Following the conclusion of spring camp, BadgerBlitz.com will take a look at each position group and where they stand as the team heads toward fall camp.

We'll wrap up our positional overviews with a broad look at the special teams.

Gavin Lahm

Of all the position battles on the roster, maybe the least-discussed was at kicker, understandably.

Nathanial Vakos is coming off of a strange 2024 season. He was superb from distance — 3-for-3 from 50+ yards — but still made just 12 of his 19 attempts, leaving the door open for uncertainty. The coaches allowed for a competition between him and kickoff specialist Gavin Lahm.

This wasn’t the most eventful position battle. We would only ever see the two kick at the very end of practice, a handful of kicks each time. Vakos made only two more field goals than Lahm, according to a tally kept by BadgerBlitz.com.

We got the best look at the competition on the last day of practice, when they held a special teams scrimmage. Vakos had the far better day, making 6-of-7 kicks from 42, 43, 50, 50, 52 and 53 yards.

Lahm made 3-of-6, converting from 42, 54 and 54. All of his misses were due to accuracy rather than power.

That brings me to the toughest part about the position battle — they’re quite similar kickers. Each has a strong leg, but also a tendency to sail kicks left or right.

“It’s gonna be one of those ones that we’re gonna have to figure out,” coach Luke Fickell said on April 15.

“I don’t know that either one just wants to be a kickoff specialist, and I respect that. We did a good job of being able to keep both of those guys because they both have a really unique skill set, but there’s still a little bit of a difference. Lahm, by nature, does have a bigger leg on some of those really long ones, but Vakos, just the other day, was pretty consistent with his 55-yarders as well.”

Still, despite losing on the final day, Lahm stuck around throughout spring. This is a competition that will likely continue into the fall. If Vakos struggles the way he did last season, the coaches could realistically turn to Lahm.

Tyrell Henry

There’s an open battle for the punt return job, which I’ll dive into more later. Ultimately, I don’t know who it’s gonna be, but I have a feeling it’s not gonna be Henry.

The problem was simple — he muffed too many punts. I didn’t keep a tally, but I feel confident saying he beat the other contenders by a long shot. End-over-end punts especially killed him.

He’s one of the fastest players on the team and has no shortage of potential as a returner. But it won’t really matter if he can’t catch the ball and begin his return.

Who’s gonna return punts?

Of the many issues on last year’s Badger team, the punt return situation was among the most embarrassing.

Safety Hunter Wohler returned punts for the majority of the season. Do I need to say anything else?

“The thing we really have to address is the punt return unit,” outside linebackers and special teams coach Matt Mitchell said.

“We weren’t very good on the edges holding up and we have to establish a punt returner. That position last year was not where we needed it to be. So, I’m cautiously optimistic. Take a look at [Jayden] Ballard who came in from Ohio State, he’s got good ball skills and can run. He’s getting some reps there. Tyrell Henry, second year in the program. Vinny [Anthony] is really good on kickoff returns. That was part of the reason we were top-20 was Vinny, and Vinny’s taking reps. But that’s an area — the punt block, punt return unit is an area of focus that we gotta get better at.”

It was a pretty open competition. Ballard, Henry and Darrion Dupree seemed to get the most reps.

Of the candidates we saw, I thought Ballard was the best. He looked more explosive than Dupree and didn’t struggle with drops the way Henry did. But I don’t think he’s gonna win the job.

The player who can’t be forgotten is Trech Kekahuna, who was a contender prior to his injury. He’s the quickest, shiftiest and most agile player on the roster. Those are the attributes you need in a punt returner.

Ballard and Anthony are ultimately much better equipped for kick returns. They have longer legs and are much more effective when they can actually build up speed.

They’re fast. Kekahuna is quick. I believe he’s the best candidate, but we won’t be able to see him in action until fall camp.

Specialists are not always recruited in the traditional way, especially at Wisconsin. The last time they recruited and signed a player out of high school was in the 2016 class, with kicker Anthony Lotti.

But they are decently set up for the future via walk-ons and portal acquisitions.

Behind Vakos and Lahm is redshirt sophomore Sean West, a Mequon native who in 2023 won the Kevin Stemke Award, given to the best kicker or punter in the state of Wisconsin.

They also picked up an extra punter this offseason in Stone Anderson, a redshirt sophomore transfer from Michigan.

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