Our Minnesota spring roster reset series continues with the Golden Gophers' tight end room. Previously, we took a look at the Gophers' quarterback, running back, and wide receiver rooms.

The Gophers' tight end room this offseason saw the departures of Nick Kallerup and Nathan Jones due to exhausted eligibility. Kallerup last season recorded just nine receptions for 117 yards, while Jones had one reception for 10 yards.

The Gophers did add to their roster via the transfer portal this offseason. Purdue transfer Drew Biber, with one year of eligibility remaining in his career, joined the program this winter. Biber comes to Minneapolis with 15 career receptions for 135 yards and one touchdown.

Leading the Gophers' tight end room this fall will be Jameson Geers, who quietly put together a strong 2024 campaign. Last year, in 13 games, Geers had 28 receptions for 290 receiving yards. He also had four receiving touchdowns. Both his receptions and yards ranked fourth on the team, while his four receiving touchdowns were tied for the second-most with Daniel Jackson.

Geers was particularly fantastic last season in the contested catch category, bringing in five of six potential contested catches.

Notably, he did struggle with drops. On just 35 targets, Geers had five drops. Those five drops were tied for the most by any Gophers receiving target last season, alongside Daniel Jackson. Jackson, however, had 115 total targets.

Geers will once again this fall be the Gophers' primary receiving threat at the tight end position. Thanks to his contested catch abilities, he should be a potential strong red zone option for Drake Lindsey.

Notably, both Drew Biber and Frank Bierman in 2024 were primarily run blockers for their respective programs. Starting with Bierman, out of his 139 total snaps played last season, 84 were run blocking snaps, 42 were passing snaps, and 13 were as a pass blocker.

Which means about 69.7% of the time he was on the field, he was being used as a blocker. Of his 42 passing snaps, meaning he ran routes on those 42 snaps, the Iowa native recorded one reception for 13 yards. We expect similar splits for Bierman in 2025, if not even more so, in favor of him being used as a blocker.

Biber with Prudue last season played 216 snaps, 114 were run blocking snaps, 94 were passing snaps, and eight were pass blocking snaps. While he was primarily used as a blocker, it is much closer to a 50/50 split, at least compared to Bierman at 56.4%.

For Biber, it would make sense to see him take over the role that Nick Kallerup had in 2024. Kallerup, after being heavily used as a blocker over the 2022 and 2023 seasons, saw a notable uptick in his pass-catching opportunities. After less than 15% of his snaps in 2022 and 2023 were passing snaps, Kallerup saw that number increase to 32.4% last season. Biber may be able to find himself around the 60/40 split mark in favor of blocking in 2025.

While Geers, Bierman, and Biber will be the primary tight ends used this fall, the Gophers do have multiple tight ends on their roster heading into the 2025 season.

Glenview, Illinois native Jack DiSano will be partaking in his fourth season with the Gophers in 2025 after playing in three games last fall. He should be able to see some more playing time in 2025, but his overall role will be limited.

Pierce Walsh is entering his third season with the program after not appearing in any games over the last two seasons. Walsh notably missed the entirety of the 2024 season with an injury. That being said, as long as the Downers Grove, Illinois native can stay healthy in 2025, he should be in line to see the field for the first time.

Sam Peters, a Maple Grove, Minnesota native, is also entering year three of his collegiate career. Like Walsh, Peters has yet to see the field in his first two seasons with the program. We'll see if he can push for time in 2025.

Finally, there are Julian Johnson and Jacob Simpson, both of whom are redshirt freshmen. Both players made their collegiate debuts in 2024, Johnson played in a blowout win against Maryland, while Simpson's debut came in the Duke's Mayo Bowl against Virginia Tech.

Plenty of shuffling is still to be done with these younger tight ends. It will be intriguing to see which ones emerge this fall and establish themselves as potential pieces in the future.

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