VOTE: Who was the best Northwestern tight end over the last 25 years?

It's been 25 years since Northwestern's magical run to the Rose Bowl in 1995 revitalized the program. WildcatReport is celebrating that Silver Anniversary by finding out who's been the best player during that span at each position.

BEST IN 25 YEARS SERIES: QB Dan Persa l RB Justin Jackson l WR D'Wayne Bates

The tight end position has probably undergone more change than any other over the last 25 years. And we're not just talking about a name switch, either.

The 1995 Rose Bowl team had a pair of tight ends in Darren Drexler and Shane Graham who were more like extra tackles in Gary Barnett's run-heavy offense. Randy Walker brought with him a spread offense that often eschewed the tight end in favor of an extra wide receiver.

But offensive coordinator Mick McCall elevated the position under head coach Pat Fitzgerald, deploying them on the line, in the backfield and even split out in space.

New offensive coordinator Mike Bajakian has switched the name back from superback to tight end, but he plans to use them very similarly to McCall and has a proven track record of utilizing them heavily.

Whether you want to call them tight ends or superbacks, it's your job to decide who was the best one to wear Purple over the last quarter century. Read about the careers of our four candidates below. Then, vote for your go-to receiver on the WildcatReport Football Board. You'll find the link at the end of this story.

Reason he deserves it: He set the bar. Dunsmore was McCall's first superback and holds all the major career pass-catching marks for a tight end at Northwestern. He is also the only Northwestern first-team All-Big Ten TE selection over the last 25 years.

The skinny: Dunsmore owns the Northwestern career tight end records for catches (143), receiving yards (1,567) and touchdown grabs (14). The TD catches are also the fourth-most in NU history.

Dunsmore set single-season school marks for receiving yards (522) and TDs (6) in 2011, when he was named first-team All-Big Ten and took home the inaugural Kwalik-Clark Tight End of the Year award as the best in the conference.

Beyond numbers, Dunsmore also produced some thrilling moments in his career. He had a career-best 10-catch effort against Syracuse in 2009, and he capped the season with an unforgettable highlight -- a 66-yard catch-and-run for a touchdown in the Outback Bowl against Auburn that is still the longest pass play in NU bowl history. In Dunsmore's final year, in 2011, he had a four-touchdown outing against Indiana to set a school record that still stands.

To sum it up, Dunsmore could do it all. He was picked in the seventh round of the 2012 NFL Draft by Tampa Bay.

The numbers:

Reason he deserves it: He was the prototype. Vitale had the arms of Hercules and the feet of Mercury. He was a matchup nightmare for defenses as part fullback, part tight end and part wide receiver.

The skinny: Vitale was just a two-star athlete in 2012 as colleges couldn't figure out for which position he would best be suited. He played running back at Wheaton (Ill.) Warrenville South and some schools recruited him as a linebacker.

Northwestern brought him in as a superback and he hit the ground running as a freshman, earning the starting job out of fall camp and earning Big Ten All-Freshman honors. He was named All-Big Ten honorable mention in 2014 and was a consensus second-team pick in 2015, as a senior.

Vitale was too big for most defensive backs and too fast for most linebackers to cover. A steady contributor from Day 1, Vitale caught at least one pass in 35 of his last 37 games in Evanston.

Vitale was chosen in the sixth round of the NFL Draft in 2016 by Tampa Bay and now plays for New England.

The numbers:

Reason he deserves it: He was the big dog. At 248 pounds, Dickerson was the biggest superback of the bunch and spent most of his time on the line. But by the end of his career he had developed into a receiving weapon.

The skinny: Dickerson was a four-star recruit in 2014 who turned down Alabama, Ohio State and Stanford, among others, to follow his brother Cameron to Northwestern.

Dickerson was mostly an in-line tight end and played second fiddle to Vitale during his first two years. But he was honorable mention All-Big Ten as both a junior and senior when he became the starter.

Dickerson caught at least one pass in each game and had a career-best five touchdowns as a junior in 2016. He followed that up in 2017 with career highs for catches (37) and yards (401), as well as his finest game as a Wildcat, when he caught a career-best nine passes for 150 yards in the Wildcats' win over Bowling Green. His yardage total is the most ever for a tight end and the ninth most for any position in NU single-game history.

Though he went undrafted, Dickerson is now a member of the New York Giants.

The numbers:

Reason he deserves it: What could have been. Green came in as a wide receiver and had to learn how to play superback. Yet he caught more passes than any tight end in Northwestern history in 2018 before retiring with one year of eligibility remaining.

The skinny: Green was recruited as a wide receiver from Lincolnshire (Ill.) Stevenson in 2015 and never really lost what he called that "pretty boy" mentality. It took a while, but those skills eventually made Green an impact player.

Green redshirted as a freshman. Always big for a wide receiver, he eventually outgrew the position and made the move to superback the next year. Playing as a backup to Dickerson, Green caught four passes in 2016. He had 20 catches, including two TDs, the next season, again as a backup.

Then, in 2018, Green exploded. He snagged a career-high 11 receptions for 125 yards and two touchdowns against Akron and wound up catching at least one pass in 13 of 14 games. He posted 57 catches on the year, the most ever for a Northwestern tight end. He scored a touchdown in the 2018 Big Ten championship game, one of a career-high four on the year, and was voted honorable mention All-Big Ten.

Just as he was hitting his stride, Green retired from football for personal reasons in 2019, right before the start of spring practice.

The numbers:

Go to our Football Board to cast your vote. You can vote for any of the four tight ends listed above. Or, if you think other guys are more deserving, you can vote for "Other" and identify your write-in candidate in your reply to the message.

Hurry! The poll will close on Sunday night.

Ready? CLICK HERE TO VOTE