The Wisconsin Badgers have had a lot of transfer portal attrition during the Luke Fickell era, seeing a number of players head elsewhere for better opportunities.
Among those players is former tight end Riley Nowakowski, who transferred to the Indiana Hoosiers this offseason for his final year of eligibility.
Nowakowski had been in the tight end rotation the previous two years at Wisconsin, but the Badgers never had much success getting the tight ends involved in the passing game. As a result, Nowakowski combined
for 18 catches and 131 yards between the 2023 and 2024 seasons.
Well, the Milwaukee native has exploded on the scene this season as a key piece for the 13-0 Hoosiers, who are the No. 1 team in the country. Replacing former Indiana tight end Zach Horton, Nowakowski has caught 25 passes for 316 yards and two touchdowns this season, being used in a variety of ways in the passing game.
He’s had a couple of big games this season, including a four-catch, 65-yard, one-touchdown performance against Wisconsin in November when the two teams faced off.
Speaking ahead of Indiana’s matchup with the Alabama Crimson Tide on Thursday, Nowakowski praised the Indiana staff for figuring out a gameplan for him, noting that Wisconsin’s staff hadn’t really valued him as much during his time there.
“They definitely saw a lot more in me than a lot of other staffs,” Nowakowski said about Indiana. “Personally, I feel like the staff at my old school didn’t see a whole ton in me. But, actually, on my visit, I talked to [Indiana offensive coordinator Mike] Shanahan. I was like, ‘Coach, give me a tight end screen. I’ll show you what I can do.’ I was kind of joking at the time, but I think just, throughout our time here, they told me I was going to be involved in the pass game.
“That was a big thing for me coming from Wisconsin [without] a lot of receiving yards. They definitely pitched me and said, ‘Hey, our tight end last year, Zach [Horton], had like 200 or some passing yards.’ I was just like, ‘That’s good for me. I’ll take 200 [yards].’ But I’ve just been continuing to get more and more involved and just continuing to build trust, and I’m just happy that they keep giving me the ball. It’s awesome.”
Nowakowski marks another former Badgers skill-position player who has seen significant success elsewhere after moving on.
Former wideout Skyler Bell, who transferred to UConn before the 2024 season, immediately had his best season, catching 50 passes for 860 yards and five touchdowns as the top receiver for the Huskies last year.
Then, Bell took an even bigger step this season, going off for 101 catches, 1,278 yards, and 13 touchdowns. His catches ranked third in college football, yards ranked second, and touchdowns ranked second. As a result, he was a First-Team All-Pro this season and is poised to be drafted in the 2026 NFL Draft this offseason.
Lewis, an initial UCLA transfer from the Paul Chryst era, had caught 20 passes for 313 yards and three touchdowns in 2022. Then, in the new offense under Luke Fickell and Phil Longo, Lewis transferred midseason after not being featured in Wisconsin’s passing game in 2023, catching only one pass for 12 yards, while being left out of the wideout rotation.
Lewis proceeded to transfer to Southern Illinois, catching 49 passes for 790 yards and five touchdowns. That prompted him to transfer to Oklahoma this offseason, where he was their No. 3 receiver behind Isaiah Sategna III and Deion Burks.
Then, there’s Nowakowski, who’s a starter on the best team in college football.
Wisconsin has a big offseason ahead of it, where skill position players are one of the team’s biggest needs after another transfer portal exodus. We’ll see how they’re able to attack the positions this offseason.
