‘Urban’ renewal under way at West Virginia

By Dave Morrison

MORGANTOWN — For awhile anyway, WVU tight end Tyler Urban did his best Cris Carter imitation. You know, he only catches touchdown passes.

Through the course of the 2008 regular season Urban, a true freshman, caught exactly two passes.

Both went for scores. There was a 25-yarder against Rutgers and a 12-yarder against South Florida.

Not bad for a true freshmen. Not bad for any WVU tight end. The position was all but extinct under former coach Rich Rodriguez.

Then came the Meineke Car Care Bowl.

Urban added two more receptions, for 42 yards, but he didn’t score.

Yet he calls that the highlight game of the year.

“I thought that was the game where we really came together as an offense,” Urban said.

This season Urban is hoping for not only a renewal of last year’s start, but an even bigger workload for the tight end.

“Yeah, it seems like the position is going to be more of a focal point,” he said Wednesday. “I’m seeing more and more options (coming out of spring practice).”

A fullback in high school, the 6-foot-4, 240-pound Urban grew an inch after coming to WVU out of Norwin High in North Huntingdon, Pa., a suburb of Pittsburgh.

“When I was recruited, they talked about using me as an H-back, but it was pretty obvious I was going to move to tight end,” he said. “I liked the idea. There were a lot of different options.”

Apparently, one of those was scoring touchdowns.

Then, there is also the fact a tight end has to block.

And Urban did that, too.

He can recall two occasions — the Rutgers game and the Syracuse game, when his blocking on the outside helped spring Noel Devine for long touchdown runs.

Which begs the question: Is Urban more of a blocker or a receiver?

“Coach (Doc) Holliday (WVU’s associate head coach and tight end/fullback coach) always tells us that tight end is the toughest position to play,” Urban said. “You have to be able to run and block. Really, it’s a hybrid position. You block, but you run patterns, too.”

OK, so does he hang around the linemen or the receivers?

“Oh, I’d say the receivers more so than the linemen,” he said. “I work more with those guys and try to pick up stuff from them. I probably hang out more with them and go out more with those guys (off the field).”

He has also spent time with Jarrett Brown, the man who will take over for Patrick White at quarterback this fall.

“I was the second-string tight end at the beginning of the year (his first official start was against Cincinnati), so me and Jarrett had a connection going early,” Urban said. “We’ve gotten together a couple times (after spring practice) to work on our timing.

“I think he’s going to fit into the role real well. He has a strong arm and the smarts to do it.”

And Urban certainly has the ability and the smarts — he was a National Honor Society student in high school — to make the tight end a go-to position at West Virginia.

“Whatever I can do to help the team, blocking, receiving, whatever it takes,” he said. “We have a lot of high hopes for this season. I think we have enough talent to compete in the Beg East and get back to winning the conference.”

— E-mail: demorrison@

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