Wisconsin football lands Bowling Green transfer tight end Jacob Harris
Wisconsin football has landed a transfer portal commitment from former Bowling Green tight end Jacob Harris.
The Wisconsin football program has added a piece to its offense through the transfer portal as the staff works to rebuild its passing game.
That addition comes at tight end, where Jacob Harris announced his commitment to Luke Fickell and the Badgers after transferring from Bowling Green. The move gives Wisconsin a proven red-zone target at a time when Nate Letton’s room is undergoing significant change.
Harris checks in at 6-foot-4, roughly 255 pounds, and arrives in Madison with two years of eligibility remaining. A native of Westerville, Ohio, he was a three-star recruit in the 2023 class coming out of Westerville Central High School, where he played both tight end and wide receiver.
He committed to Bowling Green out of high school and spent three seasons developing in the MAC before entering the portal.
After redshirting and seeing action in one game during the 2023 season, Harris played in 10 games for Bowling Green as a redshirt freshman, catching two passes for five yards before taking a big step forward in 2025. Harris appeared in 12 games, making three starts, and finished the season with 19 receptions for 182 yards and a team-high five touchdowns.
Harris’ production wasn’t volume-heavy, but it was efficient.
He caught 19 of his 28 targets, with 10 of those receptions moving the chains, carving out a niche role as a matchup problem for opposing defenses near the goal line. According to Pro Football Focus, he finished the year with a 73.3 overall offensive grade across 299 offensive snaps, including a 75.3 grade as a receiver and a 61.6 grade as a run blocker.
During his three seasons at Bowling Green, Harris totaled 21 career receptions for 187 yards receiving. The numbers point to a player who was still being worked into the offense, but the physical profile and red-zone efficiency suggest there’s more to unlock in a Power Four program.
The fit makes sense within Wisconsin’s offensive vision under new offensive coordinator Jeff Grimes, whose background has consistently featured tight ends as functional pieces in both the run game and the passing attack. The Badgers’ tight end room has been in flux this offseason, with Tucker Ashcraft entering the transfer portal and Lance Mason exhausting his eligibility, leaving a clear gap in overall experience.
Harris steps into a room that returns Grant Stec, Emmett Bork, and Jackson McGohan, along with incoming freshman Jack Sievers. It’s a young room overall, which makes his combination of size, experience, and contested catch ability relevant. Harris doesn’t need to be the focal point to be valuable, but he gives Wisconsin a reliable option in the redzone.
For Harris, the move represents an opportunity to compete for snaps and test his game in the Big Ten. For Wisconsin, it’s an addition to a position group that needed upside as the offense takes shape heading into 2026.
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