There's good news and bad news regarding this position. The good news is that Tyreese Russell 6'3, 240 SR is returning as a starter. He caught 44 passes for 594 yards and 3 TDs last year. The bad news is that a productive backup as a true freshman Duwhan Alford is no longer with the team. That leaves us short on depth. Cole Gardner 6'5 260 SO caught 2 passes last year for 17 yards and a TD but does have game experience. Tom Glick 6'1 232 R-Fr. was a former preferred walk on at LB. I don't know what happens after that since EMU did not get a TE in the 2014 recruiting class. Do you use an extra offensive lineman to get the blocking? Hopefully Russell stays healthy for the entire year but in football at that position well.....

Yes it appears the coaching staff has recruited some TE candidates for the 2015 class.

(08-13-2014 10:11 AM)emu79 Wrote:  There's good news and bad news regarding this position. The good news is that Tyreese Russell 6'3, 240 SR is returning as a starter. He caught 44 passes for 594 yards and 3 TDs last year. The bad news is that a productive backup as a true freshman Duwhan Alford is no longer with the team. That leaves us short on depth. Cole Gardner 6'5 260 SO caught 2 passes last year for 17 yards and a TD but does have game experience. Tom Glick 6'1 232 R-Fr. was a former preferred walk on at LB. I don't know what happens after that since EMU did not get a TE in the 2014 recruiting class. Do you use an extra offensive lineman to get the blocking? Hopefully Russell stays healthy for the entire year but in football at that position well.....

Yes it appears the coaching staff has recruited some TE candidates for the 2015 class.

Russell needs to stay healthy. He could be playing on Sundays next year. Wouldn't be surprised to see an OL moved to TE for short yardage plays.

EMU already has two TE recruits for next year. Would like to see one more, maybe a JUCO, added to the mix. Someone that's ready to play.

What happened to Duwhan Alford? I don't think the depth will be an issue at tight end. From what I've read Creighton plans on using the talent he has available to fit into his system. If a tight end goes down then I'm sure we will see more 3/4/5 wide receiver sets. I do think its a nice option to have Gardner and Russell out there in certain formations but if one goes down then we can move a wide receiver into that role, and in terms of the extra blocking I think its not a bad idea to put an extra offensive lineman out there. Who knows maybe you teach him to catch the football and sneak a couple passes to a big guy during short yardage situations.

(08-13-2014 10:59 AM)emdypo Wrote:  What happened to Duwhan Alford?

He has a Twitter handle and I tried Tweeting him. No reply.

One of his Tweets suggested that his heart is still with his teammates so I wonder if his departure is of his volition.

(08-13-2014 10:11 AM)emu79 Wrote:  There's good news and bad news regarding this position. The good news is that Tyreese Russell 6'3, 240 SR is returning as a starter. He caught 44 passes for 594 yards and 3 TDs last year. The bad news is that a productive backup as a true freshman Duwhan Alford is no longer with the team. That leaves us short on depth. Cole Gardner 6'5 260 SO caught 2 passes last year for 17 yards and a TD but does have game experience. Tom Glick 6'1 232 R-Fr. was a former preferred walk on at LB. I don't know what happens after that since EMU did not get a TE in the 2014 recruiting class. Do you use an extra offensive lineman to get the blocking? Hopefully Russell stays healthy for the entire year but in football at that position well.....

Yes it appears the coaching staff has recruited some TE candidates for the 2015 class.

This issue is addressed by our favorite MLive.com sports writer:

http://www.mlive.com/eagles/index.ssf/20...ed_stories