Seven years ago, Ben Bresnahan stepped onto the practice fields of Vanderbilt University as a freshman eager to begin his collegiate career. Fast forward to 2025 and the Defenders tight end is back on that same field learning techniques from legendary tight ends in Greg Olsen, George Kittle and Travis Kelce as part of Tight End University.
“I’m going on year four now at TEU because I did two years while at Vandy but I was only able to sit in the back of the meeting room and write notes. This year's where I was actually able to do the full workouts with the guys, which was pretty cool,” Bresnahan said.
Tight End University is an annual summit run by Olsen, Kittle and Kelce and unites a list of tight ends across all of professional football. The event allows players to participate in drills, film study and aims to further development at the tight end position. The event is based in Vanderbilt University, where Bresnahan played from 2018-2022 and served as a team captain in his fifth-year.
“It was good to be home back at Vandy, I've spent so many hours on that field. It was really cool to listen to the intricate details of what these high-level guys are thinking and their routes and their releases.”
During the camp, Bresnahan was able to gain key insights from Kelce on receiving and how to create separation on routes.
“Travis talked about running and he called it phase three of running. For tight ends who have bigger bodies, we're not going to be able to get in and out of breaks really efficiently at one hundred percent speed. Whenever you're running at phase three at 80-85 percent, you can still try to create separation but you're able to get in and out of breaks well and so that's creating more separation.”
After their workouts, Bresnahan and the other tight ends were invited to a party at the Brooklyn Bowl bar in Nashville with musical performances from Chase Rice, Jordan Davis among others. Later into the show, the entire audience at Brooklyn Bowl were treated to an impromptu concert by a certain artist that they couldn’t begin to fathom.
“We were hanging out up top at the venue and right next to us while we're getting a drink at the bar were Taylor Swift, George Kittle, Travis Kelce and Luke Combs. All of us were thinking, ‘Are Taylor and Luke going to perform tonight?’. We were kind of figuring it out and then they both left oddly from the top of the VIP section. Then, Luke went out on stage and performed with Kane Brown. After they finished up, Taylor came out and I was thinking ‘This is actually really happening right now, this is awesome’. That's probably one of the cooler moments for sure.”
After the summit, Bresnahan looks to use the information he gained from his experience at Tight End University and translate it to his workouts this summer.
“I’ll be working out with George Kittle’s trainer, Jeremy Holt, in Nashville for the next month and a half and getting ready for whenever camp starts up for NFL teams. I'm just trying to find a spot and see whenever the opportunity opens up and I'll be ready to go.”