'His strength and physicality have been freaking phenomenal this year': Joel Wilson locked in as CMU starting tight end
Central Michigan football entered the offseason with questions throughout the roster. However, the starting tight end job wasn't one of those positions.
After finishing the year with career-highs in receptions, touchdowns, and yards, Joel Wilson will be the Chippewas number one tight end in 2022.
Tavita Thompson, CMU’s passing game coordinator and tight ends coach, is excited to see how Wilson improves on his stellar season.
“Joel Wilson's returning, and he's gonna be great for us and just continue to build on everything he did last year,” Thompson said. “And I don't know the exact stats, but in our conference, he probably ended last season second in receptions and touchdowns. It's a goal for him to make sure he comes out first this year.”
Enjoying a front-row seat to Wilson’s improvement during fall camp, Thompson is excited to see how it translates onto the field.
“He wanted to get better at the run game, and so his strength and physicality have been freaking phenomenal this year,” Thompson said. “So really excited to see what he does.”
In addition to chasing higher marks in the passing game, Wilson has been focusing on improving his run-blocking technique.
“Kind of just fundamentals as far as foot patterns in the running game, striking mechanics, keeping your hands tight, and stuff like that,” Wilson said. “You can play as hard as you want. You can hit people as hard as you want. If you don't do it the right way, you might just miss and not even get a piece of them.”
In 2021, Wilson established himself. This season he hopes to further build on that.
“Feeling good, feeling confident,” Wilson said. “I think last year was pretty good for me to establish and show people what I can do, and show myself what I can do. I think this year going into it, just gotta stack confidence and play the way I know I can.”
Depth in the room
With 10 players listed as tight ends on the roster, Thompson has seen the competitiveness amongst the group grow.
“This is one of the first years we've had a lot of depth in that room,” Thompson said. “And it's been really exciting to see that it's helped with competition.”
While the starting job is secure, Thompson said a three-way battle for the backup job has developed in fall camp.
“Between Alec Palella, Cade Conley, and Mitchell Collier, you know those three guys, they’re battling every day, and that's the way you want it to be,” Thompson said. “It's a great problem for me to have when all three of those guys could be a solid number two.”
Thompson said all three offer slightly different skill sets to the CMU offense.
“You got a group of guys like Mitchell Collier, you know, the guy who can do a little bit of it all,” Thompson said. “Alec Palella is coming in, you know, he's got speed, the guy can run, catch. Conley as a walk-on has been very impressive. In the spring, he was a standout for us. And he's continuing to be that way.”
Although Palella, Collier, and Conley have been impressive, Thompson said a defensive convert has had a tremendous impact on the room.
“We had an addition of Mark Young, switching over from the defensive side of the ball,” Thompson said. “His physical demeanor just adds such an element to the room. And it's really rose everybody's blocking standards. And just from a physicality standpoint, been really impressed with him.”
As the newly minted passing game coordinator, Thompson has spent much of the offseason focused on revamping CMU’s downfield attack around new weapons.
“Anytime you lose two big weapons like that you've got to find who your weapons are and then just try to map out how you're going to get the ball in their hands,” Thompson said. “What are some things that we do schematically that we can move little pieces, where it's not big changes, and just finding ways to get the ball in the hands of the studs.”
