Florida's run of success at the tight end position

Since 2000, the Gators have actually put together a pretty good record of placing tight ends into the NFL. As for how well they've stacked up with other teams over that time frame, here's the list of college programs to have at least five tight ends drafted over the last 14 years:

Miami, (Fla.): 9
Notre Dame: 8
Iowa: 7
Florida: 6
Penn State: 6
Stanford: 6
Virginia: 6
Wisconsin: 6
Georgia: 5
Oregon: 5
Tennessee: 5

213 tight ends been selected in the NFL Draft between 2000 and 2013. Among the interesting trends and numbers to develop over that time period:

– Nebraska-Omaha (2) has produced more picks than Nebraska (1). On a similar note, Texas A&M and Texas A&M-Kingsville have both produced the same number of draftees (1).

– Florida State hasn't seen a single tight end drafted since 2000. In fact, you have to go all the way back to 1994 (Lonnie Johnson) to find a tight end from FSU who was drafted into the NFL.

– Idaho (3) and Rice (3) have been surprising fertile grounds for developing tight ends in recent years as well.

The six Florida tight ends to hear their name called since 2000 are as follows:

2000 Erron Kinney (3rd Round, 68th overall, Tennessee Titans)
2003 Aaron Walker (5th Round, 161st overall, San Francisco 49ers)
2004 Ben Troupe (2nd Round, 40th overall, Tennessee Titans)
2009 Cornelius Ingram (5th Round, 153rd overall, Philadelphia Eagles)
2010 Aaron Hernandez (4th Round, 113rd overall, New England Patriots)
2013 Jordan Reed (3rd Round, 85th overall, Washington Redskins)

Although Steve Spurrier was not known for going to the tight end much during his time in Gainesville (aside from Kirk Kirkpatrick's All-SEC campaign during Spurrier's first year as coach at UF in 1990), the first three tight ends drafted (Kinney, Walker, Troupe) were all brought in during his tenure as coach.

The success of this group is a mixed bag. Despite playing just three seasons, Hernandez is actually the most prolific of this group. Kinney lasted the longest at the pro level, playing all seven of his NFL seasons in Tennessee. Walker and Troupe bounced around with multiple teams, never really catching on with any one squad. Ingram never played in a regular season game due to lingering knee issues resulting from his days at Florida. Reed is off to a good start, just four games into his rookie campaign in Washington.

Certainly, the tight end position for UF is a weakness that will have to be corrected in the following months. However, the good news for the Florida staff is that the statistics above provide an easy selling point to the top recruits they are pursuing (Bryce Dixon and Deandre Goolsby among them) that Florida has done a good job in recent years of evaluating and developing players at the position, and getting them in a position to move on to the next level and be productive as well.