By Jeff Caves
@JeffCaves on twitter

Why doesn’t Boise State throw to the Tight Ends anymore?

I hear that a lot from callers or read it on social media. I thought I would look further into that and do some comparison with past teams. Here is a look at the production from the TE the last 4 years.

TE receptions by season:
2013-20
2014-47
2015-59
2016-21

The 2013 season was Coach Pete’s last year here. Throwing the ball to wide receiver’s Matt Miller (88) and Shane Williams-Rhodes (77) was the priority, catching 35% of the attempts. A lot of those balls were quick throws designed to get the WR in a one-on-one situation and make a play. Miller averaged 13 yards per catch and SWR 9 yards per catch. Boise State lost 5 times that season and heaved 466 passes.

The 2016 stats are similar in tight end production but the goals with the offense were different. Before the Cactus Bowl is factored in, where Boise St will probably throw 30 times, Boise State has thrown the ball 354 times. Wide receivers Thomas Sperbeck (72) and Cedric Wilson (50) have caught 34% of the attempts.

BUT, the 2016 offense was throwing the ball downfield looking for explosive plays. Sperbeck averaged 16.6 yards per catch and Wilson a whopping 21 ypc.

In fact, Wilson was #1 in FBS yards per catch with receivers who had 50 or more overall catches. Sperbeck was #3 in the FBS in yards per catch with receivers who caught at least 72 balls.

It was no gimmick or surprise to throw the long ball. Throwing long is what Boise State did.

AND, run Jeremy McNichols of course. Sometimes the more success McNichols had rushing the more Boise State would throw long because the defense had to put more defenders at the line of scrimmage to stop the run. But, when it came to the pass game, Bret Rypien was going to launch it.

Rypien was #4 in FBS in yards per pass thrown.

So, with this offensive attack, it is no surprise that Boise State didn’t want to throw the ball to the tight end often. They were pass blocking to give Rypien extra time to go downfield or were substituted out to get an extra WR in the game.

This was Harsins’ call I’m sure and shows his go for broke mentality and aggressiveness.

I understand he still could have snuck out a TE more often to make catches in big moments but they lacked confidence in that group. With Jake Roh hobbling around most of the season, they didn’t think a TE could get far enough downfield and wanted more explosiveness out of their offense.

I also think they had 2 special WR’s who couldn’t be covered one on one.

So, from Harsins’ view, why trade in a 16 or 21 yard gain from a WR for an 11 yard completion to a TE? And, once the WR catches the ball, they can get you more yards after the catch and maybe a touchdown.

Makes sense on average to me given this teams strengths.