All fans of massive players scoring touchdowns might also be fans of Baylor coach Art Briles after hearing of his latest offensive innovation.
Baylor is trying senior LaQuan McGowan -- a 6-foot-7, 410-pounder who has played guard for the Bears -- at tight end and H-back during spring practices. He's been wearing the No. 80 jersey during practice, too.
"We're looking at him as kind of a slot and tight end type of guy," Briles said Tuesday, per The Waco Tribune. "He can certainly help us in the run game in those situations. The way we're looking at it is we've got three games in non-conference to kind of feel it out and see what he can do and teach him what to do in live action."
As we saw last season in Baylor's 42-41 loss to Michigan State in the Cotton Bowl, when McGowan moved to tight end and caught an 18-yard touchdown pass from 2015 NFL Draft prospect Bryce Petty, he can be quite effective in the role.
Yes, it appears Briles is serious about finding out if McGowan can be more than just a novelty act as an offensive playmaker, and quarterback Seth Russell sounds pretty happy about it.
"His hands are about as big as my leg, so I can pretty much put it wherever, and he can snag it out of the air," Russell said.
However, trying McGowan in the expanded role does create at least a little cause for concern for Briles.
"The hardest thing is practicing with him, because we don't want to get anyone injured," Briles said.
Briles can protect his defenders charged with lining up against McGowan in practice. As for the defenders from SMU, Lamar and Rice (the non-conference opponents that will play Baylor during the trial period of sorts for McGowan that Briles mentioned), best of luck trying to cover -- and bring down -- the big man.
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