Spring practices are underway for Wisconsin Football, and there are several spots up for grabs up and down the depth chart. Which three stand out the most?
Wisconsin began spring practices earlier this week, and you know what means: it is officially position battle season.
From now until the Badgers kick off their season against South Florida on August 30, a months-long period of intra-squad competition to lock down starting jobs and other primary roles on the team for the upcoming campaign will ensue. As is the case most years, there are certainly plenty of holes to be filled.
On offense, Wisconsin certainly returns plenty of firepower. 2018 Doak Walker Award winner Jonathan Taylor is back for another season and should once again contend for that award, and perhaps even the Heisman Trophy if the Badgers as a whole can put together a more successful campaign in 2019. Wisconsin also returns an exciting stable of wide receivers that includes Danny Davis, Kendric Pryor, A.J. Taylor, and Aron Cruickshank, with several promising youngsters waiting in the wings, as well as a budding superstar at tight end in Jake Ferguson.
However, there are some glaring holes that must be filled on the offense, specifically in the trenches and under center.
Defensively, the Badgers return most of their contributors from a season ago in the secondary and on the defensive line, and in the case of the latter, get a couple of key pieces back who should be at full health by the time the season rolls around. However, the departures of T.J. Edwards, Andrew Van Ginkel, and Ryan Connelly leave some massive voids to be filled by the returning players in the linebacker room.
For the Badgers in contention to step up and take on greater roles, how they perform in the opening salvos of their respective position battles over the next few weeks will go a long way in determining what the future holds for them in the program, both this season and beyond.
Let’s take a look at the three competitions that Wisconsin fans should keep an especially close eye on this spring.