Eastern Washington’s always-learning tight end group led by Blake Gobel, Austin York
Technically, Blake Gobel was a tight end in high school.
But he wasn’t really used like one.
“With my abilities, I was split out way more. I was never attached (to the offensive line),” Gobel said this week. “I was just a big kid playing receiver.”
While Gobel had stand-out statistics in high school – 22 touchdowns, 88 catches, 1,236 yards in three seasons – when he got to Eastern Washington, he didn’t know all that much about the demands placed on a college tight end.
“It took me a good two years,” Gobel said. “I’m still learning to this day. It’s an ongoing process.”
Now as a senior, Gobel – a preseason All-Big Sky selection – is looking to leave his mark while leading a position group that has played well through two games this season.
“The guys in the room respect him a ton,” position coach Marc Anderson said on Tuesday. “What I’m most proud of is where he’s gone from his redshirt freshman year to now in the blocking portion. To put himself in a position to garner the attention of preseason all-conference tight end (is awesome).”
Eastern Washington doesn’t often push true freshmen – or even many redshirt freshmen – into significant playing time, though this year the Eagles have trended more that direction. Heading into the Eagles’ home opener Saturday against Southeastern Louisiana, there are 10 listed on the two-deep depth chart, nearly all of them backups, but still contributors on the field.
Head coach Aaron Best often talks about how it takes time to learn how to be a college student-athlete – not to mention learning schemes and routines as a football player.
But even compared to the usual learning curve, the adjustment to playing tight end in college can be steeper.
“There’s so much to it,” Gobel said. “And being a tight end, it’s not only the physical part, it’s the mental part. You basically have to know the playbook front to back.”
Gobel played some during his true freshman and redshirt freshman years, appearing in 11 games and making five catches, three of which went for touchdowns.
As a sophomore in 2021, he played in all 13 games and caught 13 passes for 208 yards and four touchdowns. Last season, as a redshirt junior, he again played in all of the team’s games and made nine catches for two touchdowns.
He did all that in an offense that almost always has three or more receivers on the field. Gobel still got enough attention to earn the preseason all-conference distinction heading into this year.
Targets and receptions hardly tell everything about the value a tight end brings to a team.
“It may go unseen to some of the people, but the people around you will learn to value what you bring to the team,” junior Austin York said of playing the position. “It takes a certain person to love the grittiness of the position.
“So all of us, we take pride in it here, to have that grit.”
Last week against Fresno State, York got the start in place of Gobel – who traveled but did not play against the Bulldogs – and saw a significant snap count.
He made four catches for 31 yards, including a one-handed grab in overtime that led to an Eagles touchdown.
“It was a little trick play variation that we’ve had since fall camp, just to get the defense’s eyes the other way and let the tight end slip out to get the secondary the other way,” York said.
Listed at 6-foot-1, York doesn’t have the size of Gobel, but that hasn’t held him back from being an impact player this year and last, after he transferred to Eastern from Butte College in California.
“Since he stepped foot on campus in June (2022), he’s been phenomenal,” Anderson said of York. “To get the most out of himself, he has to do everything right and work harder than most, and he’s certainly done that since he’s been here. He’s got elite hand-eye (coordination), being able to take that ball at the end (against Fresno) and come down with it.”
York was perhaps a quicker study than some at the blocking side of the position: His junior year of high school, he played center before moving to tight end as a senior.
“I wanted to play tight end, but we needed a guy to play center, and I understand the game very well,” York said. “I was just excited to do it for my team at the time. I’ve always been a team guy.”
Though the barrier to entry to playing significant minutes at tight end might be high, having that versatility to play along the line and also to split out is valuable, York said.
That’s especially true in the Eagles’ high-tempo offense: If players like York, Gobel, Messiah Jones, JP Murphy and Jett Carpenter can line up in different spots to give defenses different looks, then the Eagles can play on as if they’ve swapped a tight end for a receiver without having to substitute.
“We’re going to block like a lineman or catch a ball like a receiver,” York said. “The value you bring to an offense to be in different formations, especially with the speed and tempo our offense runs, that creates problems for a defense.”
It might not be the flashiest position with the gaudiest stats, but it’s an important position, Anderson said.
“They’re involved in a little bit of everything,” he said.
As they wrap up nonconference play Saturday against Southeastern Louisiana, Anderson said he has liked what he’s seen from the tight ends . It’s a deep position group, he said, that works hard.
Playing well and losing, though, York said, is only so rewarding.
“A win would be a win,” York said. “People might say we’ve played well, but at the end of the day we’re 0-2.
“We need to get in the win column and get this thing rolling.”