 "Photo: Peter Franklin; The Daily Texan")
The Longhorns are losing more than just a player in tight end Blaine Irby, who is out for the season after dislocating his knee during the Rice game. They’re losing a big part of their offensive philosophy.
Irby’s ability to block and catch allowed Texas to run an offense that kept defenses in their base formation. Having a versatile tight end kept defenses guessing as to whether it was a run or a pass.
“We’ve talked about going to four-wide receivers more,” said offensive coordinator Greg Davis. “The reason we like our base personnel with a tight end so much is because we get base personnel out of the defense rather than seeing nickel and dime packages. When we ran a four-wide type of offense with Chris Simms as quarterback, we saw defenses come out in a design to stop that.”
Irby had 10 receptions for 95 yards and two touchdowns in the first three games he played.
Greg Smith, the new starter, is a converted lineman and is in known more for his blocking. The sophomore was originally recruited as a tight end, but moved to the line his freshman year after injuring his knee.
“Greg brings something different to the table, and we’re going to play to his strengths,” said tight ends coach Bruce Chambers.
If tight ends keep getting hurt, coach Chambers could have no players left to coach by the end of the season.
The team now only has three healthy tight ends after Irby’s injury. The Longhorns losttight end Josh Marshall for the season at the beginning of fall practice and have been without Ian Harris for the first four weeks. Of course it doesn’t help that Jermichael Finley decided to go pro after his sophomore season last year.
“We’re really depleted at that position because we were counting on Jermichael returning and lost Josh at the beginning of the year,” said coach Mack Brown.
Harris returned to practice this week and will join converted lineman Smith and senior Peter Ullman on the team’s depth chart. Freshman Amhard Howard has moved over from defense to play tight end, giving the team four options at the position.
Chambers said Harris is the best pass catcher of the group.
“Ian is a guy that is in the same mold as Blaine [Irby],” Chambers said. “He is a guy who is really versatile and a guy who can run and block. In some cases, tight ends have been called a ‘glorified tackle,’ and he’s not that, he’s an athlete.”
The team thought about moving a player from another position over to tight end. Chris Ogbonnaya could potentially play in an H-back role given his ability to block and catch passes. But Chambers said nobody is switching positions.
“We’re going to stick with the plan that we’ve got, and there is no need to move anybody at this time,” Chambers said. “We’ve always had a first-team guy, second-team guy, third-team guy, so what happens in a situation like this, obviously that second-team guy moves up, and we just continue on.”
As for Irby’s situation, there is a silver lining. He’ll get a medical hardship and an extra year of eligibility since he got hurt early enough in the season. Brown is having Irby talk to former Longhorn Bo Scaife to put things into perspective. Scaife spent six injury-plagued years at Texas and had several knee operations.
Things turned out pretty well for Scaife, now in his fifth season in the NFL.
“I feel really great for Bo and the success he’s had,” Brown said. “I think he can really help Blaine right now. Blaine’s tough; he’s smart.”
When Scaife was injured at Texas, young tight end David Thomas stepped up to lead the team and is now in the NFL.
However, after losing Irby, this year’s team doesn’t have a guy quite like Thomas.
“Blaine gave us the same things that David Thomas and Jermichael Finley gave us,” Brown said. “Right now, we don’t have another guy that can do that.”
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