Ohio State football: Don’t expect tight end use this year

The Ohio State football team has always had some pretty solid tight ends. They are losing one on Jeremy Ruckert who was the number one tight end in his class coming out of high school. And yet, the Buckeyes barely use them.

Ruckert was extremely talented in his time with the Buckeyes, he just didn’t get the opportunity to show what he could fully do. He only had 12 total touchdowns in his four years with the Ohio State football program. He wasn’t even utilized as a red zone threat.

If you’re expecting that to change this year you’re going to be disappointed. Ryan Day has shown that he would rather use the wide receivers in the passing game. That’s understandable considering they have the best group of receivers in the country.

With Ruckert leaving, the Buckeyes also don’t have any tight ends that have much experience on the field, let alone catching passes. That might be the driving force behind not using them this season. Even if they did have one though, we’ve seen Day won’t use them as much as other programs. 

Not using the tight ends shouldn’t hinder the offense too much in terms of gaining yards. What it will do is make the offense more predictable in passing situations though. That could hurt them against some of the better defenses that they will face this season. Day will certainly have a game plan to combat that though.

I think if any tight end has 5 touchdowns this season, it would be a miracle. It would be good to see, but the odds are certainly not in that favor.