As Luke Fickell's first season in Madison draws closer, the Badgers will hit the field for spring practice starting in late March.

Following its Pro Day on March 23, UW will run spring ball between March 25 and April 27 this year, according to a recent social media post. With a completely revamped coaching staff, a few key incoming transfers and brand new schematics, Wisconsin football will look plenty different in 2023. Spring ball will be the first glimpse at this new era.

BadgerBlitz.com is once again expected to watch any open practices available for reporters to attend. Sunday, we take a look at the tight ends, a position that should become a bigger factor in the passing game under Phil Longo.

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Wisconsin returns nearly all of their tight ends from a season ago, minus Jaylan Franklin, who transferred to Michigan State in the offseason.

Last season, Wisconsin threw the ball to six different tight ends, in part because of injuries that shook up the depth chart. Clay Cundiff was the Badgers' primary receiving tight end until the Ohio State game, when he broke his left leg and was forced to miss the rest of the season. Cundiff is Wisconsin's top returning pass-catcher at the tight end position, but his status for spring ball is still somewhat up in the air.

"I’ll leave all the decisions to the medical staff, but it sounds like (Cundiff's) prognosis is good and maybe we can get him in some on-air situations towards the end of the spring, see his moving skills and just get him back in a football mindset," new tight ends coach Nate Letton recently told reporters. "We’re really excited about him.”

Longo's offense traditionally focused on three pass-catching tight ends at North Carolina. Despite throwing to six different players in 2022, Wisconsin's tight ends accumulated just 32 catches for 369 yards and three touchdowns. Last season in Chapel Hill, Longo's tight ends racked up 79 catches for 1,087 yards and eight scores. Tight end was not often the first read in Bobby Engram's pro-style offense, but they should be much more involved through the air in Longo's spread system.

Past Cundiff, the most experienced in the room is sixth-year graduate Jack Eschenbach. Eschenbach played in every game last season, but was primarily a blocker, playing 66.9 percent of his snaps inline, per Pro Football Focus. He did manage to stay healthy the entire year, and his experience will be welcomed in a tight end room with plenty of young faces.

Hayden Rucci is also in the mix, and he's a physical presence who's also mainly a blocker. Rucci was the go-to blocking tight end a season ago — 98.6 percent of his snaps were inline. He did catch all six of his targets, however, including a touchdown in the bowl game. Letton stressed that versatility will be key for tight ends under Longo's tutelage.

"They gotta do everything…They can’t just be pros at blocking, they can’t just be pros at running routes and catching the football," Letton said.

"But to me the thing that’s gonna be the most exciting but also one of the more challenging things we have to do…is there’s a lot of freedom in the offense. We’re taking what the defense gives us, and sometimes we might call the same concept twice and they look a lot different."

Those three — Cundiff, Rucci and Eschenbach will be at the top of the position. Nevertheless, there's some younger talent further down the pecking order Letton and the offensive staff are excited about.

JT Seagreaves was one of the players that received hype from his teammates during practice sessions for the Guaranteed Rate Bowl. He profiles as more of a receiving tight end, which is what Longo is looking for.

It's also worth noting that Riley Nowakowski made the transition to tight end. As a running back/fullback a season ago, the Nowakowski didn't make much of an impact offensively. It'll be interesting to see how the offensive staff tries to work him in.

As mentioned, Wisconsin's tight ends simply didn't put up much production last season. Part of that was an injury to their top pass-catcher, and part of that was scheme. Now, the entire room has to learn a new offense and acclimate to a new group of quarterbacks throwing them the football.

“The offense is unique, particularly for where these guys have been. There’s a lot of guys that have different skill sets. We have to know what jobs certain guys can be proficient at in this league. Now, we’re not gonna plug guys in where, one guy’s only in when we’re running the football, one guy’s only in when we're throwing the football; we’re not gonna give that kind of tendency tell. We wanna know what the different route concepts, maybe certain guys are more inline guys…what they can be good at, what we can flex them out as," Letton told reporters.

Certainly, like last season, different tight ends will be used in roles that suit their skillsets. But who can take on the most of those roles, and thus stay on the field the longest, will be intriguing to watch during spring practices. There's plenty of questions all over the tight end room, and who emerges as the alpha, particularly catching the ball, will have a great chance to put up numbers not seen in Madison since Jake Ferguson.

Seagreaves only caught one pass all season, a three yard completion in the flat during the bowl win over Oklahoma State. And yet, In the eyes of the staff and team, he may have the highest ceiling in the room.

"JT Seagreaves, I mean I think his potential is through the roof,” Letton raved.

During bowl prep, he also received high praise from Braelon Allen.

"I think he can be a playmaker. He’s incredibly fast for some reason. I don’t know how or why but incredibly fast."

Seagreaves was a running back in high school, and also a basketball player. He has the athleticism needed to be a playmaker at the tight end position, especially in Longo's scheme. He'll have to battle against players with several years of experience on him for reps in the spring, but he'll be a sneaky name to watch for the Badgers going forward.

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