Wisconsin Football Tight End Room Season Outlook & Player Expectations

With fall camp just around the corner for new head coach Luke Fickell and the Wisconsin football program — BadgerNotes continues our rollout of position previews. We’ve already done QB, RB, and WRs thus far. 

But I want our position previews and season outlook write-ups to be different than a regurgitated version of what every outlet is putting out. 

I want to approach this breakdown by establishing individual player expectations heading into the season so we can more effectively evaluate each player at the end of the season—that way, we can avoid being a prisoner of the moment. 

So, let’s review the breakdown of how we define player expectations:

• No expectations (walk-ons, true freshmen, practice bodies).
• Low expectations (roster fillers, third team players, next man up situation).
• Moderate expectations (key backups & role players *how well are you playing the role asked of you).
• High expectations (core players of the team you expect to make a big impact in their role or statistically). 

Let’s continue our series with the Wisconsin football tight ends room. 

High Expectations 

• Clay Cundiff (RS JR)

I’m placing Clay Cundiff as the only tight end in the high-expectations group because he’s the most established pass-catcher in the room.

The 6-foot-3, 236-pound TE was amid a breakout campaign for the Badgers before he suffered his second straight season-ending injury.

Through the season’s first four games, Cundiff caught nine passes for 142 yards while adding two touchdowns. Despite missing most of the year, he still led the tight end room in total yardage and had the fifth most receiving yards on the team. He finished the season with a high quality (75.9) grade by PFF, which was by far the highest among Badgers TEs.

Injuries and how he rebounds from them are a concern, but they were freak accidents, and he’s proven to be a seam stretcher when on the field. His fit in Phil Longo’s offense makes the most sense to me, and he could be a potential difference-maker in the passing game this season.

To meet expectations, Cundiff must regain his spot at the top of the depth chart and provide Wisconsin football with a viable pass-catching tight end.

Wisconsin Football TEs With Moderate Expectations

• Jack Eschenbach (RS SR)
• Hayden Rucci (RS SR)
• Riley Nowakowski (RS JR)
• Jack Pugh (RS SO)

I’m lumping Jack Eschenbach, Hayden Rucci, Riley Nowakowski, and Jack Pugh in the moderate expectations group because of the uncertainty at the position.

Wisconsin football has plenty of role players in this group that should see the field in some capacity in 2023. Eschenbach is an athletic tight end who caught 14 passes for 120 yards, but at this point, he’s just a depth piece you can call upon from time to time (which still has value).

Rucci is a difficult player to evaluate in this new system. He was used primarily as a blocking tight end, catching six passes for 75 yards and a touchdown. Rucci is a mauler who will see the field in specific packages, but can he carve out a more prominent role in this spread offense? We’ll have to wait and see.

Then you have Nowakowski, a converted fullback that the new coaching staff placed on scholarship this spring. He’s a little undersized for the position, but he gives Wisconsin football flexibility formation-wise because he can play some H-back. He’ll see the field sparingly as a trustworthy, assignment-sound player.

Then the last player in this tier for me is Pugh, who, in a perfect world, establishes himself as the heir to the TE1 spot. He’s one of the most athletic players in the group and showed some promise this spring that could vault him into a bigger role this season. Considering the role players ahead of him — I wouldn’t be shocked if he plays the second most snaps in 2023.

To meet expectations, everyone in this group needs to play their role efficiently. The tight end room is not very deep right now, and most of the players mentioned above graded below average last season. The hope is that they can make marginal steps forward and bridge the gap to a new group of players that better fit this system.

Wisconsin Football TEs With Low Expectations

• Cam Large (RS JR)
• Cole Dakovich (RS JR)

In this low-expectations group, I will put Cam Large and Cole Dakovich because they have been in the program for a few seasons, and it’s now or never for both of them.

Large was brought in as a blocking tight end with pass-catching upside, but it has yet to materialize or lead to any meaningful game action. And with Dakovich, he appeared in five games last season, playing 70 snaps while serving as a blocking TE (results were uneven at best).

This group is definitely on the outside looking in for Wisconsin football, but anything is possible due to the new coaching staff taking over. To meet expectations, Large and Dakovich need to take a step forward in their development and establish themselves as players that could fill reserve roles next season while holding off the young guns.

No Expectations 

• JT Seagreaves (RS FR)
• Tucker Ashcraft (FR)
• Angel Toombs (FR)

Finally, in the no-expectations group, I’ve got redshirt freshman JT Seagreaves, incoming freshman Tucker Ashcraft and walk-on Angel Toombs. 

This group has a lot of projectability and athleticism, but nobody from this trio should see the field in 2023. Seagreaves is someone with a ton of upside that I’m excited to watch progress — he played one snap in the bowl game and caught one pass for three yards. 

To meet expectations, this group needs to focus on the weight room, the playbook, and mastering the system to push for snaps next season when some veteran players depart. 

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