Coach Q&A: Kevin Wright discusses tight ends as season opener approaches

KW: I think that when we first met in January and both freshmen were early enrollees, so my whole group has been together [through spring practice]. I said, 'okay, look around the room. What's different?' Matt [Bjorson] and Peyton [Hendershot] weren't there, so I think in regard to AJ, it was just a natural progression to the top that [he] has to step up and lead.

We always talk about the standards of the position, the expectations of the room, and I think that Peyton and Matt set such high expectations the last couple of year that it was easy for AJ, who was like a third wheel in a lot of way, to go ahead and just step up. That's what his expectation was. The thing that has kind of been hidden is that he has been a star on special teams for two years.

He is a guy that walked on campus as a true freshman and was running down on kick off team and forcing double teams just because of his physicality and his ability to make plays. He hasn't maybe shown it as much at the tight end position, but he has had opportunities to get in games at different times. He was in the Michigan game two years ago at home when we won, he was in at a key time at tight end. I think he's waited his time and is excited and ready.

He's ready to lead not just the room, but the offense. I think he got that from Peyton, and he got that from Matt. Peyton was the most productive tight end in the Big Ten the last three years and Matt Bjorson played in every game for four years when walked on campus. Two really great leaders and two guys he has absorbed a lot of those leadership qualities from.

On how Aaron Steinfeldt and James Bomba fit into the rotation...

KW: It is great to have two local guys. We have the Bloomington South/Bloomington North connection right there, and we have a lot of fun with that, in general. Those two guys, with James, he is a very big guy, and he has learned to be a very physical guy. He has soft hands and has shown that, right now, he can go in, especially in 12 personnel with AJ [Barner], and those are two big bodies that are both athletic and physical that can catch the ball, so he is a really good complement, especially when we are in 12 packages, short yardage situations. He can also play in the open field and has had a lot of opportunities in camp.

Aaron may have the best ball skills in the room. He naturally has really good ball skills, and for him it is a time where he has learned he has to stick his nose in there and be physical and an end-line blocker. They both bring different qualities to the room, but we always talk about building the room. That is what I try to do and it is such a young room. Other than AJ [Barner], no one has really played in a college football game.

It is such a young room, and they all bring something. Our goal is to get better each week of the season, and they will, because none of them have played a ton, but they complement each other very well.

On what AJ Barner's special teams effort early in his career showed the coaches...

KW: One, he is a tough kid. There is nothing tougher than running down the field on kick off team and having to have a 40-yard head start and have someone trying to take you head off and running through blocks. From the get-go, he was forcing double teams on the [coverage] teams. So, you knew you had a tough guy, and he was growing into his body.

He is a legit 6-foot-6 and I think he was around 235 or 240 when he got here. He's 250 and his body fat percentage is down, so he has really developed his body physically. I think in those early years, you knew you had a really good player that was going to take a little bit of time to develop himself physically. Then, the details and techniques of route running, of blocking, schemes, understanding football. Those are all things that are really hard when you are a high school kid that has played middle linebacker, which is what he did. He was the defensive player of the year in his conference and played a little tight end.

You knew that he brought those qualities, the toughness, physicality and those things, but you also knew there was going to be a process there, like with all of the guys, he had to learn the details. I think what he has learned the last couple of years, playing behind Peyton [Hendershot], playing behind Matt [Bjorson], is that details matter. Peyton really learned that the last couple of years as he really tried to progress himself into a position where he could play at the next level, how important those things were, and AJ was able to observe that. Then, with Matt, he played because Matt was a big-time effort guy. Not overly talented physically, but just a big-time effort guy. So, if you are AJ, you are `watching those two guys in front of you and taking those qualities from both guys and applying that to your game.

And it's not just AJ, I mean James [Bomba] was in the room and Aaron [Steinfeldt] was in the room. I mean, those other guys are all in the room. That's how they think the game should be played and if that is the expectation you can set for your room then that helps going forward. Because now the young guys come in -- they are all young guys -- but the freshmen come in and they don't know any different. Whereas that might not be the care with every position room where you have had that type of leadership.

I feel blessed in that way and to me this is a really exciting group of young tight ends that I am going to have for a while. It's a process and you have to get to game one, because everything changes when you get to a real game environment.

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