Greatest Tight Ends in School History

[BillySee58]

I’ve been looking through trying to see who are our career leaders for receiving stats from the tight end position. It’s a little difficult since our receiving stats are for all positions, meaning the all-time lists are dominated by receivers.

For TD receptions in particular, Andy Blount certainly seems like he’d be at or near the top. He had 12 for his career and two seasons with 5. Marcus Smith had 6 back in 2014, and Jason Pirtle had 5 in a season back in 2019. On the current roster, Gumms is currently at 4 for the season.

Who are some of the top tight ends we have had roll through here who would be contenders for the top of the record book?

[YIPYKIA]

Brian Waters

[meangreen11]

Andy Blount

Jeremy Harris

Randy Gardner

Luis Silva

Jeff Muncheow

 

[tmjerm]

Marcus Smith was such a dude and I always felt we under utilized him.

[BillySee58]

8 hours ago, meangreen11 said:

Andy Blount

Jeremy Harris

Randy Gardner

Luis Silva

Jeff Muncheow

 

Thank you

[BillySee58]

12 minutes ago, tmjerm said:

Marcus Smith was such a dude and I always felt we under utilized him.

Just had no decent QBs to work with his Junior and Senior seasons

[Marty]

Both of these were in early 80s:

Ron Battle, drafted by Rams & played a couple of years in the NFL.

Mark Witte, drafted by Bucs & played 4 years in the league for Bucs and Lions.

[ForneyGreen]

10 hours ago, YIPYKIA said:

Brian Waters

Brian is an interesting guy and story since he played a different position in the NFL (Guard instead of TE).

The guy went to 6 Pro Bowls over his 11-year NFL career and is part of the KC Chiefs HoF.

Not sure why he doesn't get more publicity/mentions at UNT.  He's a Texas guy from Waxahachie ... certainly seems like a success story UNT would promote!

Probably the 2nd most successful NFL'er from UNT behind Mean Joe?

 

[TIgreen01]

Is Gumms really a TE, though?  Certainly not in the traditional sense.  We tend to use him more like a hybrid FB.  He's doing most of his run blocking while lined up behind the line, not on the end.

Don't get me wrong, he's been great.  Better than our actual TEs in the pass catching department.

As far as the question, my favorite has to be Andy Blount.  Between him and Johnny Quinn, they were the perfect counter to our run game.  They didn't get many opportunities, but they almost never dropped a pass when targeted.  We have to get better consistency from our TEs and WRs if we're going to be a run heavy team.

Edited October 25, 2022 by TIgreen01

[GrandGreen]

Vote for Stanley Blackman, I think only played one year; but was great basketball player at 6'7,

 

[MGNation92]

I feel like Kelvin Smith was underappreciated at his time here. Certainly not the greatest in school history, but a reliable safety outlet that made a lot of solid plays for us.

[Cr1028]

11 hours ago, meangreen11 said:

Luis Silva

https://www.wsop.com/players/profile/?playerid=75675

[SilverEagle]

3 hours ago, Marty said:

Both of these were in early 80s:

Ron Battle, drafted by Rams & played a couple of years in the NFL.

Mark Witte, drafted by Bucs & played 4 years in the league for Bucs and Lions.

Those two, plus Luis Silva and Kelvin Smith.

Mitch Maher to Luis Silva was money in the bank.

[SilverEagle]

1 hour ago, TIgreen01 said:

Is Gumms really a TE, though?  Certainly not in the traditional sense.  We tend to use him more like a hybrid FB.  He's doing most of his run blocking while lined up behind the line, not on the end.

Don't get me wrong, he's been great.  Better than our actual TEs in the pass catching department.

As far as the question, my favorite has to be Andy Blount.  Between him and Johnny Quinn, they were the perfect counter to our run game.  They didn't get many opportunities, but they almost never dropped a pass when targeted.  We have to get better consistency from our TEs and WRs if we're going to be a run heavy team.

I believe that Gumms was signed as a TE coming out of HS. But I tend to agree with your assessment that he is more of a FB. 

Andy Blount was signed as a WR coming out of HS. I always regarded him more as a big WR than as a TE.

[SilverEagle]

2 hours ago, ForneyGreen said:

Brian is an interesting guy and story since he played a different position in the NFL (Guard instead of TE).

The guy went to 6 Pro Bowls over his 11-year NFL career and is part of the KC Chiefs HoF.

Not sure why he doesn't get more publicity/mentions at UNT.  He's a Texas guy from Waxahachie ... certainly seems like a success story UNT would promote!

Probably the 2nd most successful NFL'er from UNT behind Mean Joe?

 

I looked it up. He (Waters) was (with 28 receptions) the leading receiver for the 1996 NT team. 

Before there was Joe Greene, Cedric Hardman, and Brian Waters, there was Abner Haynes. Abner was inducted into the KC Chiefs HOF in 1991. 

All of his awards and accomplishments.

Career highlights and awards

AFL champion (1962) AFL Comeback Player of the Year (1964) 3× First-team All-AFL (1960–1962) Second-team All-AFL (1964) 4× AFL All-Star (1960–1962, 1964) AFL All-Time Team AFL Rookie of the Year (1960) AFL MVP (1960) 3× AFL rushing touchdowns leader (1960–1962) AFL rushing yards leader (1960) 2× First-team All-MVC (1958, 1959) Kansas City Chiefs Hall of Fame Kansas City Chiefs No. 28 retired North Texas Mean Green No. 28 retired

All-Pro and Pro-Bowl designations

All-Pro - Wikipedia

Edited October 25, 2022 by SilverEagle

[VideoEagle]

17 minutes ago, SilverEagle said:

Mitch Maher to Luis Silva was money in the bank

Yes it was. 

Luis was a family friend. I was impressed he played football and still graduated after 5 years with an MBA in accounting. I saw the start of his recruitment to North Texas. After Marshal beat Judson for the State Championship in 1990, Dennis Parker the Marshal coach who was already announced as the new North Texas coach ran over to Luis and started talking up North Texas on the sidelines. 

I haven't talked to him in years and had no idea he was also a poker player. 

[SilverEagle]

4 minutes ago, VideoEagle said:

Yes it was. 

Luis was a family friend. I was impressed he played football and still graduated after 5 years with an MBA in accounting. I saw the start of his recruitment to North Texas. After Marshal beat Judson for the State Championship in 1990, Dennis Parker the Marshal coach who was already announced as the new North Texas coach ran over to Luis and started talking up North Texas on the sidelines. 

I haven't talked to him in years and had no idea he was also a poker player. 

Parker also went after Mitch Maher. I remember him saying something like "that guy was responsible for about 400+ yards (running and throwing) against us in our playoff game with Plano". I knew I had to have him on my team.

I remember being shocked that any Plano QB would throw the ball that much. Plano QB's were always more bus drivers than traditional QB's. Which may be why they traditionally wore RB numbers.