every Nebraska offseason over the past several years has been whether this will finally be the year the tight ends become more involved in the passing game.

For basically every year since 2012, the answer has ended up a resounding no.

Not only have the Husker tight ends been lacking in receiving production over the past seven years, the group has been all but absent entirely.

In head coach Scott Frost’s first two seasons in Lincoln, NU’s tight ends have been targeted a total of 89 times for 62 catches, 698 yards, and four touchdowns.

To put those numbers into perspective, Purdue tight end Bryce Hopkins caught 61 balls for 830 yards and seven scores by himself last season alone.

That storyline is once again near the forefront of Nebraska’s offensive conversations this fall, especially with the Huskers’ boasting their deepest tight end room in years. Will 2020 finally be the season where the tight end once again becomes a factor?

“We're a pretty veteran tight end group, and I think we just continue to make strides,” senior tight end Jack Stoll said. “I think specifically this year in receiving, you can see us going out there, making more plays, whether that's Austin Allen, whether that's Travis Vokolek, Kurt Rafdal, we're just going out there and making plays.

“We're getting the ball a lot more. That's something that we just got to keep continuing to detail up and make sure that that continues.”

Stoll has been NU’s top producing tight end the past two seasons, hauling in 25 catches on 36 targets for 234 yards and a touchdown last year and 21 grabs on 28 targets for 243 and three scores in 2018.

But dating back through Stoll, Tyler Hoppes, and Cethan Carter – Nebraska’s top tight end receivers since 2013 – no player at the position has finished with more than 34 receptions, 377 yards, or three touchdowns, all accomplished by Hoppes in 2017.

Hoppes was targeted 55 times that season, the most throws to any NU tight end since 2013. After that, the next highest target total was 38 to Carter in 2015.

The last time Nebraska had quality production from the unit was all the way back in 2012, when Kyler Reed and Ben Cotton helped the group combine for 50 catches, 678 yards, and five touchdowns.

The hope this season is that, with the help of new offensive coordinator Matt Lubick, the Huskers will create more opportunities to utilize the tight ends organically through the natural progression of the passing game.

“I think Coach Lubick has done a great job of coming up with route schemes and stuff like that to help not only the tight ends, but everyone else gets the ball and put us in the best situations to win,” Stoll said. “I think that's part of it. The other part of it is I think we're just going out there and making more plays, and because we're a little more detailed on some of our routes, running at full speed more of the time.

“Just some of the smaller details like that, they really end up turning what could be a throw to the flat for three yards into a 15-yard gain because we ended up coming out of our break a little bit faster. I think it's just minor details that have helped us a lot. I think Coach Lubick's done a good job of drawing up some schemes for not only the tight ends but wide receivers, running backs as well.”

Tight ends coach Sean Beckton said he had his group watch a lot of film of some of the top tight ends in the NFL, like Kansas City’s Travis Kelce and San Francisco’s George Kittle.

But he also showed them clips of one of his former players at Central Florida, Jordan Akins of the Houston Texans, to emphasize how what NU’s staff is teaching them will directly apply to what the best of the best are doing at the next level.

Beckton’s hope is that with an experienced unit and an offensive game plan with Lubick’s influence designed to create more looks, Nebraska’s tight ends will once again have the type role fans have been waiting for.

“Some of the things that (Lubick) has brought to the table is making sure that we have tight end targets, and where we've changed some things up where the read goes first to the tight ends opposed to being a situation where it was maybe the last outlet, so small things like that,” Beckton said.

“Then we spent a lot of time during the COVID period where we were on Zoom watching a lot of the NFL, tight ends across the league and really getting those guys in tune to what we're trying to do schematically. So those guys are understanding the nuances of what we're trying to get done. Those guys are going to have a great year this year.”