Sapp, Bush emerge in WVU tight end room
AP Photo/Scott Kinser
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Rich Rodriguez’s usage of the tight end has changed over his 37 years of running the offense. Rodriguez went from 10 personnel to 20 personnel and didn’t use much of a tight end for the first 10 years of his offense, which included the early beginnings at West Virginia.
The tight end has evolved into a three-down player. He can block and run a route as a mismatch on a safety or linebacker in the pass game. That’s what the tight end looks like in Rodriguez’s offense now.
“It gives you a lot more variety offensively when you have a tight end that can do what we ask them to do,” Rodriguez said. “We’re a lot of 11 personnel, just like everybody else, but we’ll dabble in some 12 and maybe even some 13 stuff, too. We got three tight ends out there, so it’s been a position that has evolved into being a very, very important position.”
Through fall camp, and now WVU is two weeks in, Rodriguez needs to find a tight end who can do it all for the Mountaineers, and maybe even more for three-tight-end sets.
He’s picking from a pretty new group. The only returning tight end to see action is Ryan Ward. Ward played in 10 games last season after transferring from North Carolina. He had six catches for 41 yards and a touchdown against Colorado. Ward had a promising spring, looking like the leader in the room.
“Ryan Ward’s a solid guy,” Rodriguez said. “He was having a great summer. He’s a little limited, but he’ll be back here hopefully in a few days.”
Rodriguez named a couple of tight ends who were a little banged up. Mississippi State transfer Cam Ball and Bridgeport, West Virginia, native Carter Zuliani are also “nicked” up.
With multiple tight ends dealing with injuries, it’s allowed others to shine. Clemson transfer Josh Sapp, who caught Michael Hawkins Jr.’s jump pass in a recent highlight video, should be an impact player. Sapp is easy to spot. He’s one of two players on the team to wear No. 0, sharing with safety Andrew Powdrell.
Sapp played a lot in four years at Clemson. He played in 41 games and made two starts. Sapp had caught 11 passes for 150 yards last season. He has just two touchdown catches, both coming in 2023. The redshirt senior wanted more action in the pass game and should get it at WVU, emerging as the top tight end with all the injuries.
“Josh Sapp was a veteran we brought in, and Josh, the last couple of days, he’s had his best practices,” Rodriguez said. “He’s gotten better and better every day. He’s a guy that’s played a lot of football when he was at Clemson.”
The injuries have opened opportunities for a couple of the true freshmen as well. Rodriguez picked up three of them: Kade Bush, Sam Hamilton and Martinsburg, West Virginia, native Xavier Anderson.
Bush has really stepped up out of the group. He was a 3-star out of Minnesota and was the 68th-ranked tight end in the class. Bush has a really big frame at 6-foot-4, 226 pounds, and he should only fill it out as he gets older.
“Kade Bush, probably of all the young guys, freshman tight ends, has taken the biggest leap in the last week or so,” Rodriguez said. “He’s putting himself in there. With Carter, Ryan and Cam being a little nicked up, it has given all those young guys a lot of reps. Cade has kind of stepped forward a little bit with that too. He’s looked like he’s got a chance to play some.”
Rodriguez has a couple of tight ends who could potentially be three-down players. Back in the day, he would’ve been fine without one, but he’s had to adapt, and now he has multiple options, and the room should only get deeper as they get healthier.
“I want to have at least three that I feel good that we can win with because of our personnel groupings,” Rodriguez said. “I think we’ll get there. When everybody’s healthy, I think we’ll have that.”