The inevitable winds of change sent a gust through the 2024 Big 12 TE Rankings with 10 of the conference’s 16 starting tight ends graduating, including All-Big 12 players Jared Wiley from TCU and BYU’s Issac Rex, and Arizona’s All-Pac 12 Honorable Mention Tanner McLachlan. Two other starters transferred in-conference, effectively changing 75% of the league’s depth charts.
Out with the old and in with the new; let’s look at where the 2024 Big 12 TE Rankings stand after all the shifting has settled.
2024 Big 12 TE Rankings
10) Randy Pittman Jr., UCF Golden Knights
With four-year starting TE Alec Holler off the NFL, the UCF Golden Knights will need a replacement for a player that racked up 65 catches for 712 yards and six TDs. Randy Pittman Jr. is next in line to do so after appearing in all 13 games as a true freshman last year, hauling in 19 passes for 215 yards and a TD in relief of Holler.
Coming straight out of high school, Pittman Jr proved he can produce part-time last year and is ready to level up.
9) Jared Kasey, Kansas Jayhawks
A former running back who racked up over 2,000 yards in high school, Jared Kasey switched to tight end when he joined the Kansas Jayhawks in 2020. After a redshirt in his first season, he’s been a part-time starter for the last three seasons, making 15 career starts, primarily as a blocking specialist with 35 career catches for 432 five touchdowns.
In seven starts last season, he caught nine passes for 107 yards and two scores. Now a fifth-year senior, Kasey’s role will increase in 2024 as the Jayhawks look to make up for primary pass-catching TE Mason Fairchild’s departure to the NFL.
8) Garrett Oakley, Kansas State Wildcats
Garrett Oakley got his first taste of collegiate action last season after sitting out in 2022 with a redshirt as a true freshman. Playing behind three-year starter Ben Sinnott, Oakley appeared in 10 games, starting the last two, catching 11 passes for 154 yards and two scores as a redshirt freshman.
Sinnott leaves a lot of targets available as he graduates, and Oakley is prepped to take his spot as he enters his sophomore season.
7) Payten Singletary, Cincinnati Bearcats
One of the few returning regular starters, Payten Singletary is primarily a blocking specialist for the Bearcats, helping pave the way for the third-best rushing offense in the Big 12 last season (217 yards per game).
He appeared in 10 games with eight starts, grabbing 12 passes for 115 yards and two TDs. With Chamon Metayer transferring to Colorado, Singletary is in line for more playing time and possibly more targets in 2024.
While his stats don’t jump out of the boxscore, Singletary is an important piece to a successful run game, and he’ll be back for the Bearcats as a senior with more opportunities on the horizon.
6) Benjamin Brahmer, Iowa State Cyclones
A 2023 All-Big 12 Honorable Mention as a true freshman, Benjamin Brahmer adjusted quickly to college life. He played in all 13 games with two starts, grabbing 28 passes for 252 yards and two touchdowns, the sixth most TD-grabs by a freshman TE last season, along with Garrett Oakley.
Brahmer showed he is capable of taking over for two-year starter and co-captain TE Easton Dean, and he will have a chance to prove it further as a sophomore in 2024.
5) Mason Tharp, Texas Tech Red Raiders
The tallest on the 2024 Big 12 TE Rankings at 6’9″, Mason Tharp is a three-year, part-time starter who could see his role turn full-time in 2024.
He’s made 22 career starts, eight as a true freshman in 2021, seven in 2022, and seven in 2023, with 44 career catches for 476 yards and seven scores. He hauled in 18 passes for 178 yards and four touchdowns while playing second fiddle to senior TE Baylor Cupp last season.
With Cupp graduated, Tharp is in line to be the Red Raiders’ primary TE as he enters his final season.
4) Chamon Metayer, Colorado Buffalos
Chamon Metayer was with the Cincinnati Bearcats his first three seasons and was a sophomore when the Bearcats transitioned to the Big 12 in 2022. Now, he’ll be part of another Big 12 transition, this time with the Colorado Buffalos.
After 11 games with four starts last year, earning CFN 2023 All-Big 12 Honorable Mention with 23 catches for 258 yards and five scores, he transferred to the Buffalos. In an effort to find more playing time for his final two seasons, the 6’5″, pass-catching TE partners with a dynamic offense in Boulder.
3) Brant Kuithe, Utah Utes
The most accomplished member on this list, it could be argued that Brant Kuithe doesn’t just belong higher, but on top of the 2024 Big 12 TE Rankings. That might be true if it weren’t for a bad ACL tear in 2022 that kept him out for most of the last two seasons.
Before the injury, Kuithe was one of the top TEs in the nation, earning All-Pac-12 Second Team selections for three consecutive years (2019-2021). In 51 games with 26 starts for the Utes, he amassed 148 catches for 1,882 yards and 16 TDs.
Kuithe was granted a medical waiver and a seventh-year, paving the way for him to reassert himself after an involuntary hiatus.
2) Kole Taylor, West Virginia Mountaineers
After three years at LSU (2020-2022) with seven starts and 17 catches for 159 yards and a score, Kole Taylor leaped to the Big 12 and joined the Mountaineers before last season.
He got his first chance as a full-time starter, earning a 2023 All-Big 12 Second Team selection after bringing in 35 catches for 444 yards and four TDs. The 6’7″ senior is back for one more go around and will look to build on a full slate of action last year.
1) Drake Dabney, TCU Horned Frogs
Drake Dabney appeared in 40 games with 23 starts for the Baylor Bears from 2020 to 2023. With one season left as part of the 2020 COVID class, he left Baylor but opted to stay in the Big 12 — and in Texas — with the TCU Horned Frogs.
A 2023 All-Big 12 Honorable Mention and 2023 CFN Honorable Mention, he hauled in 33 catches for 552 yards and five TDs last season. With 2023 All-Big 12 First Team selection Jared Wiley making his way to the NFL, Dabney will see plenty of targets as the Horned Frogs look to bounce back from a brutal 2023.
2024 Big 12 TE Rankings | 11-20
11) Landen King, Utah
12) Bryce Pierre, Arizona State
13) Kelsey Johnson, Baylor
14) Matt Brynes, Houston
15) Keyan Burnet, Arizona
16) Will Swanson, Kansas State
17) Dorian Thomas, Arizona
18) Jax Porter, TCU
19) Jaylin Conyers, TTU
20) Mata’ava Ta’ase, BYU
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