Latest news with #Koziol
Time Magazine
18-06-2025
- Health
- Time Magazine
She Says Social-Media Algorithms Led to Her Eating Disorder. Now She's Suing TikTok and Instagram
As a freshman in high school, Caroline Koziol competed in the Connecticut statewide championship, swimming the 100-yd. butterfly in just over a minute. By senior year, she could barely climb the stairs without seeing black spots. In September 2021, Koziol's coach had to pull her out of the pool after she nearly passed out during swim practice. 'My coach was like, 'Just eat a granola bar. You'll feel better,'' says Koziol, now a college junior. 'And I was like, 'That's absolutely not going to happen.'' Back then, Koziol was deep in the grips of an eating disorder that shattered her adolescence. Now, she's suing the social media giants Meta and TikTok, alleging that the design of their products contributed to her anorexia and made it more difficult for her to recover. When Koziol was stuck at home during the COVID-19 pandemic, she started looking up at-home workouts on social media to keep herself in shape for swimming, and searched for healthy recipes to make with her mom. Within weeks, her Instagram and TikTok feeds were full of content promoting extreme workouts and disordered eating. 'One innocent search turned into this avalanche,' she says, sipping iced coffee at a shop near her parents' home in Hartford. 'It just began to overtake every thought that I had.' Koziol, now 21, is among more than 1,800 plaintiffs suing the companies behind several leading social media platforms as part of a case that could reshape their role in American society. The plaintiffs include young adults recovering from mental-health problems, the parents of suicide victims, school districts dealing with phone addiction, local governments, and 29 state attorneys general. They've joined together as part of a multidistrict litigation (MDL), a type of lawsuit which consolidates similar complaints around the country into one case to streamline pretrial proceedings, which is now moving through federal court in the Northern District of California. The plaintiffs allege that the products created by social media giants are 'addictive and dangerous,' that the defendants have 'relentlessly pursued a strategy of growth at all costs, recklessly ignoring the impact of their products on children's mental and physical health,' and that young people like Caroline Koziol are the 'direct victims of intentional product design choices made by each defendant.' The MDL is expected to reach trial next spring. It comes as social media is monopolizing more and more attention from children and teens. The average teenager in the U.S. spends nearly five hours per day on social media, according to a 2023 Gallup poll; those who spend more than three hours on it daily have double the risk of depression and anxiety. One study found that clinical depression among young people was up 60% from 2017 to 2021, which critics attribute partly to rising social media use. Overall, 41% of teens with high social media use rate their mental health as poor or very poor, according to the American Psychological Association. 'Social media is associated with significant mental health harms for adolescents,' wrote former surgeon general Vivek Murthy, who argues for putting warning labels on social media platforms as the U.S. does with tobacco. As some of the most powerful companies in the world work to monetize their attention, kids across the country are struggling with the consequences of social media addiction. 'They're being stalked by these companies, stalked by these really disturbed values and beauty ideas, stalked by the phone in their hand,' says Dr. S. Bryn Austin, a professor of behavioral science at the Harvard School of Public Health. 'The algorithm is finding them no matter what they're doing.' To critics, there's little question why: Austin co-published research which estimated that in 2022 alone, children under 17 delivered nearly $11 billion in advertising revenue to Facebook, Instagram, Snap, TikTok, Twitter, and YouTube. Legislative efforts to regulate social media companies have mostly stalled in Congress, and the plaintiffs' attorneys in the social media MDL say this case represents the best hope of holding these tech companies accountable in court—and getting justice for those who have been harmed. The MDL, says co-lead plaintiffs' lawyer Previn Warren of Motley Rice, is a 'giant coordinated siege by families and AGs unlike anything we've seen since the opioid crisis.' The plaintiffs argue the companies were aware of the ramifications for young users, yet designed their products to maximize addictiveness anyway. Internal documents obtained by the Wall Street Journal in 2021 suggest that Facebook, now Meta, knew that Instagram was harming girls' mental health: 'We make body image issues worse for 1 in 3 teen girls,' said one slide presenting internal research. (Meta disputes this characterization, saying the same internal research shows teen girls were more likely to say Instagram made them feel better than worse.) 'These companies knew that there was a disproportionate effect on young women,' says Koziol's lawyer, Jessica Carroll of Motley Rice. She represents eating disorder clients as young as 13 years old, including some who have been on social media since they were 10. 'I think that they experimented on a generation of young people, and we are seeing the effect of that today.' Suing social media companies is a difficult challenge. Most digital speech is protected by the First Amendment, and social media platforms have long asserted protections under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which grants them immunity from liability for content they host. But the plaintiffs in the MDL aren't suing over content. They're suing on product liability and negligence grounds, alleging that defective design features hook children to the platforms and allow them to evade parental consent, while the recommendation algorithms manipulate kids to keep them on the apps. Koziol isn't suing Instagram's and TikTok's parent companies for hosting content that drove her to an eating disorder. She's alleging that the platforms are designed to maximize her engagement, and as a result, she was drawn deeper and deeper into anorexia content. 'If I saw one or two videos, it wouldn't have made a difference,' Koziol says. 'But when it was all that I was seeing, that's when it became obsessive.' Critics say that bombardment is a deliberate feature, not a bug. 'They have a machine-learning recommendation system that is oriented towards growth at all costs,' says Carroll, 'Which means anything to keep eyeballs on it.' Meta, which owns Instagram, says it has sought to combat the harms experienced by underage users by rolling out new restrictions. As of last year, any Instagram user from the ages of 13 to 18 will default to what Meta calls a teen account, which is automatically private, limits sensitive content, turns off notifications at night, and doesn't allow messaging with anyone without mutual contacts. The teen accounts are meant to address key concerns that parents have about teens on the app, which Meta spokeswoman Liza Crenshaw described as 'content, contact, and time.' Meta has also developed 'classifiers,' she said—AI programs that scan for problematic content to remove. 'We know parents are worried about having unsafe or inappropriate experiences online, and that's why we've significantly changed the Instagram experience for tens of millions of teens with new teen accounts,' Crenshaw said in a statement to TIME. 'These accounts provide teens with built-in protections to automatically limit who's contacting them and the content they're seeing, and teens under 16 need a parent's permission to change those settings. We also give parents oversight over the teens' use of Instagram, with ways to see who their teens are chatting with and block them from using the app for more than 15 minutes a day, or for certain periods of time, like during school or at night.' "TikTok proactively restricts unhealthy weight loss content and provides access to supportive resources and experts right in our app to anyone in need," a company spokesperson said in a statement to TIME. "We're mindful that content that can be triggering is unique to each individual, which is why we empower people with a range of tools to shape their experience, including tools to manage topics and block keywords, hashtags, and creators in their For You feed." Caroline Koziol's parents thought she was too young for social media as a preteen. But many of her friends in elementary school already had accounts on Instagram and TikTok, and Koziol felt left out. Both platforms have an age limit of 13. Koziol says she signed up when she was 10 or 11. 'I was able to lie about my age really easily and make an account,' she recalls. 'My parents had no idea.' Age verification is an 'industry-wide challenge,' says Crenshaw, adding that this year Meta started testing a new AI tool designed to proactively find accounts of teens masquerading as adults and transition them to teen accounts. Meta supports federal legislation that requires app stores to get parental approval whenever a teen under 16 downloads an app. As a competitive swimmer, Koziol had spent much of her life in a bathing suit, and was comfortable in her body. 'I never thought twice about other people's bodies or my own,' she says. What she cared about was her athletic career. Her dream was to swim competitively in college. Then she began spending time on Instagram and TikTok. 'I started using social media, and I'm like, 'Oh, I have really broad shoulders compared to a lot of girls,'' she recalls. 'Or, 'Oh, my thighs touch,' whereas the fitness influencers, their thighs don't.' When the pandemic hit, her school went remote and swim practice was canceled. Koziol knew that even a few days away from the pool could weaken her endurance and make her less competitive. Worried about losing muscle mass, she searched on Instagram for '30 minute at-home workout,' or 'cardio workout at home.' She was also filling free time by baking with her mom, and started looking up healthy recipes to make. 'My searches were never 'low calorie, low fat,'' Koziol says. 'It was 'healthy.'' The dramatic evolution of the content the algorithm served to her was apparent only in retrospect. 'It was so nefarious,' she says. Searching for healthy recipes led her to low-calorie recipes. Searching for at-home workouts led her to videos of skinny influencers in workout clothes, 'body checking' for the camera. 'Something in my algorithm just switched,' she says. 'There was nothing I could do.' A healthy teenager who wanted to see memes and funny videos and exchange messages with her friends suddenly had her feed filled with 'very thin girls in workout clothing, showing off their bodies.' Before too long, her daily diet shrank to just a protein bar or two. Sometimes she ate nothing at all until dinner. For months she subsisted mostly on baby puffs and Diet Coke—'Just to fill my stomach'—even as she forced herself to do hours of cardio. Meanwhile, the algorithms supplied images of skinnier and skinnier girls, on more and more extreme diets. Other users chimed in with comments on those posts, Koziol says, suggesting tips and tricks to 'feel like you're eating something.' She kept her car stocked with paper towels, wipes, and extra mascara so that she could reapply makeup after forcing herself to vomit on the side of the road. By her junior year, 'I was addicted to this empty feeling,' Koziol says. Being on social media was like 'getting sucked into a dark hole.' She lost 30 lb. in a year. Her eating disorders led to issues with her throat and teeth, and hormonal problems that caused hot flashes and night sweats; her brain felt fuzzy as her short-term memory faltered from malnutrition. 'I was like a zombie,' she says. 'I was not the same person.' Her parents realized something was wrong, and Koziol started outpatient treatment for anorexia the summer after junior year. She met with psychiatrists, dieticians, and therapists. Nothing could break the algorithm's grip. 'When my thoughts correlated with what I was seeing on my phone, it just felt normal,' she says. 'I really didn't even see a problem with it.' Senior year she missed half her classes to attend treatment. She wasn't able to take the AP course load she'd hoped, and only graduated because of all the extra credits she'd taken earlier in high school. Instead of going to college, she went to Monte Nido, an inpatient anorexia-treatment facility in Irvington, N.Y. Dr. Molly Perlman, the facility's chief medical officer, says that while many eating disorders have an underlying genetic component, they're triggered by social environments—and photo-based social media platforms are a perfect trigger. Perlman says that not only have those apps contributed to the rise of eating disorders, they've also made them far more difficult to treat. 'The algorithms are very smart, and they know their users, and they know what they will click on,' Perlman says. 'These are malnourished, vulnerable brains that are working towards finding recovery, and yet the algorithms are capitalizing on their disease.' Toward the end of Koziol's six-week stay at Monte Nido in the summer of 2022, her therapy group had a 'phone cleansing day.' All the patients were asked to either delete social media altogether or to block harmful hashtags. The facility was filled with women of different ages, races, backgrounds, and hometowns. But when everyone opened their phones, Koziol noticed that their Instagram feeds looked just like hers. 'We had the same creators,' she says. 'The same posts, the exact same content.' For all their differences, these women were being fed the exact same pro-anorexia content. 'It showed me that this algorithm doesn't care about who you are,' Koziol says. 'All they need is that first little search.' Gabby Cusato's story started out a lot like Koziol's. Gabby was a competitive athlete too, a cross-country runner. She was part of a tight-knit family from upstate New York—a quadruplet, with two older siblings and loving parents. Gabby's parents got her a phone in seventh grade to help the family coordinate pickups from multiple different sports practices. She had one Instagram account her parents knew about and several others that were secret. 'Imagine being 15. You want to be fast, you want to be skinny,' says Gabby's mother Karen. 'And if somebody's saying to you, here's how you can do it, here's how you can lose more weight—it's just a rabbit hole.' After her drastic weight change, Karen Cusato enrolled Gabby in intensive outpatient treatment for anorexia. She went three days a week for four hours a day. But as soon as she got out of therapy, she would be back on her phone. One of her Instagram accounts was devoted to her eating-disorder treatment; Gabby posted pictures of healthy meals she ate during her recovery. Jessica Carroll, who also represents the Cusato family, says this account may have aggravated Gabby's problem. 'By creating this account,' Carroll says, 'she's almost inviting the algorithm to send her more of this stuff.' One day in November 2019, Karen Cusato confiscated Gabby's phone after an argument and sent her to her room, thinking that her daughter could cool off and they could patch things up in the morning. The next morning, Gabby's bed was made, but she was nowhere to be found. At first, Cusato and her husband thought she had run away. 'Then we found her in the closet,' Cusato recalls. 'The scream from my husband is something that I can never unhear.' Gabby had died by suicide. She was 15. Most days, Cusato blames herself. But she knows this would not have happened if Gabby had not become so addicted to social media. 'If she was born 20 years earlier, this would not have taken place,' she says. If Cusato could do it again, she'd buy her daughter a phone without internet access. 'Never in my wildest dreams did I think this was what the phone could turn into.' 'I think she felt less than perfect,' Cusato says. 'The algorithms were giving an ideal weight for an ideal height, and she was chasing that number, and, you know, she didn't get to that number that she thought was going to make her happy.' Anorexia has the highest mortality rate of any psychiatric disorder, not just because of the malnutrition involved, but because it's often clustered with depression, anxiety, and suicidal ideation. Carroll says that nearly half of the personal-injury cases represented by her firm in the MDL are related to eating disorders. Cusato has been a high school math teacher for more than two decades. Every day she stands in front of classes of kids who are the same age Gabby was when she died. During the years she's spent in the classroom, she's noticed a change take place in her students. 'Were kids depressed before? Yes,' she says. 'Were they depressed in the numbers they are now? Absolutely not.' The suits filed by Koziol, the Cusatos, and others represent a new phase in the effort to combat social media harms. 'The strategy of these companies is to do anything they can to distort the language of Section 230 to protect them with impunity,' says Mary Graw, a law professor at the Catholic University of America who has written extensively about Section 230. 'As a result we have an unregulated industry which is used by most of the globe with the potential to cause massive harm, and no way to look under the hood to see what the industry is doing. It is stunning. No other industry has such avoidance of accountability.' The social media MDL cleared a major obstacle in November 2023 when a federal judge in California ruled that many of the lawsuits could proceed. While Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers narrowed the scope of the litigation, she ruled that many of the negligence and product liability claims are not barred by either the First Amendment or Section 230. Multidistrict litigation is often slow and unwieldy, since it contains many distinct cases with different plaintiffs seeking different damages. The school districts, for example, want something different than the attorneys general do. Personal-injury plaintiffs like Koziol and the Cusatos are seeking compensation for medical bills, pain and suffering, and punitive damages for what they say was 'reckless, malicious conduct' by the social media companies. They also want injunctive relief—a formal ruling from the judge stating that the platforms are defectively designed, and court orders requiring the companies to remove addictive or dangerous features, add warnings, and strengthen safeguards. The fact-discovery phase of the case, in which both parties exchange documents and testimony, closed in April. The two sides are preparing for a motion of summary judgment in the fall, when the judge will decide if the case will go to trial. Koziol can't point to any one piece of content that caused her eating disorder. To her, 'it's the constant bombardment of all of these videos' that led her to the brink of starvation. 'No third party is responsible for the algorithm,' she says. 'That's Meta and TikTok alone.' While she's seeking financial compensation for her eating-disorder treatment as well as other financial damages, Koziol says the purpose of the suit is to hold those corporations accountable. 'They knew what they did was wrong,' she says. 'What they were doing was harming young girls. And it ruined my life.' Koziol had been accepted to her dream school, the University of South Carolina. She had imagined joining a sorority and going to SEC football games on Saturdays. She even had a roommate lined up before she decided to take a year off to focus on her recovery. By the time she was ready for college, her therapists warned her that going so far away could trigger a relapse. Instead she enrolled at University of Hartford, closer to home. Greek life and football aren't in the cards right now. She's not on the same track as most of her old friends. She had to quit swimming. Even after everything she's been through, Koziol can't bring herself to delete her social media entirely; Instagram is so ubiquitous that it feels impossible to be a young person without it. She's blocked certain hashtags from her Instagram, reset her account, and unfollowed harmful creators. Still, the algorithm finds ways to tempt her. 'It's taken a lot of work to not interact with the disordered content that occasionally comes up,' she says. 'I always have to remind myself: the second I click on it, I'm gonna get another post tomorrow, and then another post tomorrow, and then another post tomorrow.'
North Wales Live
19-05-2025
- North Wales Live
She murdered the man she claimed to love before telling lie after lie
The family of a "gentle giant" who was stabbed to death have spoken of their devastation after his killer was jailed for life. Joanna Wronska, 51, stabbed her partner Marcin Koziol to death in a drunken "explosion" of anger on October 24, 2024. Today [Monday] she was jailed for life, and will have to serve a minimum term of 15 years and 137 days imprisonment for the brutal killing in their flat in Pentre Gwyn, Wrexham. Mold Crown Court heard both had been drinking when she had fetched a kitchen knife and plunged it into Mr Koziol's chest. She then somewhat "came to her senses" by washing the weapon in a sink and ringing 999. She then had the gall to blamed Mr Koziol for inflicting the fatal wound on himself. You can sign up for all the latest court stories here But the jury last month rejected that account - which a judge today branded "distasteful" - and found her unanimously guilty of murdering the 40-year-old. In a statement at the sentencing hearing today, Mr Koziol's sister Anna Zawada, who lives in Poland, spoke about her brother. She said he was 18 years younger than her and she treated him like a son. He had been a 'cheerful, sensitive, empathetic and loving child'. As he grew up he would always remember birthdays and buy gifts. After leaving school in Poland it hadn't been easy to find work so he moved to the UK in 2004. He got a job and worked hard and diligently, sending back money to their mum in Poland. He was over six foot tall and 'my little brother was not so little anymore," she said. After his murder in October 2023 she realised there would be no more hugs. Anna said Christmas 2023 was the worst. Her devoutly Roman Catholic family sat in silence at the table during what should have been festive celebrations. Marcin's funeral was in the UK but Anna had his name engraved on the gravestone of the middle brother in Poland, which she visits every week. Anna herself developed depression, high blood pressure and insomnia after Marcin's death Also today Marcin's widow Marta, who kept in touch with Marcin during his relationship with Joanna Wronska, read her own statement about the effects of the murder. She said she had been "distraught" and "devastated" to learn in a phone call her husband had died. She posted "Rest in peace" on his Facebook page as "I did not know what (else) to do". As a spouse she was allowed to go to see his body but not to touch it. It was a "horrible, surreal experience," she said. As his widow, she could access his bank account to help arrange his funeral which she never expected to do. Marta had had to bury her baby six months earlier. She had kept in contact with Marcin and found the court case stressful. "He was truly a gentle giant and would never hurt anyone. I can't understand why Marcin has been taken away from me." The judge His Honour Rhys Rowlands told Wronska the murder involved an "explosive, drunken loss of temper on your part in which you stabbed the victim through the chest with a kitchen knife". He added: "Thereafter you washed the knife and having to some extent come to your senses, no doubt regretting what you had just done, you rang the emergency services and remained at the flat until they arrived." But he said she has a drink problem and "can become aggressive and difficult in drink". Earlier, defence counsel Andrew Ford KC said the relationship between Wronska and Mr Koziol "could be good and was often good". Earlier in the case, the court had heard about the killer's earlier life. Wronska, a diminutive and slight figure with dark, shoulder length hair in the dock, already had two (now adult) children when she met a previous partner Januse Zdunek in Pajezcno in central Poland. Wronska and Mr Dzunek travelled some 1,120 miles (1,800km) from Central Poland to live in Wrexham in 2013. There they had two children together, who were later taken into care by social services. But Wronska, who was ten years his senior, became dependent on alcohol and took drugs. She alleged Mr Zdunek was abusive. Their children, now aged ten and eight, were placed in foster care and they split in 2021, the court heard. Tellingly, Mr Zdunek said in a statement that Wronska threatened to kill him with a knife several times. The prosecution described how he said he suddenly felt a sharp pain between his shoulder blades in one incident in July 2021. When Mr Zdunek turned he says he saw Wronska holding a knife. He claimed she said "You're lucky I didn't stab you in the heart". The jury had to decide if this claim was true and whether she stabbed her subsequent partner too, said the prosecution. The court was told during the trial that Marcin Koziol was born in Zabrza in Poland and had been living in the UK since 1982, initially on Merseyside. He was married to Marta Koziol but they had separated some years before. Mr Koziol had had a serious accident in the 2000s. He was crushed by a bale of waste at a recycling plant. He sustained multiple fractures and had surgery. He had spent all his compensation by 2018 on travel, clothes and alcohol. By 2019 Mr Koziol settled in Wrexham. He had mental health issues and was temporarily homeless. He met Wronska in 2022. In September that year he moved into her flat in Pentre Gwyn on Abenbury Road. Mold Crown Court heard their relationship descended into drinking and shoplifting and both were barred from their local convenience store. One night in October 2023 Wronska, who was drunk, lost her temper and stabbed her partner, who weighed almost 18 stone. On the day of the verdict on April 14 Judge Rowlands said: "You have been found guilty by a jury of the offence of murder in which you took away a man's life cruelly and entirely unnecessarily." He added: "I have no doubt that drink is at the root of your problems and it was in a drunken temper that you took a knife to the deceased that evening." After the verdict, the defendant said from the dock: "I'm going to kill myself." She then leaned forward saying she wanted to speak to her solicitor but the judge said she could do that after being taken down to the cells. Speaking following sentencing today, Detective Chief Inspector Eleri Thomas said: 'Joanna Wronska senselessly and needlessly ended Marcin Koziol's life – her partner who she claimed she loved deeply. 'It was a cruel and violent attack on a man who had sought support from her. Wronska then went to great lengths to conceal her crime and deceive the police by claiming Marcin had killed himself, causing untold trauma to his family, some of whom had to endure the ordeal of giving evidence, and then forced to listen to her lies throughout the trial. 'The thorough and diligent work carried out by the investigation team helped the jury see through her lies and secure justice for Marcin's loved ones. I would thank everyone who came forward to assist with the investigation, including the first responders who tried to save his life. 'We will never know what drove Wronska to end Marcin's life, but I hope her conviction and today's result brings some small measure of respite to his family.'
USA Today
18-04-2025
- Sport
- USA Today
Former Wisconsin football tight end announces transfer destination
Former Wisconsin football tight end announces transfer destination Wisconsin transfer tight end Tanner Koziol committed to Houston on Thursday. Koziol entered the portal on Wednesday after just four months with the Badgers. The four-star transfer recruit joined the program during the winter window, ranked as a top-70 transfer prospect and the No. 3 player at his position. The rising senior then departed just weeks into spring practice. He is now headed to Houston for his final season of eligibility. The former Ball State standout caught 94 passes last season for a team-high 839 yards and eight touchdowns. His 36 career games over three seasons include 163 total receptions, 1,507 yards and 18 touchdowns. The 6-foot-6 tight end joins a Houston program that has gone 4-8 in each of its first two seasons in the Big 12. The Cougars were formerly a contender atop the American, reaching nine bowl games in 10 seasons from 2013-22, including a program-best 13-1 2015 campaign. Koziol will headline Houston's entirely new-look offense entering year two under head coach Willie Fritz. The team landed former Texas A&M quarterback Connor Weigman, Rice running back Dean Connors, several transfer receivers, four now offensive line starters and now Koziol. They'll all look to improve a unit that averaged just 14 points per game in 2024, ranked 133rd of 134 Football Bowl Subdivision teams. Wisconsin, meanwhile, is looking to bolster its tight end position after Koziol's departure. It is one of several programs with a transfer visit scheduled with Missouri State's Lance Mason. As of April 18, Tucker Ashcraft and J.T. Seagreaves are the team's two primary options at the position. For more on Wisconsin's spring transfer movement, including where the outgoing transfers end up, bookmark our 2025 spring window tracker. Contact/Follow @TheBadgersWire on X (formerly Twitter) and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Wisconsin Badgers news, notes and opinion
USA Today
18-04-2025
- Sport
- USA Today
ESPN ranks now-former Wisconsin tight end among best players in spring transfer window
ESPN ranks now-former Wisconsin tight end among best players in spring transfer window Wisconsin transfer tight end Tanner Koziol landed at No. 13 in ESPN's latest ranking of the best players in the spring transfer portal window on Thursday. Koziol officially entered the spring transfer portal window on Wednesday after just four months with the Badgers program. He then committed to the Houston Cougars less than 48 hours after entering. Here's what scout ESPN Billy Tucker had to say about Koziol's place in ESPN's ranking: "Koziol has a huge frame with a well-rounded skill set that could make him extremely coveted yet again. He's a productive pass catcher who takes advantage of his size to shield smaller defenders on jump balls. He's a really good high pointer and that combination of height, hands and leaping ability make him a matchup nightmare. Koziol is also a really effective blocker with strong inside hand placement and finishing power to drive back defenders." The analysis certainly checks out. The La Grange Park, Illinois, was 247Sports' No. 4-ranked uncommitted transfer prospect before his pledge to Houston, plus the top at his position. Overall, he's slotted as the No. 71-ranked transfer of the combined 2024-25 cycle. As a junior at Ball State, Koziol snagged 94 passes, the fourth-most by any Football Bowl Subdivision player, for 839 yards and eight touchdowns in 2024. As a sophomore, he notched 34 receptions for 295 receiving yards and three scores, indicative of a stark improvement in his capacity as a receiving weapon. In three total seasons with Ball State, Koziol recorded 163 total receptions, 1,507 yards and 18 scores in 36 games. To put his talent into perspective, ProFootballFocus ranked the now-former Badger as the top returning tight end in the nation. There's no denying Koziol's talent at tight end, and his departure was certainly significant for Wisconsin's 2025 offensive unit. Barring any transfer acquisitions, junior Tucker Ashcraft is positioned to suit up as the team's projected starter at tight end. He has limited production in two seasons in the primary starting role. Wide receivers Jayden Ballard, Trech Kekahuna and Vinny Anthony are also projected to receive a larger share of offensive targets without Koziol in the lineup. Contact/Follow @TheBadgersWire on X (formerly Twitter) and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Wisconsin Badgers news, notes and opinion
USA Today
17-04-2025
- Sport
- USA Today
Wisconsin football starting tight end officially enters NCAA transfer portal
Wisconsin football starting tight end officially enters NCAA transfer portal Wisconsin football projected starting tight end Tanner Koziol officially entered the transfer portal on Wednesday, according to multiple reports. BadgerExtra's Colten Bartholomew first reported Koziol's impending move on Tuesday. With the portal not officially opening until Wednesday, April 16, it took an extra day for that news to become official. The 6-foot-6 pass-catcher had been absent from UW's spring practice dating back to April 3, an indication of what eventually transpired on Wednesday. The former Ball State tight end transferred to Luke Fickell's program as a four-star transfer recruit, the portal's No. 69 player and No. 3 tight end back in December. With the departure of tight end Riley Nowakowski to Indiana, Koziol was poised to serve as Wisconsin's starting tight end and possible No. 1 receiving option on the outside. Koziol reeled in 94 passes for 839 yards and eight touchdowns as a junior in 2024. In three years at Ball State, the La Grange Park, Illinois, native logged 163 career receptions, 1,507 yards and 18 scores in 36 games. The tight end's improvement was evident. For context, he registered 34 receptions for 295 receiving yards and three scores as a sophomore. He added 60 catches and nearly 550 yards to that total just one season later, before the major breakout as a junior. Wisconsin's offensive depth chart for the 2025 season has become a major question mark, especially in new offensive coordinator Jeff Grimes' pro-style system. Fellow winter transfer addition wide receiver Mark Hamper announced his plans to enter the transfer portal on Tuesday, as did veteran receiver Quincy Burroughs. Their departures leave the Badgers' depth options on the outside quite limited. Junior Tucker Ashcraft and redshirt junior J.T. Seagraves are set to assume Wisconsin's starting tight end workload, if Fickell's staff elects to forego the pursuit of a veteran tight end in the spring transfer window. Transfer wide receiver Jayden Ballard, plus returning starters Vinny Anthony and Trech Kekahuna, will also see more touches with Koziol's departure. On top of those changes at tight end and wide receiver, the Badgers need to address their left tackle position, with starter Kevin Heywood out for the season with a torn ACL. After excelling in the winter transfer window, Wisconsin is now back to the drawing board, needing to fill major roster needs before the 2025 season arrives. Contact/Follow @TheBadgersWire on X (formerly Twitter) and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Wisconsin Badgers news, notes and opinion
