Kole Taylor, Jack Bech Taking Control of LSU Tight End Room
As fall camp reaches the halfway point for LSU, one of the positions that is still very much in a state of unknown is the tight end spot. The Tigers have narrowed their sights on two players, sophomore Kole Taylor and freshman Jack Bech, who both bring different elements to this LSU offense.
Tight end has never been a featured position in an LSU offense, primarily being used as almost a sixth blocker during most seasons. But the one year where the position was featured a bit more was that 2019 offense as Thaddeus Moss broke nearly every program record for a tight end that season.
With offensive coordinator Jake Peetz bringing back much of the same strategy and scheme to this offense, it's a fair question to raise just how involved Taylor and Bech will be in this offense. Taylor is the 6-foot-7, 243-pound Utah native, who earned an opportunity down the stretch of the 2020 season but became infamous for the shoe throwing incident that kept alive that game winning drive against Florida.
This offseason, he's been in the weight room adding muscle and continuing to grow as a blocker. But his real strength will come as a redzone and short yardage threat in this offense. He's really impressed his fellow teammates, particularly offensive lineman Austin Deculus, who was around for that Moss 2019 season.
"Kole Taylor is going to be an eye opener for a lot of people this season," Deculus said. "He's going to have his name on a lot of boards, top tight end possibly. Coming out of high school he was more of that lanky body type but he got in that weight room, ate that good Louisiana food so he's all good with the weight.
"Overall he's got more aggressive in the run game and also in the pass. He's not going to just be a pass blocking tight end, he also can get downfield. He's like 7-foot-2 he looks like in pads some days but he's up there, he can go up and make those contested catches. He's gonna be a very dual threat guy for us."
Even just watching in practice, there looks to be massive potential for Taylor in this offense when the Tigers get deep into the redzone. His ability to high point the ball will be useful against practically any slot corner or linebacker that tries to take him on.
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Then of course there's the freshman Bech, who the coaching staff absolutely loves as a receiving threat from the tight end position. Bech was originally recruited as a receiver but has been making the transition to tight end since his arrival. His route running and speed in the middle of the field has been praised by Orgeron and other players.
Orgeron said that the biggest area Bech will need to work on is being more physical at the line of scrimmage, which is tough becuse not the typical tight end body type.
"Jack is a little out of position at tight end when you put him on the line because he's not as physical as you want him to be, it's not his fault," Orgeron said. "He's a great player, has a tremendous catch radius, goes and gets every ball you want him to."
Quarterback Max Johnson has been excited by the development of both Taylor and Bech and the unique abilities they bring to the tight end spot.
"Kole is more of the physical tight end. He's a good blocker. Jack's more of a pass catcher. We can get him out flexed. He's a blocker as well," Johnson said. "Putting them in space and they're big bodies and they're big threats in the redzone. I think they both bring that to the table."
