Tennessee Position Group Deep Dive - TE/FB

[tsweezy]

Been flying a lot, decided to plan out the future of each position group and planning our program's philosophy and decided to spin it into some media about the past-present-future of Tennessee football. Read on!

 

Next: combining some smaller, less important groups: TE / FB

TE has been the weakest spot (recruiting wise) for the offense. Funnily enough though, Tennessee has had some pretty solid genned players come through (maybe the best genned position on the whole roster lol) but the pipeline isn't that strong for the future. Similarly one of the best genned players on the roster was a FB... but we've almost completely phased the FB out of the offense entirely.

2021:

Tyler Locastro - Sr ⭐⭐⭐⭐, Receiving - Ord, NE - B overall. A speed, C IQ, A agility, A catching, B route running, A strength, B pass block, B run block

Patty Murray - So ⭐⭐⭐⭐, Receiving - Lewis Central, OH - B overall. B speed, C IQ, B agility, C catching, C route running, A strength, C pass block, B run block

Kendrick Mateo - Fr ⭐⭐⭐⭐, Blocking - Notasulga, AL - C overall. B speed, C IQ, C agility, C catching, D route running, A strength, B pass block, B run block

FB Cody Peterson - Sr ⭐⭐⭐⭐, Blocking - Minneola, FL - A overall. A speed, B IQ, B agility, A strength, A pass block, A run block

 

Locastro was actually a much better TE than he gets credited for as a mostly "forgotten" member of the offense. Only 2 TDs all year, but had a respectable 555 yards on 77 targets.

Behind him was Patty who got playing time as a sophomore and caught 14/21 passes for a nice 142 yards

Cody looked great statistically but only recorded 30 rushing yards and 67 passing yards. Sad waste of a FB

 

2022: 

Patty Murray - Jr ⭐⭐⭐⭐, Receiving - Lewis Central, OH - B overall. C- speed, B IQ, C+ agility, C+ catching, B route running, B strength, C+ pass block, C run block

Kendrick Mateo - (Fr) ⭐⭐⭐⭐, Blocking - Notasulga, AL - B- overall. D speed, C IQ, C agility, D catching, C route running, B strength, B pass block, B run block

FB Audry Black - So ⭐⭐⭐⭐, Balanced - Cartersville, GA - B overall. C speed, C IQ, C agility, B strength, C pass block, C run block

 

Now this was surprising. Mateo had way better progression than Murray even though he was redshirted. Considering there was more of a run focus this year, he also got the TE1 nod, and frankly showed out pretty well

Mateo caught 74% of his 50 targets for 303 yards. He didn't have any big plays, but he was quite consistently able to at least bring it in. Surprisingly, Murray had a worse catch rate, but better YPC with 224 and 2 TDs. 

Murray fans were definitely disappointed, but the TEs blocked fine and were overall reliable this year

Audry Black recorded ZERO stats on the year. FBs weren't even used this season. Wasteful again

 

2023:

Patty Murray - Sr ⭐⭐⭐⭐, Receiving - Lewis Central, OH - B+ overall. C speed, B+ IQ, B agility, B catching, A- route running, B+ strength, B- pass block, B- run block

Kendrick Mateo - (So) ⭐⭐⭐⭐, Blocking - Notasulga, AL - B+ overall. C speed, B IQ, B- agility, C+ catching, C+ route running, A strength, A pass block, A- run block

FB Audry Black - Jr ⭐⭐⭐⭐, Balanced - Cartersville, GA - B+ overall. C+ speed, B IQ, B agility, B+ strength, B pass block, B+ run block

 

This past year looked like another good combo set up. Murray isn't fast but he seemed like a reliable safety valve in the 5-10 yard range. Meanwhile Mateo had great blocking stats and should help provide another body on a fairly shaky OL.

They saw almost the same number of snaps but had some weird splits. Mateo (the blocker) got more targets and did better with them - 259 yards and 3 TDs on 32 targets

Murray, the receiving threat only had 11 catches for 124 yards. BUT he did have 36 rushes for 147 and 2 TDs which actually was better than Ahtyba did so that was interesting

Audry Black was a damn good looking FB but... recorded 24 snaps on the year recording 3 tackles. He's a great special teams player at least!

 

2024:

Murray was frankly a bit of a bust and didn't cut it to become a pro, but he was still a highly competent college player and is going to be missed. The overall TE play is expected to take a bit of a step down
 

Kendrick Mateo - (Jr) ⭐⭐⭐⭐, Blocking - Notasulga, AL - A- overall. C+ speed, A IQ, B+ agility, B catching, B route running, A+ strength, A+ pass block, A+ run block

Kenneth Cox - (Fr) ⭐⭐⭐⭐, Receiving - Ocala, FL - B- overall. D speed, C IQ, C agility, C catching, C route running, C strength, C pass block, D run block

FB Audry Black - Sr ⭐⭐⭐⭐, Balanced - Cartersville, GA - A- overall. B speed, A- IQ, B agility, A- strength, B+ pass block, A run block

 

Honestly, Mateo is kind of really good. He's not going to be a headline grabber like Canaan or whoever Purdue had, but he's an insanely good blocker who can hurt you in the intermediate pass game. He should see a lot of playing time this season and hopefully does his part to protect Savage and spring Joe

Kenneth is… the definition of mediocre. Luckily he's a second option but with that in mind this is probably a special teams and blowouts kind of year in terms of getting enough snaps to develop well

Audry looks really talented. At this point he's the last FB left on the roster before they go extinct and he's looking for a last hurrah. Unfortunately we just don't need a FB. The coaches have talked with him and it's likely that he'll be the TE2 option at the least which should be nice. Hopefully someone takes a flyer on him as a pro.

 

2025:

Kendrick Mateo - (Sr) ⭐⭐⭐⭐, Blocking - Notasulga, AL - A overall

Kenneth Cox - (So) ⭐⭐⭐⭐, Receiving - Ocala, FL - B overall

 

I'm expecting Mateo to frankly be a monster this year. WR will not be super stacked so he's probably going to get some extra targets and when he doesn't, he might as well be a 6th OL. Really like his flexibility

Once again, Cox is probably going to be just a guy.

 

2026:

Kenneth Cox - (Jr) ⭐⭐⭐⭐, Receiving - Ocala, FL - B+ overall

Darrell Foster - Sr ⭐⭐⭐, Receiving - Huntingdon, TN - B overall

 

This is gonna be a drop off. Sure they'll have good hands, but who are you gonna take off the field to put them in? Frankly they need to progress well to justify putting them seriously in rotation