'Everyone's kind of stepping up': Buckeyes demanding versatility from TE room in revamped offense

It’s no secret that Chip Kelly got creative with his tight end usage at UCLA. Kelly’s Bruins featured a cocktail of 11, 12 as well as even 13 and 14 personnel, ranging from 1-4 tight ends in the offense. Don’t be surprised if Ohio State showcases a similar pallet of diverse tight end packages this season.

Kelly joined the Buckeyes as offensive coordinator, quarterbacks coach and play caller this offseason, and he’s added a touch of his schematic wizardry to the system head coach Ryan Day installed years ago.

With that, comes pre-snap movement, and, yes, that involves the tight ends, too.

“I think here in this offense, they’re doing a lot of different things,” quarterback Will Howard said Tuesday of Ohio State’s tight ends. “They’re moving around a lot. They’re blocking, they’re catching, they’re doing a lot of different things. And they’ve shown some really good flashes so far in these first couple days of practice.

“I’m excited for this group.”

It’s a group that’s without its star from last season, and the season before that. Cade Stover, who ranked second on the team with 576 receiving yards in 2023, is now playing for the Houston Texans with former Buckeyes standout quarterback C.J. Stroud.

Ohio State tight ends coach Keenan Bailey discussed earlier this offseason how he’s not looking for a Stover replacement. Instead, Bailey asked for the toughest, hardest-working unit on the team.

That starts with graduate student Gee Scott Jr., who Howard described as “one of those Alpha dogs in the offense” who everyone looks toward. Howard also noted the impact of Will Kacmarek, who caught 42 passes over the last two years at Ohio University, and Jelani Thurman, a 6-foot-6, 258-pound redshirt freshman bursting with potential.

“Everyone’s kind of stepping up,” Howard said. “And it’s been cool to see. I think that tight end room’s definitely bringing the juice. Coach Kee’s got them going, and I’m excited to see what they do.”

The room also includes fifth-year veteran Patrick Gurd, who could take on the tight end/fullback hybrid role Mitch Rossi had two seasons ago. Gurd and Scott are the senior leaders of the position group. Plus, there’s Bennett Christian, who is available to play in games again after serving a yearlong suspension for taking an over-the-counter, nutrition-store supplement without clearing it. The banned substance was flagged, and Christian was relegated to scout team practice duties throughout 2023. Now he’s back in the fold.

Former four-star prospect Max LeBlanc — a Montreal native but a product of the Baylor School in Chattanooga, Tennessee — is the true freshman in the room, although he has a ways to go considering how developmental the position is, especially at Ohio State.

As for who’s TE1? It could come down to Scott and Kacmarek.

“They’re both going to play,” Day said. “It’s 11 and 12 [personnel]. So we’ll figure out where they fit into those. There’s a lot that comes with playing tight end. Cade, really, two years ago, probably played maybe too many snaps. That was a lot of snaps for him. We tried to help him out a little bit last year. So there’s gonna be plenty of snaps to go around.

“It’s gonna be one of those deals where, you know, ‘Does he deserve to play?’ If yes, we’ll draw that line and roll those guys. But we’re looking for them to be able to do multiple things. I don’t know if all the guys in that room have the same exact skill set. So we’ll figure that out as we get closer to the first game.”

As Day said, the Buckeyes are looking for their tight ends to do multiple things. With Kelly running the offense, they’ll surely be lined up in multiple ways and in multiple packages, too.