Quote:Bassler shows value of tight end in Cougars' offense
By MICHAEL MURPHY
Copyright 2005 Houston Chronicle

On the first play of the fourth quarter in Saturday's game at Tulsa, Houston Cougars tight end Blade Bassler had two experiences that politely could be called rare.

The first was breaking from the line of scrimmage and seeing a pass heading in his direction. The second came after catching the ball, when Bassler turned and saw nothing but a long stretch of grass.

Thirty-seven yards later, Bassler was taken down. But the senior's catch and run was the spark that got the game-icing drive going. The 6-3, 235-pound Bassler added an 11-yard catch on a third-and-four play in that same drive, setting up Ryan Gilbert's nine-yard touchdown run that gave UH a 14-point lead en route to a 30-23 victory.

"Honestly, when I caught the ball and saw all that green grass, it surprised me. A lot," said Bassler, laughing. "Usually when you're a tight end and you catch it, you take a couple of steps and you get drilled. But this time I was wide-open."


Turning the tables
The irony was that UH, which rarely throws to the tight end, used that position — Bassler had three catches for 58 yards in the fourth quarter — to beat a Tulsa team that stars preseason All-America tight end Garrett Mills.

So why don't the Cougars, 2-2 and 1-1 in Conference USA entering Saturday's game against Tulane, throw more passes to Bassler (seven receptions) and bullish John McGilvray (one)? Last season Bassler and Stephen Cucci, a preseason All-C-USA selection, combined for only 19 catches.

"I think it depends on how people use them," UH coach Art Briles said. "We kind of use ours as more of an H-back or a slot back. A lot of people use them as protection people in passing schemes. But I think it's what you look for. When we recruit tight ends, we try to recruit a guy that we think can be a tight end/H-back/fullback.

"I think it's a position where you can steal some yards because they do tend to get forgotten and get overlooked in defensive coverages sometimes."

But UH isn't alone when it comes to disappearing tight ends.

Teams such as Tulsa, Notre Dame (Anthony Fasano), Maryland (Vernon Davis) and UCLA (Mercedes Lewis) routinely exploit that position. But tight ends such as Southern Cal's Dominique Byrd, Georgia's Leonard Pope, BYU's Dan Coats, Purdue's Charles Davis, Ohio State's Ryan Hamby and Colorado's Joel Klopfenstein — all on the watch list for the John Mackey Award, named after the NFL Hall of Fame tight end — have fewer than 10 receptions this season.

And this comes when the NFL is enjoying a renaissance at the position, with gifted players such as Antonio Gates (San Diego), Jeremy Shockey (New York Giants), L.J. Smith (Philadelphia), Jason Whitten (Dallas), and Kansas City's Tony Gonzalez having an impact.


Blame the spread
So why the dearth of numbers for the college tight ends?

"It's all part of those spread offenses," Kevin Colbert, director of football operations for the Pittsburgh Steelers, told ESPN.com. "There aren't as many colleges using tight ends as much as they have in the past. They are getting third and fourth receivers on the field, so you have the tight end coming off the field."

According to Bassler, a former quarterback, production like Saturday's will be common as the season goes on.

"I guess in our scheme, the emphasis is more on guys like Vincent Marshall — the slot receivers," Bassler said. "Those are the guys with the blazing speed who can stretch the defense a little more effectively than a bigger tight end.

"This spring, though, I saw an increase in how much the tight end was being used in coach's offense. I think they focused more on that in the spring and put in more plays for the tight end.

"It hasn't all come out yet this season, but I'm sure they're going to."

I know I would complaining about having an all conference tight end and not using him last year. Hopefully the mind of Briles can find more uses for our tight ends in the future.