Miami Hurricanes tight ends need to be more well rounded in 2019

Freshman Brevin Jordan had an outstanding freshman season for the Miami Hurricanes at tight end in 2018. He finished second in receptions and receiving touchdowns. More well-rounded play is needed from all the UM tight ends in 2019.

As part of his firing of the entire offensive coaching staff after the 2018 season, New Miami Hurricanes Head Coach Manny Diaz replaced Todd Hartley with Stephen Field as tight ends coach. Earlier this week Miami Herald columnist Barry Jackson wrote that the Miami tight ends have a few areas to improve on by August.

The reference was to rising Sophomore Will Mallory in particular. Mallory’s freshman season did not come close to living up to the four-status bestowed upon him coming out of high school. Jackson’s contact told him that although Mallory was exceptional as a receiver this spring he was”demolished” at times as a blocker in 2018.

Jackson was also told that all of the Miami Hurricanes tight ends need to do a better job helping the quarterbacks by making contested catches this season. Brevin Jordan missed most of spring practice with a knee injury. Mallory and Michael Irvin II looked good in his place. There is a lot of potential from the Hurricanes in two tight end sets.

Irvin returns after missing all of 2018 with a torn MCL. Mallory had five receptions for 37 yards and one touchdown last season. The touchdown came against FCS Savannah State who is moving down to Division II beginning with the 2019-20 school year.

Mallory played well against Virginia Tech after Jordan suffered an injury on the opening play that sidelined him for the remainder of the game. Mallory had three receptions for 28 yards against the Hokies before suffering his own injury early in the second half that sidelined him.

Mallory was profiled by The Athletic’s Manny Navarro this week and admitted he needs to work on his blocking. He discussed the enormous difference between blocking in high school and college and his speed.

"“In high school, I could just block off pure natural strength. Going to college, that’s been a big adjustment for me. And I’m still working on that, obviously, and always will continue to work on that. The big thing for me is just making sure I put on good weight.I’ve never run the 40, but I ran the 100-meter dash in high school, and I ran it in 10.85 seconds."

Expect to see Jordan and Mallory on the field often together this season. New Miami offensive coordinator Dan Enos utilized double tight end formations often at Arkansas. The Razorbacks had Hunter Henry who is currently with the Los Angeles Chargers. Diaz spoke about the mismatches Mallory can create.

"“Will Mallory’s just a matchup nightmare,…I mean, he’s so tall,  he’s got such a humongous catch radius, great hands. Even the touchdown he caught in the red zone (in the spring game), I mean, you can be in good coverage and the quarterback can just throw it because there’s just such a large radius to throw at.”"

Miami’s offense is going to look a lot different in 2019 than it did the previous three seasons with Mark Richt calling plays. Enos will be a lot more creative with formations, motions, shifting and what comes out of the formations than Richt’s pro-style offense was. The Miami tight ends will be expected to be a big part of that.