Double Trouble: Arizona's two-tight end offense 'stresses the defense ... difficult to defend'

When Matt Adkins described his life over the last three months, "it's been hectic" for the Arizona tight ends coach. 

Adkins and his wife, Kristianna, are relatively new parents and have a 1-year-old son, Tommy, who turns 2 on July 11 (7/11), "so he's a free Slurpee baby, so I never have to buy him a gift, we just take him to get free Slurpees."

The Adkins family is also expecting a baby girl "in about a month, so it's an active time." 

Life comes at you fast. Less than two years ago, Adkins wasn't a father yet. Not even three months ago, Adkins was set on coaching tight ends at San Jose State until his boss Brent Brennan accepted the head coaching role at Arizona. 

"It was a deal where Brennan called me at 8 a.m. and said, 'Can you be on a flight at 10 (a.m.)?' I was like, 'Yeah, I'll figure it out.' So we've been flying at the seam of our pants, adjusting to life here in Arizona," Adkins said. "It's been fun, but hectic."

As the Wildcats look to replace NFL-bound Tanner McLachlan, the most productive tight end at the UA since future Pro Football Hall of Famer Rob Gronkowski, Adkins is "super-stoked" to inherit Arizona's tight end group that includes redshirt junior Roberto Miranda, junior Keyan Burnett, redshirt freshman Dorian Thomas, redshirt sophomore Tyler Powell, walk-on John Hart and freshman Dylan Tapley. 

"I'm really excited about the group," Adkins said. "I think we've progressed a decent chunk thus far, but they're locked in and bought in, and I think it's heading in the right direction."

Adkins' group is expected to have a pivotal role in Arizona's offense, and the Wildcats have shown this spring that they aren't afraid of using 12 personnel, an offensive formation with two tight ends. When using two tight ends, Arizona's top two wide receivers are Tetairoa McMillan and Montana Lemonious-Craig. 

Using multiple tight ends, especially ones who are productive pass-catchers and blockers, "stresses the defense" and is "always difficult to defend," said Adkins. It was a rarity for Arizona to use 12 personnel last season — or any recent season.  

"Hopefully if we're doing it right (with) our two-tight end sets, we can throw the ball at a high rate, but we're also extremely efficient in the run game and cause defensive coordinators a lot stress about how they want to defend those positions," he said.  

Added Adkins: "You want, at all times, for every single skill player on the field to be a threat in the pass game, including running backs. At least that's been our philosophy for a long time. You don't want to just have one guy that's good at one (skill) and one's good at the other. I want us to be in on third-and-10 and feel good about it, then I want us to be in on fourth-and-1 and feel great about it. Obviously a passing or a run situation and feel really good about our ability execute both situations." 

Not every tight end is created equal. 

Miranda, a 6-3, 250-pound redshirt junior from Berlin, Germany, has been one of the leaders in the Arizona tight end clubhouse this spring and will embrace a more significant role after playing 113 offensive snaps with one reception in the last two seasons. Miranda was recruited to Tucson in 2020 for Kevin Sumlin's last season as head coach, then was mostly used as a blocking tight end. This spring, Miranda appears to be a much-improved pass-catcher. Burnett said Miranda is "versatile, great athlete, very strong. He's a great athlete for a tight end." 

"He's been pressing me immensely on running routes," Adkins said of Miranda. "There's been some times he's done really impressive stuff at a high level that, maybe because of his previous rap, we didn't expect." 

Miranda, also called "Berto" by his teammates and coaches, is "one of the coolest kids I've ever been around coaching," Adkins said. 

"Berto is not a kid, he's a man," Adkins said. "He's 25 years old and just absolutely fantastic to be around. He's dead serious about his work. He does a fantastic job off the field in terms of taking care of his body, meeting room, all that type of stuff. It really matters to the end product. He's definitely proven that he's going to be part of us, because he's got some strengths that we're going to need in the fall." 

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Miranda will likely be paired up with Burnett in 12 personnel this season. Berto and Burnett sounds like a buddy cop movie, but it's trending toward becoming Arizona's top tandem at tight end. 

Burnett, the son of former UA linebacker Chester Burnett, was a four-star signee in Arizona's loaded 2022 recruiting class that also featured his longtime teammates in McMillan, quarterback Noah Fifita and Jacob Manu from Servite High School in Anaheim, California. Burnett recorded six catches for 44 yards as a backup to McLachlan over the last two seasons.  

Although Fifita, McMillan and Manu decided early to stay for the upcoming season, Burnett wanted to weigh his options, so he entered the transfer portal after former UA head coach Jedd Fisch left for Washington, which allowed the Arizona tight end to talk to other college coaches. 

"That's really all it was," Burnett said. "Just wanted to look at my options and evaluate everything and make my decision. ... At the end of the day, I was looking at the opportunity I have here and my loyalty to this program, and I was just trying to make the best decision for me."

Ditto for Thomas. 

"I'm not going to lie to you, I was scared when the coaches left because I didn't play or have film, only high school film," said Thomas, a Seattle-area native. "My first thought was to go into the portal and see the opportunities that would open up for me."

The "eye-catching" progress at Arizona, from downtrodden program to Big 12 contender, was too good to pass up for Burnett. 

"I think we got something special going on here, for sure," Burnett said.

Through the first three-plus weeks of spring practices, Adkins has witnessed the close relationship between Fifita, McMillan and Burnett. 

"It's wild. I've never been around it before in my career, with people with so much history and so (many) shared experiences," Adkins said. "Watching them communicate has been really neat. There was one time, we're doing one-on-ones and Key ran a pretty good route, but there was one thing that I wanted him to different and before I even got to him, T-Mac told him the exact same coaching point, because they're football junkies, they get it on an extremely high level. But they also have that connection to trust each other from all those years of shared experiences."

The message McMillan gave Burnett after the route?

"It was just something about the top of the route. That's the same kind of relationship. If something pops up and I don't see it, he'll pick it up," Burnett said of McMillan. "Same thing with Noah. We all work together." 

A polished Burnett and an ascending Miranda, along with Thomas and Powell, gives the Wildcats a chance "to differentiate from the norm out there," said Adkins.

"If we can present something that they're not used to seeing every single week, then I think that would be an advantage for us," Adkins said. "Hopefully, we can pull it off. ... Each kid has strengths and weaknesses, and we're trying to access those strengths based on where they line up. We're figuring each other out and learning about those strengths.

"In the fall, we're going to feel pretty good about putting those guys in the best positions to be successful." 

Extra points 

• Adkins, on Thomas: "DT is extremely talented. He has all of the tools. We're just trying our best to get him to accelerate his process, because his potential is through the roof." 
• Adkins, on the 6-7, 245-pound Powell: "You can't coach length. The other part is, he has tremendous speed for his length. ... He moves extremely well, he's another kid who's extremely coachable and is around all the time, constantly wanting to meet, wanting to ask questions. I'm thoroughly excited for his future. He has a bright future ahead of him."