Wisconsin ended its season on a winning note with a 24-17 over Oklahoma State in the Guaranteed Bowl on Dec. 27. After a brief break, UW will kick up winter conditioning as it begins its early preparation for the 2023 campaign.

Over the next two weeks, BadgerBlitz.com will review each position before turning the page from the 2022 season. Today we'll examine the special teams.

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Wisconsin brought Vito Calvaruso to Madison via the transfer portal ahead of the 2022 season, and it was expected that the former Arkansas kickoff specialist would take over both kickoff and field goal duties upon arrival. As fall camp wore on, however, and Calvaruso was nowhere to be found during the special teams portions of practice, it became increasingly clear that Nate Van Zelst was in line to see much of the work at kicker.

Calvaruso handled the field goal duties for the first two weeks of the season, but after going 0-2 on field goals in Washington State's upset of Wisconsin, he seemed to fall out of favor with the coaching staff.

Van Zelst would take over the following week and never relinquish the job. He wasn't the dynamic, booming-leg type of kicker the Badgers thought they were getting when they landed Calvaruso, but he was about as solid as one can hope for a backup plan. Van Zelst drilled all 35 of his extra points and missed three field goals. Strangely, all three of those misses came in the 30-39 yard range — he knocked all of his attempts from 40-49 yards through the uprights.

Calvaruso, meanwhile, was left without a job after week two. After coming to Madison expecting to be the top kicker in every category, the former Razorback didn't even handle kickoff duties. Those were performed by Gavin Lahm and Jack Van Dyke. In what was a disappointing season for Calvaruso, Wisconsin was able to find at least moderate consistency in their kickoff tandem and the efforts of Van Zelst.

When Dean Engram transitioned from cornerback to wide receiver, it was a logical move. As a primarily nickel corner, he displayed that change of direction and quick-twitch that usually translates well to a slot receiver position. But those attributes didn't translate to the punt return department.

Engram had been the Badgers top punt returner since the 2020 season, but his production in that department was shaky at best in 2022. His yards-per-return at 5.4 left much to be desired. Engram muffed two punts, but bobbled a few more that Wisconsin was lucky enough to fall on top of. It got to the point where a high-arching punt to Engram was cause to hold your breath. Simply put, the punt return game had zero spark in 2022.

Not all of the blame should fall on Engram for Wisconsin's disappointing punt return game. He was the most experienced punt returner on the roster, and the logical choice to man that position in 2022. There was little competition in that regard — Engram was the only player to return a punt for the Badgers all year. Without a true special teams coach, the entirety of Wisconsin's special teams had its rough patches throughout the year.

Wisconsin didn't have a singular, dedicated special teams coach in 2022. The new staff clearly has a much different philosophy.

Earlier this month, Luke Fickell and company brought on Colin Hitschler to coach safeties and special teams. Hitschler was the safeties coach at Cincinnati with Fickell for three years, while also serving as a co-defensive coordinator.

Several days later, ESPN's Pete Thamel reported that Wisconsin had lured Matt Mitchell, the coach of D-II Grand Valley State, to coach their special teams and outside linebackers. Mitchell won 117 games in 13 years with GVSU, the second most in school history.

If both of those hires sound overqualified to coach special teams, they probably are, and it's probably a good thing. It'll be interesting to see how the staff shakes out with both coaches being linked to special teams, but two minds are better than one, or in the case of the 2022 Badgers, none.

Hitschler and Mitchell will have plenty of questions to answer once they get to work in Madison. Who will replace Isaac Guerendo as the primary kick-returner? How do they fix the punt return unit? What will the placekicker position look like, with the returning Van Zelst battling it out with incoming All-American transfer Nathanial Vakos?

However the official job titles shake out, Badgers fans should be able to breathe much easier about special teams knowing that phase will have dedicated coaches in 2023.

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