If Nyzier Fourqurean can't play this year at all, there may be a bit of a cause for alarm, as more and more young players will have to be tossed into the fire. Luke Fickell, after fall camp, said exactly this: that the freshmen corners will have to be ready to go because they will play this year.
He wouldn't commit to how much or where they will play, but the expectation is that redshirt and even true freshmen corners will be taking snaps during the season, which is a bit of a good news, bad news situation.
Freshmen DBs will play this year, says Fickell, and that's a bit alarming
There's some good news to it, as young freshmen being tried by fire often is good for the long-term success of a program. It also indicates their talent is closer than some of the older guys who should be ahead of them. However, it also means there may be some freshmen bone-headed decisions on the field that could cost drives and plays.
Luke Fickell's full comments on the young corners was this:
"Those young corners have had a lot of fire under them, they have played a lot of ball, they have been there against the ones, they've been challenged a lot. They have been beat but they haven't batted an eye. It would make you nervous if you thought you were going in there to play with one of those true freshmen guys but they are getting battled tested. They are going to play this year, in what capacity and how much, how much on defense, how much on special teams, I don't know. But I can tell you this, they aren't going to be freshmen by the time this camp is over and by the time we get into week 3 and 4. "Luke Fickell
According to the official roster website, Wisconsin has eight cornerbacks. There have been times safeties have been used in cornerback positions, like Austin Brown last year, playing a lot of nickel, so it's not the official depth chart. But eight players listed at cornerback show the depth a bit (this even counts Fourqurean). Half of them are either true freshmen or redshirt freshmen.
There have been some highlight plays made by true freshmen Jahmare Washington and redshirt freshmen Omillio Agard. Cario Skanes has taken a ton of reps with the first team defense and could see action there this season. There's also Jai'mer Scott to round out that "young guys" group.
It wouldn't be ideal to play the freshmen, but it may be what Wisconsin is forced to do, and Fickell is doing everything to prepare them accordingly.