MADISON -- Luke Fickell and his team were back outside on Thursday for what's been a beautiful week in Madison. The intensity of the practices has kept up while there has been a good battle back and forth with the defense starting to play faster.

BadgerBlitz.com was there for the ninth of 15 practices and will be in attendance for the other six over the next two weeks. Here are notes from the session.

OFFENSE:

First team:

Quarterback: Tanner Mordecai

Running back: Braelon Allen

Wide receiver: Chimere Dike, Will Pauling and Keontez Lewis

Tight end: Jack Eschenbach

Offensive line (from left to right): Jack Nelson, Michael Furtney, Tanor Bortolini, Joe Huber, Riley Mahlman

Second team:

Quarterback: Braedyn Locke

Running back: Chez Mellusi

Wide Receiver: Skyler Bell, CJ Williams, Quincy Burroughs, Tommy McIntosh

Tight end: Hayden Rucci

Offensive line: Nolan Rucci, Joe Brunner, Dylan Barrett, JP Benzschawel, Trey Wedig

*Cade Yacamelli, Zach Gloudeman and Grover Bortolotti rotated as the third back.

*CJ Williams and Skyler Bell were consistently mixing in with the first team. Rotations were quite fluid at WR.

*Riley Nowakowski saw a healthy amount of reps with the second team

DEFENSE: (Alternated between a 2-4-5 and 3-3-5 on Thursday)

First team:

Defensive line: Rodas Johnson, James Thompson and Isaiah Mullens

Inside linebacker: Maema Njongmeta, Jordan Turner

Outside linebacker: T.J. Bollers, Darryl Peterson

Cornerback: Alex Smith, Jason Maitre and Ricardo Hallman

Safety: Kamo'i Latu, Hunter Wohler

Second team:

Defensive line: Gio Paez, Cade McDonald and Curt Neal

Inside linebacker: Tatum Grass, Bryan Sanborn

Outside linebacker: Spencer Lytle, Jordan Mayer

Cornerback: Avyonne Jones, Jace Arnold, Jonas Duclona and Amaun Williams

Safety: Austin Brown, Owen Arnett

*Three defensive linemen listed due to rotations. The rotations were quite fluid.

*A three inside linebacker look with Jordan Turner, Maema Njongmeta and Jake Chaney was used often for the first time this spring.

Special teams:

Punter: Jack Van Dyke, Gavin Meyers

Punt returner: Chimere Dike, Will Pauling

Field Goal: Nathanial Vakos, Nate Van Zelst, Gavin Lahm, Vito Calvaruso

Kickoff specialist: Vito Calvaruso, Gavin Lahm

Kickoff returners: Chimere Dike, Quincy Burroughs, Will Pauling, Vinny Anthony

DL Darian Varner

QB Cole Lacrue

TE Cole Dakovich

TE Cam Large

WR Bryson Green

DE Mike Jarvis

LB Ross Gengler

LB Luna Larson

CB Max Lofy

OL Sean Timmis

LB Aidan Vaughn

LB Aaron Witt

OL Jake Renfro

WR Chris Brooks Jr.

S Preston Zachman

Non-contact jerseys: WR Grady O'Neill, LB Jeff Pietrowski, RB Julius Davis, LB CJ Goetz and S Travian Blaylock

There's been good battle back and forth as of late, and Thursday morning at Camp Randall was another day of that. With the team going through a good chunk of redzone work, neither unit truly dominated the day. Throughout the morning, both units had a number of reps where they were able to hold their own.

In the early team periods, the front seven got a solid push often times and was able to bat a pass down. During the first period, Ricardo Hallman broke up a pass intended for Keontez Lewis as well. While there weren't any takeaways on the day for the defense, Marty Strey and Jordan Turner got in the backfield for what would have been sacks. Turner was all over the field today. Later in the morning, he got in the backfield quickly with James Thompson to completely blow-up a play.

Just as the defense had their moments, the offense made some plays of their own as well. Tanner Mordecai bounced back nicely after a rough day this past Tuesday and connected with Lewis, who appears to be his favorite receiver so far, on a few deep crossing routes with the ball placed perfectly just beyond the corner. Later, Mordecai lofted a ball nicely to tight end Jack Pugh, who got by Hunter Wohler, for a touchdown. One of the closing highlights was a tight window throw to Will Pauling, who went up and got the ball in the corner of the end zone.