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
The biggest thing that stood out during spring camp this year is that the Badgers might be a little lacking in depth at tight end in 2018. That probably should have been a little more obvious after senior-to-be Kyle Penniston elected to transfer during the offseason and Zander Neuville graduated out of the program. But when both Jake Ferguson and Luke Benzschawel were forced to miss at least a part of spring camp this year the need for some more depth became much more apparent.
That's not to say that junior Gabe Lloyd and freshman Jack Eschenbach performed poorly when they stepped up to get more reps this spring - in fact, they both made a few plays at times during Wisconsin's open practices. But when Ferguson is the only player who has proven to be an impact player for UW at tight end, it's fair to wonder what the position would look like if the Badgers were forced to play without him for a stretch in 2019.
For now we're expecting the UW tight ends to enter the season with a clean bill of health, but this is a position where an injury or two would could take a toll in the fall.
What's Left?
It's too bad for his own sake that we didn't get to see what Luke Benzschawel would have been able to do this spring. Benzschawel came in to the offseason primed to step in and become the team's new in-line tight end, a pass-catcher and run-blocker, replacing Neuville after his graduation and subsequent injury. Benzschawel looked like he was ready for the extra reps during Wisconsin's win over Miami in the Pinstripe Bowl at the end of the year, and he has a lot of practice reps to fall back on after he got a lot of work at the position during spring camp last year while Neuville was still recovering from his ACL injury. At this time we're still expecting Benzschawel to step up and own that new job, but we're still going to have to wait and see if his health will allow him to capitalize on his potential.
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.
