Tight ends could play a key role in MSU passing game
For all the talk after last season of how Mississippi State needed more consistent quarterback play in the passing game and more production from wide receivers, there's another group of Bulldogs that could play a vital role as MSU and head coach Joe Moorhead look to get the air attack to become more of a threat in 2019.
The men in the spotlight could end up being the tight ends.
Traditionally, tight ends have played a big role in the offensive style of Joe Moorhead. Take Moorhead's final season as the offensive coordinator at Penn State as an example. In 2017, Nittany Lions tight end Mike Gesicki caught more passes than any Penn State player. He had 57 receptions for 563 yards and tied for the team lead with nine receiving touchdowns.
The Bulldog tight ends didn't replicate Gesicki's success in year one of the Moorhead era last season. In fact, MSU only had 33 total receptions from all of its tight ends combined last year. The group totaled 406 yards and only two touchdowns.
It's fair to assume Moorhead would like to get his tight ends more involved in 2019. There is a much to like as Moorhead tries to make that happen.
State will likely be led at the tight end position by a pair of veterans in the forms of senior Farrod Green and junior Dontea Jones. Both had moments of offensive production last season, but it seems possible both could take strides forward in the second year running Moorhead's offensive style.
Green is the likely starter for the Bulldogs. He had 11 catches for 81 yards last season. Jones had four catches himself, totaling 66 yards. He had one of the tight end group's two touchdowns.
Green and Jones seem to be the most likely candidates to get the tight ends involved offensively the way Moorhead desires.
There are a pair of youngsters as well though that could make some noise themselves. Two-sport star Brad Cumbest, fresh off of a College World Series run with the baseball team, is a big-bodied athlete with potential to be a key target for State passers. He redshirted last football season, but did see action in three games and caught one pass for 21 yards.
Fellow redshirt freshman Geor'quarius Spivey is similar to Cumbest. Both are 6-foot5 and around 250 pounds. Spivey also played in three games last season, though he did not catch a pass. Cumbest and Spivey both could be very useful weapons for Moorhead.
There's also sophomore tight end Powers Warren. He was a threat in the passing game in his senior year of high school in Minnesota, so there is some potential there, but at the very least, he provides State with depth in the tight end room.
All of MSU'S tight ends will have a new voice teaching them this season. That's because Tony Hughes is back for his second stint as an assistant coach at Mississippi State. When former tight ends coach Mark Hudspeth left to become the new head coach at Austin Peay, Moorhead turned State's tight ends over to Hughes.
The longtime football mind said in the spring he's pumped up to try and get the most out of his guys as the Bulldog tight ends try and become a key piece of Mississippi State's 2019 offensive plans.
"I am excited to be able to coach tight ends,” Hughes said in March. “In coach Moorhead's offense, the tight ends have a very unique responsibility. They have to be blockers and they also have to be receivers. They do a lot of different motions, movements and different things like that. When you go back and look at all the tape from last year, they performed well as a group and unit. You have most of that unit coming back with Farrod, Dontea and Cumbest and Spivey. I look forward to the opportunity of working with those guys and improving them from what their play was last year, which was really good at times.”
(Editor’s Note: In the weeks leading up to Mississippi State football’s August 31 season opener, the Starkville Daily News is looking at the players at each position group likely to play key roles for the 2019 Bulldogs. The series continues today with the tight end position.)