Was a Cat for three years ? Just never lived up to what many thought he would be in college.
Story by Matthew McGavic in Louisville Cardinals on SI.
Story by Matthew McGavic in Louisville Cardinals on SI.
U of L TE Izayah Cummings enters portal...
- Thread starter Uncle Adolph
- Start date
I thought he might have a good ability to be a pass catching TE. Unfortunate for him and the teams he was with.
Why? We rarely use a TE anyway. Plus, he was recruited over at least 3 years ago. He perhaps could have been a decent weapon in Coen's offense but I don't see how he fits at all in Hamdan's. Seems like he was very much a 'tweener' and wasn't big enough or physical enough to be in-line TE nor was he quite fast/elusive enough to split out consistently. He wouldn't want to transfer here, imo, as it's unlikely he'd see much PT and even less likely to see a healthy number of targets. JMO
In 2022 and 2023 we were second in the SEC in yardage. Last year was not good. The narrative that we don’t use TE is completely false
That could be true (don't care enough to check). But we rotate multiple TEs throughout and one TE rarely sees more than 2-3 targets in a game unlike other teams who throw to one TE almost exclusively. Plus, we just plain don't run as many plays and don't throw more than about 50-55% of the plays we do run.
And, I would add, that we have needed the TEs to block due to the decline of the Big Blue Wall. Fixing the Oline will have a domino effect on the rest of the offense and even the defense, as more time of possession for the offense improves defensive effectiveness.
I don’t think it is, but people have developed a misunderstanding of how life works because of NIL/Portal. Like the college part of it has been forgotten, which is understandable. If a guy wants to enroll at another college and that college’s team wants the enrollee to play for them, it doesn’t matter if Wendy’s is open, or if Dick’s Sporting Goods is open, and it doesn’t matter if “the portal” is open. The portal is not some physical space that a player enters and waits around for someone to come pick them up on a bus to take them to their new destination. In this country students still have the freedom to go to any college that accepts them. Key word there is “still”, because that’s probably something to keep your eye on.
From what I understand you are correct, about the only thing the portal allows is legal contact from other schools. But tampering is at an all time high because opposing coaches backdoor to players telling them to hit the portal and get X amount of NIL to attend their school. A couple of ACC schools are making a name for themselves with all the tampering they are doing.
An example of: posters thinking UK doesn't throw to TEs enough is some sort of conspiracy instead of the quality of player at that position has never been recruited or developed well aside from maybe an exception or two.
Anyone who goes to little brother no longer exists to me.... Not sorry.
Could you post a link? I am not doubting you because I have not looked it up, but Brock Bowers by himself at UGA had to have way more receiving yards than UK's TEs. We were only behind Georgia in TE receiving yards two years in a row?
Firstly, my post was not directed towards you. I was agreeing with you about false narratives and that people often post about things their minds have fabricated with out checking the data to confirm what their perceptions are, but since you clapped back I fact checked you.
If you make an extraordinary claim, you should fact check yourself and provide a link, but since your too lazy to do that, I've done it for you. And since it was difficult to find that data, I stopped when I learned you were wrong about 2023(posted here), so I did not continue to look for info regarding 2022 because it is safe to assume the data will prove to be similar.
Ranking the SEC's Tight End Rooms
By Jason Brassell
Published in August 15, 2024
Let's continue our series on "Ranking the Rooms - SEC Edition".
Scrimmage #1 is in the books and we’re inching closer to the start of the season. We’re finding out what the starting lineups might look like, which freshmen might be able to contribute, and who might be able to surprise everyone.Position room leaders and team leaders have been established, including Georgia’s loaded tight end room.
The Dawgs not only have one of the best tight end rooms in the SEC, it’s one of the best in the country. I was somewhat surprised there aren’t stronger rooms in the SEC, but a lot of offenses have transitioned to using more receivers. I based the below rankings off of experience, stats of returning players and transfers, and also considered blocking ability in the run game.
My thoughts on the list below is that there are two teams on top, then a gap to teams 3-6.Teams ranked 7-10 are pretty similar talent wise, followed by 11-16.
1. OLE MISS - The Rebels are known to have an explosive offense with Lane Kiffin at the helm and it doesn;t look like that will stop anytime soon. I gave Ole Miss the second best receiver room in the SEC and believe they have the best tight end room as well. Caden Prieskorn is the leading returning tight end in the SEC after hauling in 449 yards and four touchdowns last season. He’s on the preseason Mackey Award watch list and is joined by new teammate Dae’Quan Wright, who had over 500 yards receiving in two years at Virginia Tech. The strength of this duo, along with the offense they run and the quarterback they have shot them up to #1 over Georgia for me.
2. GEORGIA - While Ole Miss has what looks like a more dynamic duo this preseason, the Dawgs have more talent and promise in their room than probably anyone in the nation. You can’t mention Georgia tight ends without emphasizing how big it is to lose Brock Bowers and his 714 yards receiving and 6 touchdowns to the NFL. Simply put, he’s one of the best college tight ends to ever play the game. Saying that, Kirby Smart and Todd Hartley still have a ton of tight end talent between the hedges. Oscar Delp is becoming more of a team leader and has all of the talent in the world. You’re just not going to get a ton of catches with Bowers on the field. Lawson Luckie looks like a well built machine and is a very good run blocker. They were joined this summer by Ben Yurosek, who had over 1300 yards receiving in three years (he only played 6 games last season due to injury) at Stanford. If he can get into this offense and return to pre-injury form, then the Dawgs could jump the Rebels for the top spot in the SEC.
I do have Ole Miss and Georgia easily having the top tight end rooms in the SEC, while the next four teams have somewhat comparable rooms.
15. KENTUCKY - The Kentucky trio of Josh Kattus, Jordan Dingle, and Khamari Anderson combined for only 389 yards and 2 touchdowns last season. They’ll begin 2024 with another new quarterback, former Georgia player Brock Vandagriff. This actually could be advantageous for the TE room, especially early on when Vandagriff might be more prone to short dump off passes.
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Yep, just read it, I knew it was highly unlikely to be true. Thanks for the post.
See below. Not sure where you came up with your stats re: TE yardage but the 'narrative' that we don't use the TE very much is, according to the stats posted below, true. Plus, just watching the games tells you we don't throw to the TE very often. That's most likely a combination of 1) talent issues, 2) OL deficiency, 3) QB seeing the field deficiency, 4) running fewer total plays than practically everyone in the country so, naturally, passing plays are less with passing plays to the TE even more so.
On a more general point, many posters, me included, sometimes post 'facts' that are not accurate but are based on 'someone said/wrote' or personal experience. It's a message board so, in the end, who cares, but you gotta be prepared for someone to fact check and call you out if you are incorrect.
Tight ends copy.xlsx
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Well, you stated 2nd in the SEC when both years we were third, according to your own spreadsheet. Also, in 2022, we were almost 1,000 yards behind the leader and almost 500 yards behind in 2023.Here are the facts.Tight ends copy.xlsx
1drv.ms
Regardless of where we finished in the conference rankings, we didn't use the TE very much in any of those years. The best year, the TEs as a group averaged less than 50 yards per game. That's pretty pathetic. My guess would be a pretty good chunk of those yards were against OOC opponents. In 2024, they averaged less than 25 yards per game. IMO, your statement that we are incorrect in stating UK doesn't use the TE is factually incorrect. Comparing our stats to other SEC schools disregards whether SEC schools throw to the TE very much as compared to P4 schools or other D1 schools. Where would Penn State and Iowa rank in the SEC? MSU only had EIGHTEEN yards total to the TE one year. Including a team like that in any comparison is faulty.
We use TEs, for the most part, as an extra OL. That's a fact. Anyone who has watched UKFB should be able to recognize that fact.
My bad man we were 3rd in 2022 and 2023. The point is that we use our tight ends and the narrative we don’t use them is false compared to the rest of the conference. I want to be competitive in the SEC, I don’t care what other conferences do.
That's fair. But, many other teams more successful than UK use their TEs more than we do, as do most/all NFL teams. Some of my frustration the past several years has been Marrow's preseason crowing about how great that room is and how the staff constantly reminds us fans that they want to run a pro system and, yet, our offense is miles away from an NFL system in execution and scheme. What we've been doing the past few years clearly isn't working, so how about using this awesome room full of NFL talent that seems to be used primarily as blockers in more effective and creative ways?
If you look at the individual stats of our players in the spreadsheet, most of them average > 10 yards per catch, which is solid. So, maybe Marrow is right that we do have talent in that room. Are we truly using that talent to its fullest? I believe many fans and neutral observers would say 'no'. If the players just aren't good enough, then stop blowing smoke every preseason how we're gonna really utilize the TEs and create match up problems for our opponents.
Perhaps much of the frustration is a reaction to constant preseason hype that doesn't seem to show up on Saturdays.
I don’t think we have had a lot of talent in the room in the past. Willie might be the most talented tight end we have had under Stoops. Marrow constantly overhypes that room. Coaches are always going to say that they are gonna use positions more when asked about them. If Willie doesn’t have 400 or more yards next year there should be questions. I don’t think we’ve ever had a TE under stoops catch a pass in the NFL and that shows the lack of talent and it’s sad.
