The Day They Asked Him to Change Everything
Nowakowski’s Positional Changes
- 2020 Wisconsin: Linebacker
- 2021 Wisconsin: Linebacker
- 2022 Wisconsin: Fullback
- 2023 Wisconsin: Fullback
- 2024 Wisconsin: Tight End
- 2025 Indiana: Tight End
The reality of college football is that every player wants an opportunity. The difficult part is deciding what you're willing to do when that opportunity arrives wearing a different jersey number than the one you imagined.
For Nowakowski, Wisconsin coaches came with a simple proposition.
There wasn't much playing time available at linebacker. The path ahead was crowded. Meanwhile, another position room suddenly had a vacancy.
Most players would have viewed it as starting over.
Nowakowski viewed it as a chance.
"So just ended up, they said, 'Hey, like, if you want to see the field more, like our second fullback had transfers, like, hey, like, you can go play fullback, we need somebody to fill that hole,' and I was like, yeah, of course, you know, whatever I can do to help out."
Those last seven words tell the story.
Whatever I can do to help out.
They are words coaches love because they are spoken less frequently than people realize. Football players talk about team-first attitudes all the time. Living it is another matter entirely.
Nowakowski wasn't chasing statistics. He wasn't looking for a shortcut to recognition. He simply wanted to contribute.
The move required a different mindset. Linebackers attack. Fullbacks absorb punishment. The position rarely earns headlines, but it often determines whether offenses stay on schedule.
For a former all-state linebacker who once piled up tackles in Wisconsin high school football, the transition could have been frustrating.
Instead, it became another chapter in a story built reinvent himself around adaptability.
Years later, NFL evaluators would see a versatile offensive weapon.
At the time, Wisconsin simply saw a player willing to do whatever was necessary.
And as it turned out, football wasn't finished asking Nowakowski to.
