Former Wisconsin tight end Kyle Penniston found a new collegiate home—and even within the same conference—as he tweeted on Tuesday that he will play at Rutgers next season. Earlier this year in January, a UW official confirmed that Penniston left the football program after his name was initially found on 247Sports’ transfer portal tracker. A former four-star recruit in the class of 2015 by 247Sports, Rivals and ESPN, Penniston enrolled early and played in 39 career games with 22 starts overall. He will finish his time as a Badger tight end with 16 receptions for 176 yards with four touchdowns. Excited to announce I have officially signed to play my final year of eligibility at Rutgers University while pursuing a master’s degree in Global Sports Business! ⚔️ @RFootball @CoachNunz @CoachChrisAsh @RUGlobalSports — KP (@kyle_penniston) May 7, 2019 During the 2018 season, Penniston played in 13 games, starting 10 of those contests, but caught only three passes for 18 yards with a touchdown. As Penniston already redshirted in 2015, he will have one more year of eligibility remaining as an apparent grad transfer. Wisconsin and Rutgers do not play each other during the 2019 Big Ten Conference regular season.<doc-sep>Rutgers has filled the final spot in its class of 2019 as Wisconsin grad transfer tight end Kyle Penniston announced today that he will be spending his final season as a Scarlet Knight. Evan Flood, who covers Wisconsin football for Badger247 of the 247Sports Network provided some insight on Rutgers’ newest addition. “He wasn’t a great fit for Wisconsin, but they were able to get some things out of him. He kind of thrived more split out as a wide receiver and has mismatch potential on the perimeter. Obviously, Wisconsin likes to play between the tackles. That stuff sort of hindered his career with the Badgers a little bit. They did try to get him isolated on corners and linebackers over the middle and take advantages of mismatches. He is a little thinner and a little faster than most tight ends. He is able to use his athleticism to create mismatches in the intermediate routes and sometimes on the perimeter and up the seam as well.” Coming out of Santa Ana Calif., Penniston was an Under Armour All-American with an impressive list of power five offers. “Wisconsin sort of had an in with him because he was a big Green Bay Packer fan,” Flood said. “I think he was always drawn to Wisconsin. He took a visit in the middle of a snowstorm and just kind of loved it. I think that was the weekend he got his offer. He had offers from Florida State, Miami, USC and he has basically a heralded recruit. He was one of the better pickups for the Badgers in recent memory.” Rutgers runs a more tight end-friendly offense and that could bode well for Penniston. “I think he will be better off there,” Flood said of Rutgers. “He can play out on the perimeter and in the slot, not necessarily a great blocker. He is more of a finesse tight end that can create mismatch problems. I think he will be better off with more opportunities to get one-on-one looks against a DB where he can use his size or against a linebacker. He will be able to give more production at Rutgers than he was able to at Wisconsin, who likes to run a lot of heavy sets.” Penniston will walk into a wealth of playing time as Rutgers only has two other scholarship tight ends on the roster, one of which, Matt Alaimo, is still waiting on a transfer eligibility decision from the NCAA. Converted quarterback Johnathan Lewis is the other tight end, although he has never started a game at the college level. Peniston becomes the second grad transfer in Rutgers' 2019 class, which also features two junior college transfers and three underclassman transfers.<doc-sep>Rutgers football has not yet announced the signing, but former Wisconsin Tight End Kyle Penniston announced on Twitter this afternoon that he will finish his career at Rutgers. He will be the second graduate transfer to announce his intentions in the last three days after quarterback McLane Carter did on Sunday. Excited to announce I have officially signed to play my final year of eligibility at Rutgers University while pursuing a master’s degree in Global Sports Business! ⚔️ @RFootball @CoachNunz @CoachChrisAsh @RUGlobalSports — KP (@kyle_penniston) May 7, 2019 The 6’4”, 243 lb. Orange, CA native arrives on the banks after playing in 39 games with 21 starts at Wisconsin. The former four star recruit had 16 receptions for 176 yards with four touchdowns in his Badgers career. Kyle arrived in Madison as the 3rd best prospect in their 2015 recruiting class, just a notch below considered four stars by 247 (though considered four by other sources). He started three games as a redshirt freshman, scoring two touchdowns then started eight with one more the following season. He was on the Mackey Award Watch List a season ago as a redshirt junior, starting ten games but recording just three catches for 18 yards and a touchdown. Wisconsin had a disappointing year (for them) in 2018 with an 8-5 record (5-4 Big Ten) and starting quarterback Alex Hornibrook elected to move on from the program to Florida State. Penniston was a victim of the Badgers’ revolving door at QB when Hornibrook was injured against Rutgers, and the team’s commitment to its running game. Kyle announced he was entering the transfer portal in late January. It seemed logical Kyle could end up with another Power Five school because of his starting experience, but the master’s degree in Global Sports Business seemed to be most important to him. The Rutgers football program will gladly welcome him because Dennison arrives to a tight end room in transition, and immediately is the front-runner to get the starting nod. With the departures of Jerome Washington (NFL), Travis Vokolek (transfer), and Nakia Griffin-Stewart (transfer), it leaves incoming transfer Matt Alaimo (not yet eligible), converted quarterback Johnathan Lewis, walk-on Jonathan Pimentel, and walk-on early enrollee freshman Cooper Heisey (recently moved from QB also) as the current contingent. Anyone who doesn’t like this move is either salty or doesn’t understand football. At first glance, Penniston has the skills to be a modern NFL Tight End. Of course as the starting tight end in one of the best power running offenses in the nation, Kyle should be able to block and he in fact does quite well. Not only can he block, he can then disengage and release (1:35 mark) for an easy touchdown. Kyle can also fake a block then slip through as well. He can also run pretty well in space after lining up in a three point stance, getting a nice gain against an NFL caliber corner in Desmond King (yes I swore never to say the name again, sorry). Kyle also shows as a good check down option, in this case at the back of the end zone, giving his QB a target along the end line. All of these moves and countermoves will be critical to an RU offense that needs all the help they can get. Hopefully he can help Position Coach Nunzio Campanile teach the same techniques to the youngsters. He doesn’t show it on film, but if necessary there’s no reason to believe he couldn’t also function as a flexed tight end. It makes more sense to keep him along the line to potential help new left tackle Raiqwon O’Neal. Playing with the lefty Hornibrook, Penniston did line up mostly as the left tight end, Wisconsin often goes double tight. Or maybe instead assist Kamaal Seymour who may now protect the QBs blind side (assuming Carter gets a look). Welcome to the banks, Kyle! Special Thanks to commenter costigan_56 who provided the clips that made the links easy to post!<doc-sep>Former University of Wisconsin tight end Kyle Penniston will remain in the Big Ten for his final year of eligibility. The former four-star recruit from Mater Dei High School in Santa Ana, Calif., announced via Twitter on Tuesday that he's completed a graduate transfer to Rutgers. Penniston left the Badgers' program and entered the NCAA transfer portal in January after catching three passes for 18 yards and a touchdown last season. He finished his UW career with 16 receptions for 176 yards and four touchdowns in 39 games, 21 of which he started. Penniston could start for Rutgers as a senior this year. The Scarlet Knights' leading returning receiver at the position, Travis Vokolek, entered the NCAA transfer portal in April. The Badgers aren't scheduled to play Rutgers this season. According to Penniston's tweet Tuesday, he'll be pursuing a master's degree in global sports business. 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MADISON, Wis. -- Sometimes goodbye isn't really goodbye. Such is true for former Wisconsin tight end Kyle Penniston, who bid farewell to the Badgers when he entered the Transfer Portal in January, but not to the rest of the conference. Penniston announced on Twitter Tuesday evening that he officially inked a deal to play his final year of eligibility at Rutgers University. Excited to announce I have officially signed to play my final year of eligibility at Rutgers University while pursuing a master’s degree in Global Sports Business! ???? @RFootball @CoachNunz @CoachChrisAsh @RUGlobalSports — KP (@kyle_penniston) May 7, 2019 While he won't cross over with the Badgers this upcoming season, the California native will remain in the thick of Big Ten action. Leading up to his announcement, it was reported that Penniston was also in talks with Oklahoma State. The Scarlet Knights come into the 2019 season looking for some serious redemption after finishing their 2018 campaign without a single conference win, and 1-11 overall. And according to ScarletNation.com's Bobby Deren, Rutgers' tight end position group was in need of assistance. "The Rutgers tight end position has some question marks as there is not an abundance of players at the position," Deren wrote in a post-spring depth chart review. "That will mean the staff could do some tinkering as there is not much of a depth chart to speak of at the current time." Deren named the Scarlet Knights' two potential go-to's as redshirt sophomore Johnathan Lewis and redshirt freshman Matt Alaimo--the former of which has played both quarterback and tight end for the team, while the latter transferred from UCLA and has yet to have his transfer cleared by the NCAA. Penniston could have an opportunity to compete for a starting role right away. While at Wisconsin, he played in 39 total games with 21 starts at tight end. Penniston hauled in 16 receptions for 176 yards and four touchdowns.