2026 Wake Forest Football Preview: Tight End
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The tight end position was starting to lose its importance in the Wake Forest offense towards the end of the Clawson era—that changed under 1st year head coach Jake Dickert. Between Eni Falayi, Kamrean Johnson, and Dominic Deluca, the Wake Forest tight ends combined for 33 receptions for 357 yards and 3 touchdowns in 2025, which was the most yards and receptions for the position since 2019. It was also more yards than the tight end position accounted for in Dave Clawson’s final 2 seasons combined.
At a Glance
- Key Returners
- Kamrean Johnson: 11 catches, 122 yards, 1 TD
- Key Additions
- Landon Morris (Cal): 7 catches, 94 yards, 2 TDs
- Key Losses
- Eni Falayi: 21 catches, 228 yards, 2 TDs
Kamrean Johnson
Johnson, a 6-5 senior, is the only returning player who played significant minutes at tight end last season. He saw action in all 13 of Wake Forest’s games last season and caught 11 passes for 122 yards and 1 touchdown behind starter Eni Falayi. He was responsible for one of the biggest plays of the season for the Deacs, hauling in a 25 yard pass from Deshawn Purdie with about 4 seconds remaining in the game against SMU to set up the game winning field goal. Things seemed to really start to click for Johnson in the final 4 games of the season, where he caught 6 of his 11 passes for 73 yards, including 2 receptions for 24 yards and a touchdown in the Duke’s Mayo Bowl.
If Johnson can continue to build off of his hot end to the 2025 season, he should be able to step right into that starting spot and contribute significantly for the Deacs this season.
Landon Morris
Landon Morris is a 6-5 redshirt senior who transferred to Wake Forest after 1 season at Cal. A member of the 2021 recruiting class, Morris spent time at Syracuse (spring), Utah, and Temple before transferring to Cal, and is seemingly one of the few players in the NCAA who actually had to sit out a season for transferring a second time in 2023. In his 1 season in Berkley, Morris caught 7 passes for 94 yards and 2 touchdowns as the backup to one of the best tight ends in the ACC, Mason Mini.
Morris gives the Deacs another tall, reliable pass catcher who has a ton of experience and has proven he can hold his own in the ACC.
The Rest
The Deacs don’t have any other players on the roster who got significant playing time on offense at the tight end position, though a few guys did get plenty of snaps on special times. Wake really only used 2 tight ends for most of last season anyways, so that shouldn’t be a big issue—barring injuries of course. The 3rd TE on the depth chart will likely be 6-5 redshirt sophomore Will Loerzel, who transferred to Wake from South Alabama with OC Rob Ezell and played 81 snaps over the final 6 games of the season in 2025. The Deacs also have 6-4 redshirt freshman Charlie Wingfield, 6-6, 250 pound freshman Brady Shust, 6-7 freshman Max Tillfeldt Retsler, and 6-3 freshman Dominick Barry, all of whom have never played a single down of college football.
The Deacs lost their starting tight end from last season, but they picked up a solid replacement in the portal from another ACC school. The last time OC Rob Ezell and QB Gio Lopez were together at USA, the tight end was not used that much—the Jaguars only threw to 1 tight end who finished that season with 22 catches for 191 yards and 3 touchdowns. So while Wake doesn’t have a ton of experience on the bench, Johnson and Morris will likely be enough to cover what the Deacs need from the tight end position this season.
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