The tight end room looked a lot different last season without 6-7 Colby Parkinson playing a leading role in the passing game. In his absence, Tucker Fisk and Scooter Harrington stepped in as the main rep earners and their contributions were most impactful in the run game.

"Our expectations are always to help the team to the best of our abilities," said tight end coach Morgan Turner in a recent interview with Cardinal Sports Report. "Obviously with who we had playing last year it was in a different way than with Colby (Parkinson). We weren't catching the ball like we did with him. In the run game, we were still heavy in two-tight end sets, or more.

"It's still part of what we do. It's a testament to guys like Scoot (Scooter Harrington) who worked hard his whole career to get himself on the field a lot. It's really for the room to contribute anyway they can and I think they did a nice job of it."

Harrington and Fisk caught their first career touchdowns last season and Fisk is back for a fifth year on The Farm.

The goal shared by Turner and Fisk is that the lineman-sized tight end is the best blocking tight end in the country.

The goals for the other players in the room are a bit different.

Bradley Archer got some playing time last season and will get a chance this spring to step into a greater role. He will be competing with second-years Benjamin Yurosek and Lukas Ungar.

Yurosek got on the field for a few plays last season and Ungar worked hard to get back up to full speed after he missed most of his last two high school seasons because of injuries.

Yurosek was "only" a three star as a recruit but he earned player of the year recognition in California and was a brilliant two-way player for one of the state's top teams. He is training to be able to play either the "F" (receiver) or "Y" (blocker) positions.

Turner remembers when he first got to work with Yurosek in camp and the freshman's "explosiveness in everything he does" was exciting to watch and visualize ways to use.

"I think he has a chance to really develop into a big-time player for us," Turner said.

Availability has held back Ungar more than anything since he earned an offer from Stanford before his junior year. At the time he was being recruited by Clemson, Georgia and several other superpowers in the sport.

He was cleared to play when he got to Stanford and Turner saw the athlete who camped at Stanford but needed time to develop. Ungar has the feel of a wild card for this season because his injuries (to his wrist) weren't the type to reduce his natural ability to play the game.

Another wild card of a different sort in the room is incoming freshman Shield Taylor. He was an unusual tight end recruit because he earned offers from some tough to get places, such as Washington and Stanford, almost entirely because of his impact on the run game.

"Most tight ends nowadays are playing the big receiver role," Turner said. "Shield was not that in high school. He was at the line of scrimmage popping guys. You could see the explosiveness, the physicality and how much he enjoyed it. Yeah, he played tight end but like Ryan Hewitt you can see those skills carry over to the fullback position."

The plan for the Louisianan is to play at tight end, H-back and fullback for the Cardinal and whenever a big athlete comes in to fill in that job description it seems there's always one player he's compared to, Hewitt.

Turner and head coach David Shaw have pointed out the similarities between the two players. Taylor is not the first recruit with his skill set to be projected by coaches to have Hewitt-esque potential.

Hewitt was a critical member of three of Stanford's best ever teams: 2011-2013. And, to be frank, no one who has been compared to him has come all that close to matching what Hewitt did for the Cardinal, but coaches keep hoping that changes.

"There's a reason we haven't had another one since Hewey," Turner said. "The guy who can do it all and enjoy it like Ryan did, those are the guys you want. He really did it all. It takes a lot of work to be good enough to play them all in one game. That's why it was fun to have a Ryan and move him all over."

Hewitt earned status as an honorary member of the "Tunnel Workers Union", what the offensive linemen have called themselves since Chris Marinelli borrowed the term from his father's career to band the linemen together with a blue collar philosophy. It was also recognition in Hewitt's case of the players at different positions who can be just as responsible for a successful run game as the offensive line.

The groups coached by Ron Gould, Kevin Carberry (now Terry Heffernan) and Turner worked together last season to get Stanford back on track after two very frustrating years when who was injured was the weekly headline.

On several occasions in the past two years Shaw has made sure to mention that Turner plays a major role in the design of the run game.

"It's a collaborative process and Coach Gould is involved as well. We're watching it all together by formation, by down and distance and all the different scenarios," Turner said. "Someone will throw out a thought and someone will shoot it down or play devil's advocate with it to make sure we have the right answers to certain plays. It's not just the O-line coach who comes up with the run game. We're all contributing our ideas. In the big scheme of things we want it all to be us.

"It was nice to have consistency (last year). It's not just for the five offensive linemen; it's Tucker working with the tackle and really knowing each other. It got to the point with Tucker and Foster (Sarell) that they didn't have to say a word to each other. They know what they're doing. When you have a new guy next to you every game it's harder to do that, but they worked like crazy to get there. Reps and working together is such a big deal."