Pass-catching Tennessee tight ends learning to block

Tennessee tight end Dominick Wood-Anderson goes through a drill during a practice at Haslam Field. / Staff photo by David Cobb

KNOXVILLE - For the second season in a row, a Tennessee offensive coordinator with an extensive background coaching tight ends might reduce the frequency with which the position is used in the Volunteers' passing game.

During Larry Scott's lone season as Tennessee's OC in 2017, tight ends caught 17 percent of the Volunteers' completed passes, down from 19 percent under Mike DeBord the year before.

Scott, who was promoted to offensive coordinator from tight ends coach, also coached tight ends at South Florida and Miami before coming to Knoxville. He is now the tight ends coach at Florida.

This season's Tennessee offensive coordinator, Tyson Helton, enters the role after serving as tight ends coach at three schools during his career (Hawaii, Memphis and Cincinnati). But when he's had jobs involving play-calling at Western Kentucky (OC in 2014 and 2015) and Southern California (passing game coordinator in 2016 and 2017), Helton's offenses have hit tight ends on just 12 percent of completed passes.

Only once in the past decade has a Tennessee offense incorporated tight ends as pass-catchers at a lower rate. That was in 2013 when tight ends caught eight percent of Tennessee's completions during Butch Jones' first year as head coach.

An emphasis of first-year coach Jeremy Pruitt during spring practices was "trying to figure out if we have any tight ends."

"I'm talking about tight ends that can block, not line up out there and run pass patterns," Pruitt said in April.

Pruitt illustrated the blocking emphasis for Tennessee's tight ends on the main podium at SEC Media Days in July as he told the story of one of his first encounters with redshirt junior tight end Eli Wolf, who was a prolific wide receiver in high school.

The story, as Pruitt told it, started with the first-year head coach seeing Wolf in the cafeteria in the Anderson Training Center on campus.

"I look to my right, and there's Eli," Pruitt said. "I ask him - because I'm thinking he might be a manager or might be an athletic trainer - I said, 'What position do you play?' He said, 'Coach, I'm a tight end.' I said, 'Really? You can block one of these SEC guys or somebody?' He said, 'I don't know about that, Coach, but I can run a 4.5 (40-second dash).' I said, 'If you are going to play tight end for us, you are going to have to learn to block.'"

Wolf took the advice to heart, Pruitt noted, by gaining 20 pounds from January to July and being named the most improved offensive player at the end of spring practices.

Still, the former walk-on is facing stiff competition for the top tight end spot from junior college transfer Dominick Wood-Anderson, who arrived this summer after catching 31 passes for 258 yards at Arizona Western in 2017.

But even Wood-Anderson, who is listed at 257 pounds compared to Wolf at 236, spent much of his freshman season in junior college split out as a wide receiver. After playing quarterback in high school, he enrolled at Arizona Western unsure of which position he would play. A coach suggested a new position: tight end.

Wood-Anderson teamed up with current Arkansas tight end Jeremy Patton, who helped impart wisdom on blocking to Wood-Anderson.

"I was playing receiver and stuff like that," Wood-Anderson said. "He was a great leader, a great teammate, and he just pushed me to get better at blocking. We used to stay after practice and work on blocking and stuff."

Wolf and Wood-Anderson both have the speed and hands to catch passes, but if the track record of their offensive coordinator and the words of their head coach are any indication, blocking will be what earns them playing time.

"If we are going to run pass patterns," Pruitt said in the spring, "I would rather put wide receivers out there."

Contact David Cobb at dcobb@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @DavidWCobb and on Facebook at facebook.com/volsupdate.