Making a transition to a whole different style of offense under a new offensive coordinator is no small task, especially when it’s the second offense you’re trying to learn in as many college seasons. However, for sophomore tight end Nolan Matthews the new offense under first-year offensive coordinator Zak Hill should represent a positive development for his involvement with the offense.

That’s because, as coach Herm Edwards has previously discussed in talking about why they hired Hill, the new play caller has a track record of using tight ends in a prominent role for the passing game, in addition to their regular blocking duties, of course. In fact, Matthews even noted the proven track record of the prior school Hill coached at, the Boise State Broncos, in making the most of their tight ends before Hill even coached there.

“I just looked at all the different ways they were able to use a tight end over the years,” Matthews said. “Boise’s always had a good tight end offense, even before coach Hill, so I’ve just been able to look at Boise and show that they like using tight ends.

“I knew that we were going to have to show up for this offense to be successful. (Hill) said it, we need good tight ends for this offense to be successful, so I knew once we hired him that we were going to have to step up.”

With former starter Tommy Hudson now out of the picture due to graduating, it means both Matthews and senior Curtis Hodges have a golden opportunity to step into bigger roles for 2020. Although they may be competing for reps at times, Matthews believes they can complement each other in this new system.

“Him coming from a receiver background, he’s really good at the vertical, seam stuff, getting open because he’s tall, getting his stride open,” Matthews said of his 6’8’’ teammate. “We played with each other last year, so we kind of got that chemistry in the run game. And then me just being able to be the intermediate, short, long, being able to do it all. We can both do either or, so it doesn’t really matter, it’s just who you really want, so it’s just kind of like a one-two punch.”

Neither guy came close to being used as a regular weapon in the 2019 passing attack. Hodges recorded five catches for 58 yards in 10 games, while Matthews caught five passes for 28 yards, including a garbage-time touchdown catch in the beatdown loss at UCLA.

As much potential as both guys have, Hodges has been injury prone over his years in Tempe, which could mean a starring role for Matthews as one of sophomore quarterback Jayden Daniels’s go-to targets. After all, the Sun Devils lost about two-thirds of their receiving yards production from last season, mainly due to the losses of Brandon Aiyuk—emphasis on him—Kyle Williams and Eno Benjamin.

Now that Matthews is a sophomore who got his feet wet in his freshman season, he believes it’s his time to step up and take his performance to the next level.

“For this offense, I know that we’re going to need playmakers,” Matthews said. “I believe I can be that playmaker, I need to show that I can be that playmaker for this offense. We have so many weapons that we just need players to step up, and I just want to be that safety blanket whenever we need a big play, or a catch, that I can just be the guy to rely on.”

It all starts with gaining a strong understanding of the new offensive playbook, especially at this time of year with the opening game still six months away. While Matthews admits it’s been no easy task to get adapted, he’s been putting in extra work to increase his chances of becoming that playmaker ASU’s offense will be searching for.

“It’s been kind of difficult,” Matthews admitted. “But the coaches have helped us out a lot, and with coach Hill’s offense, just getting the tight end the ball and being part of the offense, we have to be sure that we can get open because most of the times we’re the number one or number two option.

“I feel like I have pretty much all of what we’ve learned so far. I make sure I come back in every day for like two, three hours and make sure I have everything down from the day before and the next day. So, I feel like I have the offense down pretty good, I just got to fix some technique stuff and things like that.”

Additionally, Matthews has felt an increased level of confidence from knowing the magnitude of the role he’ll be expected to play. As a result, it’s allowed him to get out of his own head, so to speak, compared to when he was a freshman trying to ensure he made the right impression on his new team and coaches.

“Catching the ball I’m more confident,” Matthews said. “I’m not worried about dropping it, if they’re going to pull me out. I can just play free, so that’s probably the biggest difference from this year to last year.”

Playing no small part in this increased confidence is his physical shape too, which Matthews says has taken a big jump now that he’s had a full year in the strength and conditioning program working with head coach of sports performance Joe Connolly.

Although he’s listed as 246 pounds on ASU’s official roster, the 6’5’’ native of Frisco, Texas, states that he’s already made gains.

“The biggest difference (from last year) is me maturing physically,” Matthews said. “Last year I was kind of getting tossed around because that was my freshman year, I didn’t really go through the weight program. Now, (working with) coach Joe, I’m weighing like 250, 255 right now. Being able to just hold my blocks and drive, actually move people off the ball, and the game’s kind of slowing down a little bit in different aspects.”

Arguably just as important, if not more so, than all of this is the improved chemistry with his quarterback. Naturally, Daniels and Matthews may not have had the most communication in their first season, with Matthews playing a marginal role in the offense. According to the tight end, that is no longer the case.

“We have a pretty good chemistry, we talk a lot more than we did last year,” Matthews said. “He’s just such a great quarterback, and I think he should be up for the Heisman. But he’s just such a great quarterback, I’m just grateful being able to play with him and catch for him.”

Coach Herm Edwards may have said it best when talking about the young players last year, “they don’t know any better!”

There’s no doubt that ASU’s offense is going to rely on lots of young faces, with Daniels and Matthews each poised to play a huge role in that from their respective positions. But if they can play with that same fearlessness they’ve shown so far in practice, Matthews could be a pivotal part of a new-look offense that may catch Pac-12 teams off guard in 2020.

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