German TE Roberto Miranda has strengths Arizona is 'going to need in the fall'

How does a kid from Germany discover the desire to play football?

Arizona Wildcats tight end Roberto Miranda vividly remembers how he went from a soccer-loving track runner in high school at “Schul-und Leistungssportzentrum” in Berlin to a passionate football player.

“It’s a wild story,” Miranda said. “I was doing track and field back home at my high school and I had a friend who asked me, ‘Hey, do you want to join me? There’s this crazy sport called American football and there’s an open tryout.’ I was like, ‘You know what? Let me give it a chance,’ and I just fell in love with it and I just stuck with it.”

From the moment he discovered football, Miranda watched NFL and college football highlights on YouTube and “fell in love” with the game. Miranda became good enough to get recruited by colleges in the U.S. to play football and signed with the Wildcats as a wide receiver in 2020.

For the first time in his life, Miranda was out of his element and was the only member of his family across the pond in the U.S. Miranda, who has family in Portugal and parts of Africa, said, “I have family everywhere but the U.S. ... I have a big family all over the place.” Coupled with a global pandemic that shifted the season calendar, “moving to the U.S. was kind of wild,” Miranda said.

“Everything hit me at once, but overall it’s amazing,” said Miranda. “Tucson is the opposite of where I’m from; the weather, the food, everything is different, but I’m still very happy I committed back then. I’m still finding out a bunch of new places, bunch of new things every day, so it’s great out here. I love it.”

Miranda trekked from Berlin to Tucson to play for former head coach Kevin Sumlin, who was fired after Miranda’s first season at the UA.

When Arizona’s previous coaching regime took over, Miranda’s role was “kinda all over the place” and was moved from wide receiver to tight end in 2021, but didn’t play in the Wildcats’ 1-11 season.

Miranda appeared in 23 games over the last two seasons, but mostly played special teams and was used primarily on offense as a blocking tight end, while Tanner McLachlan, a recent sixth-round draft pick by the Cincinnati Bengals, produced 79 catches for 984 yards and six touchdowns. Miranda’s only reception as a Wildcat was in Arizona’s home finale win over Utah last season. Miranda represented his homeland with a German flag decal on the back of his helmet.

After the second coaching staff change, when former head coach Jedd Fisch went to Washington after three seasons, “I never thought about leaving” Arizona, Miranda said.

“I love Tucson, I love Arizona,” he said. “I have a lot of teammates that I’m very close with decided to stay as well, so it was never a choice to actually leave. ... I’m still happy with my decision to stay and I’m very, very happy overall.”

Back for his fifth season, Miranda dubbed himself the “old head of the team.”

Miranda, also called “Berto” by his teammates and coaches, is “one of the coolest kids I’ve ever been around coaching,” said Arizona tight ends coach Matt Adkins, who followed head coach Brent Brennan from San Jose State to the UA.

“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.”

Back to homepage

Subscriber Login

Keep reading with a digital access subscription.

Subscribe now

Miranda “was a little bit of an unknown outside of the film we watched,” according to Brennan, but the 6-3, 250-pound redshirt junior is a much-improved route-running tight end and was heavily involved in the passing game more so than previous years.

“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.”

Brennan added, “I do think Matt Adkins is one of the best tight ends coaches in the country. We consistently had all-conference tight ends at San Jose State. It’s a position that’s important to us and it’s a position we utilize a lot.”

The Wildcats are adding one of San Jose State’s former tight ends, Sam Olson, this summer. Miranda, junior Keyan Burnett, Olson and underclassmen Dorian Thomas, Tyler Powell and Dylan Tapley are Arizona’s scholarship tight ends for the 2024 season. The Wildcats also have walk-on and Phoenix-area native John Hart at tight end.

Burnett, who had three catches for 34 yards last season, got injured at the start of spring, “so that gave Berto a chance for more reps, and we all get better with practice — at least I hope we are,” Brennan said.

“It’s good to see him start to do some stuff,” Brennan said of Miranda.

Burnett said Miranda is “versatile, great athlete, very strong. He’s a great athlete for a tight end.” And if the spring is any indication of how the season will fare, Miranda is going to have an essential role in a UA offense that will use two-tight end sets. Miranda and Burnett were the most commonly used tandem for the Wildcats this spring.

“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 of stress about how they want to defend those positions,” Adkins said. “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.”

Miranda noted “tight ends get a lot of love in this playbook.”

“We get the rock way more than last year,” Miranda said. “What I like the most and how we run practice is we rotate a lot, especially in the spring. ... I think that’s more of a college approach compared to the NFL approach last season, which I love. Everyone is getting a fair chance and it’s a lot about development and getting better overall.”

In Year 5, the mature and loyal Miranda, who is nicknamed “Das Gronk” by the contingent of Tucson media, is in line for his most productive season at Arizona yet. Miranda’s geduld, German for “patience,” going back to when he first played the game in Berlin in 2018, could pay off for the Berlin native.

“He’s such a unique kid,” Brennan said of Miranda. “The first time I met him, I thought he was an adult instead of a guy on the team, because he looks so mature and he carries himself so mature. What an amazing kid, and you’ve seen the progress he’s making.

“His investment in improving and meeting with his coach, his intentional way he goes about practice is starting to show up. ... Everyone on the team is excited for him and you can hear that from the players.”