As Luke Fickell‘s second act in Madison draws closer, BadgerBlitz.com will break down Wisconsin’s roster position by position ahead of spring camp, which is slated to take place from March 22 to May 2.
BadgerBlitz.com is once again expected to watch any open practices available for reporters to attend. Thus, our position previews continue Sunday with the tight ends, a position group that needs to make more of an impact than it did in 2023.
PREVIEWS: QUARTERBACKS | RUNNING BACKS
Hayden Rucci, Wisconsin’s most productive tight end a season ago, posted 11 catches for 125 yards last fall. Rucci is now gone, and with him goes nearly half of the Badgers’ production at tight end.
Phil Longo barely utilized tight ends in the passing game in his inaugural season in Madison. Tight ends were targeted 44 times, as opposed to 331 targets for wide receivers, according to Pro Football Focus. That disparity can largely be attributed to the fact that the Badgers’ tight ends simply didn’t fit the mold that Longo’s offense requires. The tight ends on Wisconsin’s roster were mainly in-line, blocking-first players while Longo wants more athletic, movable hybrid-like athletes.
It’s not that Longo doesn’t utilize his tight ends. In 2022, when the coordinator was still at North Carolina, his tight ends racked up 1,087 receiving yards. Longo needs players that he can move around a formation and entrust with a complex route tree.
Who could emerge as those players in Longo’s second season in Madison? If the Badgers’ offense has a weak spot on paper, it’s tight end, simply due to a lack of experience and returning production.
Tucker Ashcraft managed to contribute right away as a true freshman. For his 6-foot-5, 245-pound frame, the Seattle native can move well and serve as a legitimate receiving threat at times. He only put up eight catches for 86 yards and one score last fall, but he’s a good bet to be a staple of Wisconsin’s two-deep.
Riley Nowakowski returns as a senior following his debut season at the tight end position. Nowakowski scored the only other touchdown by a Wisconsin tight end last year in the Axe Game. The Badgers liked using him in the red zone, especially later in the season. If he can continue to hone his game as a tight end, he should be right there in the mix for snaps this fall.
The most intriguing player at the position may be LSU transfer Jackson McGohan. He didn’t play as a freshman in Baton Rouge, but the Badgers are in love with his athletic ability and potential. Fickell tried to lure the Miamisburg, Ohio native to Cincinnati before he came to Madison, and the coach will get his shot to develop a player he recruited heavily at his prior job.
Still, the Badgers need immediate help at the position, which is why its crucial that Wisconsin’s two true freshman â Robert Booker and Grant Stec â are enrolling early this spring. Both players appear to fit the mold Longo seeks at tight end, as both are athletic pass-catchers who can be moved around the formation. It’ll be fascinating to see how quickly they’re given the chance to compete for meaningful reps.
Wisconsin’s Projected Running Backs on 2024 Spring Roster
*Indicates Walk-On
Departing Players at Position Group
Stec and Booker were both highly sought-after recruits who, in addition to possessing fantastic size, can both run routes and catch passes proficiently. Because of the Badgers’ obvious need for that skillset at the position, it feels like if they were given an opportunity they could make an immediate splash. The question is, when will that opportunity come?
The “experienced” players ahead of the freshman barely fit that description. Nowakowski has only played tight end for one year. Ashcraft will be just a sophomore. McGohan didn’t see any offensive snaps for LSU a season ago. What’s more, no one in Wisconsin’s tight end room has proven that they are capable of being a consistent difference-maker. What does all this mean? There should be plenty of snaps for the taking.
The entire depth chart at tight end should be up for grabs this offseason, from top to bottom. Wisconsin did well to restock talent at the position by bringing in two coveted freshman and a transfer. All that’s left to do is determine the pecking order on the football field.
The aforementioned freshman will be intriguing to watch, but McGohan is the one to keep an eye on this spring. In high school, McGohan displayed everything Longo could ask for in a tight end: alignment flexibility, great hands, an ability to run after the catch and a nasty, physical demeanor. With his athletic tools, he should be given every opportunity to show what he can do. And with the depth chart wide open, McGohan’s time is now.
Potential Depth Chart at Quarterback
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Wisconsin coach Kelly Sheffield shares his biggest spring takeaway
Wisconsin coach Kelly Sheffield shared his biggest takeaway from the spring following the Badgers’ four-set win over Northern Illinois.
MADISON – Kelly Sheffield has coached All-Americans, national players of the year, national champions and future Olympians in his 13 years as Wisconsin volleyball coach.
So Sheffield’s unique praise of Decelise Champion – a star pin-hitter from Puerto Rico who committed to the Badgers last fall – carries a lot of weight.
“Her highest-end potential is certainly as high as about anybody we’ve ever brought in,” Sheffield said. “She’s got a lot of work to get to where she’s capable of, and that’s on us as coaches and on her to help reach those dreams and goals. But when you’re watching people around her age, she’s different.”
That work is beginning earlier than initially expected after Wisconsin announced that Champion will reclassify from the 2027 recruiting class and join the Badgers as a freshman for the 2026 season.
Champion – currently 16 years old and turning 17 in September – will arrive with a resume that includes experience on Puerto Rico’s senior national team and the elite Italian club Volleyro Casal de Pazzi. That’s all while being strong enough academically to earn a GED degree and the necessary NCAA waiver for a few missing core classes.
“What made it really a lot better is that all of her grades at the different schools she’s been at have been fantastic,” Sheffield said. “She’s an excellent student. Was crushing it at a really, really good academic school in Italy in her third language.”
The timing of the June 12 announcement accounted for the second-last open roster spot for the 2026 season, but Champion and UW’s efforts to make the reclassification possible go back much earlier than that.
“We’ve known she’s wanted to do this since February,” Sheffield said. “We told our team in February that was the plan. And then we didn’t let anybody know publicly until she was done with her season. She just didn’t want to be a distraction for her team.”
Wisconsin already had plenty of competition at the pin-hitting positions before Champion’s move to the 2026 class.
Grace Egan had a major role on the 2025 Final Four team, and Eva Travis had an impressive spring after transferring from UC-Santa Barbara. Others include Grace Lopez, Madison Quest and the highly-touted freshman duo of Halle Thompson and Audrey Flanagan.
Even with the upcoming addition of one more pin-hitter – and one with such a high potential – UW did not lose any players in the spring transfer portal cycle. Even the idea of someone leaving seemed outlandish to Sheffield.
“If they’re just going to get up and leave because somebody came, I would say that that person is probably chicken s—,” Sheffield said.
Sheffield’s praise of Champion’s proposal obviously does not come with a guarantee of playing time either at the crowded pin-hitting positions.
“I would say, yeah, she does have a chance of being out on the court for us this year,” Sheffield said. “But we’ve also got some other really talented people that play the pins.”
The outside and right-side hitters already on UW’s spring roster will have at least one key advantage over Champion in her freshman season – time.
Egan, Lopez and Quest are returning players (although Egan and Lopez spent their spring recovering from injuries). Travis, Thompson and Flanagan all enrolled in time to spend the spring with the Badgers and impressed in UW’s spring matches.
Champion’s arrival, on the other hand, will follow her participation in an Olympic-qualifying event for Puerto Rico. Sheffield expects that to be Sept. 2, which is the day before fall classes begin and already after UW’s first four matches of the season.
“She’ll be drinking out of a fire hose early on, no doubt about it,” Sheffield said. “Even though she’s been playing with her senior national team this summer, it will be a lot of things coming at her in her secondary language at 16, so there’ll need to be some patience along the way.”
His advice to Champion when she was on campus earlier in June was to “be where your feet are.”
“When she’s with her national team – even though we will have started our preseason, playing matches – don’t worry about us here,” Sheffield said. “Be where your feet are. Be the best you can be for your team there. … Then when you get here, you’re not thinking about your national team.”
Champion’s reclassification comes with the drawback of beginning her NCAA eligibility one year earlier in her volleyball career.
Had she stayed in the 2027 recruiting class, she theoretically would have begun her college career shortly before her 18th birthday and exhausted her eligibility at age 22. Instead, she will begin her college career shortly before her 17th birthday and likely exhaust her eligibility at age 21.
Those scenarios take into account the NCAA Division I Cabinet’s unanimous approval on June 23 of a new eligibility model that will give players five seasons of eligibility in five years. (That replaces the current system with four seasons, redshirts and other waivers.) The NCAA noted that its decision is not final, however, until the meeting concludes on June 24.
“We’re certainly excited to have her this year, but if you kind of think over the course of five years, it’s probably worse for us that she comes a year early,” Sheffield said. “You expect her to be better at 20 and 21 than what she is at 16 or 17. … It really wasn’t something that we were pushing for, but she was ready.”
Of course, volleyball at age 16 or 17 looks different for someone like Champion who has been competing against much older players as a senior national team member and studying halfway across the world from her hometown of Dorado, Puerto Rico.
“When you talk to her, she doesn’t come across as somebody who’s 16,” Sheffield said. “She’s very mature, very easy to talk to, very driven. She’s independent. … She’s had a lot more life experience than most people her age, and that certainly comes across when you’re around her.”
STEVENS POINT, Wis. (WSAW) – A giant spider isn’t actually invading central Wisconsin this weekend.
But an enhanced, big-screen version of the cult-classic 1975 film The Giant Spider Invasion is crawling back into local theaters — and it’s bringing some central Wisconsin nostalgia with it.
The movie was famously filmed in Merrill and Stevens Point, and the updated 2026 release adds enhancements designed for a modern theatrical experience.
Executive Producer J.B. Thompson says the team took the original 1975 film and enhanced it for the big screen in 2026, giving audiences a refreshed way to experience a movie that’s long been a Wisconsin oddity — and a point of pride.
Actor and Producer Dan Davies is featured in newly filmed scenes created specifically for this updated release.
While much of the film is associated with Merrill, Stevens Point Mayor Mike Wiza says Point also played a major role in the production — another reason the film’s return matters to local history buffs and movie fans alike.
Whether it’s the over-the-top creature feature story, the uniquely Wisconsin filming locations, or the nostalgia of seeing familiar places on screen, the group says the film’s staying power is real — even five decades later.
The enhanced version of The Giant Spider Invasion is set for local screenings this weekend in Central and North Central Wisconsin. To purchase tickets for showings in Stevens Point, Marshfield or Waupaca, click here.
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A Wisconsin man has been arrested in Colorado in connection with a fatal north suburban hit-and-run earlier this year that left a 50-year-old woman killed.
According to the Winthrop Harbor Police Department, Travis Kern, 35, of Pleasant Prairie, turned himself into police in Lakewood Colorado on an arrest warrant. Kern was charged with two felonies, police said, and remains in custody in Colorado pending extradition proceedings.
About 11:10 p.m. on February 26, a pedestrian was struck in the 1400 block of Sheridan Road in Winthrop Harbor by a driver of a vehicle heading northbound. The vehicle then fled the scene, police said.
The pedestrian, later identified as Shanna White, 50, of Waukegan, was transported to a nearby hospital where she was pronounced dead.
According to court documents, Kern’s next scheduled court date is set for July 22.
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