Arizona Football: The Year of the Tight End begins with true freshman Bryce Wolma

We told you guys, it’s the year of the tight end! And Arizona Football freshman Bryce Wolma made a statement on Saturday night against Houston.

It is a bit of a bummer for Arizona Football tight end Trevor Wood, on the injured list last week. Wood, a redshirt junior, has waited patiently during his college football career and on the sidelines for a chance to play, for Coach Rodriguez to call a play for a tight end. Last season Wood made seven receptions for 49 yards.

He isn’t the only one to be waiting. Redshirt freshman tight end Jamie Nunley watched a whole season in 2016 looking for tight end plays to be called, we kept watch for him as well. This season, his hopes were high as Coach Rod spoke about playing the tight ends more, much at the behest of yours truly. And yes, I am a woman, and yes there is a running joke with media and coach about my line of tight end questioning, but I digress.

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The last and only touchdown scored by a tight end was in 2016 by Josh Kern against Colorado in the first quarter (38-31 win). Kern was the first tight end to play for the Cats to score a touchdown since AJ Simmons (Cal Beards Nov. 14, 2009).

Last weekend, Trevor Wood was listed on the injured list, and Jamie Nunley, 6-foot-5, 230, was recovering from a back injury himself.

NEXT MAN UP!

True Freshman Bryce Wolma, 6-foot-3 239-pound tight end out of Saline, MI, stepped up big time! Wolma, a family friend quarterback, and coaches son Rhett Rodriguez since third or fourth grade caught the most passes of any player against Houston. He caught five passes for 38 yards.

Here is what Coach Rod had to say on the Pac-12 Teleconference call this morning (I think he knew the question was coming from moi):

Rodriguez: I think everyone wants to throw to the tight ends, and poor Trevor Wood was out with an injury. And so Bryce got a few catches. You know he had to step up because obviously with Trevor being out Bryce is going to get more reps and he played like a veteran. There’s obviously some things we can clean up but we thought we kinda got a pretty good player when we signed him and he had a great camp, got into the mix and then uh we thought he played pretty well for his first extended action in Division 1 football and he’s going to keep getting better.

What did I tell you, folks? It’s the year of the tight end! And hopefully, the trend will continue as the Cats just got a commitment from a legacy player, Jake Peters yesterday.

More on Wolma from Coach Rod in today’s presser:

Must Read: More on Arizona Football from ZZ's..

UTEP is up next, and I predict more tight end action and I cannot wait to see it! Yeah I said it! Bear Down Bryce and Bear Down Arizona!