that would certainly reinforce the need. TE is right there as well depending on how this shakes out.
Talk about a position that CU has been horrible at recruiting.
Since the signing of Klopfenstein in the 2002 class, these have been our TEs:
2003: Joe Sanders
2004: none
2005: Riar Geer
2006: Steven Fendry
2007: none
2008: Ryan Deehan, Ryan Wallace
2009: DaVaughn Thornton
2010: Justin Favors, Henley Griffon, Harold Mobley, Kyle Slavin
2011: none
2012: Vincent Hobbs, Sean Irwin, Austin Ray
2013: Connor Center
2014: Hayden Jones, Dylan Keeney
2015: none
Of course, the best of the bunch was Nick Kasa... but he was a DE until his senior year.
In short, we've had a decade of guys who didn't do anything to pressure a defense and stretch the seam except for Kasa's one year. Who since Klop has been a point of emphasis in a defensive game plan due to at least being involved for a lot of pass targets? Kasa only caught 25 balls as a senior. Geer with his 36 catches as a senior, but that's about it.
This is not a high bar here: about 3 catches a game. We haven't had a tight end who could both do that and be a threat in the deep third since Graham. And even though that's been rare here, we at least had big dudes who helped make the run game go while having good hands: Lepsis, Fauria, Klopfenstein, Sypniewski. I think Irwin is one of those latter types of guys, but we need to complement him with another Kasa type. Hopefully that's Keeney from the current roster. And this absolutely must be a point of emphasis going forward.