ASU reinvests at tight end, seeks next Heap or Miller

Billy Napier’s dream tight end duo is Rob Gronkowski, primarily as a receiver, and O.J. Howard, for his blocking, with each capable in the other’s strength area.

Or perhaps Jason Witten and Antonio Gates as teammates, creating mismatches and defensive headaches.

“Eventually we’ll get there,” said Napier, Arizona State’s first-year offensive coordinator, willing to dream big and make a statement to recruits that ASU once again is a place that elite tight end should consider.

From 1998 through 2006, with the exception of a few years in the middle, tight ends were a major part of ASU’s offense. Zach Miller (2004-06) and Todd Heap (1998-2000) caught a combined 259 passes for 3,197 yards and 24 touchdowns before each left a year early for the NFL. Chris Coyle had stellar 2012 (school TE record 57 catches, 696 yards, 5 TDs) but since then the position has been less productive.

Napier coached wide receivers at Alabama before coming to ASU and saw Howard emerge as the offensive MVP of the 2016 College Football Playoff Championship. There always was a sense that Howard was under utilized at Alabama (114 career catches, 1,726 yards, 7 TDs) but he still came out a first-round NFL draft pick, No. 19 overall to Tampa Bay.

“Eventually we’ll get there,” Napier said of ASU’s tight end talent. “Do we have that now? No, not necessarily, but we do have some guys that are very capable. Our guys are making progress. That will make us harder to defend. There’s a future here for tight ends for sure.”

For now, ASU’s top two tight ends are

junior Jay Jay Wilson and sophomore Tommy Hudson. The position group also includes redshirt freshman Jared Bubak, junior college transfer Ceejhay French-Love, freshman Mark Walton and sophomore walk-on Alex Otero. Frank Ogas is a senior walk-on tight end/ fullback.

They are being coaches primarily by graduate assistant Brandon Blackmon, who is getting his first major coaching opportunity.

“With having an offense now that really has the tight ends involved from multiple positions, we want to make sure they’re playing fast and they’re playing extremely physical,” Blackmon said.

“Right now with Jay Jay Wilson, he’s a jack of all trades. He can run, he’s strong, you can do so many things with him. Tommy Hudson from spring until now has progressed a lot. He got really flexible and in the weight room did a good job working on his explosiveness. He’s staying lower in his blocks and exploding faster in his routes.”

Wilson, 6-4, 247, was a four-star recruit out of Valencia, Calif., who played as a true freshman in 2015. He caught just four passes last season but three were for touchdowns, showing his potential particularly as a red zone target.

“I had a couple of shots down in the back of the end zone so I feel like Manny (Wilkins) is comfortable with that,” Wilson said of his quarterback. “We all get each other open so even if I’m not the first read if I run my route right, it’s going to get John John (Humphrey) open and it’s going to get Ryan (Newsome) open.”

Wilson knows much more is expected of him in the back half of his ASU career.

“I was exactly like every freshman coming in thinking I knew everything,” he said. “Then you get a culture shock because guys are here for business trying to get to the next level. To do that, you’ve got to set yourself apart. I’ve got to be able to do the little things like take a step the right way or take it two inches this way just to get myself in a better position to block someone.”

Hudson, 6-5, 240, got in only one game last year as a redshirt freshman but came out of Archbishop Mitty High School in San Jose ranked among the top 25 tight ends in the country. He took a yoga class in the spring to relieve some lower back pain and leave no stone unturned in the path to becoming a contributor.

“If you’re going to be on the field, it’s because you earned it,” Hudson said. “It’s whoever can bring it on the field every day. It’s understanding what coach (Todd) Graham says. Not just hearing it but actually understanding it and applying it. Like when he says Sun Devil tough. It’s how we want to play but it’s a deeper meaning. You have to apply that to the game. If you can do that, that’s when you really get it.”

Hudson calls Napier an “offensive genius,” presumably not just to get in good with the OC.

None of the scholarship tight ends are seniors and there is another, 6-6 Brett Bell, in the pipeline for next season coming from Hutchinson Community College (Kan.). What Napier wants to accomplish with the position should only increase in the coming years.

In a 2013 azcentral sports ranking of ASU’s top 50 all-time football players, Heap and Miller were back-to-back at No. 24 and 25.

If Napier succeeds in recruiting, there will be another tight end in contention for that list relatively soon.