Transfer portal brings former Exeter tight end a little closer to home
2025 Berks football coverage presented by
Utilities Employees Credit Union
Zack Zandier will be playing a lot closer to home this season.
The former Exeter tight end announced earlier this week on social media that he has transferred to Lafayette University after spending his first college season at Coastal Carolina, which is located in Conway, South Carolina.
Zandier did not see any game action as a true freshman with the Chanticleers and was redshirted by the coaching staff. He entered the portal April 16 and committed to Lafayette four days later.
Zandier is part of a tidal wave of exits at Coastal, where more than 40 players have entered the NCAA transfer portal. However, three tight ends return, including redshirt senior Cane Berrong, who had 12 catches last season.
The Lafayette roster currently shows just three returning tight ends, only one of whom had a reception, junior Ethan Hosak.
Zandier, an All-Berks pick, received offers from more than two dozen Division I programs coming out of Exeter, including Bucknell, Colgate, Columbia, Delaware, New Hampshire, Penn, Richmond, Rhode Island, Temple, and Yale.
He didn’t see significant time at tight end at Exeter until his junior season when his emergence gave Eagles coach Matt Bauer the luxury of using Penn State recruit Joey Schlaffer as a wide receiver or at times at quarterback, as well as tight end.
Zandier’s combination of size, speed and hands made him a desirable target and he was often left open, with defenses concentrating more on Schlaffer or trying to slow down Exeter’s potent running game. Zandier caught 22 passes for 368 yards and four touchdowns as a junior and 21 passes for 318 yards and three TDs as a senior.
He was ranked as a two-star recruit by 247Sports.com and rated the No. 62 senior prospect in Pennsylvania.
“All of these coaches come in and see how physical he is,” Bauer said at the time. “The way the game has evolved, a lot of tight ends at that (Division I) level are big wideouts. Zack’s a little bit of a throwback, which is very enticing to those coaches. He’s a typical in-line tight end; he can get off the ball. That was a huge selling factor.”
Zandier is part of a long line of talented tight ends to come through Exeter over the last two decades, following Christian Menet, who went to Eastern Michigan; Michal Menet, who played tight end for the Eagles and was used primarily at center at Penn State; J.R. Strauss, currently a linebacker at Villanova; and Ty Yocum, who’s now at Merrimack College. Former Exeter quarterback Kyle Yocum became a tight end at Delaware.
Coastal finished 6-7 last year, ending the season with a 44-15 loss to Texas-San Antonio in the Myrtle Beach Bowl.
Lafayette, which plays in the Patriot League, went 6-6 last season.
Zandier enjoyed success off the field at Coastal as he was named to the Dean’s List in the fall semester.
