Wisconsin football may have something special brewing with Chris Brooks Jr.

With the Wisconsin Badgers fall camp officially underway, intel has begun to roll in. Everything from stars living up to the hype, to the defense being as good as advertised, to even just the overall intensity of practices feeling different. However, the most fun stories to track are always those of the breakout candidates.

Every year, a handful of guys take an unexpected leap into stardom, evolving from a non-factor into an impact player. This year, the breakout candidate in Madison seems to be fifth-year senior Chris Brooks Jr.

The 6-foot-2, 224-pound wideout has spent each of his five seasons in college football as part of Wisconsin, and now it seems as if his loyalty has paid off. Brooks' best season to date came last season, in which he logged 11 catches for 124 yards in what was ultimately an extremely limited role.

Turning Heads

However, thus far through camp, it seems as if his role will be expanded, as Luke Fickell has made it a point to get him on the field in a variety of ways. Brooks has always been a great blocker for his position, allowing him to slot in even around the line of scrimmage on select downs in order to extrapolate that value.

But given the rumors of a reported leap in both his comfortability at the receiver position, Fickell has begun to expand his route tree a bit, giving him more opportunity on the field. It's clear that the staff trusts Brooks as both a player and a leader, given he represented the Badgers at Big 10 media day, and now to see it reflect in his on-field play is a refreshing sight.

As for what to expect from his on-field play, the hype shouldn't be crazy high as, at the end of the day, he is still somewhat limited. Even if he took leaps and bounds forward as a route runner and with his mind for the position, Brooks is still a relatively slow and not incredibly agile wideout, hindering his overall ceiling.

What to Expect

With that said, his size is something that will absolutely work in his favor, on top of technical development, which should make him a very potent threat. Wisconsin may have to get a bit creative with how they get him involved, as he isn't exactly an X receiver who can win on every rep. But given his familiarity with the playbook, finding him a role shouldn't be very difficult.

As for production, it's hard to put a set number on what to expect. The odds of Brooks completely taking over and ending the year with 700-plus yards is slim, especially given how many mouths the Badgers are expected to feed.

A more realistic number for him would be somewhere in the 200- to 500-yard range, with three to five touchdowns mixed in. Albeit, that is a wide range of outcomes for what has ultimately been a volatile position in Madison recently, but given all that Brooks brings as a run blocker, leader and hard-nosed guy, it will forever be hard to quantify the impact he has made with the program.

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