Looking Ahead: What does Smart want from his tight ends?
Kirby Smart is fairly confident of what his tight ends can do with the ball in their hands.
After all, Jeb Blazevich has enjoyed reasonable success, while freshman Isaac Nauta and Charlie Woerner earned reputations as two of the nation’s best over the course of their high school careers.
Sophomore Jackson Harris and junior Jordan Davis displayed the same ability in last month’s G-Day game, with Harris putting up some big numbers just like Davis did the year before. But as Smart looks ahead to fall camp, there’s one major question that he’s going to need to see answered.
“The biggest thing you’ve got to do is be able to block big people,” Smart said Monday night in Savannah. “If you can’t do that at the point of attack in our league, most of the defensive linemen they’ll line up against are much bigger than them. So we always saying you’ve got to tie (up) at tight end.”
Size should not be that much of a problem.
Harris – at last check – was a shade over 250 pounds, while Nauta and Woerner are both in the 245-250 range.
Blazevich, who is right around 240 pounds, needs to get bigger. Davis is the smallest of the quintet at 235.
“This group as a whole is really talented,” Smart said. “They’ve all got different features and Coach (Jim) Chaney is going to try to use all of those.”
While Smart already has a pretty idea what he’s got on his hands in Nauta, Woerner is somewhat of a mystery.
“We’re going to find out a lot about that kid,” Smart said. “We’re going to find out about his toughness and how committed he is to blocking because he didn’t have to do that in high school. We know he’ a really good athlete.”
Woerner proved that during last week’s state track meet when he captured the state title in the Class AA discus, a fact Smart took note of during his recent session with reporters.
“I know he won the discus in the state meet which is kind of unique for a tight end/receiver to win the discus,” Smart said. “That’s not a normal deal. But he’s a great athlete.”