Depth chart breakdown: Where Penn State football stands at tight end in 2020
Few positions on the Penn State offense are as locked up as tight end. The Nittany Lions return one of the best in the country at the position while losing backup Nick Bowers to graduation.
Let’s take a look at where the position stands heading into the 2020 season, starting with a potential Mackey Award candidate.
Projected starter
Junior Pat Freiermuth
Freiermuth is Penn State’s best returning offensive player and a potential first-round pick in the 2021 NFL Draft. The junior tight end contributed in all facets of the previous iterations of the Nittany Lion offense and should do the same under new offensive coordinator Kirk Ciarrocca.
He’s a big, versatile target in the passing game who can play attached to the line and detached from it in the slot. Freiermuth is a good athlete and precise route runner in the middle of the field. Once he has the ball in his hands, the junior tight end uses his physicality and athleticism to break tackles in the open field. He’s no slouch in the run game, either. Freiermuth is strong enough to help the Nittany Lion offensive tackles on double teams and sound enough technically to take on linebackers and help create rushing lanes.
There are signs that Freiermuth could see a drop in production this year. Ciarrocca rarely used his tight ends in the passing attack at Minnesota and relied heavily on the position as an extra blocker. The Golden Gophers had three tight ends combine for 88 yards and two touchdowns on 10 catches in the 2019 season. Freiermuth blew those numbers out of the water on his own last year. He hauled in 43 passes for 507 yards and seven touchdowns as Penn State’s starter at the position.
Those concerns made their way to Freiermuth, who quickly quelled them when he spoke with the media during the spring.
“I love the new offense,” Freiermuth said in May. “I guess you guys will have to find out about how they’re going to use me. I know, and the coaches know, but I’m not going to leak too many details out. Obviously there’s some rumors about using tight ends, but I promise you I’m going to be used.”
Penn State would be wise to utilize Freiermuth like a wide receiver in the passing game. He’s the type of mismatch slot option that has become more frequently used in modern offenses. His size and strength make it difficult for cornerbacks to cover him, while his athleticism and route running make it difficult for linebackers and safeties to stay with him.
Freiermuth should’ve been a Mackey Award finalist in 2019, and likely will be one in 2020. He finished second on the team in receptions, receiving yards and receiving touchdowns behind only K.J. Hamler, who left Penn State early to enter the NFL draft.
The Nittany Lions have an inexperienced wide receiver group heading into this season and that should open the door for Freiermuth to lead the team in every receiving category in 2020. He’s the team’s most dangerous option on offense and quarterback Sean Clifford’s most reliable threat in the passing game. Few Nittany Lions have the combination of a high floor and a high ceiling like Freiermuth does entering his junior season.
Key backup
Redshirt sophomore Zack Kuntz
Freiermuth wasn’t the only tight end Penn State took in the 2018 recruiting class. Head coach James Franklin also brought in Kuntz, a Pennsylvania native, who was much more raw at the end of his high school career than his classmate at the position.
Kuntz was essentially a wide receiver at Camp Hill High School but always had the frame to move to tight end in college. He’s taken his first two years on campus to gain the requisite weight to hold up at the position in the Big Ten. The redshirt sophomore is currently listed at 254 pounds on the Penn State website. That’s up from the 221 pounds he was listed at on his 247Sports profile as a recruit.
Those 33 pounds were necessary for Kuntz to play tight end and should allow him to maintain the athleticism he displayed in high school. The tight end won the PIAA Class 2A State Championship in the 110-meter hurdles as a senior in 2018.
Kuntz is unlikely to reach the same level as Freiermuth as a blocker, but he’s now big enough to not be a catastrophe. He’s in position to assume the starting spot once his classmate leaves campus. This season he should fill the void left by Bowers, who exhausted his eligibility.
The redshirt sophomore could prove his worth in the red zone this season, where his 6-foot-7 frame makes him an ideal target.
Regardless of where he’s used, this will be Kuntz’s best chance to prove he’s ready to take over for Freiermuth in 2021.
Freshman to watch
True freshman Theo Johnson
Penn State added two freshmen to its tight end room in the 2020 recruiting class and one in the 2019 class. Johnson was joined by Tyler Warren in the most recent class and was preceded by redshirt freshman tight end in the 2019 group. Warren played quarterback in high school and has less experience at the position, which gives the nod to Johnson here, who was rated higher than redshirt freshman Brenton Strange and Warren as a recruit.
Johnson was the No. 3 tight end in the 2020 class according to the 247Sports Composite rankings. Like Kuntz, he did most of his damage as a pass catcher in high school and would be best suited as a mismatch option in the slot. He already has excellent size for the position at 6-foot-6, 249 pounds and will likely add more strength as the Penn State staff works to make him a better blocker.
If there’s any tight end on the roster that can be as good as Freiermuth, it’s Johnson. He’s not close to the star tight end right now because he hasn’t proven he can block, but Johnson has a combination of ideal size and elite athleticism at the position that could give him an opportunity to find himself in the Mackey Award conversation later in his career.
This story was originally published June 29, 2020 at 4:14 PM.
