Instead, Luke Hasz exploded onto the scene at tight end for Arkansas and Gumms, a Freshman All-American in 2022, was largley sidelined. Even after Hasz went down about a third of the way through the season, Gumms never really cracked the rotation. The North Texas transfer finished with just three catches for 26 yards in his 11 games.
The year before, Gumms caught 34 balls for 458 yards and five touchdowns en route to becoming one of the top targets the subsequent offseason in the transfer portal. So far this spring, he looks closer to the latter player than the former, even if he has no realistic chance of overtaking Hasz for the starting role.
“I think he’s the guy that we were hoping that we were getting a year ago,” Arkansas coach Sam Pittman said. “He’s one of our better protectors when we use our tight end in protection. But what we saw off of tape at North Texas, we’re seeing now here.”
Arkansas has not been shy about going to a two-tight end set in the Pittman era and with the lack of explosion the Hogs have at wideout combined with the difficulties the players up front had in protection, it wouldn’t be a surprise to see Hasz and Keyes in such sets more often in 2024.
“Right now, he’s playing at a high rate of speed, and I think he’s playing with a lot of confidence,” Pittman said. “He’s worked extremely hard since the last of the season.”