MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Spread offenses are known for allowing quarterbacks to find holes all across a defense. Receivers can leak into open space or slide underneath of coverage. They can even take the top off the defense, sometimes without even being noticed. But tight ends? They might be the most dangerous tool for a QB in a spread offense.
West Virginia's football team is working toward implementing more plays that feature a tight end actually catching passes heading into the 2018 season, coaches said this spring. And the consensus seems to be that the Mountaineers finally have the pieces in place to do it.
"It will be a big change moving forward," Dana Holgorsen said this spring. "(Trevon) Wesco is a different body than Eli (Wellman), so we will be able to do different things. (Miami transfer) Jovanni Haskins is a different body than what I've had here since I have been here. We have a couple that we recruited that are coming in as well. We are still playing with stuff so what the end result is I don't know. It's pretty exciting to be able to mess around with that stuff, that's for sure."
When Wellman was on campus, he was used more for his blocking ability out of the backfield than anything else, even though he had decent size at 245 pounds. He was typically listed as a fullback rather than a tight end, though the two positions are almost interchangeable within West Virginia's offense.
Now, though, the Mountaineers have big bodies. Wesco, a redshirt senior, is 6-foot-4, 270 pounds. Haskins, who is eligible this season as a redshirt sophomore after his transfer, is listed at 6-4, 240. Logan Thimons, who moved over from linebacker, is listed at 6-foot, 230. Then there's two incoming freshmen — TJ Banks and Mike O'Laughlin — listed at 6-5, 260 and 6-5, 230, respectively.
"Call it the way that it is, that kid (Wesco) is 6-4, 270 pounds, he offers a different element. I don't mean to compare and contrast but right now with our room we are so much taller, we are so much longer, we are so much heavier," said tight ends coach Dan Gerberry. "Now all of a sudden you have different types of bodies in there and they are working really hard and we are going to get better as we go."
The big bodies — who have displayed solid hands, too — should help West Virginia's offense become more efficient. That's the hope, at least.
"There's a lot of talk on efficiency right now and just trying to get the most efficient play that we can. We're having a lot of good talks, and spring is a good time to work on it," said quarterback Will Grier, who's eyeing down a Heisman campaign already. "Our third-down efficiency, we want it to be better. There were some situations where we know we could have had a better play or could have had a better mindset going into the third down than we did."
Grier said he spent a good portion of his offseason watching tape and trying to figure out how to get better in those situations. He called the tape "miserable" to watch with "all the failures on third down," but he said he feels he's gotten a better grip on how to become more efficient.
With that, he said it begins with converting on more high-percentage plays.
"Instead of throwing the ball deep every play, maybe take a higher efficiency throw," he said.
That should be where the tight ends come into play.
Our resident analyst, Chris Carter, agrees.
"Having capable receivers with the size of Wesco adds a double threat to football schematics that NCAA offenses have yet to master, but the NFL has seen add an extra layer to the game with elite players like Rob Gronkoswki, Travis Kelce and even middling players like Eric Ebron.
"West Virginia's ground game has the potential to have another 1000-yard rusher like Justin Crawford in Kennedy McKoy accompanied with a scat back like Martell Pettaway. Having dual tight ends on the field that can serves as decent receiving threats like Wesco and Haskins could pose a serious question to NCAA defenses that few could answer.
"If Wesco and Haskins can be sufficient run blockers out on the edge, West Virginia's offense could run stretch plays to either side out of double tight end sets that force defenses to keep their defensive backs on the field to honor the receiving threat they pose and provide good matchup problems that favor West Virginia.
"The tight end position may have the most potential for growth when it comes to importance in the game of football. If more players coming in at the size of Wesco can be solid run blockers while being dangerous receiving threats that are too athletic for average linebackers to cover, then defensive coordinators will have headaches trying to find matchups that can contain those types of players. West Virginia has players with the size and potential to pose these kinds of threats to opposing defenses that lack the super linebacker types like Georgia's Roquan Smith."
It's likely that Wesco and Haskins will become the main targets at tight end this season, though Wesco could become a playmaker out of the backfield, too. Regardless, coaches are excited about both of them.
"Trevon is really doing a great job for us. He's really grown up," Gerberry said. "I think a lot of his maturing has happened off the field. He was always a fantastic kid, but things are really starting to click for him all the sudden. Trevon is doing a fantastic job in every way we could ask."
Grier said the aspect of working more tight end packages into the offense is exciting.
"We all have room to improve, but I'm really excited about (Haskins) this year. I think he's going to be fine in the long run. He's a physical guy, he's really long, he's strong. We know he's going to be really good in the passing game; we're bringing him along in the blocking game," Grier said. "Wesco is down there banging, doing a really good job in the run game and also in the pass game. I'm really excited about adding them in broadening what we do on offense a little bit."
Since Holgorsen came on board in 2012, West Virginia tight ends have caught just 37 passes for 242 yards, scoring five times. For comparison, Oklahoma's Mark Andrews caught 62 passes for 958 yards and eight touchdowns in the Big 12 last season as a matchup nightmare for defenses.
Expect West Virginia's numbers to rise soon, though.
"You can get real multiple with it. You can still have a run threat, but also have a dimension where they can stretch the field and get out on pass concepts," offensive coordinator Jake Spavital said. "I always have been a big fan of tight ends. I think the way we have recruited and where we are at now, we are going to have five 6-foot-4 tight end bodies going into fall camp. I think that's exactly where we want to be."