MADISON, Wis. - The Wisconsin Badgers held their fourth open practice of spring camp on Saturday afternoon in Camp Randall Stadium, and a few defensive players were available to speak with media members at the end of the day.

BadgerBlitz.com was there to take in the action, and our notes from the interviews are included below.

-- It's no secret that Wisconsin's defensive line left a lot to be desired in 2018, in part because of some injury issues that hamstrung them even before the season started in the fall. Losing junior defensive end Garrett Rand for the year to an achilles injury in particular was a big blow to a group that was looking to incorporate several new faces throughout the line.

But after redshirting in 2018 while recovering from his injury Rand is hopeful he will be able to pick up where he left off last year - claiming a starting spot at defensive end, and giving the defensive line an experienced body who can help them shore up some of their shortcomings from 2018.

"This injury probably made my fire … even more driven to play football," Rand said on Saturday after practice. "Just because it’s been such a long time. I’ve been (itching) to get on a football field and put the pads on. I’m definitely confident in my ability to play some good football."

Rand is sitting out of spring camp this year to finish off his rehab process, but he's hoping to be ready to go for fall camp this season. That started with taking his recovery one day at a time, and not losing sight of the overall goal - to get back on the field and help the Badgers win games.

"It was really just saying to myself ‘You’ve got this recovery process,'" Rand said on Saturday. "It’s gonna be long but you’ve just got to stick to a routine."

As for when he can get back on the field, Rand said he's hoping to finish off the transition from nose guard to full-time defensive end that he started in the run up to the 2018 season before his injury.

"Hopefully I’m just going to be me," Rand said. "I haven’t played much (defensive) end but I just want to be the best I can be for the team. Hopefully that’s good enough."

-- Sophomore Scott Nelson and senior Eric Burrell have been getting the bulk of the first-team reps at safety for the Badgers during the practices that have been open to the media, but redshirt freshman safety Reggie Pearson has stood out both in individual drills and during 11-on-11 work against the offense. He's flashed some big-play ability when he's on the field for UW, and Nelson said that Pearson's athleticism should help the Badgers wherever the coaching staff decides to play him this fall.

"Reggie is just a ridiculous athlete," Nelson said. "(A) very talented player, a very physical player. I know whether he’s starting at safety or playing special teams he’s going to go all-out. He’s going to do everything he can to help the team. That’s the type of guy he is."

-- Nelson also feels like the secondary, which returns all of their major contributors from last year other than senior safety D'Cota Dixon, has been taking steps forward as they try and learn from their in-game reps from last year. Nelson said he thinks the Badgers have been doing their best to take another step forward this spring, which would help UW turn what was one of their younger secondaries in recent memory in to a more veteran unit.

"I feel like we’ve taken a lot of good steps to not make the same mistake twice," Nelson said. "I think we were struggling with that last year - we were kind of emphasizing the same points, so I think we’re doing a good job of that. (We’re) doing a really good job of communicating. We’re kind of advancing on getting out of breaks more, getting in good positions to make plays on the ball."

-- The Badgers will also be looking to give their pass rush a boost after losing senior linebackers T.J. Edwards, Ryan Connelly, and Andrew Van Ginkel to graduation. Senior-to-be Zack Baun is now the leader of the pack when it comes to getting after the quarterback for the UW defense, and Baun said that he thinks the younger players looking to earn a starting spot next to him will need to develop as an individual pass rusher in order for UW to build up a stable of outside linebackers who can disrupt an opposing offense.

"Everyone is going to have to learn their individual style and realize that Izayah (Green-May) isn’t going to pass rush the same as me," Baun said. "Neither is Noah (Burks) or Tyler Johnson. You’ve just got to find your style in the pass rush game. It just takes reps."

-- The Badgers also lost a vocal senior leader on the defensive line in nose tackle Olive Sagapolu, who held down the middle of the UW 3-4 defense for the last four years. But junior defensive end Isaiahh Loudermilk said that Sagapolu's replacement, sophomore Bryson Willians, has grown a lot from the reps he got in place of Sagapolu last year when the senior was lost for the season with an arm injury.

"Bryson has grown a lot," Loudermilk said on Saturday. "Not only in his play, but Bryson is kind of a natural born leader. He’s extremely vocal. Especially now that Olive has left, Bryson has stepped up a lot. He’s still to me one of the leaders of the D-line because he does have those reps. His improvements that I’ve seen have been great on the field and off the field from a leadership standpoint."

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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.