Just like State of the U’s flagship column “The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly,” the State of the U awards are not just about the good, but also cover the bad and the ugly. While certain position groups thrived in 2025, the tight ends fell well short of Miami’s reputation as “Tight End U.”
Coming into the season, Miami had a huge hole to fill with the departure of 2nd Round NFL Draft Pick Elijah Arroyo, who will be playing for the Seahawks in Super Bowl LX this Sunday. The Hurricanes also had to replace
9th year super-duper senior Cam McCormick, a reliable blocker who had 12 starts as a Hurricane and hauled in 3 touchdowns.
True sophomore Elija Lofton looked to be Arroyo’s heir apparent. Lofton, a former four star prospect from Bishop Gorman in Las Vegas, certainly has the frame and measurables to be a great TE, and he showed flashes of that potential in 2024.
Joining Lofton at the edge of the line would be senior Alex Bauman, an offseason transfer from Tulane. Bauman was a former 3 star DE prospect out of New Jersey, but he converted to TE at Tulane and was particularly successful in short yardage and goal line situations hauling in 7 TDs on 20 overall receptions.
Lofton was selected for the pre-season Mackey Award Watch List, but he caught just one, 15yd catch in the season opener against Notre Dame. It seemed like Lofton would finally get going after the Florida game when he caught 4 balls for 43 yds (and one really nice hurdle), but that would turn out to be his game high for receptions and receiving yards for the season. By the end of the 2025 season, Lofton’s highlights roughly equaled his lowlights, like this key drop against SMU:
Or Beck’s game-ending INT against Louisville that was directed to Lofton…
…but according to Cristobal in his post-game presser, Lofton ran the wrong route.
Meanwhile, Bauman actually saw significantly more playing time than Lofton. Heading into the National Championship Game, Bauman was on the field for 645 snaps compared to Lofton’s 451. Of course Bauman was responsible for one of the lowest of lowlights the whole season missing a block that allowed Indiana’s huge blocked punt:
Both Bauman and Lofton failed to meet the expectations of Tight End U. Consequentially, the staff voted this group the worst unit of 2025. Hopefully Lofton and some talented incoming freshmen turn it around next season.
