CHAPEL HILL – Every successful football team needs guys like Jake Bargas.
They need players who will do whatever the coaches ask, the things most fans don’t notice but more than fill in the cracks for a club. And that’s Bargas’ specialty.
It’s not that he can’t do the skill stuff because he can. The senior tight end has shown he can catch the ball and turn his nose upfield some. But his forte so far has been that of a glue guy, a blocker, protector and occasional pass catcher.
Those things aren’t going to change in UNC’s new Air Raid offense, though the Boca Raton, FL, native may have a few more passes thrown his way.
“This year, I think tight end will be a big part of the offense, I think everyone’s going to be incorporated pretty evenly,” Bargas said. “But it doesn’t matter, we’re going to be unselfish and whatever we can do to win games is what we’re going to do.”
That’s the team-first guy in him. Doing for the club, however, sometimes it also means generating numbers that show up in the box score.
Bargas caught eight passes for 80 yards and a touchdown a year ago. The score came on a 38-yard pass from Manny Miles to close the first half against Western Carolina in one of UNC’s only two victories.
With 18 career receptions for 174 yards, Bargas might be more a part of the passing game early this coming season than last fall. With Brandon Fritts injured and the tight ends splitting out much more in this offense than the spread the Tar Heels ran under former coach Larry Fedora, Bargas has been preparing to be a bigger part of the attack.
But even when queried about his own personal development, the 6-foot-4, 245 pounder opted to speak more about the group than himself, though he did gush about new tight ends coach Tim Brewster.
“Individual growth has been huge,” Bargas said. “We’ve got coach Brew (Tim Brwster), (and) Brew’s been unbelievable. He coached in the NFL, so he’s got a lot of experience and he puts us through a lot of work.”
Plenty of work to meet the demands of a faster offense with more bells and whistles.
“It’s real fast, I love it,” Bargas said about Air Raid. “We loved the spread as well, but the Air Raid is different, a whole new energy. I think a lot of people have started to adapt to the spread all over the country, (and) I don’t know if as many people are doing Air Raid right now, but I think it’s great for us.
“We’ve got a lot of speed on the team, and for the tight ends it’s been great. We catch a lot more balls, get open, just play fast.”
Just get open, play fast and do whatever is asked to get a win.
Bargas could catch 50 passes and still say the same thing. That’s how glue guys roll, and that’s okay because they’re a part of a team’s fiber every bit as much as the stars.
And that’s why Bargas is vitally important to the Tar Heels.
