Only two tight ends in the entire FBS have more receiving yards per game this season than Ohio State’s Cade Stover.
Georgia’s Brock Bowers, a projected top-10 NFL draft pick, has been by far the nation’s most productive tight end with 37 catches for 545 yards and four touchdowns in six games. Colorado State’s Dallin Holker ranks second in tight end production with 32 catches for 412 yards and five touchdowns in five games. After them, the only other tight end who has averaged more than 60 receiving yards per game this season is Stover, who has 19 receptions for 306 yards and one touchdown through five contests.
Stover’s seven catches of 20-plus yards this season are tied for the second-most among all FBS tight ends and are the most so far this year of any Ohio State player (Marvin Harrison Jr. has six). He’s the only tight end in the Big Ten averaging more than 50 receiving yards per game.
With the exception of Ohio State’s second game of the year against Youngstown State, in which Stover had zero catches, the Buckeyes’ starting tight end has been a consistent weapon in the passing game, topping 50 receiving yards in each of Ohio State’s other four contests. He scored his first touchdown of the season in Ohio State’s most recent game when he scored a 44-yard touchdown – his third catch of at least 40 yards this year.
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At his current rate of production (61.2 yards per game), Stover is on pace to catch 46 passes for 734 yards in the regular season alone, which would break the school record of 671 receiving yards by a tight end set by Billy Anders in 1966.
Few would have forecast that kind of production for Stover two years ago, when he was still bouncing back and forth between playing tight end and linebacker. Before last season, Ohio State had a reputation for not using its tight ends in the passing game, a narrative backed up by the fact that no Buckeye tight end caught more than 28 passes (Marcus Baugh in 2017) or had more than 309 receiving yards (Jeremy Ruckert in 2021) in a single season from 2014-21.
That all began to change last year as Stover caught 36 passes for 406 yards and five touchdowns in his first season as Ohio State’s starting tight end. Stover’s production so far this season has made the old narrative about Ohio State tight ends obsolete.
| Year | Player | Rec | Yds | TD |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2023* | Cade Stover | 19 | 306 | 1 |
| 2022 | Cade Stover | 36 | 406 | 5 |
| 2021 | Jeremy Ruckert | 26 | 309 | 3 |
| 2020 | Jeremy Ruckert | 13 | 151 | 5 |
| 2019 | Jeremy Ruckert | 14 | 142 | 4 |
| 2018 | Luke Farrell | 20 | 205 | 1 |
| 2017 | Marcus Baugh | 28 | 304 | 5 |
| 2016 | Marcus Baugh | 24 | 269 | 2 |
| 2015 | Nick Vannett | 19 | 162 | 0 |
| 2014 | Nick Vannett | 19 | 220 | 5 |
| *Through only five games | ||||
Why has Stover emerged as such a big factor as a receiver? Ryan Day says that starts with the work Stover does as a blocker, which opens things up for him in the passing game.
“He does a lot of the dirty work. He blocks, and because of that, he creates pass and run conflicts,” Day said. “And I think that's what you're seeing with Cade. Now, he's also run some really nice routes out in the open, just dropback pass (plays). But I think you're seeing some of the play action open up because of some of his dirty work.”
Stover says he feels “a lot more comfortable” as a route runner than he did even last season, which is allowing him to play faster and get open more as a receiver. He attributes that growth to the work he’s put in with both tight ends coach Keenan Bailey and graduate assistant Sean Binckes, who Stover says stays after practice with him every night to put in extra work.
“I like to be able to see things before it happens. Have an idea of what my plan’s going to be before I start running a route. And thus far, I've done a better job at it,” Stover said last week. “I still think there’s room for improvement, always will be.”
Kyle McCord, who’s of course played a big role in Stover’s uptick in production as the quarterback throwing him the ball, said Stover “has done a great job, I think, of taking that next step as a receiver” this season.
“I feel like with his route running and his ball skills and just his knowledge of the game, I feel like that's where he's grown the most this past year,” McCord said. “He just looks more comfortable running routes, and obviously, when you're playing with a great receiving corps, there's going to be some good mismatches with Cade, and I think we've done a good job so far of exploiting them.”
Stover doesn’t have much interest in talking about his own statistical production, saying his focus is on the team’s success rather than his individual numbers.
“I don’t really pay any attention or expect it. I’m happy winning ball games. I'll take what I can get,” Stover said.
Bailey didn’t want to talk about Stover’s record pace either, citing the “rat poison” analogy used by Nick Saban as they look to keep their focus on continuing to get better. But Bailey said he is “super proud of how he’s prepared,” which he believes has led to Stover’s success so far this season.
“You talk about up to this point in the season, I go back to the offseason and to spring ball and summer and all the work he put in. I'm happy that it's showing up on Saturdays, that you get to see kind of the dedication he put into his craft,” Bailey said. “So the stats will take care of themselves. But we're gonna keep working and see where we're at at the end of the year.”
