Wisconsin's 15 spring practices are in the books, which means it's time to take a look back at what we learned at each position group and see what the Badgers still need to work out before they kick off their 2017 season against Utah State on Friday, Sep. 1.

Our look back at Wisconsin's defensive backs is included below.

The Badgers came in to the spring having to replace two senior starters in cornerback Sojourn Shelton and safety Leo Musso, but the coaching staff cleared up one spot right off the bat by naming Nick Nelson as Shelton's heir apparent. Nelson is coming off of a redshirt season after he played the first two seasons of his career at Hawaii, where he started 21 games for the Rainbow Warriors between 2014 and 2015. And while he didn't get on the field for the Badgers last year, he made a big impression on his teammates and coaches. Fellow cornerback Derrick Tindal said he expects Nelson to be a seamless fit in Wisconsin's defense, coming off of a season on the scout team where he apparently gave UW's top wide receivers fits in practice - not unlike Ryan Ramczyk's redshirt season, where he frustrated Vince Biegel and Joe Schobert while waiting for his turn to start. We'll see if Nelson can live up to those expectations, but he's certainly going to start fall camp with the trust of his teammates.

The Badgers also decided to free up a bit of a logjam at cornerback by moving Natrell Jamerson from corner to free safety, where he appears set to start next to D'Cota Dixon in place of Leo Musso. Jamerson is still a bit raw and new to the defensive backfield after he initially enrolled at UW as a wide receiver, but he's athletic enough to play safety and seemed to pick up the position pretty quickly during spring camp. Moving Jamerson also allows the Badgers to get their four best defensive backs on the field at the same time, so it's a move that seems likely to stick as long as Jamerson keeps taking steps forward.

The big question to watch this fall seems to be how the rest of Wisconsin's two-deep at defensive back shakes out, particularly at cornerback. Lubern Figaro has the most in-game experience after he started a few games at safety during his freshman year and served as a backup cornerback over the last few seasons, but the coaching staff is very high on redshirt freshman Dontye Carriere-Williams as he wraps up his first year on campus with the team. Carriere-Williams has good size for the position and flashed a few times during spring camp, but he'll need to prove that he can be a dependable option if he wants to win the nickel cornerback job. Figaro has been exposed at times during his career, but he showed in spring practice that he still has the ability to make some impressive plays in coverage down the field. This is a position battle that could go on for most of fall camp, and even might be an open question in to the regular season as well.

CORNERBACK

1. DERRICK TINDAL

2. DONTYE CARRIERE-WILLIAMS

SAFETY

1. D'COTA DIXON

2. JOE FERGUSON

SAFETY

1. NATRELL JAMERSON

2. PATRICK JOHNSON

CORNERBACK

1. NICK NELSON

2. LUBERN FIGARO

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John Veldhuis covers Wisconsin football, basketball, and recruiting for BadgerBlitz.com on the Rivals.com network. Follow him on Twitter at @JohnVeldhuis.