Chemistry Class: Fumagalli exposes himself as vital element of offense
September 08, 2016 | Football, General News
Former walk-on seeks to become latest in long line of terrific tight ends at UW
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Troy Fumagalli exposed himself as a vital element of Wisconsin's offense in the Badgers' season-opening win over LSU. A well-developed understanding with his quarterback and the refinement of his relationship with his coach are key factors in the success of a former walk-on who seeks to become the latest in a long line of terrific tight ends at UW.
BY MIKE LUCAS
UWBadgers.com Senior Writer
Featured in Varsity Magazine
The night before a game, Wisconsin quarterback Bart Houston will play cards for an hour or so to take his mind off football. Outside linebacker Vince Biegel is usually his euchre partner.
QBs don't miss a trick; euchre also happens to be the card game of choice of the Badgers' offensive line.
"I learned it when I got here," said Houston, a Californian.
During Saturday's season opener, LSU learned the hard way that Houston's "right bower" -- the highest trump card -- on the field was tight end Troy Fumagalli, an imposing target.
"When Bart put the ball on me," he said, "it was perfect, it was right there. Timing was great."
Six of Fumagalli's career-high seven catches went for first downs in the Badgers' 16-14 win over the Tigers. His 100 receiving yards were the most by a UW tight end in six years.
It was also Fumagalli's most productive outing in the last five games, or since last October when he caught five passes -- four from Houston who was in relief of injured Joel Stave -- in a win at Illinois.
Houston and Fumagalli definitely appear to have "it" on the field.
"I think we do," Fumagalli said.
"And it's very good," Houston confirmed.
But how would they describe "it?"
"I don't even know (how to)," Houston admitted. "Really nobody knows."Â
Fumagalli has known that "it" didn't just come about.
"I thought that we've kind of had a connection for a little bit now," he said
Chemistry. That's "it."
"It's just the timing," Houston said. "It's just knowing where he's going to be at all times."
Plus, it's knowing that Fumagalli will generally find a way to get open.
"I've kind of had a natural instinct for that," Fumagalli said.
Practice also makes perfect.
"We've been working together for awhile now on the second and third teams," Fumagalli explained. "Jacob Pedersen, Sam Arneson and Austin Traylor got to work with the ones."
All are former UW tight ends who were ahead of Fumagalli on the depth chart.
"I was always working with Bart," Fumagalli said. "Just working on our timing."
It doesn't hurt the chemistry that they're roommates on the Friday night before games.
"We kind of keep it loose," said Fumagalli. "We just kind of talk."
Before taking on LSU, they both talked about how anxious they were for the start of the season.
"I was tired of playing my own team," Houston said. "We were joking how prepared we were for the game," Fumagalli chimed in.
A lot of time was spent reviewing old practice film to prepare for LSU's defense.
More specifically, it was to prepare for Dave Aranda's defense.Â
"We were seeing old faces -- all of the old films had (Michael) Caputo on it," Houston said.
Aranda was Wisconsin's defensive coordinator before taking the LSU job last January.
Caputo was a starting safety on those Aranda-coached defenses with the Badgers.
"We'd been practicing against that defense for three years now," Fumagalli pointed out.
The film was a refresher to give them a feel for Aranda's schemes and play-calling.
"It was something we were really confident in," Fumagalli said. "We knew what we had to do."
Last Friday night, they just wanted to go out and do it.
"It was just time to go hit somebody else in a different jersey," said Houston.
"We were excited to get on the big stage," Fumagalli said. "But trying not to get over-hyped."
You can't argue with Saturday's results. Especially the Houston/Fumagalli connection.
"I probably could have trusted him a little bit more," Houston suggested. "I could have leaned on him more. He gets open. He works his route. He works his technique. He's a good ballplayer.
"Whatever chemistry is," he said, still unsure of the definition, "we've got it."
"He gets open. He works his route. He works his technique. He's a good ballplayer," quarterback Bart Houston said of Fumagalli. "Whatever chemistry is," Houston said still unsure of the definition, "we've got it."
Although he was a pitcher in baseball, Fumagalli never aspired to be a quarterback.
He wasn't interested in being a running back or a wide receiver, either.
His older brothers, Drew and Ross, were linebackers at the University of Dayton. Fumagalli always looked up to them. In a figurative sense. Both are 6-footers.
"They were both built different than me," said the 6-6 Fumagalli. "I got all the height."
And he did play some defensive end in high school (Waubonsie Valley in Aurora, Illinois), but from the earliest age, he always gravitated to one position.
Tight end.
"It has kind of been my natural spot," he said. "In high school, I played it for four years."
It was always a fit even though, he said, "In youth football, I was a little shorter and stockier."
Like most young athletes, he had his role models. In his case, they were tight ends.
"Growing up," Fumagalli said, "I liked looking at Jeremy Shockey."
Shockey was the leading receiver on the 2001 Miami Hurricanes national championship team. He went on to become a first-round draft pick of the New York Giants.
"I just kind of fell in love with the position," Fumagalli said.
Because of his training, all those years at tight end, he has developed instinctive skills.
"When the ball is in the air," said Wisconsin tight ends coach Mickey Turner, "he has a good knack for putting his body in the right position. That's something you can try and drill over and over.Â
"But some guys have it. And some guys don't."
A different application of "it."
"Does he need to keep making strides in a lot of other areas?" Turner posed rhetorically. "Yeah, and he's going to keep pushing himself to do that.
"A lot of times when you see him make a tough catch, that's just something he takes pride in. He's competitive when the ball is in the air and he'll go get it.
"He has learned a lot since he got to college about how coverages work and how to threaten someone's leverage … one of his best characteristics is he's hungry and he wants to get better."
That was the first point that Turner made about Fumagalli.
"He kind of embodies what a lot of good players here have done which is always push themselves to get better," said Turner, a former tight end and fullback for the Badgers.
"Where he is now is a change from where he was in the spring which was a change from where he was last fall. Everything he has brought to the table inherently, he has kept.
"But he has taken it upon himself to say, 'This is where I need to improve.'"
That type of approach or self-scouting has been important to his development.
"As a coach," Turner said, "I don't want to pat him on the back for the good things he has done. I want to show him the other areas where he can keep getting better and better.
"That's where he will feel challenged. He's not a guy who will say, 'Hey, look, did you see what I did? Did you see the catch?' He doesn't want a pat on the back, he wants to be coached hard."
Wisconsin head coach Paul Chryst is fluent in tight end.
Nobody speaks the language better.
"Immediately after he (Chryst) came back (from Pittsburgh), all of the guys reached out to me – Pedersen and Arneson," Fumagalli remembered.Â
"They said, 'You're going to love Coach Chryst. He does great things for the tight position.' It's just the way he thinks. He's got a pro-style mind."
Chryst, a former UW tight end, coached the position group with the San Diego Chargers.
"What his goal is," Fumagalli said, "is finding that best one-on-one matchup on the field and then taking advantage of it."
Chryst is also very adept at utilizing multiple tight ends -- juggling strengths.
"He (Chryst) has a good knack for feeling if a guy is good at something but struggles somewhere else," Turner said. "Another tight end might be the reverse of that.
"He'll use both and put them in good situations. You see that with our tight ends now. There is not one that is a clone of the other. They're all a little different and bring something different."
The lone senior is Eric Steffes, the best blocker. Zander Neuville, a redshirt sophomore, is being groomed for a comparable role after making the transition from defensive end in training camp. Kyle Penniston, a redshirt
freshman, also got some exposure against LSU.
Upon further review of Fumagalli's performance last Saturday, only his seventh start in 26 career games, Turner said, "He looked like the same old Troy catching the ball."
He made that comment knowing that Fumagalli was playing with a swollen right hand. During training camp, he got stepped on, resulting in 30 stiches, 15 on either side of his hand.
"He never batted an eye," Turner reported. "He never said it was bothering him."
Fumagalli shrugged.Â
"Been swollen for a little while now … two weeks," he said Monday.
Originally, though, he was concerned.
"You could see both tendons," he said, "and I was kind of freaked out."
But there was no nerve damage. So it wasn't something that he couldn't overcome.
"Second nature for me," said Fumagalli, who had his left index finger amputated at birth because of a congenital disorder called Amniotic Banding Syndrome. "Helped me out playing baseball."
Remember, he was a pitcher.
But he was born to be a catcher, a tight end, as far as he was concerned.
"He knows what he's doing," Houston said.
"They said, 'You're going to love Coach Chryst. He does great things for the tight position.' It's just the way he thinks. He's got a pro-style mind...I could have gone to other places. But this is where I really wanted to be."
 2 + 3 = ?
That was the math and what was on the table for Fumagalli, the college prospect.
Two years as a walk-on, three as a scholarship player.
"That's what they offered me," he said. "That's what I agreed on with Coach (Bret) Bielema."
Fumagalli verbally committed to the Badgers the second week of September, 2012.
Former defensive coordinator Chris Ash was the principal recruiter. Fumagalli also was pursued by some MAC schools like Northern Illinois and Toledo.
"I could have gone to other places," he said. "But this is where I really wanted to be."
His mom and dad, Char and Doug, who played at Holy Cross, supported his decision to walk on.
"I believed that I could play at this university," he said, "and they stood by that."
Fumagalli was planning on playing for tight ends coach Eddie Faulkner, a former UW tailback.
Three months after committing, Bielema took the Arkansas job. Ash went with him, while Faulkner and offensive coordinator Matt Canada joined Dave Doeren at NC State.
"I got to know Coach Doeren," Fumagalli said of Bielema's former defensive coordinator with the Badgers. "And I had developed relationships with Coach Faulkner and Coach Canada.
"When he (Bielema) left, I went and visited them (at NC State). That was another tough situation. But I still felt at home here. I still felt this was the place for me."
Utah State's Gary Andersen, who replaced Bielema, gave him the same walk-on offer.
Fumagalli accepted and signed in February of 2013.
A month later, Andersen's tight ends coach, Jay Boulware, left for Oklahoma.
"He (Boulware) only visited me one time at my house and there were a couple of phone calls," said Fumagalli. "I didn't get to know him very much."
Jeff Genyk replaced Boulware.
All things considered, it all worked out for Fumagalli, now a redshirt junior.
"I walked on for a full year," he said of his freshman season on campus. "And he (Andersen) gave me a scholarship the second summer I was here."
And then Andersen was gone by the end of the 2014 season. So was Genyk after Chryst took over for Andersen. Turner is Fumagalli's fourth tight ends coach; only the second he has played for.
"I love Coach Turner," he said. "He's a younger guy who has been in the program and he truly understands what it takes. And he's willing to work with you.
"I meet with him one-on-one almost 30 minutes every day. I go through different things with him on what he thinks. We've been developing a personal relationship, and that goes a long way."
Sounds like they have "it."
Chemistry is catching.
