Tulsa Football Summer Position Analysis: Tight Ends
In order to get Tulsa head football coach Philip Montgomery to laugh, just say that tight end Chris Minter is “pretty good.”
Montgomery laughs because he knows that Minter is much more than that. And because most people don’t know just how good he is.
“Chris is the guy who makes us go,” said Montgomery. “He is one of the cornerstones of our program. A great leader for us. He sets the tone for us in terms of our physicality. We use him in some different ways.
“He’s a guy that we have to have. He is so vital to what we do and a great young man.”
Minter, a 6-foot-2, 247-pound senior from Temple, Texas, is Mr. Reliable for TU, and is the undisputed leader of the tight ends for the Golden Hurricane.
The most noticeable thing about Minter is if you watch him closely, on running plays, there tends to be holes in the defense were there were none before the play started.
There aren’t many passes thrown his way, but usually when he does catch a pass, it is in an important situation.
Last year, Minter caught four passes for 19 yards and a touchdown. As a sophomore, Minter caught six passes for 60 yards and three touchdowns. So that makes 10 career catches for 77 yards, with four out of his 10 receptions going for scores.
Tight ends in Montgomery’s offense are never going to catch a lot of passes. They sub in and out with an extra receiver, with the offense usually going with three receivers and a tight end when a tight end is in the game. Sometimes, in short yardage situations, Tulsa will use two tight ends.
The tight ends move around, sometimes lining up as a blocking back in the backfield. They can play on either side of the line.
“People talk about our offensive linemen not getting mentioned, but our tight ends get mentioned even less than the linemen do,” Montgomery said.
Part of that is a lack of catches, and part of that is that Tulsa’s tight ends don’t always start the game. Depending on its opponent and the situation, the Hurricane sometimes opts to start the game with four receivers.
Minter played in all 12 games in 2017, but started only seven due to this philosophy. The backup tight end, Rob Riederer (who has since graduated) played in all 12 games with no starts, and caught one pass for six yards.
Replacing Riederer in the backup tight end role this year will be 6-3, 240-pound senior Cole Neph. A former walk-on who transferred from Oklahoma State, Neph was recently awarded a scholarship by Montgomery after spring practice.
Neph, who graduated from Owasso High School, caught three passes for 33 yards in the 2018 Spring Game.
Montgomery has been impressed by Neph, who was a special teams mainstay in his first season with the Golden Hurricane, recording eight tackles in 12 games.
“Cole has done a great job,” Montgomery said. “When he came here he was a really good route runner, more of a big receiver/tight end type of guy. He’s worked tremendously hard on the blocking side of it.
“I think we’ve got a great one-two punch with Chris and Cole. I feel very confident with putting Cole in the game at any point and time. He’ll play on all of our special teams, just like Chris does. He will play in a major type of role."
Behind Minter and Neph is 6-4, 230-pound sophomore David Fitzwater.
“David has definitely done a much better job as far as understanding what we are doing from a blocking scheme wise,” said Montgomery of Fitzwater, who played enough on special teams last year to be a letterman. “He took some big steps this spring that we’ve been waiting on him to take, and I think the lightbulb has finally coming on for him.”
Incoming freshman Dalton May (6-3, 240) from Jones, Oklahoma, and James Palmer (6-2, 225) from Moore also figure in on TU’s future plans.
“James Palmer, to me, what we’ve seen on tape, is very similar in body style to Chris Minter when he got here,” Montgomery described. “A very physical presence type of guy, but very athletic. A guy who can catch the ball out of the backfield and do some things.
“Dalton May is a much more physical type of body stance. He’s athletic.”
For all of the tight ends, they may not make many headlines, but that won’t stop Montgomery from appreciating them.