Transfer tight ends were sought after in the ACC, and now Virginia football is hoping its pair can make impact (2024)

They’re easy to spot once their helmets come off.

Virginia’s three tight ends — two newcomers in Harvard graduate transfer Tyler Neville and Clemson graduate transfer Sage Ennis along with returning veteran Sackett Wood Jr. — all shaved their heads in anticipation of training camp. And after humid afternoons of practice in the summer sun, those noggins glisten as the trio completes their extra work once the team’s practice is over.

“You see in the background,” Neville said as he pointed over his shoulder to Ennis and Wood, “the other tight ends hitting the jugs machine. That’s different. We’re hitting 400 [catches] a day, religiously, which is nuts. It takes a couple of hours.”

This has been going on since Neville arrived in Charlottesville in late May, he said, when Hoos offensive coordinator and tight ends coach Des Kitchings tasked the group with catching 250 passes a day from the machine.

“And I don’t know who bumped it to 400 [catches],” Neville said with a grin, “but after one person bumped it, nobody could back down so that’s what we’ve been doing. It’s brutal, but it’s been good for our hands.”

UVa wants to use tight ends in the passing game more frequently, too, this coming season than it did in the first two years under Kitchings and coach Tony Elliott.

“It’s a little bit different skill set than what we’ve had the last couple of years,” Elliott said, and that’s thanks to the additions of Neville and Ennis through the transfer portal. Neville caught eight touchdowns over the last two years and was an All-Ivy League pick both seasons while Ennis appeared in 41 contests over the last four seasons for Clemson dating back to when Elliott was offensive coordinator and tight ends coach there.

“I think they have the ability to stretch the field from that position and create some matchups,” Elliott said, “and then they’ve got the size to be able to come in and do their job in the run game. I think athletically, it’s a little bit of an upgrade.”

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The Hoos weren’t the only program chasing enhancement and experience at tight end this past offseason either, though.

Ten programs in the 17-team ACC added at least one transfer tight end. Three schools brought in multiple tight ends. And of the top 11 tight ends in Rivals.com’s national transfer portal rankings, six went to ACC teams, including Neville — rated seventh — to UVa, No. 2 Jake Johnson formerly of Texas A&M to North Carolina, No. 6 Mark Redman from San Diego State to Louisville and No. 9 Justin Joly from Connecticut to NC State.

“From the day we came on,” Kitchings said, “we wanted the tight-end position to become an integral part of this offense and this past window allowed us the opportunity to seek the transfers that we felt could come in and help us with Tyler Neville and Sage Ennis.

“And then in spring, the transition of moving [Dakota Twitty from wide receiver to tight end] allowed us a little bit more play-making possibilities and athleticism,” Kitchings continued, “and that’s probably what you’re seeing across the league. Everyone is probably trying to attract that guy. Right? In the ACC, you got to score points. We play good defense in this league, but you have to score points and you want to be able to play with all 11 guys and not play with 10. So, I think that’s a big reason.”

Louisville signed three transfer tight ends in Redman, Jaleel Skinner (Miami) and Izayah Cummings (Kentucky), and Cardinals coach Jeff Brohm’s line of thinking was similar to that of Kitchings.

“In my opinion, to build a successful offense,” Brohm, now readying for his second season leading UL, said, “you’ve got to have good tight-end play. It’s important to have guys who control the field in between the hashes, catch balls in traffic and can be the quarterback’s best friend with an easy throw over the middle. The ability to block is important, but if they’re not dominant, it’s OK, we can make that work as well.

“We just were not as productive in that area last year,” he said, “because we didn’t have any experience coming back. It was what we inherited, but we feel like we’re better now and those guys stepping up and making plays will be crucial for our success.”

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Not having ready-made players at the position through high-school recruiting isn’t uncommon, which a few ACC coaches mentioned is another factor in the trend of teams seeking older players at the position and coveting the chance to land a well-rounded transfer tight end.

“It depends on the kid’s background,” Kitchings explained, “and where he’s coming from high-school wise, because it is a lot on him. You’re asking him to be an elite wide receiver and you’re asking them to be an offensive lineman, and some kids transition better to the wide-receiver part than they do the blocking part, but that’s the joy of why I like coaching the position, truthfully, because of the versatility of it and all the skills that guy has to have.”

Tight ends like Pitt’s Gavin Bartholomew and SMU’s RJ Maryland are the rarity.

They each developed quickly enough to start as freshmen and play well in their respective first seasons when the veterans in front of them on the depth chart suffered injuries.

“It was a little difficult at first because I was little,” Maryland, now a 6-foot-4, 237-pounder, said.

“I got to campus at like 200 pounds, and then when the season started, I was probably 217 pounds,” he said, “but I just found a way on the field because of the way I catch the ball and run. I was being a playmaker.”

SMU coach Rhett Lashlee said: “But we didn’t ask him to do a lot of things then that he couldn’t whereas this past year he was heavier and could do a little more. So, our staff did a good job progressing him, too.”

Maryland pointed out his blocking began to elevate to his high-level pass-catching skills last fall. He hauled in six touchdown receptions as a freshman, but in 2023, his seven receiving scores were tied for the second most for any tight end in the country.

Bartholomew has seven touchdown catches in his career, and he said as a former high school quarterback there was a moment in practice ahead of his freshman season with the Panthers that taught him how prepared he needed to be to block for when he eventually got into a college game.

“There was a linebacker, Phil [Campbell], my freshman year,” Bartholomew said. “I was pulling around and he was blitzing through the B gap. He lit me up during practice and he just completely put me on my back, and it was my welcome to college football.”

Bartholomew is a senior now and Maryland is a junior, and they’re as established and secure in their roles as any tight ends are in the ACC.

Still, both Pitt and SMU took transfer tight ends this past recruiting cycle with the Panthers landing ex-Oregon State tight end Jake Overman and the Mustangs adding Matthew Hibner from defending national champion Michigan.

“If you play like we do,” Lashlee said, “and think about it, that guy has to be half a receiver, half a tight end, half of an H-back or fullback and that guy has to wear a lot of hats. He has to be able to block and run routes, and for how we want to play, it’s hard to find that guy.

“There’s about 15 of ‘em a year [out of high school] and they all go to the best 15 [college teams],” he said, “and if you don’t get one of those 15 or because you need depth to play that way, you need more. So, we went out and got a tight end. We have RJ, but we felt like Matthew Hibner from Michigan would complement him.”

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Neville’s first practice as a member of the Hoos took some adjusting, he said, to the tempo in which UVa moves compared to how he practiced at Harvard.

“Everything moves so fast. I felt like I was swimming in it a little on Day 1,” Neville said.

But the Cavaliers are counting on him to adapt, and to adapt quickly to their offense as well given his 30 career starts and because he was an FCS All-American in 2023.

“Everything they’re asking me to do, I’ve done,” Neville said. “I think the frustrating part, which I learned [during the first practice with UVa], was that everything is a little different. All my schemes, all my signals and everything at Harvard, we recycle the same names, but everything is a little different.”

He said he’ll study with Wood and Ennis to figure out all the intricacies of Kitchings’ system by the time the UVa opens its campaign on Aug. 31 against Richmond.

That’s what Florida State coach Mike Norvell said Kyle Morlock, a transfer tight end from Division II Shorter University, was able to do for the Seminoles last year when he played alongside star Jaheim Bell and they won the conference.

Morlock is FSU’s starter at the position heading into this fall since Bell was drafted by the New England Patriots.

“[Morlock] was huge for our team,” Norvell said. “He’s kind of one of those guys who was an unsung hero. You look at Jaheim Bell, who was a very explosive player with a lot of explosive plays, but Kyle was probably the key figurehead in that tight-end room for us.”

Said Neville: “I’ve been in the highest of the highs in terms of the Ivy League and the lowest of the lows. I’ve made every mistake in the book. So, I really do feel like I have so much knowledge at this position, and the thing is I’ve got to transfer it to UVa’s playbook and to what Coach Kitchings wants me to do. And that’s what I think this camp will be huge for.”

Neville said he’ll have it down by the time the Spiders visit Scott Stadium, which is sure to make Kitchings happy.

The Cavaliers’ OC can’t wait to use Neville, Ennis and Wood to UVa’s advantage this season.

“Week to week and game to game,” Kitchings said, “it might benefit us to be in 12-personnel (one running back, two tight ends) against a particular opponent and feel like we’re not sacrificing a receiver just to be in 12. So, there is still a bonus of doing that.

“And who knows?” Kitchings said as he smiled. “We might be out there in 13 personnel (one running back, three tight ends) and if necessary, we have the ability to do that this year.”