Wisconsin Football: Badgers WR Quintez Cephus

The next edition of the Wisconsin Football player spotlight series is on junior WR Quintez Cephus. Cephus was the Badger’s leading receiver during a breakout year before injuring his leg.

Wisconsin football isn’t necessarily known for its passing attack. They have been a ground and pound running team for what seems like forever. Last season, Quintez Cephus changed that–or at least as much as a wide receiver at Wisconsin can.

Let’s back up and take a look at how Cephus ended up at Wisconsin. It’s a little different than a traditional recruit.

Coming out of high school, Cephus initially committed to play basketball at Furman. Wisconsin’s receivers coach Ted Gilmore worked hard to change his mind and to get him to play football instead.

Eventually, Cephus decided to play football. At the time he had offers from Georgia Southern and Wisconsin but chose Wisconsin. Soon after he committed to the Badgers, he got offers from Georgia Tech, Vanderbilt, and Miami (FL).

Freshman season

Cephus saw the field in his freshman season, playing in seven games and starting four. But wasn’t all that productive. He had four receptions for 94 yards and zero touchdowns.

There were a few reasons behind this. The first, being obvious, is he was a freshman. There were other more experienced pass-catchers on the team who were targeted before him. He had senior Rob Wheelwright, and juniors Jazz Peavey and Troy Fumagalli all ahead of him. Another big part of the passing game was Dare Ogunbowale catching passes out of the backfield.

He also had two different quarterbacks his freshman season. Wisconsin was splitting time between senior Bart Houston and freshman Alex Hornibrook.

You also have to factor in that Wisconsin was still an offense that relied heavily on the run. Senior Corey Clement ran for over 1,300 yards and 15 touchdowns on his own. Adding in Ogunbowale, Bradrick Shaw, Taiwan Deal and others, the Badgers ran for almost 3,000 yards and 31 touchdowns on the season.

With a running game like that, a freshman receiver won’t be getting a ton of looks.

Sophomore season

Cephus entered the season as a starting receiver for the Badgers. Early in the season, Peavy was thought to be the number one receiver after his breakout junior season, but never got on track and eventually left the program.

With Cephus as the number one receiver, he enjoyed a breakout season. In nine games, he had 30 catches for 501 yards and six touchdowns.

It became obvious that Cephus was among Hornibrook’s favorite targets. And for good reason. According to College Pro Football Focus, Cephus leads all returning FBS receivers in passer rating when targeted.

Unfortunately, Cephus’ great season got cut short. In Wisconsin’s game at Indiana, Cephus injured his right leg and missed the rest of the season. His season was on pace for about 47 receptions, 780 yards and 9 touchdowns, had he stayed healthy.

Those are the types of stats the Badgers haven’t seen since the 2013 season with Jared Abbrederis when he went off for 78/1,081/7. But even then, Abby’s average was 13.9 yards per catch while Cephus’ was 16.7 yards per catch.

What to expect this season

It’s tough to say what Cephus will do this season. He was rolling before he got hurt. His injury also opened the door for some of the other receivers like Danny Davis III, A.J. Taylor, and Kendric Pryor. Davis stepped in nicely, especially during the Orange Bowl game where he caught three touchdowns.

I still predict Cephus will have another solid season, building on what he accomplished last year. I think he will be Hornibrook’s go-to-guy and security blanket, now that Fumagalli is in the NFL.

The regular season is still a long way away and a lot can happen, but in the meantime, enjoy this clip from Wisconsin football’s spring practice.

https://twitter.com/badgerfootball/status/986999020122812416?lang=en

Next: Top 10 Wisconsin games since 2010

Cephus is a big reason why the offense is expected to be one of the best Wisconsin football has seen in a long time. There are plenty of reasons to be excited about the potential Quintez Cephus brings to the Badgers.