Buckeye Tight Ends Playing In Heavy Rotation

Seven different Ohio State tight ends played snaps on offense against Western Michigan two weekends ago.

That number may not be an OSU record, but it’s hard to imagine a game where eight tight ends saw action in any particular game in recent memory.

Fifth-year senior starter Gee Scott, fourth-year junior Will Kacmarek, and redshirt freshman Jelani Thurman received the bulk of the snaps in the first half, but true freshman Max LeBlanc and walk-on Jace Middleton saw their first career snaps as Buckeyes.

Four different tight ends caught passes against the Broncos — including graduate junior walk-on Patrick Gurd. Four tight ends catching passes may not be a record either, but it’s still a notable feat considering five tight ends caught passes all of last season.

One of the reasons for the influx of tight ends is that the Buckeyes have gone with several heavy sets featuring multiple tight ends on the field together, including a look with four tight ends on OSU’s first touchdown against Western Michigan. On that play, senior running back TreVeyon Henderson powered in from three yards out behind nine plus-sized blockers.

The Buckeyes’ last touchdown saw them field three tight ends and resulted in a 55-yard touchdown catch and run from redshirt sophomore tight end Bennett Christian.

On Tuesday, OSU offensive coordinator Chip Kelly was asked about the heavy sets and whether they could still stretch a defense the way they want without multiple wide receivers on the field.

“Well, Bennett had a 55-yarder for a touchdown, so I would say somewhat,” Kelly said smiling. “There are pros and cons. The more surfaces you build and the tighter they are to the football, then the less you can technically stretch the field. But I still think there are plays that can come out of those sets because the mindset of the defense when those guys come into the game should be they’re going to run the ball. And I would say percentage-wise we’re probably going to run the ball more than we’re going to throw the ball in those formations, but there’s a give and take there.”

Christian’s touchdown came on fourth and one, so the defense was definitely expecting the run. Freshman quarterback Julian Sayin deftly executed the play-action fake and Christian was wide open down the sideline. The way the Buckeyes were running the ball against the Broncos, the play-action was set up perfectly.

“I think you have to always try to complement it,” Kelly explained. “We may have two or three good runs out of this, but we’ve got to have a play-action pass. We’ve got to have a completion. We’ve got to have a shot play. What’s our shot play out of this?”

There is also a discovery process against each defense the Buckeyes face. They have an expectation for how an opposing defense will approach the OSU offense, but they don’t know for sure how an opponent is going to act until they see it first-hand.

There’s Plan A, then Plan B, and don’t forget about Plan C.

“It’s interesting on how defenses, when you look at, like, we know our personnel. We know, knowing our personnel, this is how we would defend it. Then you go to play another team, and it’s like, ‘Wow, I never thought they would do it that way.’ So here’s our answer if they do do it that way,” Kelly said.

“I think you have to be prepared for it because the issue is sometimes you’re not going to see tape from other opponents that have presented that. So you don’t know how teams line up to these formations because in the first three games that they played, they’ve never seen that formation. That doesn’t mean they don’t know how to line up with it. It just means we don’t know how they’re going to line up to it. So sometimes you’re going to find that out as the game expresses itself.”