Get to know Wisconsin fullback Austin Ramesh with Bucky’s 5th Quarter

The Arizona Cardinals are bringing in a fullback, rejoice! We caught up with Jake Kocorowski of Bucky’s 5th Quarter to get a little insight into Austin Ramesh and Alec James, we’ll take a look at James a little later, but here is Jake on Ramesh.

Biggest Strengths and Weaknesses of Ramesh

For Ramesh, his versatility is his biggest strength. He can block, most notably seen with two devastating blocks against Iowa that went viral, he can be utilized in short-yardage and goal line situations, and as seen in the Orange Bowl, he can be utilized as a receiver--including showing off this nifty move:

He was the swiss-army knife of the offense, and he has special teams experience.

For any weaknesses, our Owen Riese said this in his scouting report of Ramesh:

“Limited opportunities in the pass game, both as a receiver and as a blocker. Short-limbed. Plays fullback.”

Now if Arizona is bringing back a fullback to its offense, which is what I’ve heard, the last point is null and void, but I do feel he could thrive more in the passing game if called upon.

Was Ramesh a special teams contributor?

Yes he did. I actually rewatched the Orange Bowl to see what he was on last year, and he was utilized on the kickoff return team (at the very least, didn’t look at other games for confirmation). Back in 2016, he also appeared to be on the kickoff coverage team as well back during a portion of the 2016 season, as he recorded one tackle against Akron.

I’m pretty confident he’ll show up somewhere in that phase of the game for the Cardinals.

Final Thoughts

Ramesh was a winner, he was part of the winningest class in school history (45 wins), he is soft spoken and went about his work while excelling at it. Ramesh, who ran for nearly 6,000 yards as a prep back in Wisconsin, told B5Q in April that worked out for the Cardinals on Pro Day, so their signing of him was not necessarily shocking.

Thanks to Jake for his time.

We’ll be back with a look at James a little later.