MADISON — I caught my third practice of the Badgers' spring session alongside fellow staff writers Donnie Slusher and Cam Wilhorn.

Wisconsin practiced up until 10 a.m, one of the shorter sessions of the spring and easily the shortest practice I've seen this offseason. Nonetheless, there was plenty of takeaways to be gleaned. Here's what stood out to me in my third time watching the Badgers this spring:

The biggest news of out practice today is that sophomore Kevin Heywood is lost for the season with an ACL injury that requires surgery.

He was in line to start at left tackle, replacing Jack Nelson. This is obviously a huge loss for the Badgers, but there's no time to dwell on what could've been. He'll preserve his eligibility and look to bounce back in 2026. In the meantime, the attention shifts to his potential replacements.

Right now, Leyton Nelson has been taking Heywood's snaps at starting left tackle. After a brutal day on Saturday, the former Vanderbilt transfer bounced back with a much better performance anchoring the edge for the first-team offense. Still, this is a player who has 27 career snaps to his name across three seasons. He's a huge wild card as of now.

Emerson Mandell was also mentioned by Luke Fickell, but he appears to be slightly dinged up as well right now; his reps have been extremely limited. Thus, it's hard to get a sense of where his game/development is.

Fickell also mentioned that he wouldn't be opposed to shuffling his other starters to ensure his team gets solid play at arguably the most important position in the trenches. The Badgers are keeping all their options open at left tackle at the moment, but this is a tough situation right now with no clear solution.