All Badgers

Wisconsin Badgers Appear to Be Moving Fourth-Year Tight End to New Position For 2026

The Wisconsin Badgers are making an offseason position change for a highly rated tight end recruit now entering his fourth collegiate season.
Lorin Cox|
Wisconsin Badgers tight end Jackson McGohan is making a position switch to wide receiver.
Wisconsin Badgers tight end Jackson McGohan is making a position switch to wide receiver. | Mark Stewart / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / USA TODAY NETWORK

In this story:

Wisconsin Badgers

Jackson McGohan hasn't been able to carve out a role at tight end in the Wisconsin Badgers offense.

Entering his fourth collegiate season, he'll try to earn more playing time at a new position instead.

The Badgers posted their updated roster on social media, and McGohan is now listed with the wide receivers instead of the tight ends.

Highly rated TE recruit

Coming out of high school in Ohio, he was rated as a Top 25 tight end in the country by both On3 and 247 Sports.

He began his college career at LSU in 2023 before transferring to Wisconsin in 2024.

McGohan redshirted that first season in Madison before appearing in 11 games last year as a backup.

According to PFF, he played 27 snaps on offense. He lined up at a tight end position on 17 of those, with two snaps as a fullback, seven as a slot receiver and one as an outside wide receiver.

Most of his playing time came on special teams on the kickoff coverage and return teams.

New faces at TE and WR

This winter, the Badgers graduated starter Lance Mason and lost Tucker Ashcraft to the transfer portal.

Luke Fickell brought in two outside tight ends to replace them in Jacob Harris from Bowling Green and Ryan Schwendeman from Southern Illinois.

That didn't leave a lot of new playing time for McGohan to earn, along with other returning tight ends like Grant Stec and Emmett Bork.

Related: Wisconsin Badgers transfer portal class is under pressure to save Luke Fickell's job

The wide receiver position saw significantly more turnover with several graduations and transfer portal departures. Fickell added four new veterans in the portal and three true freshmen in the 2026 class.

All of those changes could create more wide open competition for McGohan to find his niche.

He was listed at 6-foot-3, 228 pounds last season, so he can offer offensive coordinator Jeff Grimes a bigger, more physical receiving option on the outside than some of the smaller receivers on the roster.

Nothing would stop the Badgers from still lining him up at tight end, too, despite what his listed position now says.

More Wisconsin Badgers News:

Published
Lorin Cox
LORIN COX

Lorin Cox is the managing editor of Wisconsin Badgers on SI. He has been covering Badgers sports since 2014, when he was an undergraduate at the University of Wisconsin. He previously wrote for the Wisconsin State Journal, NBC Sports Chicago and USA Today Sports Media Group, and he is a former analyst for Pro Football Focus.

Home/Football