Oklahoma football: Position preview – tight ends, fullbacks

With just a few days left until the start of the Oklahoma football season, we are going position by position to give you a full rundown of what to expect from 2019.

So far we have covered running backs and today we continue our Oklahoma football preview with tight ends and fullbacks.

Someone not familiar with Lincoln Riley’s version of the Air Raid offense might not understand just how valuable both of these positions have been to the Sooners in recent years, but anyone who has been paying attention will tell you that these two spots are what separate what Oklahoma does from many other spread attacks across the country.

Tight end

The Sooners bring back Grant Calcaterra and Lee Morris at this spot. Calcaterra is on the Mackey Award watch list after catching 26 passes for 396 yards and six touchdowns last year.

Calcaterra’s biggest catch was a game-sealing touchdown grab against Texas in the Big 12 Championship game on a third-and-long in the red zone.

Big, strong and possessing an unbelievable catch radius, Calcaterra’s biggest improvement last year was consistency. He had a couple of baffling drops through his freshman year and early in his sophomore campaign, but grew to become one of the more sure-handed pass catchers in the Big 12 by the end of the year. It will be fun to see how he grows even more going into his junior

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season.

While Calcaterra is one of the best tight ends in the country, he doesn’t have the best numbers at the position on his own team. Those belong to Lee Morris. The former walk on has become a dangerous weapon in the Sooner offense.

More of a tight-end-receiver hybrid, Morris racks up yards after reception better than most wide receivers at the college level. He caught 21 passes for 457 yards and eight touchdowns last year for a team-leading average of 21.8 yards per reception.

Morris and Calcaterra might have to make some room in the rotation for true freshman Austin Stogner, who might simply be too good to keep off the field. At 6-foot-7, Stogner is a nightmare to cover. He’s not just big though, Stogner was rated four stars by all recruiting services because of his ability to get downfield and his ability to high point the ball. The Sooners might have to employs a few more double tight end sets to take advantage of all the talent they will have at this spot this year.

Fullback

In the OU offense this is more of an H-back position, honestly as the fullback can line up all over the place and create mismatches for the Sooners. Lincoln Riley has tinkered with it in years past depending on who was occupying the role.

Whether it was the versatile Dimitri Flowers in years bast or the more traditional Carson Meier last year, the position can be whatever Riley wants it to be.

Keep an eye on this position this year in particular with Brayden Willis stepping into the starting spot. Willis came to Oklahoma as a true tight end, but has moved over to this spot to better exploit his eclectic skill set. He’ll block in the backfield, flex out to add a second tight end, run routes and create havoc in the RPO and play action game for Oklahoma this year.

Jeremiah Hall is another intriguing option at this spot. He started one game last year and served as a backup for Meier through the rest of the year. He’ll probably get some snaps at the spot at the very least.

This has to be the deepest the Sooners have been at these two spots since Riley got to Norman and with each guy bringing a little something different to the table it will be fun to see how the reps are split up and what unique packages come in for certain situations against certain opponents.

Chess master Lincoln Riley just got some fun new chess pieces to work with.