{"id":48852,"date":"2023-06-25T09:00:12","date_gmt":"2023-06-25T13:00:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/?p=48852"},"modified":"2023-06-24T19:21:01","modified_gmt":"2023-06-24T23:21:01","slug":"best-returning-pac-12-tight-ends","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/2023\/06\/25\/best-returning-pac-12-tight-ends\/","title":{"rendered":"Best Returning Pac-12 Tight Ends"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Pac-12 continued its tradition of sending tight ends to the NFL in 2023.\u00a0 Utah\u2019s Dalton Kincaid<\/strong> was drafted in the first round by the Buffalo Bills.\u00a0 Oregon State\u2019s Luke Musgrave<\/strong> went in the second round to the Green Bay Packers.\u00a0 UCLA\u2019s Michael Ezeike<\/strong> was signed by the Los Angeles Chargers as an undrafted free agent.\u00a0 With the top echelon of talent off to the NFL, who will fill their shoes?\u00a0 The Pac-12 has several emerging prospects at the tight end position.<\/p>\n

5. Terrance Ferguson; Oregon Ducks<\/h3>\n

Ferguson<\/a> is poised to be one of the top 10 tight ends in school history with just two seasons under his belt.\u00a0 He was named to the all-conference team last year as a sophomore after catching 32 passes for 391 yards and five touchdowns.\u00a0 With Bo Nix<\/strong> as one of the best returning quarterbacks in the Pac-12<\/a>, Ferguson offers a tall, rangy target in head coach Dan Lanning\u2019s<\/strong> offense.<\/p>\n

Ferguson has a knack for making big plays in the biggest games.\u00a0 He capped off last season with five catches for 84 yards in the Holiday Bowl win over North Carolina.\u00a0 He enters the 2023 season with a 16-game streak of catching at least one pass.\u00a0 It will be interesting to see how he is utilized under new offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach Will Stein<\/strong>, who was hired from UTSA.<\/p>\n

4. Brant Kuithe; Utah Utes<\/h3>\n

How quickly we forget.\u00a0 Kuithe<\/a> ranks among the greatest tight ends in the history of Utah football, with 148 career receptions for 1,882 yards and 16 touchdowns.\u00a0 He started 2022 in a similar fashion and was one of the most productive Power Five tight ends through the first four games until a knee injury ended his season.<\/p>\n

Kuithe seems to be progressing on schedule.\u00a0 He was one of four players named team captains in the spring.\u00a0 The redshirt senior returns to action in 2023 with an experienced quarterback in Cam Rising<\/strong>.\u00a0 \u201cWhen we get Brant Kuithe back, I think that position will have a whole new look,\u201d head coach Kyle Whittingham said during spring practice.<\/p>\n

3. Jalin Conyers; Arizona State Sun Devils<\/h3>\n

Sun Devils fans are hoping Conyers<\/a> helps ease the transition to new quarterback Drew Pyne<\/strong> from Notre Dame.\u00a0 Conyers should be a reliable target as new head coach Kenny Dillingham<\/strong> takes over the program.\u00a0 In 2022, Conyers was the most productive tight end to come along for Arizona State in nearly a decade.\u00a0 He caught 38 passes for 422 yards and five touchdowns last season as a redshirt sophomore.<\/p>\n

Conyers turned in a monster performance in the season finale against rival Arizona.\u00a0 He had 10 catches for 76 yards and a touchdown.\u00a0 He also became the first tight end in school history to score three touchdowns in a game during a win over Colorado.<\/p>\n

2. Benjamin Yurosek; Stanford Cardinal<\/h3>\n

The Cardinal embark on the 2023 season with a new head coach and plenty of questions after a 3-9 season.\u00a0 Coach Troy Taylor<\/strong> makes the move from Sacramento State, which had a 30-8 record on his watch.\u00a0 Taylor will unpack a Stanford offense with one of the best tight ends in the Pac-12.<\/p>\n

Yurosek<\/a> reeled in 49 catches for 445 yards and a touchdown last year.\u00a0 He had 43 receptions and 658 yards the year before that.\u00a0 The consistent senior will play a prominent role this year as the new coach seeks to weaponize the offense.<\/p>\n

1. Tanner McLachlan; Arizona Wildcats<\/h3>\n

The Southern Utah transfer made a big splash when he arrived in Tucson.\u00a0 McLachlan<\/a> totaled 456 yards on 34 receptions for an average of 13.4 yards per catch.\u00a0 His 34 catches were the most by an Arizona tight end since Rob Gronkowski<\/strong> played there in the late 2000s.<\/p>\n

The redshirt senior from Canada saw little action at Southern Utah before bursting onto the Pac-12 scene last year.\u00a0 His 456 receiving yards placed him fifth on the Arizona list for tight ends in a single season.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Pac<\/p>\n

Photo courtesy: \u00a0Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Pac-12 continued its tradition of sending tight ends to the NFL in 2023.\u00a0 Utah\u2019s Dalton Kincaid was drafted in the first round by the Buffalo Bills.\u00a0 Oregon State\u2019s Luke Musgrave went in the second round to the Green Bay Packers.\u00a0 UCLA\u2019s Michael Ezeike was signed by the Los Angeles Chargers as an undrafted free […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4486,"featured_media":48856,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2,4],"tags":[6527,320,277,9144,200,5135],"class_list":["post-48852","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-pac12","tag-arizona-football","tag-arizona-state-sun-devils","tag-oregon-ducks","tag-pac-12-conference","tag-stanford-cardinal","tag-utah-football"],"modified_by":"Tony Siracusa, CFB Managing Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48852","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4486"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48852"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48852\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/48856"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48852"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48852"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48852"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}