Wisconsin's 2017 football season was one for the record books, capped off with a 34-24 win over No. 10 Miami in the Capital One Orange Bowl on Dec. 30.

Now BadgerBlitz.com takes a look back at the season that was, breaking down the bright spots and low points at each position, with an eye on the future as well.

Alex Hornibrook put on a show during the Orange Bowl against Miami, and Wisconsin's wide receivers were the main beneficiaries. They stepped up and made the plays that were in front of them, showing any remaining skeptics that the Badgers are going to have one of the deepest wide receiver corps in the Big Ten next year. A.J. Taylor led the team with eight catches for 105 yards with one touchdown, and Danny Davis had five catches for 56 yards and scored three touchdowns. Mix in Kendric Pryor and Quintez Cephus next year, and this young group of wideouts could help the Badgers move the ball through the air better than we've seen in a long time in 2018.

Quintez Cephus was having a breakout season through Wisconsin's first nine games, catching 30 passes for 501 yards with a team-high six touchdowns. He'd already established himself as UW's new No. 1 wide receiver, and was helping the Badgers move the chains by fighting for extra yards after the catch and coming down with contested balls. But Cephus' season ended after he broke his leg at the bottom of a pile during Wisconsin's game against Indiana, and at the time there was good reason to wonder how the rest of UW's young wide receivers would respond. It turned out pretty well for UW, but at the time it looked like losing Cephus would be a pretty significant blow to Wisconsin's season.

-- We talked about Taylor's game against Miami above, but I wanted to bring it up again because it was definitely his best game of the season - and it showed how far he's come since spring camp last year, when it looked like he needed to develop a good relationship with the JUGS machine to work on his hands. Taylor was effective over the middle of the field and seems to have taken a step forward, giving the Badgers a nice mix of skillsets to use at the position next year.

-- Kendric Pryor also deserves kudos for giving the Badgers a lift after Cephus' injury, despite having to work his way back on to the field after suffering some facial injuries after he was in an accident on his moped on campus during fall camp last year. Pryor is an athletic guy who gave the Badgers another option to use on their jet sweep handoffs, and that could be a way he gets reps next year too.

Right off the bat, our best guess is that Cephus will still be recovering from his leg injury during the spring - so don't expect to see him during camp. But even without Cephus on the field that will give Davis, Taylor and Pryor even more reps to work with - which should pay dividends as they look to take the next step in 2018. Spring camp will also give the Badgers a chance to see how their redshirt freshmen look after their first few months in the program - and could give someone like Cade Green a chance to find a role, maybe as a slot receiver or on special teams if he's healthy.

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John Veldhuis covers Wisconsin football, basketball and recruiting for BadgerBlitz.com on the Rivals.com network. Follow him on Twitter at @JohnVeldhuis.