To some high school football programs, tight ends are an afterthought. At Heritage, the position is a premium.
A few years after the Eagles produced Terrance Ferguson (now starring at Oregon) and Erik Olsen (who played at CU), Heritage now has another blue-chip tight end in junior Camden Jensen.
Add in a couple of other college players from the position over the last half-decade, and one has to wonder, how did the Class 4A school become Tight End High?
Part of it is due to the priority the Eagles place on making the position a focal point of their offense. Another part is an emphasis on development. And some of it is luck that they’ve had three prototype Division I builds walk in the door at West Geddes Avenue.
“I’ll absolutely give Terrance his credit, because when you go out and have that type of success, other guys want to follow the same recipe to success and put as many of the same pieces to the puzzle for themselves,” Heritage head coach Tyler Knoblock said.
“Now at our football camps and the days where youth football programs are playing their games on our fields, we’ve had players coming up to us asking, ‘What is it you guys are doing for your tight ends? Because I’m a tight end.’ …. I don’t have an exact answer, but it’s been fun to have a run of guys like this.”
Ferguson was a skinny, baby-faced freshman who is now on track to becoming an NFL draft pick. Olsen was a converted QB.
And with Jensen, whom Knoblock says the Eagles could easily move to offensive line and “have one of the best tackles in the state,” the Eagles possess a skilled, physical force who holds nearly two dozen Power 4 offers.
Combine Jensen’s talent with Heritage’s other Division I player, senior wideout and Nebraska commit Tanner Terch, and expectations are high this fall following two straight 4A quarterfinal appearances. The speedy Terch had 55 receptions for 876 yards and 10 total TDs last season.
“The last couple of seasons have been good steps forward, so it’s exciting to have that group of players where we can start to work towards perfection,” Knoblock said, “or the absolute top.”
Heritage’s tough schedule will reveal whether the Eagles, whose lone state title came in 2009, are ready to take that next leap.
The Eagles play Arapahoe in the Milk Jug rivalry on Sept. 7, then defending Class 5A champion Columbine on Sept. 27. Heritage’s league schedule features tests against the likes of Golden, Dakota Ridge and Ponderosa.
“Last year, one game I only played a few plays and a lot of games I barely played a full half (due to blowouts),” Terch said. “It’ll be exciting this year to get into real football and those back-and-forth, you-punch, I-punch games. We’re ready for that.”
With their two stars playing both ways — Jensen on the defensive line and Terch as safety — Heritage believes it has the personnel to succeed, even with a QB entering his first year as the varsity starter.
Jamison Seese was Heritage’s JV signal caller last year, but Terch says the dual-threat QB will quickly assimilate to the next level.
“When I was a sophomore, we had a QB who could run, but couldn’t really throw at all,” Terch said. “Then last year, we had Kurt Rossner who was big and could throw it like a mile, with a really strong arm, but couldn’t really run as well. I think (Seese) is a perfect mix of those two guys. He’ll be able to do quarterback run stuff and scramble and extend plays, but he also spins it really well. He’ll find a way to distribute the ball to everybody.”
That could mean an uptick in targets for Jensen, who had 19 catches for 233 yards and four TDs in 2023. While Knobloch said the 6-foot-7 junior remains a “cheat code in the run game,” Heritage will also experiment with Jensen in sets out on the perimeter as a guy who can catch balls over the heads of defensive backs on vertical routes.
“Where we’re looking for Cam to grow confidence is in being that single-split guy,” Heritage offensive coordinator Brandon Stultz said. “We’ll put him out wide by himself from time to time, and I’d like to see him trust his abilities a little bit more and build that confidence going one-on-one against corners.”
Jensen has offers from most of the SEC plus other major college football programs such as CU, Kansas State, Florida State, Washington and Nebraska. He plans on committing before his senior season at Heritage, where he might not have ended up if not for the influence of Ferguson and Olsen.
“Those two guys were a couple of my biggest factors in deciding where to go to high school,” Jensen said. “Before I got to high school, Terrance texted me and told me about how they have (college) connections and that they teach the next-level things at the position. Those were his two big pitches.
“I definitely look to them both as role models. They made the standard here really high. There’s a lot to live up to, and I’m just trying to keep the tight end tradition rolling here.”