Iowa State tight end coach Alex Golesh talked with reporters Thursday after the Cyclones' second practice session of the spring.
On the temptation to play Chase Allen as a true freshman last year:
“Probably a little bit towards the end there. It took him a while to get back from, he got the mumps in camp and lost a bunch of weight. We always talk about you’d rather play a guy too late than too early, especially last year. It would have killed him I think, growth-wise, to start to play him. We traveled him so he got the experience of that. But yeah, it was tempting, especially for me going into those last couple of weeks when we weren’t ultra productive in the pass game.
“He’s a big, long, smart, athletic kid. I think mentally he was ready. He went through camp and (got) the mental side of it. As an assistant coach, you go to the head coach and present your case. But I think the way Matt (Campbell) put it made a lot of sense. You’d rather have him ready to go physically and mentally rather than just mentally.”
On Allen making his own case for getting on the field last year:
“Chase is like the ultimate guy you want to coach. If you told him he’s got to play week 11, he would have played week 11. You could tell he grew up in a house where dad was in charge. Mom’s in charge but dad was a football coach. He was going to do whatever we asked him to do. I think the best thing we did was just kind of say, communicate with him, hey here’s the point. If we’re not there at this point then we’re not going to be there. He was awesome. He knew he needed the extra lift on Fridays. He knew he needed to gain the weight. He’s been all in since he got here.”
On ever really being close to playing Allen in 2016:
“No, I don’t think so.”
On Allen’s versatility opening up the offense:
“I think we’re still finding out. We’re two practices in. We could be a little bit different because he can do so many different things. He can play out in space and he’s just a big, athletic, raw kid. We look like a different team. You’ve got (Matt) Eaton and Allen and Hakeem, you throw in a kid who looks like him, you generally can be bigger than everybody else. So I think we’re starting to look like what we want to look like with him out there, Dylan out there. Sam Harms has done a good job, too.”
On Harms’ performance so far this spring:
“He’s just continued to improve. He’s gained a bunch of weight; he’s almost up to 240. He played almost all year at 225 a year ago. That’s hard to do in the Big 12. He got through it just being gritty and tough. I think now he actually has some confidence that, hey, I can match up from a blocking standpoint. He’s worked really hard to continue to gain confidence. He left some balls out there that were on the ground in some critical situations last year. And I think the way he’s built, he takes that personally. He’s gotten better and better.”
On Harms playing through some injuries last season:
“He’s one of those kids that won’t tell you. It’s, you know, the difference between injured and hurt. He had a shoulder there for a while that he missed a little bit of time. But he was a guy that was going to play every Saturday. I think it’s just his make-up, the way he’s built. He’d never tell me that he’s banged up. He’d just go get treatment and be ready to go.”
On the tight ends being used more in 2017:
“Boy, I sure hope a lot; I’ve got to justify a paycheck, right? But we’ll use those guys. It will allow Tom to be more creative. Not that we were conservative by any stretch last year. I think we ended up going to four wide a lot, especially in obvious passing situations. The thing I’ve challenged those guys with is, do you want to go to four wide or do you want to stay out here? We’ll do whatever’s best for the team but if you can be one of those best four wides, then you’ll be out there when that time comes. I think it’s too early to tell. It’s practice two; we have any pads on at all yet. It would be easy for me to throw something out there but I think we’ll know more in the next week where we think guys are physically ready. Is Chase ready? We’ll find out when somebody hits him.”
On Dylan Soehner’s physical development:
“Pretty drastic. For Dylan it was a lot of body comp(osition). Both those kids are basketball players so they stayed competitive and played. Then Chase ran track and threw javelin all spring and Dylan was playing baseball. So those guys came in relatively good shape but for Dylan, it was mainly body composition. For Chase it’s been mostly gaining weight. A year with Rudy (Wade) will make a big difference.”
On Soehner’s speed:
“He’s fast for his size. What’s hurting Dylan a little bit right now is he had shoulder surgery, what, week four of the season? You can say take all the mental reps you want. I think the way we play on offense, how fast we go, it’s more than anything else, it’s got to slow down for him. It’s going really fast. I haven’t seen Dylan really just play yet through two practices. We just talked about it. He’s just got to let loose and play a little bit.
“But yeah, I think he’s really fast for his size. It will be interesting to see what game speed is like. I don’t know what he runs in a 40, but I watch film, he looks faster than you probably would assume. As he settles into a role, as we figure it out, he’s got to be able to block on the ball for us and set edges and be an intermediate route runner. Where if we think he’s going to run by a safety, that would probably be crazy.”
On expectations for the tight ends this spring:
“One, we’ve got to figure out who is going to be in a rotation of some sort, or as close as we can (get) to a rotation. Two, we’ve got to really figure out what each guy can do and then that will give Tom the ability to put them in situations to be successful. My hope is we leave camp with four guys that we know can be in a rotation, can be in a situational package type deal. I’m excited to see Sam Seonbuchner. We haven’t had any pads on and he’s just salivating over there waiting to put some pads on. So hopefully, a complete group. Like I said, four, but if there’s five, that’s great. But you’d like four guys that between special teams and offensively be in a rotation of some sort. “
On tight ends being a mismatch opportunity:
“I think it’s a week-to-week deal. The way we game plan, you try to find the weak link and attack them, every way imaginable. I think through the guys that are here and through two recruiting classes, that’s what we’ve tried to create is mismatch guys on offense. Whether it’s size at the outside receivers with guys like Matt and Hakeem and Allen (Lazard), or inside with our guys. And every team is different. If we’ve got a mismatch at tight end, we’ll take a mismatch at tight end. It’s the same thing running the football. If our guys can hold up on edges, it gives us mismatches in the run game. That’s why we’ve tried to recruit guys that look like they look, is to create mismatches in this league. Most people play with smaller, with nickel guys and smaller linebackers, to match the speed. We’re kind of flipping the script a little bit there.”
On the temptation to play Chase Allen as a true freshman last year:
“Probably a little bit towards the end there. It took him a while to get back from, he got the mumps in camp and lost a bunch of weight. We always talk about you’d rather play a guy too late than too early, especially last year. It would have killed him I think, growth-wise, to start to play him. We traveled him so he got the experience of that. But yeah, it was tempting, especially for me going into those last couple of weeks when we weren’t ultra productive in the pass game.
“He’s a big, long, smart, athletic kid. I think mentally he was ready. He went through camp and (got) the mental side of it. As an assistant coach, you go to the head coach and present your case. But I think the way Matt (Campbell) put it made a lot of sense. You’d rather have him ready to go physically and mentally rather than just mentally.”
On Allen making his own case for getting on the field last year:
“Chase is like the ultimate guy you want to coach. If you told him he’s got to play week 11, he would have played week 11. You could tell he grew up in a house where dad was in charge. Mom’s in charge but dad was a football coach. He was going to do whatever we asked him to do. I think the best thing we did was just kind of say, communicate with him, hey here’s the point. If we’re not there at this point then we’re not going to be there. He was awesome. He knew he needed the extra lift on Fridays. He knew he needed to gain the weight. He’s been all in since he got here.”
On ever really being close to playing Allen in 2016:
“No, I don’t think so.”
On Allen’s versatility opening up the offense:
“I think we’re still finding out. We’re two practices in. We could be a little bit different because he can do so many different things. He can play out in space and he’s just a big, athletic, raw kid. We look like a different team. You’ve got (Matt) Eaton and Allen and Hakeem, you throw in a kid who looks like him, you generally can be bigger than everybody else. So I think we’re starting to look like what we want to look like with him out there, Dylan out there. Sam Harms has done a good job, too.”
On Harms’ performance so far this spring:
“He’s just continued to improve. He’s gained a bunch of weight; he’s almost up to 240. He played almost all year at 225 a year ago. That’s hard to do in the Big 12. He got through it just being gritty and tough. I think now he actually has some confidence that, hey, I can match up from a blocking standpoint. He’s worked really hard to continue to gain confidence. He left some balls out there that were on the ground in some critical situations last year. And I think the way he’s built, he takes that personally. He’s gotten better and better.”
On Harms playing through some injuries last season:
“He’s one of those kids that won’t tell you. It’s, you know, the difference between injured and hurt. He had a shoulder there for a while that he missed a little bit of time. But he was a guy that was going to play every Saturday. I think it’s just his make-up, the way he’s built. He’d never tell me that he’s banged up. He’d just go get treatment and be ready to go.”
On the tight ends being used more in 2017:
“Boy, I sure hope a lot; I’ve got to justify a paycheck, right? But we’ll use those guys. It will allow Tom to be more creative. Not that we were conservative by any stretch last year. I think we ended up going to four wide a lot, especially in obvious passing situations. The thing I’ve challenged those guys with is, do you want to go to four wide or do you want to stay out here? We’ll do whatever’s best for the team but if you can be one of those best four wides, then you’ll be out there when that time comes. I think it’s too early to tell. It’s practice two; we have any pads on at all yet. It would be easy for me to throw something out there but I think we’ll know more in the next week where we think guys are physically ready. Is Chase ready? We’ll find out when somebody hits him.”
On Dylan Soehner’s physical development:
“Pretty drastic. For Dylan it was a lot of body comp(osition). Both those kids are basketball players so they stayed competitive and played. Then Chase ran track and threw javelin all spring and Dylan was playing baseball. So those guys came in relatively good shape but for Dylan, it was mainly body composition. For Chase it’s been mostly gaining weight. A year with Rudy (Wade) will make a big difference.”
On Soehner’s speed:
“He’s fast for his size. What’s hurting Dylan a little bit right now is he had shoulder surgery, what, week four of the season? You can say take all the mental reps you want. I think the way we play on offense, how fast we go, it’s more than anything else, it’s got to slow down for him. It’s going really fast. I haven’t seen Dylan really just play yet through two practices. We just talked about it. He’s just got to let loose and play a little bit.
“But yeah, I think he’s really fast for his size. It will be interesting to see what game speed is like. I don’t know what he runs in a 40, but I watch film, he looks faster than you probably would assume. As he settles into a role, as we figure it out, he’s got to be able to block on the ball for us and set edges and be an intermediate route runner. Where if we think he’s going to run by a safety, that would probably be crazy.”
On expectations for the tight ends this spring:
“One, we’ve got to figure out who is going to be in a rotation of some sort, or as close as we can (get) to a rotation. Two, we’ve got to really figure out what each guy can do and then that will give Tom the ability to put them in situations to be successful. My hope is we leave camp with four guys that we know can be in a rotation, can be in a situational package type deal. I’m excited to see Sam Seonbuchner. We haven’t had any pads on and he’s just salivating over there waiting to put some pads on. So hopefully, a complete group. Like I said, four, but if there’s five, that’s great. But you’d like four guys that between special teams and offensively be in a rotation of some sort. “
On tight ends being a mismatch opportunity:
“I think it’s a week-to-week deal. The way we game plan, you try to find the weak link and attack them, every way imaginable. I think through the guys that are here and through two recruiting classes, that’s what we’ve tried to create is mismatch guys on offense. Whether it’s size at the outside receivers with guys like Matt and Hakeem and Allen (Lazard), or inside with our guys. And every team is different. If we’ve got a mismatch at tight end, we’ll take a mismatch at tight end. It’s the same thing running the football. If our guys can hold up on edges, it gives us mismatches in the run game. That’s why we’ve tried to recruit guys that look like they look, is to create mismatches in this league. Most people play with smaller, with nickel guys and smaller linebackers, to match the speed. We’re kind of flipping the script a little bit there.”
