MADISON — Wisconsin resumed its spring practice period on a rainy Tuesday morning . BadgerBlitz.com was on hand to compile the key takeaways from the Badgers' second session of the spring.
Competition up and down the roster
In Luke Fickell's first spring in Madison, many positions appeared to be rather set in stone throughout the course of 15 practices. Quarterback Tanner Mordecai, for instance, took every single rep with the first team. With his pedigree and the lack of experience in the room behind him, that made perfect sense at the time. Still, the Badgers seem to be facilitating more competition throughout the entire depth chart this spring.
At quarterback, Tyler Van Dyke was technically the starter, but he didn't take every rep with the "first-team." Braedyn Locke ate into some of those. Likewise, Locke was the clear second option, but Nick Evers took some of his snaps with the "second-team." Why the quotes? The first and second units appear much less defined this spring. Players on both sides of the ball rotated in and out frequently.
"There's new guys that come into the program, right?" Fickell said after practice. "Everybody's embraced that (competition). There's a lot of guys rolling through, getting a lot of opportunities, creating that competitiveness, and that's what you're seeing...That to me is what stands out. That natural competitiveness that's gonna make us better in the long run."
Running back was also very fluid. Chez Mellusi, Tawee Walker and Jackson Acker all took snaps with the starters. Tight end was the same story. Riley Nowakowski, JT Seagreaves and Jackson McGohan were all involved with the first and second teams while Tucker Ashcraft sat out with an injury. The staff appears to have decided it needs to create more competition up and down the roster, and we're witnessing that early on this spring.
John Pius turns heads
