STARKVILLE — Dan Mullen has coached the top seven total offensive seasons in Mississippi State football history.
From 2014 to 2016, the Bulldogs finished first, third, and sixth in total offense in the Southeastern Conference and finished in the top half of the conference in nearly every other season. He’s done it all without prominently featuring tight ends, the group almost never has accounted for more than 15 percent of the team’s receptions.
That is due to change in 2017.
Mullen hinted as much in the spring and again in preseason camp, pointing out both times the depth of the room: seven tight ends, three of them upperclassmen. There is little precedent for what a Mullen MSU offense looks like with prominent tight end use, but he has offered an idea.
“As a spread team, we’re going to do what we need to do to create advantageous matchups,” Mullen said. “If we’re going to create an advantageous matchup with (two tight ends) or (three tight ends), we might use that, but it doesn’t mean we’re going to be bunched in at the line of scrimmage. We might use those guys to spread the field with bigger tight ends. But, if you’re in a smaller defense, we might use that to our advantage and bring them in.”
MSU tight ends coach D.J. Looney offered a similar idea while stressing another wrinkle: personnel management. Farrod Green, Jordan Thomas and Justin Johnson caught passes as tight ends last season; with Aaron Hamaker, Dontea Jones, Christian Roberson, and freshman Powers Warren, Looney thinks the team has more tight end threats than room on the field.
“We’ll always have a fresh guy on the field,” Looney said. “We’re playing with tempo, so we’re not going to be interchanging a bunch, but it gives you more options. I think each guy offers something different. They all have great skill and each guy offers something different.”
In that vein, there are several new wrinkles MSU will take on as it bolsters tight end use in 2017. In looking for the best answers, Mullen is not above looking elsewhere for ideas.
“You’ll look and say the Patriots do a fabulous job of using the personnel they have, (moving Rob) Gronkowski, around,” Mullen said. “They were onto something really special a couple of years ago when they had a couple of really special tight ends out there.”
Using Gronkowski as an example would give MSU a nearly endless list of options for using its tight ends. Among those options is using them as wide receivers, even as boundary receivers as many as 25 yards away from the tackles they typically line up next to.
They’ve prepared for that.
Green and Jones said the entire tight end group spent time with the wide receivers over the summer.
“It was a little difficult at first going out to receiver from tight end, but (senior wide receiver) Donald (Gray)’s a good teacher,” Jones said. “He showed us a lot for us on the top end of our routes and stuff like that.”
Some took it a step further: Green said Mullen asked he and Johnson to learn the playbook from the X, Z and H wide receiver positions. Green said it was a project he was taking up on his own before Mullen brought up the idea. Jones added the unit’s work with wide receivers also touched on mental aspects like reading coverages and learning receiver-specific aspects of the offense.
As for the physical aspects of playing receiver, Green credited Gray and senior wide receiver Gabe Myles for teaching the tight ends the technique of cuts and how to break at the top of routes. Armed with the new skills, Green is confident the tight ends will be ready to make a bigger contribution.
“A lot of guys overlook the tight end position,” he said. “We can run with anybody in the back end and linebackers can’t cover us. We think we’re going to create a lot of mismatches this year.”
Follow Dispatch sports writer Brett Hudson @Brett_Hudson
You can help your community
Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 34 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
You can help your community
Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 34 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
