BOULDER ON THE SHOULDER

By Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Insider

Gavin Yates certainly knows how to make a first impression, separating the shoulder of new tight ends coach Jarrett Anderson with an inadvertent collision during an offseason workout back in January.

Okay, maybe not a good first impression.

"He hit me, too, trust me," said the 6-3, 247-pound Yates, a fourth-year senior who was used as a tight end/fullback/H-back combo in Jeff Grimes' offense. "I think I'm on (Anderson's) good side, hopefully. I know he's ore cheery around me, so that's good. And his shoulder is moving better, so I think I'm on the good side."

The former walk-on defensive end from Frisco Memorial High School remains "the most optimistic person on the team," said junior tight end Kelsey Johnson.

"If you asked most people who's the most goofy, who's the most cherry, who's the most optimistic person on the team, they're going to most likely say Gavin," said Johnson, the leader among returning tight ends with 11 catches for 80 yards last season. "He just finds something in himself to bring out joy in everybody. Just watching him give phenomenal effort, that makes me think, 'Okay, I have no excuse.'''

In first-year offensive coordinator Jake Spavital's spread offense, it's a different game for the Baylor tight ends. They will be flanked out more and even used in deeper pass routes.

"I haven't run much routes over five yards in Grimes' offense," said Yates, who has seven career catches for 55 yards. "So, running dig routes, comeback routes, all different routes that I've never ran before, and just figuring the timing and how to get in our breaks faster."

Yates laughs at the idea that EA Sports College Football 25 actually lists "deep threat" as his strength.

"I don't know what EA was doing, it's not me. Not a deep threat," Yates said. "You're not going to see me running four (vertical routes) and catching touchdown passes. So, not it.

"They're trying you anywhere to see what you're good at and see what you're not good at. So, I'm kind of basically the Swiss army knife. I'll try to catch passes, and I'll lead block, but you're put in different places to see what you're good at. Coach is still trying to figure out our body types and what we're good at, just as much as we're trying to figure out this offense."

The top two tight ends last season, Drake Dabney and Jake Roberts transferred to TCU and Oklahoma, respectively, but it's still a deep tight end room. Matthew Klopfenstein and Hawkins Polley both saw game action as true freshmen last year, sophomore Cody Mladenka is a former four-star recruit and junior transfer Michael Trigg was a starter two years ago at Mississippi.

Johnson describes the 6-4, 246-pound Trigg, who started his collegiate career at USC, as a "unique person and player."

"You have to be around him, he's just interesting. I'm just going to put it like that," Johnson said. "But as for his play, his quickness, his agility and his ability to move as a tight end at that size is very impressive. . . . The whole tight end room is like a small brotherhood. We're all just close and we help each other. He brought things from a different lens of certain things that maybe we didn't see it at first."

Klopfenstein said the whole system, with Spavital's spread attack and Anderson coaching the tight ends room, "is all new to me."

"It's been a different change, for sure," he said, "especially being split out wide, having to work on perimeter blocking and stuff like that. But it's only making me better. You have good days, you have bad days, but that's why we have fall camp. We however many days left till the first game (23), so we have a lot of time to critique the small, little things. But it's been really good to see myself branch out from what I was used to from last year."

Johnson said the tight ends were able to get in some extra work this summer with the quarterbacks, including Toledo grad transfer Dequan Finn and redshirt junior Sawyer Robertson.

"Everybody had the same ambition to just go out there and get extra work in," Johnson said. "I think that helped us click on the field to play fast because we know the plays better. We (got) used to each quarterback and how they throw the ball, and (they got) used to how we run our routes. I think that's going to make us better going forward."

Two years removed from a program-record 12-win season and Big 12 championship, Yates said last year's 3-9 finish put more than a little chip on the Bears' shoulders.

"I would say it's more like a boulder," he said. "You want to win. That's why you spend all season and all offseason, winter and summer, that's why you do all the hard work, so you can win football games. If you don't win, then you're looked at as scrubs. . . . If people are nice to you, they don't respect you, they don't fear you. So, we've got more of a boulder on our shoulder than I would say a chip."

After a day off, the Bears will be back on the field Friday afternoon before the first of two scrimmages at McLane Stadium on Saturday. The annual "Meet the Team" event will be held at 2:30 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 24, at the Allison Indoor Practice Facility.

For football season tickets, mini plans or single-game tickets, go to the link at 2024 Football.

BOULDER ON THE SHOULDER

Players Mentioned

Drake Dabney

Dequan Finn

Kelsey Johnson

Matthew Klopfenstein

Cody Mladenka

Hawkins Polley

Jake Roberts

Sawyer Robertson

Michael Trigg

Gavin Yates

Footer