Gus Malzahn has heard the fans. And he thinks the solution to their gripes is new offensive coordinator Chad Morris.
“I know a lot of people and a lot of our fanbase say, ‘When are we going to throw to the tight end?’ Well, it’s here,” Malzahn said at his 2020 national signing day press conference. “The frustration of not throwing to the tight end enough — I think we’ve got two guys that can really help change it. And the guys we’ve got.”
Auburn now has five tight ends on the roster that it would like to utilize: 2019 signees Luke Deal and Tyler Fromm, both of whom redshirted last season, along with 2020 signees Brandon Frazier and JJ Pegues, plus two-year starter John Samuel Shenker.
So Malzahn feels, in terms of talent, that Auburn’s cupboard is stocked at that position. But will balls from Bo Nix get thrown their way?
Since C.J. Uzomah left the Plains after the 2014 season, Auburn had no catches by a tight end in 2015, two catches in 2016 — both for touchdowns to Jalen Harris — one catch in 2017, and six over the past two seasons to Shenker.
Even Uzomah caught only 29 balls in his Auburn career. Seven went for touchdowns, making him a memorable player, but Malzahn hasn’t needed tight ends during his most successful years running the offense. That doesn’t mean an infusion of Morris’ tendencies into the offense won’t yield positive results, though.
“Really, if you look at what Coach Morris did the last two years, I think they targeted the tight end either the most or second-most in college football,” Malzahn said. “So that’s really a big priority for Coach Morris.”
Last season under Morris’ direction, Arkansas’ Cheyenne O’Grady was second in the SEC in receptions by a tight end. He led the Razorbacks in touchdowns with six the previous season, as well. During Morris' first year as the offensive coordinator at Clemson, would-be NFL tight end Dwayne Allen had his best season with the team, snaring 50 passes for 598 yards and eight scores. Morris also helped to develop Clemson tight end Jordan Leggett, who became the 10th tight end taken in the 2017 NFL draft.
Auburn’s newest signees, particularly Frazier, took notice of Morris’ history of tight-end involvement in the passing game.
“It was good to talk with Coach Malzahn and sit down and talk about the need for the position of the tight end that Coach Morris uses for his offense,” Frazier said when he committed. “... I know how Coach Morris utilizes the tight end and how he wants to run multiple tight end sets, and he made it very clear that there is an opportunity to play next year — and I trust him and what he does.”
Malzahn said after the early signing period that Pegues will play both H-back and tight end as a 6-foot-3, 270-pound pass-catcher and blocker with the ability to make plays in the open field.
“Both of them are big-time basketball players and both of them are big, strong guys and have those NFL-type bodies,” Malzahn said of Frazier and Pegues. “You’ll definitely see more targets to the tight ends than what we’ve seen in recent history with Chad running the offense.”
Shenker has been a reliable target, particularly in the red zone, for Auburn’s offense for the past two seasons. And the addition of two flashy tight ends in 2020 doesn’t diminish the potential Malzahn saw in Fromm and Deal last signing period.
Morris may bring the ability to throw to a tight end, but he’ll first have to figure out which ones will be getting the ball.
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