Since the advent of spread offenses, or at least the almost universal obsession with this system, offensive coordinators have been looking for new ways to incorporate the tight end into the offense.
Unfortunately tight ends have been going the way of the Dodo bird and fullbacks in college football. That same trend’s occurred at Cincinnati. In 2005, the Bearcats featured seven tight ends and fullbacks (4 and 3). This season they feature five tight ends and not a single fullback to speak of.
And by “feature”, I mean Eddie Gran is trying to find someway to make them meaningful contributors in the offense somehow.