Let's continue our series on "Ranking the Rooms - SEC Edition".
Scrimmage #1 is in the books and we’re inching closer to the start of the season. We’re finding out what the starting lineups might look like, which freshmen might be able to contribute, and who might be able to surprise everyone.Position room leaders and team leaders have been established, including Georgia’s loaded tight end room.
The Dawgs not only have one of the best tight end rooms in the SEC, it’s one of the best in the country. I was somewhat surprised there aren’t stronger rooms in the SEC, but a lot of offenses have transitioned to using more receivers. I based the below rankings off of experience, stats of returning players and transfers, and also considered blocking ability in the run game.
My thoughts on the list below is that there are two teams on top, then a gap to teams 3-6.Teams ranked 7-10 are pretty similar talent wise, followed by 11-16.
1. OLE MISS - The Rebels are known to have an explosive offense with Lane Kiffin at the helm and it doesn;t look like that will stop anytime soon. I gave Ole Miss the second best receiver room in the SEC and believe they have the best tight end room as well. Caden Prieskorn is the leading returning tight end in the SEC after hauling in 449 yards and four touchdowns last season. He’s on the preseason Mackey Award watch list and is joined by new teammate Dae’Quan Wright, who had over 500 yards receiving in two years at Virginia Tech. The strength of this duo, along with the offense they run and the quarterback they have shot them up to #1 over Georgia for me.
2. GEORGIA - While Ole Miss has what looks like a more dynamic duo this preseason, the Dawgs have more talent and promise in their room than probably anyone in the nation. You can’t mention Georgia tight ends without emphasizing how big it is to lose Brock Bowers and his 714 yards receiving and 6 touchdowns to the NFL. Simply put, he’s one of the best college tight ends to ever play the game. Saying that, Kirby Smart and Todd Hartley still have a ton of tight end talent between the hedges. Oscar Delp is becoming more of a team leader and has all of the talent in the world. You’re just not going to get a ton of catches with Bowers on the field. Lawson Luckie looks like a well built machine and is a very good run blocker. They were joined this summer by Ben Yurosek, who had over 1300 yards receiving in three years (he only played 6 games last season due to injury) at Stanford. If he can get into this offense and return to pre-injury form, then the Dawgs could jump the Rebels for the top spot in the SEC.
I do have Ole Miss and Georgia easily having the top tight end rooms in the SEC, while the next four teams have somewhat comparable rooms.
3. TEXAS A&M - Donovan Green is a former highly ranked prospect who started four games as a freshman. He missed last season to a torn ACL, but is poised for a big 2024 campaign. He is on the preseason Mackey watch list. Shane Calhoun pulled in more than 600 yards receiving in 4 seasons at East Carolina. Garrett Miller is a grad transfer from Purdue and Tre Watson is a senior transfer from Fresno State. I have them at #3 due to the talent of Green, the experience the three transfers bring to the room, and Collin Klein running the offense.
4. TENNESEE - The Vols are here due more to potential more than returning stats. Ethan Davis is a state of Georgia guy and very athletic. He’s sure to have a good season in this offense. Josh Heupel pulled in another Georgia native this past offseason when Holden Staes decided to transfer in from Notre Dame. While he only had 187 yards in two seasons with the Fighting Irish, he is a talented player. Miles Kitselman played mostly special teams last season for Alabama. Again, not much stats to lean on but a very talented room. They’ll have plenty of opportunities in the Tennessee offense.
5. LSU - I’d have the Tigers over Texas A&M if it weren’t for experience and depth. Mason Taylor had the third most yards last season out of all of the tight ends returning this year at 348 yards and 1 TD. They lost two first round 1000 yard receivers to the NFL. Malik Nabers and Brian Thomas Jr also accounted for 31 touchdowns in 2023. So they’re going to have to replace that production with someone. LSU is top 5 because of these reasons. They’re not top 3 due to depth. There’s just not much there after Taylor. They do have highly ranked true freshman Trey’Dez Green who is having a strong camp. As talented as he is, no team wants to have to rely on a true freshman at tight end in the SEC. Their third option Ka’Morreun Pimpton had one reception last season.
6. TEXAS - The big news out of Texas right now is the loss of their top two running backs, CJ Baxter and Christian Clark. Although they still have a couple of talented backs, this could mean more short yardage opportunities for the tight ends. The Longhorns did lose Ja’Tavion Sanders and his 682 yards receiving to the NFL, but they added Amari Niblack from Alabama. He has the fourth most receiving yards for SEC tight ends returning this season. Gunnar Helm also returns. The senior had almost 200 yards receiving in 2023.
For the next tier of tight end rooms, I have South Carolina over Mississippi State, Auburn, and Florida. Give me the Gamecocks as the top room in this next group with more experience and more production returning.
7. SOUTH CAROLINA - The Gamecocks will be relying on all transfers in the tight end room this season and I’m very interested to see how they play in the SEC. Joshua Simon is a 6th year player who spent his first four seasons in traditionally high powered WKU offense. He had 256 yards receiving for Shane Beamer and company last year. Brady Hunt is a first team All-MAC player with over 500 yards receiving in his career. He missed 2023 due to injury. I have them higher than the three teams below them due to experience, returning production, and the fact that I like Shawn Elliot a lot as a tight ends coach. He returns to South Carolina after leading Georgia State for seven seasons. Former Georgia running backs coach Dell McGee replaced him at Georgia State.
8. MISSISSIPPI STATE - Seydou Traore might be the most interesting player on the team. The 6’7” goalie from England started playing 11 man football his senior year. He led Arkansas State in receiving in 2022 with 655 yards and 4 touchdowns. That was good enough for fifth in the NCAA amongst tight ends in receiving yards and made him an All-American honorable mention.
9. AUBURN - While the Tigers do have the third leading returning tight end yards in the SEC from Rivaldo Fairweather, they just don’t have a lot after him. Tyler Fromm transferred to Georgia Southern and Luke Deal has 14 total receptions in five years. Brandon Frazier is heading into his fifth year with 11 total receptions.
10. FLORIDA - The Gators to have a good bit of experience returning, but not much production. Arlis Boardingham returns with 289 yards and 4 touchdowns. Keon Zipperer has managed over 100 yards receiving each of the last three seasons, but it looks like he’ll be starting the season off on the injured list. Billy Napier has to be hoping that Hayden Hansen and Tony Livingtson can become contributors as sophomores. He also has Amir Jackson, a true freshman who is easily the most athletic of the bunch.
This next tier is at the bottom mostly due to experience, returning production, and honestly……just overall talent level. That’s not to say these guys aren’t talented, they’re playing college football in the SEC. The teams above them just seem to have a little more to their depth charts.
11. ALABAMA - That’s right, Alabama has the eleventh best tight end room in the SEC. Who would have ever thought that we’d see the Crimson Tide with a TE room in the bottom tier of the SEC. As stated above, they lost their top TE Amari Niblack to Texas. CJ Dippre and Robby Ouzts barely have over 200 yards receiving between the two of them. Josh Cuevas brings 100 yards receiving from Washington, where he was with new Alabama head coach Kalen DeBoer. I also had the Crimson Tide with a somewhat weak receiver room, but their offensive line and running backs should be pretty nasty. Alabama tight ends were in for blocking purposes in 75% of their plays last season. Will that change any under DeBoer?
12. VANDERBILT - YES! Vanderbilt isn’t bottom two in something! All kidding aside, they actually have a pretty talented tight end room. I’d have them even higher if I thought they had a chance of scoring on anybody in the SEC. Remember I take into account their offense, the coordinator, head coach, schedule, style of play, etc. If it was based on just talent alone, I might would rank them over Alabama and Florida. The duo of Eli Stowers and Cole Spence could actually cause problems for some teams. Spence had to sit out last season with a torn ACL, but had a strong spring for the Commodores. Stowers (a former quarterback) pulled in 366 yards and 2 touchdowns for New Mexico State last year. That includes 4 receptions for 48 yards and 1 TD in their big win against Auburn. Kamrean Johnson probably should have redshirted last year, but was forced into action with Spence getting injured.
13. MISSOURI - The most talented and promising returner has to be Brett Norfleet, who was an All-SEC Freshman scoring three touchdowns last season. Stephens provides the Tigers with a veteran presence in the room, while Jordan Harris played mostly on special teams last year. It will be interesting to see how much they use their tight ends with the strong receiver room they have.
14. ARKANSAS - Sam Pittman has Luke Hasz returning with 253 yards and 3 touchdowns. The Razorbacks also have Var’keyes Gumms returning. He had a bigi 2022 season with North Texas before making his way to Arkansas in 2023. He couldn’t duplicate the production from the season before, contributing only 3 catches in 11 games. It would be big for new offensive coordinator Bobby Petrino if Gumms can return to 2022 form. Andrew Paaske joins them as more of a blocking tight end.
15. KENTUCKY - The Kentucky trio of Josh Kattus, Jordan Dingle, and Khamari Anderson combined for only 389 yards and 2 touchdowns last season. They’ll begin 2024 with another new quarterback, former Georgia player Brock Vandagriff. This actually could be advantageous for the TE room, especially early on when Vandagriff might be more prone to short dump off passes.
16. OKLAHOMA - As far as receiving yards the tight end room was basically non-existent in 2023, with Sooner tight ends accounting for a grand total of 6% of their offense last season. Brent Venables is trying to change that by bringing in transfers Bauer Sharp from Southeastern Louisiana and Jake Roberts from Baylor. While both went over 200 yards receiving last season for their respective schools, I’m in “believe it when I see it mode” after last year’s production. Kaden Helms was injured in 2023 and Davon Mitchell is a talented freshman.
Ranking the QB Rooms in the SEC
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