It's harder to score like you need to score, when you're using a tight end. The NFL is a very different game. They are ever so slowly moving in the direction that the college game has, with quarterback mobility and athleticism part of the game, but the best pro teams still use a pocket passer who reads defenses and distributes the ball to have the most success.
The differences between offenses of true precision, can make a tight end a weapon. But college passers need bigger receiving windows to fit it in there. The best way to make that happen is the threat of the qb run game, tying up an extra linebacker at least a little.
OU plays one tight end body type on most plays, often with a fullback. But that tight end isn't lined up a foot from the OTackle. With so much quarterback run dependent zone read, lining him up eight yards wide, makes zone read easier to accomplish. OU doesn't run the quarterback as much as some others, but the threat is still there against the best opponents. We ran Baker in several important parts of the Auburn game.
Some basketball guru's used to say there are four or five great point guards at any time in the NBA, whether there are a dozen teams or 30. It's kind of that way at the college football level. It's a specific body type, and skill set. There just aren't that many of those guys.
The old college tight end, from say the wishbone days, looked the part. He was big and strong and could block. Watch Victor Hicks, whose two blocks gave Joe Washington a chance to be great at the end of the great comeback at Mizzou in the 1975 championship season. He looked like a pro tight end.
But a pro tight end has to be able to ctdb, and block big guys, and read defenses and run precise pass routes with some nuance. The old college tight ends looked that part, and would get wide open some in run oriented offenses, not because they were great route runners, but because a couple of times a game, the defender assigned to cover them forgot trying to take the quarterback in the triple option.
Throwing to that guy is easier when he's not lined up next to the tackle. More space in college makes it easier to run the ball. More space in the NFL gets your quarterback killed.
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