Even without Pitts, Brewster expecting big things out of tight ends

From the outside looking in, it’s easy to temper your expectations for the Gators’ tight ends this season.

After all, they lost arguably one of the best tight ends in college football history and the highest-drafted player at the position in NFL history in Kyle Pitts.

Then, it looked like they had struck gold when they secured a commitment from LSU transfer Arik Gilbert, one of the highest-ranked high school tight ends of all time. Gilbert later decommitted for personal reasons and is now at Georgia.

That means the main contributors at tight end this season will be Pitts’ backups, and there’s a steep drop-off there statistically. Kemore Gamble and Keon Zipperer have combined for 27 catches in their six seasons. Pitts caught 43 passes in eight games last year. Gamble and Zipperer have totaled six touchdowns. Pitts scored that many times in the first six quarters of the 2020 season.

And yet, while the skillsets might be vastly different with this year’s group, coach Tim Brewster still expects them to be one of the best tight end rooms in the country.

“I think that we’re going to be just fine,” Brewster said. “I love the challenge, OK? Everybody says we’re going to miss Kyle Pitts. What are we going to do without Kyle Pitts? Well guess what? Kemore Gamble’s going to be the best tight end in the SEC. What do you think about that? What do you think about Keon Zipperer, his contribution to our team?

“You’d be hard-pressed in America to have a better, more complete tight end room than what I have. I’m really excited about it.”

Gamble took Brewster’s bold prediction one step further.

“I think if I keep my head on right and if I keep grinding how I’m grinding, I think I can be the best tight end in the nation, not just SEC,” Gamble said. “That’s how I feel. If I keep going in the same direction I am right now, keep coaching up each of my players – not only my room but the DBs, each position on the team – I think I’ll be one of the best in the country.”

Gamble said he doesn’t feel any pressure in having to replace Pitts. He’s just trying to take the things he learned from Pitts and apply them to his own game.

“Kyle Pitts is Kyle Pitts, and I’m Kemore Gamble,” he said. “One thing Kyle Pitts taught me is the grind. Just grind every day, don’t let fatigue slow you down, just keep grinding, keep grinding, fight through everything. And that’s what he did, and that’s what made him great, and that’s why he’s a great player today.”

Unlike a year ago, there isn’t a clear-cut leader at tight end. You’ll likely see the playing time distributed among two or three guys fairly equally.

All five tight ends on the roster bring something different to the table. Gamble has shown better run-blocking skills than he has receiving skills. Zipperer is more of a bigger wide receiver who has worked hard to improve his blocking. You’ll see him line up all over the field. Jonathan Odom is a bigger tight end who could serve as an extra blocker on short-yardage and goal-line plays.

“Jonathan Odom has stepped up and become a player quickly,” Brewster said. “His advancement from last year to this year with Nick Savage and the strength department is nothing short of amazing. This guy’s doing some really good things. I’m excited about him.”

Nick Elksnis is a walking mismatch at 6-foot-6 and could be the next star at the position from a receiving standpoint. Gage Wilcox was highly rated in high school and could play right away on special teams.

Make no mistake about it, though: Brewster has no interest in replacing Pitts by committee. He wants all of his players to excel in every phase of the game.

“I coach true three-down players,” he said. “I’m not interested in coaching a situational player. I think that the improvement that Kyle Pitts made last year in the run game, the time we spent focusing on making him a more complete run-blocker allowed him to go be the highest-drafted tight end in the history of the National Football League. So, I’m all about being a complete player. You’re not going to send a guy in to catch a pass, another guy goes into block. We’re looking to build complete tight ends.

“You’re not going to be able to look at our offense and say, ‘Gamble is in the game; they’re going to do this. Keon Zipperer is in the game; they’re going to do this.’ Both those guys are going to be able to go out and perform and do the things necessary to compete and play well. We will not piecemeal with the tight end at all. And whoever’s lined up, if Kemore ends up being the guy to play the whole game or Keon, it’ll play itself out.”

Gamble and Zipperer showed what they’re capable of when Pitts missed 2 ½ games with a concussion and facial fracture last season. Gamble caught a touchdown pass against Georgia and two against Vanderbilt, while Zipperer caught a pair of touchdowns against Arkansas.

However, they also struggled mightily – along with the rest of the team – in the Cotton Bowl beatdown against Oklahoma. They both dropped multiple passes that could’ve kept the Gators in the game in the first half.

Brewster is coaching them hard in fall camp to make them more consistent players that are good for more than just a highlight or two every fourth game.

“I’m all about player development,” he said. “I pride myself on my ability to truly teach the fundamentals of the game, developmental aspects of the game. I truly believe in the mantra of ‘Next Man Up’ where you can’t feel sorry for yourself.

“I’m amazingly hard on my guys. I’m a detail guy. If I want six inches, I want six inches. If I want three feet, I want three feet. And so, last year, I thought those guys showed really good glimpses of what they can be in the future. They really did some good things. I was very, very proud of those guys.”

Brewster also believes his guys will benefit from Dan Mullen’s offensive acuity. He’s not going to try to smash a square peg into a round hole. He’ll tailor his play-calling to what his players do best. While he most often gets credit for that when it comes to the quarterback position, the same thing is true at tight end.

Gamble and Zipperer won’t be asked to line up out wide and beat the other team’s best cornerback on a seam route very often, if at all. But you’ll also see the Gators do things that they rarely did when Pitts was on the roster, such as playing two or three tight ends at once and rotating interchangeably.

“We’re not going to be able to do the exact same things with Kemore Gamble and Keon Zipperer and Jonathan Odom and Nick Elksnis, Gage,” Brewster said. “We’re not going to do the same things, but we’re going to fit what they can do really well to what we’re going to do in a game.”

While there might not be a unanimous First Team All-American or a top-5 draft pick at the position this season, Brewster said fans should still expect to see terrific play from the tight ends.

“I think Gator fans and Gator people can feel good about the fact that we’re going to line up with some really good tight ends,” Brewster said. “Our tight end play is going to be really good. That’s what’s in my gut.

“I have amazing confidence, extreme confidence that that group of kids, those guys are going to play really, really well. I think they’re going to surprise a lot of people with how they play this season.”

Ethan Hughes
Ethan was born in Gainesville and has lived in the Starke, Florida, area his entire life. He played basketball for five years and knew he wanted to be a sportswriter when he was in middle school. He’s attended countless Gators athletic events since his early childhood, with baseball being his favorite sport to attend. He’s a proud 2019 graduate of the University of Florida and a 2017 graduate of Santa Fe College. He interned with the University Athletic Association’s communications department for 1 ½ years as a student and also wrote for InsideTheGators.com for two years before joining Gator Country in 2021. He is a long-suffering fan of the Jacksonville Jaguars. You can follow him on Twitter @ethanhughes97.