After losing one of the best tight ends in the nation to the draft this year, Miami is looking for someone to step up and fill the role left by Elijah Arroyo. TE coach Cody Woodiel met with the media after practice and discussed his group in-depth:
On transfer TE Alex Bauman:
"With the veteran leadership that we were losing with Elijah Arroyo and Cam McCormick, Alex [Bauman] obviously has over almost 2000 snaps of college football.He's coming to stabilize the room a little bit with a bunch of young guys coming in. So he's brought a very good veteran professional leadership to the room and obviously he is a very productive player too. So we're looking forward to him."
"He's just now scratching the surface with us, gotta keep just working the base fundamentals: playing with a great base and hands inside, pad level, all the stuff that coaches always preach. When you get out there and you gotta block the guys we block every day on Greentree, it is gonna make you better. He's really savvy running, getting in and outta breaks and understanding second level releases. His ability to go up in High Point is, uh, is pretty special. So looking forward to being able to utilize that and, you know, so really excited for that."
On how the TE group compliments one another:
"We played four guys last year. We have roughly like around 1400 snaps. And even Elijah [Lofton] as a true freshman was well into the hundreds. We're as many multiple personnel groupings we get, especially as we cross the 50 and that situational football appears. We gotta be ready to go 13, 14 personnel. So all those guys are gonna have the ability to establish a role for themselves. Truthfully, it's an open competition right now to see who's gonna step up and, and develop into that role."
On TE Elija Lofton:
"He is the most unique player I've ever coached up to this point in my career. And outside of his athletic ability, the leadership that he's already established as a true sophomore and the respect that he's earned throughout the program, 'cause of his diligent hard work, that speaks for itself. He is a Swiss army knife that creates a lot of different matchups. "
"Obviously he's not the tallest guy, so he's gonna have to learn how to understand at the point of attack from a hand usage standpoint, 'cause he's as strong as they come too. So [we’re focusing on] utilizing and maximizing that power, especially with his lower body. His hand usage in the run game's been superb throughout spring football, so he's continuing to learn and, and develop on that aspect of it."
"One it's how powerful he is and he's has elite top end speed. It’s his ability to play through contact and his ability to separate. He's a really savvy football player that understands space, he understands what a defender's leverage is and how to expose that. And he can process that information really quickly.
I haven't seen him get tackled by the first guy many times, so he's really a ball in hand guy. "
"You know Delanie Walker and Brevin Jordan, right? We made two cut ups of those two guys. Obviously Brevin is very similar alongside playing at the same high school wearing number nine. That's Elija's guy man. Walker's a little older, but similar body type, right? And play style. I think those are two guys. He can emulate his game after to be able to aspire to play at that next level. So those are the two guys he is really studying, focusing on this off season."
On transfer TE Jack Nickel:
Jack [Nickel] gets in there and gets after it. So far he has been such an awesome add in the room 'cause he is another veteran guy that comes in and brings some leadership qualities that you're looking for because he's played a lot of snaps.
But Jack gets in there, he’s physical and mixes it up. He's a guy that these younger guys can watch as he understands leverage and how to get his feet in the ground, and he's doing an unbelievable job for us.
On the Freshman TE pair of Brock Schott and Luka Gilbert:
"The sky is truthfully as high as they want it to be.They have a long way to go, but those two guys, from an intangible standpoint, athleticism, they check all the boxes. They're exactly who we thought they were while we were recruiting them."
"They just gotta keep learning. They're not where they want to be right now, and most guys aren't. So they just gotta keep pushing and challenging each other and accept that challenge each day, and they can be as good as they want to be, to be honest."
On TE Brock Schott formerly playing defense:
"When you're on the defensive side of the football, your hand usage is typically a lot better developed versus a guy that just strictly played offense. He's very natural with that part of it. So for him it's just learning to get his cleats in the ground. That's kind of his biggest growing point right now. But his hand usage has been really good. And I think that's what you typically see with defensive guys that can play both ways."
"Well, there were some arguments earlier in kind of the recruiting process [on whether Schott would play offense or defense], but I think when Brock kind of decided he was a tight end that kind of made it a little easier for us."
On what the staff looks for in TE recruits:
"Right now we kind of have two separate positions in our room. We got the bigger body, that's our T. So you gotta have a guy that has dominant traits at the line of scrimmage. And our F is a guy that has to be able to stretch the field vertically."
"Again, we don't just limit ourselves. We're looking for the most athletic guys that can do everything. From a body type standpoint is where you see that difference sometimes, just guys that have a little more growth potential and guys that can stretch the field. But we're looking for guys that can do everything so we have no limitations."
On transfer TE Alex Bauman:
"With the veteran leadership that we were losing with Elijah Arroyo and Cam McCormick, Alex [Bauman] obviously has over almost 2000 snaps of college football.He's coming to stabilize the room a little bit with a bunch of young guys coming in. So he's brought a very good veteran professional leadership to the room and obviously he is a very productive player too. So we're looking forward to him."
"He's just now scratching the surface with us, gotta keep just working the base fundamentals: playing with a great base and hands inside, pad level, all the stuff that coaches always preach. When you get out there and you gotta block the guys we block every day on Greentree, it is gonna make you better. He's really savvy running, getting in and outta breaks and understanding second level releases. His ability to go up in High Point is, uh, is pretty special. So looking forward to being able to utilize that and, you know, so really excited for that."
On how the TE group compliments one another:
"We played four guys last year. We have roughly like around 1400 snaps. And even Elijah [Lofton] as a true freshman was well into the hundreds. We're as many multiple personnel groupings we get, especially as we cross the 50 and that situational football appears. We gotta be ready to go 13, 14 personnel. So all those guys are gonna have the ability to establish a role for themselves. Truthfully, it's an open competition right now to see who's gonna step up and, and develop into that role."
On TE Elija Lofton:
"He is the most unique player I've ever coached up to this point in my career. And outside of his athletic ability, the leadership that he's already established as a true sophomore and the respect that he's earned throughout the program, 'cause of his diligent hard work, that speaks for itself. He is a Swiss army knife that creates a lot of different matchups. "
"Obviously he's not the tallest guy, so he's gonna have to learn how to understand at the point of attack from a hand usage standpoint, 'cause he's as strong as they come too. So [we’re focusing on] utilizing and maximizing that power, especially with his lower body. His hand usage in the run game's been superb throughout spring football, so he's continuing to learn and, and develop on that aspect of it."
"One it's how powerful he is and he's has elite top end speed. It’s his ability to play through contact and his ability to separate. He's a really savvy football player that understands space, he understands what a defender's leverage is and how to expose that. And he can process that information really quickly.
I haven't seen him get tackled by the first guy many times, so he's really a ball in hand guy. "
"You know Delanie Walker and Brevin Jordan, right? We made two cut ups of those two guys. Obviously Brevin is very similar alongside playing at the same high school wearing number nine. That's Elija's guy man. Walker's a little older, but similar body type, right? And play style. I think those are two guys. He can emulate his game after to be able to aspire to play at that next level. So those are the two guys he is really studying, focusing on this off season."
On transfer TE Jack Nickel:
Jack [Nickel] gets in there and gets after it. So far he has been such an awesome add in the room 'cause he is another veteran guy that comes in and brings some leadership qualities that you're looking for because he's played a lot of snaps.
But Jack gets in there, he’s physical and mixes it up. He's a guy that these younger guys can watch as he understands leverage and how to get his feet in the ground, and he's doing an unbelievable job for us.
On the Freshman TE pair of Brock Schott and Luka Gilbert:
"The sky is truthfully as high as they want it to be.They have a long way to go, but those two guys, from an intangible standpoint, athleticism, they check all the boxes. They're exactly who we thought they were while we were recruiting them."
"They just gotta keep learning. They're not where they want to be right now, and most guys aren't. So they just gotta keep pushing and challenging each other and accept that challenge each day, and they can be as good as they want to be, to be honest."
On TE Brock Schott formerly playing defense:
"When you're on the defensive side of the football, your hand usage is typically a lot better developed versus a guy that just strictly played offense. He's very natural with that part of it. So for him it's just learning to get his cleats in the ground. That's kind of his biggest growing point right now. But his hand usage has been really good. And I think that's what you typically see with defensive guys that can play both ways."
"Well, there were some arguments earlier in kind of the recruiting process [on whether Schott would play offense or defense], but I think when Brock kind of decided he was a tight end that kind of made it a little easier for us."
On what the staff looks for in TE recruits:
"Right now we kind of have two separate positions in our room. We got the bigger body, that's our T. So you gotta have a guy that has dominant traits at the line of scrimmage. And our F is a guy that has to be able to stretch the field vertically."
"Again, we don't just limit ourselves. We're looking for the most athletic guys that can do everything. From a body type standpoint is where you see that difference sometimes, just guys that have a little more growth potential and guys that can stretch the field. But we're looking for guys that can do everything so we have no limitations."
