How Will Kacmarek Went from Two-Star Recruit to Ohio Bobcat to Impact Player at Ohio State

by Dan Hope September 11, 2025
Will Kacmarek vs. Grambling State
Adam Cairns/Columbus Dispatch/USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Ohio State tight ends coach Keenan Bailey knew he was going out on a limb when he told Ryan Day in December 2023 that he thought Will Kacmarek was the best tight end in the transfer portal.

Kacmarek wasn’t even a full-time starter at Ohio University, and there’s typically a big talent disparity between the Buckeyes and the Bobcats. One of Ohio’s top players the previous season was Sam Wiglusz, a former Ohio State walk-on wide receiver who rarely played for the Buckeyes.

But Bailey felt Kacmarek was exactly what the Buckeyes needed as they looked for a tough, gritty and experienced tight end to help lead their room following the departure of Cade Stover. And it didn’t take long for Day to agree with him once he turned on Kacmarek’s film.

“The initial knee-jerk (reaction) was ‘Hold on, you gotta go find the best tight end in the country to come replace Cade Stover, who was a Mackey finalist, and you're taking a kid from the MAC who doesn't even start?’ And I was like, ‘Damn right,’” Bailey said. “After we watched the tape, he was like ‘Holy cow, we definitely want this kid.’ But just testing to see if I was convicted in him, and certainly I was. I don't think that there was even a runner-up with who I wanted in the portal.”

In a transfer class that also included Caleb Downs, Will Howard, Quinshon Judkins and Seth McLaughlin, Kacmarek arrived at Ohio State with little fanfare and was overshadowed by his higher-profile teammates during the Buckeyes’ run to a national championship last season. But Bailey says Kacmarek was quietly crucial to the team’s success in 2024, especially during its College Football Playoff run.

“You go back to our playoff run and just pull like the biggest plays, I bet you 89 was at the point of attack,” Bailey told Eleven Warriors. “It was not a coincidence, the first play of the Tennessee game, we threw a quick screen to our boundary behind Kaz … if you pull up our biggest plays of that run, like stick to the Rose bowl, Kaz was blocking on JJ's touchdown post, he was blocking Jordan Burch or whoever their best pass-rusher was. And he didn't get any of those recognitions, but he did the same thing he did against Texas, he blocked their best D-ends.”

Two games into his second season as a Buckeye, Kacmarek is starting to get the recognition Bailey’s long felt he deserved. Dubbed by Bailey as the “best blocking tight end in the country,” Kacmarek got lots of social media love for his blocking in Ohio State’s season-opening win over Texas, particularly his pass-protection effort against top Texas edge rusher Colin Simmons on Julian Sayin’s 40-yard touchdown pass to Carnell Tate.

Last week against Grambling State, Kacmarek showed he can also be a weapon as a receiver – his top individual goal entering the season – as he scored a 47-yard touchdown on a deep ball from Sayin on Ohio State’s opening drive.

Now, Kacmarek enters Ohio State’s third game of the season with the spotlight shining upon him as he prepares to face his former team at Ohio Stadium on Saturday night (7 p.m., Peacock).

Bobcats gave Kacmarek his chance

Kacmarek likely wouldn’t be playing for Ohio State now if the Ohio Bobcats hadn’t taken a chance on him five years ago.

As a high school prospect out of St. Louis’ Mary Institute & St. Louis Country Day, Kacmarek was ranked as just a two-star recruit by 247Sports. Ohio was the only FBS school to offer him a scholarship out of high school, and that only happened because of former Ohio defensive coordinator Ron Collins, who had strong connections with high school coaches in the St. Louis area.

Brian Metz, Ohio’s tight ends coach at the time, never had the chance to meet or watch Kacmarek in person as a recruit due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which shut down in-person recruiting in 2020. But much like Day and Bailey after they watched Kacmarek’s Ohio film, Metz saw what he needed to see from Kacmarek’s high school film to feel confident offering him a scholarship.

“One of the things that we noticed really early on is how hard he plays and that fit our culture at Ohio. We prided ourselves on playing tough, hard-nosed, aggressive, fundamental football, and he fit that and what we were looking for in a tight end,” Metz, who’s now the tight ends coach at Charlotte, told Eleven Warriors. “Off of high school film, he was highly athletic, played both ways, tight end and defensive line, and then was a multi-sport kid who was a really good lacrosse player. And we love guys that play multiple sports. And I think through his lacrosse training, he was really conditioned to play a physical brand of football, but also be pretty relentless in chasing the ball and playing through the whistle and things of that nature. So those were the things really early on that drew us to him.”

After playing in only two games as a freshman, Kacmarek started to prove Metz’s evaluation right as a redshirt freshman in 2022, when he played 439 snaps and caught 20 passes for 264 yards while splitting playing time at tight end with Tyler Foster. Kacmarek built on that in 2023 by catching 22 passes for 243 yards and two touchdowns and excelling as a blocker as he continued to split time with Foster, playing 496 snaps per Pro Football Focus.

“He was the type of player that you really only had to coach him once and could learn off of film and bring things from the meeting room to the field. And that intelligence, combined with his physicality and athleticism, made him a great player on the field for us,” said Metz, who described Kacmarek as a “relentless” worker.

Will Kacmarek
Will Kacmarek played three seasons for the Ohio Bobcats before transferring to Ohio State. (Photo: Lon Horwedel – Imagn Images)

Kacmarek says he never would have imagined he’d eventually end up playing at Ohio State when he began his career at Ohio. As the end of the 2023 season neared, however, Kacmarek started to think about the possibility of playing at the highest level of college football.

“I really felt like I was dominating the role I had at that level. And I was trying to maximize my potential as best as possible,” Kacmarek said this week. “The MAC had great competition all-around. But just like the depth here in the Big Ten, we play SEC all the time, so just playing those big games, I really think could improve your overall abilities.”

That said, Kacmarek remains full of gratitude for his three years at Ohio, knowing his time there played a big part in getting him to where he is now.

“I still talk to the coaches to this day. Some of my best friends are still on that team. That opportunity opened up the whole world for me in football, so I'm forever grateful,” Kacmarek said.

Becoming an impact player for the Buckeyes

Kacmarek was a backup to Gee Scott Jr. for most of his first season as a Buckeye, and missed four games during the regular season after suffering an arm injury on a 32-yard catch – his longest of the year – on Ohio State’s opening drive in their October game at Oregon. He finished the regular season with just five catches for 58 yards.

That said, his value to the Buckeyes started to become more obvious in the CFP. Kacmarek was in the starting lineup for all four of Ohio State’s playoff wins and played the most snaps among tight ends in each of the Buckeyes’ final three games of the year. That was largely because of his effectiveness as a blocker, though he also caught three passes for 28 yards in the CFP.

Going into this season, it looked as though Kacmarek might play second fiddle again after the Buckeyes brought in former Purdue tight end Max Klare, a far more highly touted transfer portal addition than Kacmarek was the year before. Against Texas, however, Kacmarek was Ohio State’s No. 1 tight end, playing 48 of 59 snaps – the third-most of any offensive skill-position player behind only Sayin and Jeremiah Smith.

Thanks to last week’s 47-yard reception, Kacmarek is currently Ohio State’s leading receiver among tight ends, with 55 total yards on two catches, all the while living up to the hype as one of the nation’s best blockers at the position.

Like Metz, Bailey believes Kacmarek’s success starts with his work ethic and mentality, which has enabled Kacmarek to establish himself as a difference-maker for the defending national champions.

“He's just such a tireless worker. He changed the culture of our room,” Bailey said. “That first spring when he came in, he had to have more pancakes than any tight end ever. And there’s definitely a curve; like there's a way to practice, you take care of your teammates and all that, but looking back, that first spring was just absurd how hard he went every snap.”

“You go back to our playoff run and just pull like the biggest plays, I bet you 89 was at the point of attack.”– Keenan Bailey on Will Kacmarek’s Impact on Ohio State’s offense

Bailey’s seen Kacmarek get better and better throughout his two years at Ohio State, and as a result, he’s getting closer to fulfilling the vision that Bailey had for Kacmarek when he recruited him two years ago.

“When I called him, like that first conversation, I was like, ‘I'm bringing you in to be the best tight end in the country, period,’” Bailey said. “I know I talk about him as the best blocking tight end in the country, but I don't even know if you want to limit him to that … his pass pro has really improved, his route running's improved. He's more of an all-around tight end now.”

Day was equally complimentary of Kacmarek this week, describing the fifth-year senior tight end as “our type of player.”

“What I mean by that is, I think anybody would like to have a player like this, but he's hard-working, he's a good teammate, he’s smart. And I think he's getting better every day,” Day said.

Kacmarek’s journey from two-star recruit to MAC standout to impact player at Ohio State has been “a dream come true” for Kacmarek, who had no idea just a couple of years ago that he’d be a future national champion for the Buckeyes. Now, Kacmarek is emerging as an NFL prospect as he looks to help lead Ohio State to another national title.

With that goal in mind, Kacmarek’s focus this week is on his current team and preparing to help the Buckeyes win, but Saturday’s game is one Kacmarek has had circled on his calendar, knowing it was coming up early in the year. And it allows him to reflect on how both schools have helped him get to where he is now.

“It was a long process. It took a lot to get to this point. But it's going to be cool to see my old school again and play with those guys,” Kacmarek said.

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