Wisconsin tight ends coach Nate Letton spoke to the media during fall camp for the first time since the spring. He touched on plenty of topics, from the wide range of skillsets in his room to his two true freshman.
Here's everything Letton said at his availability:
*Authors note: Some questions and answers are slightly rephrased for clarity.
Q: You had one of the youngest rooms back in the spring. How have you seen that young talent develop here in the fall?
"Yeah, that's what I told them as we were leaving Platteville. I was very pleased with the growth. We didn't have a lot of competitive maturity this spring, being able to sustain throughout practice. The youth had something do to with that. I thought they accepted that challenge well, and I think you've seen that consistency throughout camp. Practice to practice, play to play it's been a lot improved. And what that's done is create some competition within the room, and heighten everybody's level of play a little so I've been really pleased with that."
Q: How has Tucker Ashcraft's run-blocking technique improved compared to last season?
"Yeah, it's been awesome. Fundamentally at tight end, we wanna run off the ball. That takes some time to understand how to do that. Tucker was always a willing participant, but sometimes a little out of control, found himself in little problems. I think what you've seen from him, talking about that growth, a guy that we're gonna be counting on a lot, who's still just a second-year guy, is taking that coaching day by day. Focusing on one element of the run-blocking and the pass game or whatever it is and being able to apply that day over day and not loosing what he had built on. He's done a great job in run-blocking. He's been a force, and I'm really excited about where his career is headed right now."
Q: What's it like to have different skillsets at the top of the position group?
"It's a lot of fun for me as a coach, but we wanna make sure we challenge everybody to supplement the parts of their game that maybe they're not the best at, because we wanna have versatility across the board. But when you do have guys with different skillsets, number one it gives you an opportunity to put different personnel on the field to attack defenses. Number two, it allows you to play at some tempo, because you have guys that can do different jobs. I think we have that right now, specifically at the top end of the room."
Q: What's stood out about Robert Booker and Grant Stec?
"What you're always curious with with young guys is what's their competitive level. Are they gonna go out here and grind every day and attack every period of practice? I think you've seen both those guys do that. Grant in particular has really impressed me. When he came in, wasn't entirely sure what he was going to be able to do, especially the further he got away from the ball. But I think if you guys pay attention to inside run and all, he's turned some heads definitely with what he's doing. And he continues to develop in the passing game as well, so really excited about him. And Rob has shown a lot of promise as well, but obviously those guys are young, so we wanna make sure they're following the leadership of the room, and for the most part, they've been doing that right now."
Q: We've seen Tucker split off the line more; is that an example of something you're adding to his game in his second year?
"Truth be told, it may have not been totally fair for Tucker to be out there as much as he was. Coming in as a true freshman who enrolled in the summer. But what you've seen from his whole training process is, you've seen a guy who's committed to improving his game. He's been out there on the field, he knows what level of play he's going to experience. And going back to the very first question, that was the big emphasis for us was maturity in our room. I think Riley Nowakowski has done a great job of setting the standard of what we want that performance level to look like, and the people that are younger than him have really looked up to that. And they've taken some ownership of that level of performance, and I think Tucker's really owned up to that."
Q: How have they taken the role of being more featured in the passing game?
"They're really happy about it. I wanna make sure, there's a mentality to what we do. I don't wanna highlight the passing game too much, otherwise these guys will start asking for routes on air and stuff like that. We've still gotta run block. But no, they're very excited, and the biggest thing is they're developing trust with the quarterbacks. I think that's something we didn't have last year. I think it's something we're developing now and it's a huge factor in what we're experiencing."
Q: Is there a number you're comfortable playing this fall?
"You wanna play somewhere between two and three. We're definitely gonna play with two guys. If a third shows up that we feel like has command of the opportunity, we're gonna do that. But we also wanna make sure that we create rhythm and cohesion on our offensive unit by not rotating too many guys."
Q: How close is JT Seagreaves to maybe being that third person?
"I think JT has had a solid camp. Conversations I've had with JT is there's a level of consistency we're still wanting to see and a level of urgency we're still wanting to see. He's got all the tools, he knows this. But it's about stacking days and developing trust with the other 10 guys out there on the field right now."
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