No Longer Under The Radar, Tight Ends Setting Tone For Buckeyes

A year ago, Ohio State tight ends coach Keenan Bailey told his players that they were going to be the least-talented room on the Buckeye football team. He didn’t do it to insult them. He did it to instill the kind of blue-collar mindset that the position requires.

It wasn’t a room of big names or known quantities. They were replacing starting tight end Cade Stover, and were bringing back just 21 career receptions at the position — most of which belonged to Gee Scott, Jr.

The players bought into the mentality that Bailey wanted, and they were rewarded for it. They all had roles and they all played. Five tight ends played in every game last year, save for a four-game stretch when Ohio transfer Will Kacmarek was recovering from an arm injury he suffered at Oregon.

Gee Scott and former walk-on Patrick Gurd are now gone, but Bailey has added Max Klare from Purdue, who was the top tight end in the transfer portal. Klare caught 51 passes for 685 yards last year, and now he enters a room with three other tight ends who have started games and played in big moments.

It’s the deepest room that Bailey has had in his three years as the Buckeyes’ tight end coach.

“Yeah, it’s got to be,” Bailey said this week. “How many guys played in the natty? I think we had five, four or five tight ends? We had all six play in the playoffs, and four of those six are back. So yeah, I mean, we’ve got tons of guys in that room that have started college football games, and not just against the school down the street, like big-time moments and big-time games. So yeah, we’re super deep.”

Bailey also signed a pair of talented high school recruits, going to Oklahoma for Nate Roberts and landing Ohioan Brody Lennon. Adding three talented players to an already deep and experienced room might seem like a difficult task, especially in a program that is so known for throwing to receivers.

“I think it makes it easier,” Bailey said. “You know, I show these recruits all the time because everyone says Ohio State’s just a receiver school. It’s like Marvin Harrison was the best receiver in the country, and you know number two in targets and receptions and receiving yards was Cade. You can go to the other schools and they don’t have the receivers we do and you’re gonna get doubled every game.

“Good luck. I don’t know many great plays if you’re gonna get bracketed. But you have the receivers that Coach Hartline keeps bringing in here. We’re gonna have single coverage, and if my tight ends can’t beat single coverage, we’re gonna have issues. I’ll get another tight end who can. We’ve got a lot of tight ends who are pretty good receivers and I’m excited to see them.”

The Ohio State tight end room is deep and experienced. Will Kacmarek is a fifth-year senior. Bennett Christian and Max Klare are fourth-year juniors. Jelani Thurman is a redshirt sophomore. Max LeBlanc is a redshirt freshman. The upperclassmen have been through all of this before. Winter workouts are not new, nor is spring football. Which means that Bailey can ask more of his players, and subsequently get more out of them.

“Now I can challenge them even more,” Bailey explained. “Like, we’re past the stage of, ‘Okay, here’s what it’s going to be like on Saturday.’ Almost all the guys in that room have done it, so now I can challenge them even more to go be the best tight end room in the country. We’re at Ohio State. If you’re not up to that challenge, then go somewhere else.”

Those challenges are welcomed by the players, who want even more of what they had last year. But this is no longer the least-talented room on the Ohio State football team, and Bailey isn’t sending that same message. This may be the deepest position room in all of college football, and the new message is to go out there and prove it every day and on every play.

“Like, we’re not changing our DNA,” Bailey said. “You cut open an Ohio State tight end, he’s going to be a bad dude who goes really freaking hard and he’s just gritty as all get out. But I’m not saying that we’re going to be overlooked this year. At all. It’s a 180. I told the guys, we should set the tone — for the offense, for the team, nationally — with toughness and effort and all that, production, and we should be a driving force.

“I challenge them all the time. If someone comes to practice, you want to see what the Ohio State Buckeye fight culture is? The brotherhood? Just go watch the tight ends. Go watch that. That’s who the Buckeyes are. So I challenge them. Lead from the front now. We don’t need to be the sleeper unit. No. No. Set the tone.”