Tight ends coach William Peagler has faced quite the challenge in his first spring with the Gators. Gage Wilcox, Nick Elksnis and Jonathan Odom have all missed most of the spring while dealing with injuries, with Wilcox’s being a career-ending injury, according to head coach Billy Napier.
So, at the moment, the tight end position consists of veteran Keon Zipperer, converted defensive end Dante Zanders, converted defensive lineman Griffin McDowell and a long-snapper.
This certainly isn’t an ideal set of circumstances for the Gators, but Peagler said that they’re making the most of it.
“It is what it is,” Peagler said. “It’s football. You’re going to have some guys getting nicked up, but I’ve been proud of the guys that we have and the guys that have stepped over and made plays for us.
“The good news for us is even though we’ve had some injuries and things of that nature, we’ve been able to get other guys from the other side of the ball. It might not be the exact guy that we want in that spot, but we’ve been able to still have the same type of practice and all that stuff throughout spring ball.”
Eventually, Peagler envisions the tight ends playing a large role in Napier’s offense. He anticipates them having two tight ends on the field around 40 percent of the time in their base offense, and they hope to be equally as proficient at blocking and stretching the defense vertically in the passing game.
“I think we’re going to try to use the tight ends in a lot of different ways,” Peagler said. “Obviously, with some of the situations that have happened this spring, probably haven’t been able to open it up as much as we’d like, but it’s definitely a plan for us to throw the football to the tight ends and also use them in the run game and create those shot plays that we’re looking for.”
Zipperer was always going to be the leader of this group, and that’s even more of the case now. He was the No. 2 ranked tight end in the 2019 class, but he hasn’t contributed much yet in his career. He’s caught 25 passes for 309 yards and three touchdowns in three seasons as the understudy to both Kyle Pitts and Kemore Gamble.
Zipperer is best known for his receiving skills, but Peagler thinks that he also has plenty of upside as a blocker despite being a bit undersized at 6-foot-3 and 234 pounds.
“I’ve seen him get incrementally a little bit better,” he said. “I think any time you’re in a new system there’s a little bit of a learning curve, but I really liked the way he attacked today. I thought [Thursday] was his best day.
“I think the number one thing in his game is just continuing to improve overall. I think there’s this narrative out there that he’s only a receiving tight end. He’s actually got a little power in his hips and things like that, and he can really move people off the ball, but he’s got to continue to get better at that.”
Zanders, meanwhile, has been a “godsend” to the position this spring, according to Napier. Zanders played tight end in 2018 and 2019 before switching over to defense prior to the 2020 season.
He’s been so impressive at tight end this spring that the Gators plan to keep him at the position in the fall even once they get the injured players back and add three freshmen.
“I’ve been above and beyond pleased with Dante,” Peagler said. “I think Dante has got a real chance to help us in the fall.”
Peagler didn’t offer a timetable for Elksnis’ and Odom’s returns but noted that they aren’t season-ending injuries.
Elksnis is a modern type of tight end in that he’s basically a larger wide receiver. He made some impressive plays during the spring and during fall camp last year but only played in four games and redshirted.
“The number one thing with Nick is the effort he makes plays with,” Peagler said. “Nick practices really, really hard, and I thought, again, asking him to block somebody, I thought he improved drastically with that. Unfortunately, I thought he had his best day previous to the day he got injured.”
Odom is on the other end of the spectrum. He’s the son of former Gators offensive lineman Jason Odom and is considered to be more advanced as a blocker than as a receiver.
“Odom’s probably the most intelligent football-wise,” Peagler said. “You can tell he’s been around the longest and things of that nature and on the point. I think he’s done a good job.”
The three incoming freshmen all bring vastly different skillsets to the position. Tony Livingston committed to UF as an offensive lineman but never put on enough weight to play the position in college. The new coaching staff granted his wish and will allow him to play tight end.
Livingston obviously has the blocking abilities, but Peagler also thinks that he’s highly athletic for somebody his size.
“Really a freak athlete,” he said. “You watch him play basketball, and he’s a heck of a basketball player, and to see him as big as he is moving down the field like he did, he’s got 11-inch hands, and he’s got giant mitts on. He’s really got a unique skillset for it.”
Hayden Hansen was the lowest-ranked member of the entire signing class, but Napier believes that he is the hidden gym of the class. He started his high school career as a quarterback before moving to tight end as a junior. He projects as more of a blocking-first type of player.
“I think Hayden’s a lot better athlete than maybe people realize,” Peagler said. “We were pretty fortunate here that Coach Napier and them had him in camp at [Louisiana]. So, we had some ground-level film of him. Yeah, he’s a little bit raw, but he’s got the movement skills that we’re looking for at the position, and he just played quarterback, so that’s kind of a hard transition. Maybe you don’t see the physicality on tape that you want, but I think he can [improve] because you can see from the first time he did something to what he became later, it was way better.”
Arlis Boardingham is a 6-foot-3, 235-pound athlete who ran track in high school and figures to be the type of player that is moved around to create mismatches in the passing game.
“Arlis is just kind of unique,” Peagler said. “Arlis is probably more in that [Zipperer] world, at least probably what people think, but really an impressive track athlete. Made a lot of plays on defense, and we’re excited to get the ball in his hands and see what he can do.”
So, if Elksnis and Odom recover from their injuries as quickly as expected, Zanders stays at tight end and nobody transfers, they’ll have seven scholarship tight ends on the roster this fall. That would make them one of the deepest positions on the team and one of the deepest tight end rooms in all of college football, at least when it comes to quantity.
In the meantime, Peagler will continue to work with the hodgepodge of players that he has. He’s excited to see the group show off their talents in the Orange and Blue Game on Thursday.
“I think the mindset is ‘Let’s continue to get better,’” Peagler said. “I think we’ve really seen from day one until now, the guys are really improving. Obviously, when you cut the lights on in front of a bunch of people on ESPN, we want to see us play well.”