Boston College Athletics
Focus: Tight Ends
August 22, 2019 | Football
Simply known as "The Room", the BC tight end group is one of the deepest and most versatile on the team.
Returners: Jake Burt (Gr.), Chris Garrison (Gr.), Korab Idrizi (Sr.), Hunter Long (RSo.), Ray Marten (Sr.), Drew McQuarrie (RSo.), Isaiah Miranda (RJr.), Tito Pasqualoni (RFr.), Brendan Smith (RFr.)
Newcomers: Danny Dalton (Gr.), Keith Ridley (Fr.), Spencer Witter (Fr.)
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Boston College's use of "12-personnel" with two tight ends is widely known and was never more on display than when Anthony Brown connected for receptions with all six tight ends in the first half of the Eagles' primetime win over Miami at Alumni Stadium last season. This year, BC moves on with its deepest room looking to fill the void of the group's leading receiver Tommy Sweeney, who was selected in the seventh round of the NFL Draft by the Buffalo Bills this past spring.
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The Eagles enter 2019 with a pair of players, Burt and Long, on the Mackey Award watch list, which is awarded to the top tight end in the country. Burt caught a career-high six passes last season, including a touchdown in BC's final home game of the season against Syracuse. Long, who played primarily in BC's goal line package a year ago, was featured in the offense early in the 2018 campaign with touchdown catches of 35 yards and Holy Cross and 26 yards against Louisville in the first half of the season.
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Garrison has accumulated the most starts in the group, 21. He started eight games last season and 11 in 2017, when he caught a career-high 15 receptions for 152 yards. Idrizi split the starting role with Garrison, opposite Sweeney, with four starts last season to push his career total to seven. After making just six catches in his first two seasons, he hauled in 13 receptions for 158 yards, including a go-ahead touchdown at Virginia Tech. BC also added Dalton, a graduate transfer from Penn State. The former Massachusetts Gatorade Player of the Year at Marshfield made three catches in three games last season for the Nittany Lions.
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"My/our vision was we wanted to be a 12 personnel team that would never have to substitute and we could play in tempo, and part of that vision means you have to be able to go out and recruit and maintain a pretty high level of tight end play and depth in your tight end room.
"We've put a lot of time over the last couple of years in the involvement of the tight end, not just in the run game, but in the throw game, and the beautiful thing is that Mike -- that's where Mike is too. So he's excited about the utilization of that position.
"So we're enhancing that as we go, to be honest with you. We're continuing to enhance that. We lost a really good one in Tommy, who right now looks like he's starting in the NFL as of right now, but we have outstanding ones that are here. These guys are all pro caliber level players. They can run. They can catch. They can block. They can do a lot of things."
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Mike Bajakian, Offensive Coordinator
"Schematically, I had been a coordinator for eight years at the college level, and we ran an up tempo, no huddle spread scheme, operating from the gun, using four wide receiver sets, spreading the field out laterally, and that was my background.
"Then when I went to Tampa and joined Coach Koetter -- he was the offensive coordinator -- I learned a ton about how to utilize tight ends better in an offensive scheme. Obviously, we had had some good ones in my past with Travis Kelce in Cincinnati, and at Cincinnati in general, we had three tight ends that ended up playing in the NFL, and we utilized them in separate ways, in interesting ways. But when I went to Tampa, and we had guys like Cameron Brate from Harvard and O.J. Howard and various other guys, and I thought Coach Koetter did a great job of using those guys.
"I always thought in the back of my mind, in my four years in Tampa, that if I had the opportunity to coordinate again at the college level, I would use an up-tempo scheme, but I would be much more multiple in formations and personnel. So, again, when Coach Addazio and I started talking and he told me about the depth they had at the tight end position, prior to me coming here, and they utilize them, I said that was exactly what I wanted to do, and it became an easy decision."
Newcomers: Danny Dalton (Gr.), Keith Ridley (Fr.), Spencer Witter (Fr.)
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Boston College's use of "12-personnel" with two tight ends is widely known and was never more on display than when Anthony Brown connected for receptions with all six tight ends in the first half of the Eagles' primetime win over Miami at Alumni Stadium last season. This year, BC moves on with its deepest room looking to fill the void of the group's leading receiver Tommy Sweeney, who was selected in the seventh round of the NFL Draft by the Buffalo Bills this past spring.
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The Eagles enter 2019 with a pair of players, Burt and Long, on the Mackey Award watch list, which is awarded to the top tight end in the country. Burt caught a career-high six passes last season, including a touchdown in BC's final home game of the season against Syracuse. Long, who played primarily in BC's goal line package a year ago, was featured in the offense early in the 2018 campaign with touchdown catches of 35 yards and Holy Cross and 26 yards against Louisville in the first half of the season.
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Garrison has accumulated the most starts in the group, 21. He started eight games last season and 11 in 2017, when he caught a career-high 15 receptions for 152 yards. Idrizi split the starting role with Garrison, opposite Sweeney, with four starts last season to push his career total to seven. After making just six catches in his first two seasons, he hauled in 13 receptions for 158 yards, including a go-ahead touchdown at Virginia Tech. BC also added Dalton, a graduate transfer from Penn State. The former Massachusetts Gatorade Player of the Year at Marshfield made three catches in three games last season for the Nittany Lions.
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THE STATS
#80 Long, Hunter- 2018: 4 receptions, 103 yards, 2 touchdowns
- 2018: 5 receptions, 55 yards; Career: 25 receptions, 297 yards, 1 touchdown
- 2018: 6 receptions, 83 yards, 1 touchdown; Career: 8 receptions, 95 yards, 1 touchdown
- 2018: 13 receptions, 158 yards, 1 touchdown; Career: 19 receptions, 215 yards, 1 touchdown
- 2018: 5 receptions, 74 yards, 1 touchdown; Career: 10 receptions, 116 yards, 2 touchdowns
THE ROOM
Marten, the Eagles primary H-back the past two seasons, will miss the season due to injury… McQuarrie returns to tight end after playing 2018 at defensive end and took the field in all 12 games for field goals… Miranda has played in eight career games, including five last season, as a linebacker and special teams contributor, but moves to tight end/H-back for this season… Pasqualoni will sit out 2019 due to injury… Smith, who redshirted a year ago, along with true freshmen Ridley and Witter provide added depth to the BC tight end room… Smith spent a post-graduate year at Phillips Academy after being an all-conference performer at Needham High, Ridley was a two-year starting quarterback at Lynn Classical and Witter helped Choate to three NEPSAC Championships as the 2018 Central New England Offensive Player of the Year.Â
WHAT THEY'RE SAYING
Steve Addazio, Head Coach"My/our vision was we wanted to be a 12 personnel team that would never have to substitute and we could play in tempo, and part of that vision means you have to be able to go out and recruit and maintain a pretty high level of tight end play and depth in your tight end room.
"We've put a lot of time over the last couple of years in the involvement of the tight end, not just in the run game, but in the throw game, and the beautiful thing is that Mike -- that's where Mike is too. So he's excited about the utilization of that position.
"So we're enhancing that as we go, to be honest with you. We're continuing to enhance that. We lost a really good one in Tommy, who right now looks like he's starting in the NFL as of right now, but we have outstanding ones that are here. These guys are all pro caliber level players. They can run. They can catch. They can block. They can do a lot of things."
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Mike Bajakian, Offensive Coordinator
"Schematically, I had been a coordinator for eight years at the college level, and we ran an up tempo, no huddle spread scheme, operating from the gun, using four wide receiver sets, spreading the field out laterally, and that was my background.
"Then when I went to Tampa and joined Coach Koetter -- he was the offensive coordinator -- I learned a ton about how to utilize tight ends better in an offensive scheme. Obviously, we had had some good ones in my past with Travis Kelce in Cincinnati, and at Cincinnati in general, we had three tight ends that ended up playing in the NFL, and we utilized them in separate ways, in interesting ways. But when I went to Tampa, and we had guys like Cameron Brate from Harvard and O.J. Howard and various other guys, and I thought Coach Koetter did a great job of using those guys.
"I always thought in the back of my mind, in my four years in Tampa, that if I had the opportunity to coordinate again at the college level, I would use an up-tempo scheme, but I would be much more multiple in formations and personnel. So, again, when Coach Addazio and I started talking and he told me about the depth they had at the tight end position, prior to me coming here, and they utilize them, I said that was exactly what I wanted to do, and it became an easy decision."
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