AUSTIN, Texas – Scan the rosters of Texas and Arizona State ahead of the Peach Bowl and the usual names pop out.
Texas quarterback Quinn Ewers and Thorpe Award winner Jahdae Barron. Arizona State All-American running back Cam Skattebo.
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Another Longhorn who draws a lot of attention from Sun Devils coach Kenny Dillingham is Texas senior tight end Gunnar Helm, who has been catching everything thrown his way and even hurdling over defenders in a breakout season.
Helm’s 55 catches for 688 yards are both Texas tight end records as the No. 5-seeded Longhorns head into a New Year’s Day Peach Bowl matchup against No. 4-seed Arizona State in the College Football Playoff quarterfinals. He also has six touchdowns.
“He’s dynamic,” Dillingham said. “He’s not a tight end that(‘s) clumsy and catches it and falls. He catches it and extends completions, which is something you never like to see when you’re going (against) a tight end ... You don’t want them to catch it and run.”
Staying patient
In the transfer portal era of college football, Helm is a rare case of a relatively unheralded recruit who stayed patient, stayed put and developed into a first-team all-Southeastern Conference player this season.
“I think somebody this (season) predicted me to have nine receptions this year,” Helm after he caught six passes for 77 yards and a touchdown in a 38-24 first-round win over Clemson.
“We’ve just got a great connection, and (he) just always is open, it seems like,” Ewers said.
Rated a 3-star recruit out of Edgewood, Colorado, some recruiting analysts had him as the lowest-ranked player in the Texas class that came to campus in coach Steve Sarkisian’s first year in 2021. Helm had initially committed to former coach Tom Herman but stuck with Texas through the coaching change and a 5-7 season.
“I didn’t really have a choice,” Helm said earlier this season.
Also signed in that class was high school All-American Ja’Tavion Sanders, who over the 2022 and 2023 seasons would catch 99 passes and set the school’s single-season and career pass-catching records for tight ends. Helm caught 19 passes in those two seasons.
Breaking records
The field finally opened up for Helm when Sanders turned pro after Texas made the playoff last season and was drafted by the Carolina Panthers.
Helm’s breakout game came in a 31-12 win at Michigan when he had seven catches for 98 yards and a touchdown. Against Clemson, Helm caught a touchdown pass in the second quarter. He was wide open in the end zone but had to leap high to cradle the ball and still toe-tap his feet in the end zone to stay in bounds.
His size (6-foot-5, 250 pounds), athleticism and versatility as a blocker have Helm projected as an early-round draft pick in the NFL.
“We all know the path, his journey, the development that he’s had in our program. I’m super proud of him,” Texas coach Steve Sarkisian said. “(Ewers) can place balls in certain spots where he knows maybe if Gunnar doesn’t catch it, it’s probably incomplete ... They’ve been together for three years now, and I think there’s a lot of trust there.”
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