Michigan Football: 2016 Tight Ends Preview

Michigan Football has one of the best tight ends in the country to start the 2016 season. His name of course is Jake Butt, last year’s Nkwalick-Clark Tight End of the Year, All-Big Ten offensive first team, and a First-Team All-American.

After Butt—he’s pretty much as good as it gets—it’s not quite clear what Michigan football has to offer from the tight end position.

And that could be a problem.

Head coach Jim Harbaugh has a well-deserved reputation for developing quarterbacks, but what is less well known is that his record with tight ends is at least as good, if not better. Six tight ends from his Stanford days—they either played for him or were recruited by him—are still in the NFL: Jim Dray, Zach Ertz, Coby Fleener, Ryan Hewitt, Konrad Reuland and Levine Toilolo.

Beyond that, Harbaugh likes what tight ends can do in an offense. He likes to rotate as many as four or five in and out of the offense in a typical game. And then, less well known, is his willingness to use a four-tight end formation when not in a goal line or short-yardage situation.

The goal, as tight ends coach Jay Harbaugh puts it, is to “have an army of big, tall fast guys that can present problems for linebackers and safeties on other teams.”

OK, but who is there besides Butt? I count 13 tight ends on the current Michigan roster, including six freshmen and four sophomores. To compare, I count 16 wide receivers on the roster. Harbaugh, not surprisingly, has gone all in on the tight end position.

The tight ends on the roster today are all “big, tall fast guys” too, averaging more than 6-foot-4 and 240 pounds. The biggest and tallest of the bunch is Ian Bunting, a junior who is listed at 6-foot-7, 252 pounds.

Bunting looks as though he might have a breakout season—at least that’s what everyone from coaches to fans are hoping—but his history of injuries is concerning as well. He has already torn an ACL, and more recently he’s had surgery for a torn meniscus. The success of his 2016 season obviously depends on staying healthy and (relatively) injury-free.

Another name being mentioned not only for size but for speed and talent is Tyrone Wheatley Jr., a 6-foot-6, 276-pound sophomore. If you have any doubt about his athleticism, take a look at the catch he made at the Ford Field practice game back in March.

He made a highlight reel, one-handed catch just across the 50-yard line and then ran the ball into the end zone with the Michigan secondary in pursuit.

Still another name to listen for is Zach Gentry, a 6-foot-7, 244-pound sophomore who came to Michigan as a rivals.com four-star quarterback, the No. 19 passer in the country and No. 1 at his position in New Mexico that year.

He had no playing time at quarterback as a freshman and—because of his size and athleticism, as well as the abundance of quarterbacks on the roster—has been making the move to tight end. It is interesting to note that he did not stand out at the spring game, suggesting that the adjustment has been a difficult one.

The rest of the list? There’s Sean McKeon, a 6-foot-5, 240-pound true freshman who was a rivals.com three-star prospect and the No. 32 rated tight end nationally.

Next: Top 10 running backs in Michigan history

Unlike the defensive line, say, or the defense in general, the tight end position has lots of question marks. After Butt, it’s not clear what Michigan has, except a great deal of promise. We’ll know more in a couple of weeks.

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