Hunter Welcing has already been through a lot in his football career.
A 2020 Lake Zurich graduate, Welcing has had two major knee injuries and was often unable to make headway on Northwestern’s depth chart at tight end.
As the 2025 season progressed, however, the 6-3, 246-pound Welcing finally began to find his footing with the Wildcats — so much so that, after careful deliberation and a successful petition for another year of eligibility, he’s poised to shine for a national championship contender. He has transferred to Ohio State.
“It’ll be exciting because I’ve never really played in some of the big games that we are used to playing in,” Welcing said of the Buckeyes, who won the national title after the 2024 season.
Welcing didn’t play much at all during his first five years at Northwestern. He was inactive in 2020, appeared in five games and then redshirted in 2021, tore the ACL in his right knee for the second time and redshirted again in 2022, and then played mostly on special teams in 2023 and 2024.
Welcing felt his fortunes start to turn in the second game of the 2025 season, when he made his first career touchdown catch in the Wildcats’ win over Western Illinois on Sept. 5.
“That’s when it set in, where I was truly seeing everything I worked for come to light,” he said. “It was a nice toe-tap catch in the corner. My whole family said they were all crying up in the stands.”
Welcing finished the season with 28 catches for 296 yards, the most for a Northwestern tight end since 2017, and he was named an All-Big Ten honorable mention. Given that production, Welcing and his agent, Alex Guminski, inquired about his NFL prospects.
“I felt like my time in college was done,” Welcing said.
But the feedback from NFL scouts suggested otherwise.
“They weren’t giving out the type of grade I’d prefer,” Welcing said. “The scouts were pushing that another year of tape would be a more productive metric.”
So, shortly after New Year’s Day, Welcing decided to enter the transfer portal — even before he was awarded an extra year.
“That first day, it did blow up,” Welcing said. “It was stressful but a good problem to have. I flew to Ohio State the day after I entered the portal and remember sitting in the hotel room with my parents and us talking about why I would want to visit anywhere else. It checked off all the boxes. It happened pretty quickly.”
That brought an end to Welcing’s long career at Northwestern, where he also earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees.
“I definitely shed some tears leaving there,” he said. “But ultimately I decided that it was important to force myself to learn new things from some of the best coaches and against some of the best players.”
Welcing’s first few months at Ohio State have been eye-opening. The black stripe that all newcomers receive was removed from his helmet on April 13, a sign that he had earned his place in the program.
“The first day, I was sort of shell-shocked,” Welcing said. “It was super frustrating at first because my moves weren’t working. Everyone here is bigger, stronger and faster. But that has forced me to learn new things and pushed me to get better.”
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That drive has served Welcing well at all junctures of his football career. His first major obstacle came when he suffered a torn ACL during the spring after his junior season. Despite an assurance from Northwestern that his scholarship would be honored, Welcing worked to return to the field for the Bears’ win over Mundelein in Week 8 of his senior season, and he caught a touchdown pass in a win against Andrew in the first round of the Class 7A playoffs.
Former Lake Zurich coach Ron Planz remembers that play well.
“It was a corner route that made it 14-0 and was a nice play in the corner of the endzone,” Planz said. “It was a testament to his perseverance how hard he worked to play his senior year. It speaks to the kind of character he has.”
Alex Spanos, who is Northwestern’s director of football sports performance, knows all about Welcing’s perseverance. They worked together as Welcing recovered from injuries and added upwards of 40 pounds of muscle during his time in Evanston.
“Hunter has a tremendous ability to weather the storm through adversity,” Spanos said. “During his career, he’s had to overcome a lot of physical and mental obstacles, but he never once batted an eye or backed down.
“He has the toughness to show up with that attack mindset every day. He lived that, and to see him have a lot of success on the football field after all he’s worked through, I’m so proud of him. It’s special to see.”
The Wildcats will see it from an opposing viewpoint on Nov. 14, when Ohio State hosts the Wildcats in Columbus, Ohio.
There’s no telling what Welcing’s season will look like by then, but he knows he’s in the right place.
“There are opportunities galore here, and this represents my best opportunity to put myself in position to have success on the next level,” he said. “I didn’t always think my body could hold up, but having a positive attitude has allowed me to become the player I am today.”
Steve Reaven is a freelance reporter.