MADISON -- Luke Fickell and the Badgers were inside the McClain Center for their sixth spring practice. We’re beginning to see the team do more 11-on-11 work, which should create a better idea of basic rotations and positional hierarchies, yet it’s still too early in the spring to make major conclusions.
BadgerBlitz.com was on the scene for the sixth of 15 practices, and will be in attendance throughout the duration of spring. Here are some notes from Thursday's session.
OFFENSE
Thursday was about the passing.
Tyler Van Dyke made a few rough mistakes early, including an interception or two, but he also completed many of his most impressive passes so far as a Badger. On a few longer throws, he fit the ball directly into the receivers’ arms, showing a sense of touch and accuracy that we hadn’t seen prior to Thursday.
Braedyn Locke was also quite accurate, completing a few lasers during red zone drills. He and Will Pauling especially seem to have created some obvious chemistry last season.
But if Van Dyke can match Locke’s accuracy, his athleticism will give him a significant edge. Van Dyke is (listed as) three inches taller and his arm is much stronger.
Apart from the competition, Mabrey Mettauer had perhaps his sharpest day of spring thus far. He’s already made some significant improvements with his confidence and rhythm, and is even playing much more than Nick Evers.
Thursday also featured the best spring practice performance we’ve seen thus far from Chez Mellusi. He’d been taking it easy through the beginning of spring ball, but finally looked close to 100% for the first time since his injury.
The receiver rotations remained fluid, but we’re beginning to see some semblance of a hierarchy develop.
We saw more of Pauling on Thursday than we have all spring, and it became clear pretty quickly why the coaching staff doesn’t feel the need to see too much of him.
The gap between Pauling and the second best receiver is about as wide as the gap between the top-two players in any room, except for maybe safety.
After Pauling, the most talented and promising receiver is probably Trech Kekahuna, the other slot target.
He had a few jaw-dropping plays on Thursday, mostly with the ball in his hands. After one catch in particular, he shook two defenders out of their shoes with juke moves that few receivers in the country can pull off, drawing audible reactions from press row.
