2022 BC Position Preview Series: Tight Ends
Andy Backstrom (@andybackstrom)Publisher
Whenever a former tight ends coach becomes an offensive coordinator, there's a darn good chance that position group is going to heavily factor into his scheme. And Boston College OC John McNulty isn't just any former tight ends coach.
He's coming from Notre Dame, which frequently uses two- and three-tight end sets and can make its case for "TEU," especially since the Fighting Irish have seen four of their tight ends drafted since 2018.
What's more, BC brought over a Notre Dame tight end to bolster the room this offseason. George Takacs, who spent most of his Irish career as a blocker, transferred to the Eagles this spring, rejoining his old coach.
But aside from Takacs and Joey Luchetti—who caught 13 passes for 157 yards last season—there are more question marks than usual surrounding the Eagles' tight ends. Plus, it's yet to be seen if Takacs can shoulder the pass-catching load of an FBS TE1, considering that he amassed just eight receptions for 78 yards and a pair of touchdowns in 29 games at Notre Dame. The past two years, he was in the shadow of All-American Michael Mayer.
Last season, BC brought in Jacksonville State standout Trae Barry, who—despite inconsistent quarterback play and a knee injury down the stretch—ranked second on the team with 362 receiving yards and four touchdown grabs. The year before that, Hunter Long starred for the Eagles with 57 receptions, the most among any FBS tight end in 2020. Prior to Long's emergence, Tommy Sweeney was often BC's go-to target. In fact, in 2017, Sweeney led the Eagles with 512 receiving yards.
Both Sweeney and Long were drafted. Barry was picked up as an undrafted free agent this year. Is there a BC tight end who can put the ACC on notice in 2022?
PROJECTED DEPTH CHART
Note: BC will likely have two tight ends on the field most of this season, so the distinction between TE1 and TE2 could be negligible.TE1 - Joey Luchetti (R-Sr.)
2021 Stats: 13 receptions, 157 yards, 12.1 avg, 0 TD
TE2 - George Takacs (Gr.)
2021 Stats: 3 receptions, 36 yards, 12.0 avg, 1 TD
TE3 - Spencer Witter (R-Jr.)
2021 Stats: 5 receptions, 23 yards, 4.6 avg, 0 TD
TE4 - Hans Lillis/Charlie Gordinier (R-So.)
2021 Stats: N/A
TE5 - Matt Ragan (Fr.)
2021 Stats: N/A
PFF BREAKDOWN
Takacs is really interesting. Like BC starting quarterback Phil Jurkovec, the 6-foot-6 tight end was part of Notre Dame's 2018 recruiting class. The four star arrived in South Bend as the 11th-best prospect at his position that cycle. Takacs redshirted his freshman year but got his first taste of action in 2019 when he appeared in six games and scored his first career touchdown at Duke. The last two years, however, Takacs took a back seat, at least as far as pass catching duties were concerned.While Tommy Tremble and Mayer dazzled, combining for 668 receiving yards in 2020, Takacs was targeted just four times. Once Tremble left for the NFL, Takacs saw his snap count skyrocket—it went from 67 to 407 last year—but his target count didn't budge. At all. Again, Takacs was targeted only four times. He caught three of those for 36 yards and one touchdown. It's not like Takacs wasn't running routes, either. In fact, he ran 135 last season, according to PFF, hence his incredibly low 0.27 yards per route run, a PFF metric that measures a player's receiving yards per routes ran.
Mayer simply gobbled up the tight end targets en route to a team-leading 71 catches—the third most by a tight end in 2021—840 receiving yards and seven touchdowns.
Takacs registered PFF run and pass blocking grades of 65.6 and 67.7, respectively, last year. He was penalized twice and allowed one pressure. According to PFF, he was the inline tight end for 81.1% of his offensive snaps, including 70% of his pass snaps.
"Tough" is the word that comes to mind when talking about Luchetti. The Lawrence Academy product started his BC career as a tight end, then switched to defensive end before ultimately returning to tight end. He was generating a good bit of buzz ahead of the 2020 season, except a shoulder injury sidelined him for the year. Last season, he got his shot alongside Barry and was a mainstay in BC's 12-personnel offense.
Luchetti is a bulldozer in the run game, as he posted a PFF run blocking grade of 80.5 in 2021. Additionally, he flashed ability after the catch. Luchetti averaged 5.4 yards after the catch per reception and even ranked fourth on the team in YAC.
His best game was against Clemson, where he and Barry combined for 140 receiving yards. That week, the 6-foot-5, 250-pound Luchetti logged a 85.6 PFF receiving grade. He turned two catches into 58 yards, averaging 14 yards after the catch.
Witter is probably third in line right now, although it's worth mentioning that Charlie Gordinier was TE3 on last year's Week 1 depth chart and fellow redshirt sophomore Hans Lillis was getting decent work in spring practice. Witter was sprung into a bigger role in 2020 because of Luchetti's injury, and he made the most of the opportunity, recording six catches for 68 yards, including a clutch 22-yard catch and run late in the third quarter of BC's comeback win over Texas State.
Last year, Witter saw 209 fewer snaps yet still registered five receptions. He's a veteran with pretty reliable hands, however, his blocking is a clear weakness in his game.
