Normally the tight end position would be lumped together with wide receiver, but the group of TEs the Gamecocks football team has this season is special enough to warrant its own preview… Which brings us to Garnet and Cocky’s next instalment of “22 positions 22 days”.
Three tight ends will see playing time this year, and the group is headlined by senior Justice Cunningham.
The 6-4, 264 pounder from Pageland, S.C. is listed as the starter at TE 1 (Carolina runs a two tight end set most of the time). He’s known for his prowess as a blocker, but he’s not a bad pass catcher.
Cunningham was fourth on the team in receptions with 18 last year, which he turned into 142 yards and a touch down. He’ll probably see more time than any other TE this year.
Rory Anderson, possibly the best pass catching TE on the team is the Gamecocks’ second starter. Anderson looks like a WR at 6-5, 218, and don’t be surprised if he becomes South Carolina’s consistent down field threat.
He was second on the team in touch down receptions with three, and he averaged more than 20 yards per catch on eight receptions.
The true sophomore’s playing time will increase in 2012, and he will catch more passes, because South Carolina is still trying to figure out who to throw the ball to at WR.
True freshman Kelvin Rainey, who enrolled at Carolina early, is already impressing the coaching staff and finds himself listed as Anderson’s backup.
During his three-year prep career, the 6-3 216 pound Yulee F.L. native caught 85 passes for more than 1500 yards.
Red-shirt freshman Drew Owens is listed as Cunningham’s backup, and the coaches named him the most improved TE during the Spring Game. As a senior in high school he caught 25 passes for 524 yards and five touch downs.
All four will play, but the first three will see the field the most. Again, Anderson could become one of the most important receivers on the team.
The Gamecocks have a pretty solid recent history when it comes to producing NFL tight ends.
Former Gamecock Jared Cook was the Tennessee Titans’ second leading receiver last season, after catching 49 passes for 759 yards and three touchdowns. Weslye Saunders, who did not play his senior season at Carolina, went undrafted to Pittsburgh last year, played in 16 games and caught four passes for 29 yards and a touchdown.
Saunders, though, is suspended for the first three games of the year for the Steelers.
It remains to be seen whether or not any of the current Gamecock TEs will reach the level necessary to play in the NFL, but they are at a level to be considered a solid part of Carolina’s 2012 football team.
They could even turn pass-catching from a weakness into a strength before the season’s over.