54 Days Until Kansas Football: Previewing the Tight Ends

We continue our positional previews with the position that found unexpected depth last season.

Contents

1. Last Season
2. Cause For Concern
3. Reasons for Optimism
4. Projected Depth Chart
5. Coaching Staff
6. Overall Thoughts

Each week, we will take a deep dive into one of the 10 main position groups, highlighting the key players to watch and giving you an idea of what to expect from the position this year. This week, we continue our series with more of the offense. Today, we jump into the position that found some unexpected depth at the end of last season: the tight ends.

Other Positional Previews:

• Quarterbacks
• Running Backs
• Wide Receivers

Last Season

The Jayhawks had five players line up at the tight end position in 2021, with 3 playing significant roles in the passing game.

Player Name	Games Played	Receptions	Yards	Average	TDs
Trevor Kardell	11	5	86	17.2	0
Jared Casey	9	8	101	12.6	2
Mac Copeland	9	0	0	0	0
Will Huggins	3	0	0	0	0
Mason Fairchild	11	13	128	9.8	1

The Jayhawks came into last season with a lack of big names at the tight end position, as Fairchild was used sparingly in the passing game the year before. The biggest name of the group was James Sosinski, who is best known for the fact that he walked on to the basketball team and scored in the 2018 Final Four. But the expectations were not very high for this group, partly because of personnel and partly because of the expectations of the scheme.

But the Jayhawks ended up getting some significant contributions from the tight end position, with three players playing big minutes and getting multiple catches. Mason Fairchild and Trevor Kardell were steady presences throughout the season, with some big plays from each. But the guy you think of immediately is Jared Casey, the walk-on tight-end who made one of the biggest catches of the season in OT against Texas from the fullback position. But he followed up that performance by being one of the main safety valves for Jalon Daniels in the final two games of the season.

Cause For Concern

It's difficult to come up with a big cause for concern from the position, because basically everyone is back from last season, and they added transfer Tevita Noa.

But if you are looking for something to worry about, it would have to be the expectations for the position. It's hard to look at this team and not expect that the three guys from last season will be heavily involved, and Noa is likely to be pushing for playing time as well. Can the entire group keep the chemistry they had and be as successful this upcoming season?

Reasons for Optimism

There are a LOT of reasons to be excited about this group. Casey was electric last season and came out of nowhere. Fairchild and Kardell are great options as well, and the Jayhawks have shown a willingness to use multiple TEs, either through multiple TE sets or using some of them in the FB position.

And of course that doesn't include the addition of Tevita Noa, who the coaching staff seems to be very excited about. The Jayhawks will have lots of options and should be able to deal with any unexpected injuries at the position this season.

Projected Depth Chart

This is a difficult position to predict, with so many great options. But as usual, we will take our best crack at it. Given that the Jayhawks frequently run two TE sets, we'll list a starter and backup for each one.

TE1:  Jared Casey / Trevor Kardell

This one is a little weird, as if you look at the CFB Winning Edge player ratings, Jared Casey is the lowest rated of the 4 players that I expect to see significant minutes. But he is also the only one that has put up significant numbers to warrant any boost for production. Add in that once he started playing significant snaps, he was heavily involved in the gameplan, and I expect him to be one of the first options next season.

Kardell played well last season, but the contributions weren't anything special or game-changing. I expect him to have another solid season, but it's hard to know which of the other three are going to break out.

WR2: Tevita Noa / Mason Fairchild

The coaching staff seemed very excited when Noa committed, and it's not hard to see why. He is an athletic tight end with good hands, and I expect that enthusiasm about his ability to earn him some playing time. Looking at the ratings, Noa is slightly better than Kardell and Fairchild, but not significantly so.

Fairchild is another dependable option, and I'm having a hard time thinking that any of the four main tight ends will be forgotten in this offense. The Jayhawks are expected to play an up-tempo offense this season, so expect to see a lot of rotation to take advantage of the possibilities.

Depth

The depth is phenomenal for this position group, and I fully expect the Jayhawks to use multiple guys as extra blockers or on special teams to help fill out those lineups. Mac Copeland and Will Huggins both saw limited action last season in these roles, and I would expect them to be big contributors here as well.

Coaching Staff

The Jayhawks don't have a tight ends coach officially listed on the roster, but last season they were coached by offensive coordinator Andy Kotelnicki. Kotelnicki started his career coaching tight ends (among other things) at Western Illinois in 2004, before serving as the offensive coordinator on multiple staffs starting in 2007.

Prior to his time at Kansas, he was the offensive coordinator at Buffalo for 7 seasons, including under Lance Leipold. In his time at Buffalo, he has had multiple all-conference players, including tight-end Mason Schreck in 2016.

Overall Thoughts

The tight end position is hardly one of the biggest concerns for the Jayhawks this season, as the development from the position was phenomenal last year, and every big contributor is back with the team again. The coaching here is a plus, and the versatility shown by the players at the position is a huge asset for Kotelnicki to work with.

There are plenty of places that Kansas fans can point to if they want a reason to worry about this team, but the tight end position is definitely not one of them.

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