Kapoi and Dietzen battling for starting job
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MADISON, Wis. - Wisconsin’s season-opening game against No. 5 LSU is just a few days away, and the Badgers have one position battle still ongoing as they count down the days until Sept. 3. The rest of their offensive line is set, but sophomore Micah Kapoi and redshirt freshman Jon Dietzen are still battling for the job at left guard, left open after senior Dan Voltz decided to retire for health reasons near the end of fall camp.
And while offensive coordinator Joe Rudolph will have to make a decision in the next few days, he told reporters after practice on Tuesday that he likes how both players have handled the competition throughout fall camp.
“I think both Micah and (Dietzen) are doing good things, and you know I wouldn’t be surprised to see both of them play that position,” Rudolph said Tuesday. “I like the competition, I think it will be ongoing, and both guys have approached it the right way.”
Kapoi (6-foot-3, 334 pounds) has the playing time edge over Dietzen, after he played in 12 games with 10 starts in 2015 as a redshirt freshman. He’s the most experienced lineman on the team after sophomore center Michael Deiter, who is now stepping into a leadership role after Voltz’s retirement.
Dietzen (6-foot-6, 333 pounds) is primed for a large role after redshirting in 2015. A former three-star recruit from Seymour High School in Wisconsin, Dietzen probably could have helped the Badgers as a true freshman but the team kept his redshirt on to preserve a year of eligibility for him.
With a year in the program under his belt, Dietzen is making a strong push to earn a starting job right away. Rudolph said he though Dietzen learned a lot during spring camp, when he spent most of his time with the first team offense and Kapoi worked with the twos to give them an older player to work with. But Dietzen missed some time with an injury during fall camp, and he and Kapoi ended up splitting most of the first team reps even before Voltz’s retirement.
As for Kapoi, the Hawaii native said he believes his first year of playing time paid off in a big way for him. He feels more confident now than he did last fall, in part because he’s already gone out and gotten the first game nerves out of the way.
“I think this past season has helped me out tremendously,” Kapoi said Tuesday. “Those first game nerves aren’t there. Obviously you still get a little nervous, but it’s not a brand new thing to me. I think handling those nerves, it’s not as hard as last year. I think getting acclimated (to the speed of the game) really helped me out a lot (too).”
And while the competition is still ongoing, Kapoi said in the end it should make him and Dietzen better, which is the best outcome for the team at the end of the day.
“It has just pushed us to work harder,” Kapoi said. “There’s no starter yet, so we’re just working each day. Like Rudolph said, we can’t take a play for granted. Every play we go out there could win us the job or lose it. I think it’s good for both of us to get out there and keep working.”
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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.