Ohio State has a new tight ends coach in 2023, but returns all but one player in the position room who took snaps last season.
Keenan Bailey is now deep into his first spring as an assistant coach since taking over for Kevin Wilson, and he inherits a group led by breakout 2022 star and established top TE Cade Stover. Joe Royer and Gee Scott Jr. are now entering their fourth seasons in the program and are both making a push to become Ohio State's No. 2 tight end as they battle for opportunities this spring.
All four spoke with media members following the Buckeyes' 10th spring practice on Wednesday, breaking down the end of last season, their early offseason development and goals for the coming season in Columbus.
Keenan Bailey
- Bailey says his job as tight ends coach is the same as it was before: “Make the players better, grow a closer locker room, find a first down and outwork the team up north.” What has changed is his focus, as he’s now working specifically with Ohio State’s tight ends whereas he used to pride himself on being involved with every unit on the team.
- Bailey says he is challenging all of Ohio State’s tight ends this spring to become more versatile. He said he sends Cade Stover to work with the receivers sometimes to develop more as a route-runner, which forces the other tight ends to step up.
- True freshman tight end Jelani Thurman and wide receiver Carnell Tate are two of the first players in the building every day. Bailey said he doesn’t want to put expectations on Thurman as a freshman, but “if he keeps attacking every day like he has off the field with (graduate assistant Sean Binckes), then he's got a shot.
- Bailey said Gee Scott Jr. has “taken Jelani under his wing and shown him ‘Here's how it needs to be done.’”
- Bailey says he does the same drills with the tight ends that Brian Hartline does with the wide receivers and Justin Frye does with the offensive linemen. “When you come here and play tight end at Ohio State, you’re gonna get coached like Jaxon (Smith-Njigba) got coached and like Paris Johnson got coached.”
- None of Ohio State’s eight tight ends have missed a single practice this spring, Bailey said.
- Bailey said “we’ve definitely got some ideas” to fill Mitch Rossi’s role in the offense, but he didn’t want to say what they are.
- On Joe Royer’s performance this spring: “This version of Joe Royer is the best that I've seen.” Bailey said Royer has added 12 pounds this offseason, and Bailey thinks that extra muscle has helped Royer as a blocker.
- On Bennett Christian: “His work ethic is great … if he keeps that up, he's gonna have a great career here.”
Cade Stover
- Stover was “super excited” that Keenan Bailey was promoted to tight ends coach and says he’s a “good culture” fit for Ohio State. “He’s a players’ coach, he’s gonna ride for us regardless.” Stover says “he’s a guy you can trust and go to war with.”
- On his decision to return to Ohio State, Stover says “I felt uneasy, I don’t know if I would ever forgive myself leaving a place like this, that I’ve put so much into, on a note like that.” Stover thinks he can be “10 times better” than he was last season.
- Stover calls having to leave the CFP semifinal due to injury “probably one of the hardest days of my life, hardest moment of my life for sure so far. You wait your whole life to get to that point and had an opportunity to play and that happens. … It was hard. It’s kind of even hard to talk about, to be honest with you.”
- Stover says “as spoiled as we were with C.J. (Stroud)” at quarterback, he still trusts the development of Kyle McCord and Devin Brown as the potential next man up at QB in 2023.
- Stover says the back injury he suffered at the end of last season probably “doubled” his reckless abandon on the football field.
Joe Royer
- Royer says last year was “probably one of the hardest years of my life” between dealing with injury and the passing of his mother. Royer says he’s “in a good spot mentally and physically” and that he’s “just trying to make her proud still.”
- Royer says he has a “different outlook on life” after the passing of his mother and that he doesn’t “take things or people for granted as much as I used to.”
- On Keenan Bailey, Royer says they were already close before he was named the Buckeyes’ tight ends coach and that it’s been great having him in that role. Royer says Bailey is a “first one in, last one out” type of guy.
- Royer says he’s “super excited” Cade Stover is coming back to the team and that he’s fighting to be the Buckeyes’ second TE behind Stover this season.
Gee Scott Jr.
- Scott said this spring has been about developing his body and mind as a veteran player in Ohio State’s tight end room. At this point in his career, he feels like he understands the Xs and Os of the Buckeyes’ offense, but he said there are plenty of other “intricacies” that make playing the tight end position difficult, including blocking players as talented as JT Tuimoloau off the edge.
- Scott said he’s been impressed with Keenan Bailey’s “work ethic” this spring and believes the newly-promoted tight ends coach has been “further along” than Scott would have imagined to this point in the year.
- Scott said Ohio State’s relationship with Bailey has been “give and take” to this point. Scott said Bailey is “humble enough to realize” that he doesn’t know everything about the tight end position, but he has also taught the tight ends plenty that they don’t know either. “He’s a bundle of energy. He brings great energy. … Coach Kee has definitely raised the morale of the room.”
- Scott on Jelani Thurman: “He’s big and strong. His physical abilities. His ceiling is very high.” He also added that the “sky is the limit” for Thurman so long as he stacks days in spring practices and later this offseason in fall camp.
