The Jim Tressel era was full of wins, Big Ten titles, a Heisman Trophy and even one national championship, but it never even came close to producing a Mackey Award winner.
Clearly, this isn’t the end of the world, but it always did seem that the tight ends at Ohio State were severely underused in Tressel’s offense.
There was certainly not a lack of talent; former Buckeye tight end Jake Ballard has jumped off to a great start in the NFL, and other solid tight ends like Ben Hartstock were available to Tressel. Tight ends under the former head coach were expected to block first, block second and maybe catch third, if they were lucky.
Luckily for Jake Stoneburner, Urban Meyer and offensive coordinator Tom Herman see things differently.
At Florida, Meyer utilized tight end Aaron Hernandez extremely effectively, and the result was an impressive season and a Mackey Award for Hernandez. The tight end out of Florida finished the 2009 season with 68 receptions. That’s almost double the…
Continue reading at Bleacher Report – Big Ten Football
