MADISON -- Luke Fickell did not have to do much convincing to do in his pitch to get former Cincinnati tight ends coach Nate Letton to make the move with him to Wisconsin.
Letton stayed behind in Ohio to coach the Bearcats tight ends in the Fenway Bowl against Louisville. Once he got back from Boston, Letton got a call from Fickell to join the staff as an analyst, an opportunity he jumped on.
"If Coach Fick had a job for me, I was going to take it regardless of what the role was because I believe in how he runs a program and everything he’s done," Letton said. "Gino (Guidugli) is a really close friend of mine, so I was excited to continue working with him but obviously excited for him. Selfishly I was really excited for the opportunity to work with the tight ends here at Wisconsin.
"I got a call from Coach Fickell - ‘Hey, I’d like to bring you up here as an analyst but also I need a guy to help us with special teams.’ And like I said earlier, if there was an opportunity for me up here, I wanted to take it, so it was kind of a no-brainer for me."
After Guidugli left for Notre Dame, Letton quickly transitioned from analyst to assistant coach. In the few weeks he spent as a quality control coach, Letton took part in meetings with coordinator Phil Longo and line coach Jack Bicknell Jr., who served as teachers for the new offensive staff.
From there, he popped in to Guidigli's office to continue to help out with the tight ends and learn the terminology. In the evenings, Letton met with Fickell and special teams coordinator Matt Mitchell to go over drills and terminology for that phase of the game.
"Just a lot of computer work and studying," Letton recalled.
The working environment wasn't a difficult transition for the 29-year old position coach. At Cincinnati, he served as the tight ends coach in 2022 under Guidugli, who was the offensive coordinator. Letton had also spent three seasons working alongside wide receivers coach Mike Brown, who now carries the same title at UW. And while he was coming in at the same time running backs coach Devon Spalding was on his way out, the two kept in touch over the years.
"They’re great guys to work with, easy to get along with, so more than anything I’ve enjoyed the time we’ve had to watch football and spit the breeze." Letton said of the staff.
It's been a little over three weeks since Letton officially moved offices. While trying to learn the tight ends room and what he has to work with, he spent time watching the film and growing organically by spending time outside of a football setting.
"They don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care, and to me that’s just an investment in time," Letton explained. "That’s spending time with them outside of the room as a unit and being on the football field. As a team, it’s spending time outside of the meeting room and getting to know them personally. What makes them tick, why are they here, what brought them to Wisconsin, why are they playing college football because there are a lot of different factors for players."
Letton has made an effort to sit during lunch with his players and bring them up to his office to chat. He has also worked out in the facilities.
"I know it's not super evident since the cheese here has got to me," Letton joked.
Letton displayed an eagerness to work with what he thinks is a talented yet largely unproven group.
"They got to do everything just like any other offense," Letton said of the tight ends in the new offense. "They can’t just be pros at blocking or pros at running routes and catching the football. To me, the thing I think will be the most exciting but is also one of the more challenging things we have to do to rewire or retool what they do is there is a lot of freedom in the offense.
"We're going to take what the defense gives us and we might call the same concept twice, and it might look a lot different... I think there is going to be a learning curve for us but they are going to be really good for us as soon as we get over it."
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