BOISE, Idaho —
With senior tight end John Bates at the helm, the Boise State Broncos' tight end group is shaping up to be an offensive threat next season.
At 6'6" and 256 pounds, Bates hauled in 22 catches for 273 yards and a touchdown last season.
The Oregon native is the lone senior for the Broncos' tight end group and its safe to say that tight ends and assistant head coach Kent Riddle will heavily rely on Bates in the Broncos' offense next season, as both a blocker and receiver.
"If you look back and watch our games, He's a dominating blocker at the line of scrimmage," Riddle said. "He's big and athletic, which never hurts."
Riddle explained that the coaching staff's main focus going into the 2019 season with Bates was his receiving.
"He has really good fundamentals," he said, "he does a great job with his hands, that's one of the things we really worked on going into last year was his hands."
New to the Broncos' depth chart is Austin Bolt, the star football and basketball player from Borah High School in Boise. Bolt was the first-ever player to win Gatorade State Player of the Year in both football and basketball in Idaho.
The incoming freshman will certainly need to bulk up before playing, but adding size isn't Riddle's main priority with Bolt's training.
"Keeping his speed, probably more worried about him keeping his speed than how much weight he can put on," he said.
Riddle added that Bolt reminds him of one former NFL tight end.
"You know, the closest guy he might to, might be Jeb Putizer," he said. "Just that kind of speed is unique."
Putizer was a Boise State product and Eagle native who played in the NFL from 2002 to 2008 for the Denver Broncos, Seattle Seahawks, and Houston Texans. He played at Boise State from 1999 to 2001 as both a tight end and wide receiver.
Putizer racked up 2,050 yards on 128 receptions and 19 touchdowns, including 12 in 2001 alone, while at Boise State.
2020 will be Riddle's fifth year of coaching the tight ends group and his eleventh year on the Broncos' coaching staff.
Another weapon that Riddle will have at hand is quarterback turned tight end, Riley Smith. The redshirt freshman was recruited to Boise State as a quarterback but made the switch to a tight end early last season.
Riddle said Smith has the hands and speed needed to play.
"He's a big guy that has great hands," he said, "he can really run... he wanted to do anything he could to get on the field and play."
Boise State also has 6'2" redshirt sophomore Tyneil Hopper that appeared in all 13 games last season. Riddle describes Hopper as someone that can do everything.
"When he was out there (last season), he did a really good job for us," Riddle said. "I would expect to see him continue that... he's a guy that can really do it all."
Boise State does have a few open scholarships still available for the class of 2020, and coach Bryan Harsin has previously said they will look into grad transfers to fill those spaces.
One player to keep an eye on is Lamar grad transfer tight end Mason Sikes.
The 6'4', 240 pounder caught 14 passes for 221 yards and three touchdowns last fall before electing to grad transfer. He tweeted last month he now has a Boise State offer.
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