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The time has come for Texas Tech football tight ends | Don Williams
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- The time has come for Texas Tech football tight ends | Don Williams
Tahj Brooks would probably tell you there's never been a time in the Joey McGuire coaching tenure that the tight ends haven't been involved in the Texas Tech football team's offense .
Brooks has rushed for nearly 2,000 yards since the beginning of last season, and how many of those yards have come with Mason Tharp and a lineman pulling to lead him up the gut on the Red Raiders ' bread-and-butter counter play? I know, I know. Watching tight ends block isn't as fun for some people as watching tight ends catch passes, especially since the stature of the Tech tight ends makes them so captivating.
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There's Tharp, listed at 6-foot-9 and 270 pounds, Johncarlos Miller at 6-5, 245 and Jalin Conyers at 6-4, 265.
"I want to say this is probably the first year we have three tight ends that's kind of NFL bodies," Brooks said. "They do a great job blocking, and they do a great job after the catch, too. ... It's just crazy the things they do that go unnoticed, but as a football team, as football players, as teammates, we notice that every play, so a shout-out to those guys."
Related: Fourth-down stops make Texas Tech football win over Arizona State easier
Their roles are expanding this season, even if they were perhaps overshadowed Saturday by the other skill-position guys. Behren Morton threw two touchdown passes in the first eight minutes of Tech's 30-22 victory against Arizona State in a Big 12 opener at Jones AT&T Stadium. Brooks had yet another 100-yard rushing performance ― 117 on 27 carries ― Josh Kelly finished with 10 catches for 89, and there's no such thing as too much Caleb Douglas.
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Even so, the tight ends didn't get shorted. Morton's first touchdown pass was to Miller. It was the third Saturday in a row for the transfer from Elon to score. This time, he had the restraint not to do a celebratory dunk over the crossbar, which last week made for an entertaining highlight while drawing a flag and raising the hackles of his position coach.
Related: Jalin Conyers finds his happy place with Texas Tech football
Tech also got a touchdown from Conyers, lined up as a wildcat-formation quarterback and going 3 yards around the right end. One of the more important plays of the game came two snaps before, courtesy of Tharp. With Tech up 17-10 and facing third-and-10 at the ASU 15-yard line, Tharp delayed his release off the line, drifted outside the hash marks — as stealthy as a hulk can be — and caught a pass for 12 yards to move the chains.
The Tech tight ends' receiving numbers might not jump off the page, though they've caught five touchdown passes in four games.
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Their value to what Tech wants to do is better measured by their constant presence. The Red Raiders operate out of 11 personnel — one running back, one tight end, three receivers — easily more than any other personnel package. That's nothing new compared to last year, nor is 12 personnel necessarily, but now the Red Raiders are brandishing 13 personnel — all three tight ends on the field at once — and doing so effectively.
Last week against North Texas , the Red Raiders scored three rushing touchdowns deployed from 13 personnel, putting two tight ends in the backfield and one on the line. That's the kind of stuff Iowa State has done with such rugged beauty, making the Cyclones the envy of less well-fortified tight end coaches.
"Those three guys are so key to this offense," McGuire said, "because they're so physical. I tell you, Tahj would probably say we're better when we have Mason Tharp in the run game. Jalin Conyers is so athletic and can do so many things, and then Johncarlos Miller is kind of a hybrid of both. He's really physical in the run game, and he's really athletic.
"Those guys, they've got great hands, they're really physical and they're mismatches."
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Brooks is going to his carries. Kelly and others are going to get their catches. The tight ends are going to get theirs, too, in whatever form that takes. It should be compelling to watch their usage evolve over these next three months.
It's what a lot of people have been waiting for.
Related: Texas Tech football puts the hurt on Arizona State in Big 12 opener | Report card
This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: The time has come for Texas Tech football tight ends | Don Williams
