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 during the Badger's 2019 spring camp and see what we learned across the UW depth chart.
Miss a position group? Catch up below.
What We Learned
We already know that Jonathan Taylor is going to be Wisconsin's featured tailback for at least another season after he followed up his stellar freshman year with an even better sophomore campaign, taking home the 2018 Doak Walker award as the nation's best running back. But we did get a bit of a better picture of who is going to be in the mix to get reps behind Taylor: junior Garrett Groshek should continue to serve as the team's primary third-down back, and senior Bradrick Shaw and redshirt freshman Nakia Watson will likely battle for the job left vacant after Taiwan Deal's graduation. That's not a small role: Deal got 82 carries for the Badgers last year and rushed for 545 yards with six touchdowns. A lot will hinge on how healthy Shaw is this fall after he missed all of the 2018 season following a late knee injury in 2017, but he took steps forward during spring camp that should have the coaching staff encouraged that Shaw will be able to end his UW career on a high note this year.
What's Left?
You can never have too many running backs who are ready to step on the field and compete in games, especially when you run an offense like Wisconsin's. That's why the Badgers will be on the lookout for another body or two to join the rotation. We saw redshirt freshman Isaac Guerendo get a few reps when he was healthy this spring after the Badgers moved him back to tailback from wide receiver, and he definitely has the burst to make some big plays if he can hit a seam and turn on the jets. Mentioned above, Nakia Watson looked more comfortable in the UW offense this spring than he did last fall after arriving on campus in the summer - he was running with more purpose and hitting the holes in front of him with confidence. And don't sleep on walk-on redshirt freshman Brady Schipper, either - he could work his way in to being a role player for UW by the time his career is done. We'll soon find out just how many bodies the Badgers have that they can truly rely on when fall camp rolls around in August.
Projected Fall Camp Depth Chart
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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.
