MADISON — I dropped by the McClain center on Thursday morning to accompany BadgerBlitz.com staff writers Donnie Slusher and Cameron Wilhorn to Wisconsin's ninth practice of the spring. Those two have done a fantastic job with their coverage, but I wanted to lay my own eyes on what is suddenly a very different football team.
With 34 new players between transfers and early-enrollee freshman, plus a brand new offense, the Badgers are in many ways unrecognizable from even last season. Here's what I gleaned from my first time watching coordinator Jeff Grimes' offense and all these new athletes in person.
Wide receiver height stands out immediately
There's been plenty of talk about the Badgers' efforts to get bigger in the trenches, and on paper, they've achieved that, largely by way of the transfer portal. Too often last fall, Wisconsin got pushed around and manhandled up front, and so a bigger and more physical front seven has been emphasized.
Whether by design or not, the Badgers have also gotten noticeably bigger at wideout. During individual positional work, that was one of the first things I noticed — first year receivers coach Jordan Reid has a taller, larger group of wideouts than years past in Madison.
Jayden Ballard (6-foot-2) is perhaps the most notable. He made plays throughout the session and getting him the ball was clearly a focal point. Early in 11-on-11s, Grimes called a misdirection screen pass to Ballard that didn't gain many yards but illustrated how the coordinator wants to get the ball in his hands. On another screen pass, he unleashed a nice spin move on redshirt freshman cornerback Omillio Agard, this time gaining a solid chunk of yards.
Joseph Griffin Jr. is the tallest wideout of the bunch at 6-foot-4. Thursday, he played with the polish and savvy you'd expect from a redshirt senior who's already had a solid career with another program (Boston College). He has excellent hands and if he can separate in the slightest, watch out.
The 6-foot-2 Chris Brooks Jr. also fits the bill, but he's a massive wild card due to his extensive injury history. Still, he's another big body in the receiver room, as is Quincy Burroughs (6-foot-3), who had a really nice rep on a go ball, beating starting boundary corner Nyzier Fourqurean and reeling in the catch.
True freshman Eugene Hilton has made plenty of headlines this spring, and seeing him in person, it's not hard to understand why. Though he didn't make any spectacular catches Thursday, he played well overall and most importantly, he doesn't have the body of a true freshman. At six feet tall, he doesn't have the height of some of the other receivers but he looks compact at 201 pounds. Strength and physicality shouldn't be an issue for Hilton in year one.
