Can Tennessee tight ends help fill void left by Bru McCoy's injury?
Tennessee’s coaching staff knows it won’t be one receiver that replaces the production lost with Bru McCoy’s season-ending injury. The Vols will go with a committee approach, using redshirt freshmen Kaleb Webb and Chas Nimrod along with Oregon transfer Dont’e Thornton.
Head coach Josh Heupel and offensive coordinator Joey Halzle said as much this week.
But they also said tight ends Jacob Warren and McCallan Castles can help pick up the slack in the passing game, too.
“Quite a bit,” Halzle said on Tuesday. “Both of them have different skill sets. Cali and Jacob are are different players, but they’re both highly intelligent. We could move them around, put them in different spots, which we are, and allowing them to try to get some matchups that are favorable for them.”
No. 19 Tennessee (4-1, 1-1 SEC) hosts Texas A&M (4-2, 2-1) on Saturday afternoon (3:30 p.m. Eastern Time, CBS) at Neyland Stadium in the first game without McCoy.
“(The tight ends will) be a part of what we do in the passing game,” Heupel said on Monday. “Need them to continue to come on. They’ve created some big plays. Some big plays that we’re close on, too, with them. So they’ll be a factor in the game.”
Tennessee tight ends in five games: 14 catches, 154 yards, 3 TDs
Castles, the 6-foot-5, 252-pound UC Davis transfer, has caught seven passes for 100 yards and a touchdown through five games. Warren, the 6-foot-6, 253-pound redshirt senior out of Knoxville’s Farragut High School, has seven catches of his own for 54 yards and two touchdowns.
McCoy, who suffered the injury in the second quarter of the 41-20 win over South Carolina on September 30, caught 17 passes for 217 yards and a touchdown.
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“When you lose a guy like Bru, who was your seasoned guy, it’s like, all right, how do we make this (right)?” Halzle said. “You don’t just throw one person in and just expect all the production to stay the same.
“It’s like how do we make this right? What do we have to do? What do we have to scheme, how do we have to formation things to get guys in a position to use their skillset? Because not everyone has the same one.”
No. 19 Vols vs. Texas A&M, Saturday, 3:30 p.m. ET, CBS
Warren had three catches for 26 yards and a touchdown against South Carolina, all season-high numbers. Castles caught one pass in each of the first three games, including a 43-yard touchdown against Austin Peay, and had four catches for 30 yards over the last two games.
He struggled in the win over South Carolina, but Heupel said Monday he expects Castles to respond.
“Being able to reset is extremely important at every position,” he said. “When you’re a competitor, you’re gonna play for 60 minutes. Not every play is going to go your way on Saturday. Don’t expect our guys to play perfect.
“We strive for it, but that’s just not the nature of this game. There’s good players on the other side. They got coaches that are scheming it too, so it’s not gonna be perfect. Understand that reset and go play as hard as you can from snap to whistle. Cali will do that, man. He’s a a really good player.”
