Stock Market: Spring Game
MADISON - Wisconsin's defense beat the offense 61-47 in their annual spring game, and a few players visibly rose and fell in front of and behind the pack during the game. In the spirit of head coach Gary Andersen's desire to have his players compete at everything on and off the field, we're debuting our stock market feature, which will appear after every game during the football season.
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Joel Stave, QB: Stave was easily the best quarterback on the field for the Badgers during their spring game, and it showed in the final statistics. Stave completed 15-of-20 passes for 161 yards and had one touchdown during the game, and his throws had a good amount of zip on them coming out of his hand. The quarterback competition is far from over, but Stave solidified himself with a good performance during the spring game. It'll be hard for the coaching staff to overlook his arm strength and accuracy when fall camp comes around, even if he's not their most mobile quarterback.
Vince Biegel, OLB: During the last part of spring camp it looked like Jesse Hayes and Joe Schobert were going to be the top two candidates to start opposite Brendan Kelly as an outside linebacker in Wisconsin's new 3-4 defense. But Biegel showed fans and the coaches what he could do during the spring game, and tallied two sacks for 13 yards as part of a four-tackle day. Biegel will need to show that kind of play-making ability on a regular basis this fall if he's going to keep up with the rest of the pack, but the talent it certainly there.
Kenzel Doe, WR: I'm guessing you're probably sick of hearing this line, but the Badgers are desperate for production from any of their wide receivers, other than Jared Abbrederis. The spring game gave the players one last chance to leave a good impression on the coaches, and Doe probably did that. He caught eight passes for 93 yards in the spring game, and looked about as elusive as you'd like to see from the 5-foot-8 receiver. He also rushed for nine yards on an end-around play, which the Badgers will almost certainly have as part of their offense this fall. Doe needs to keep it up if he wants to be the team's No. 2 option next year, but he put himself in good position to do that during the spring game.
Stock Down
Danny O'Brien and Bart Houston, QBs: Curt Phillips performed well enough on Saturday, but he and Stave really reinforced how far O'Brien and Houston have fallen behind them in the quarterback competition. They completed just one pass of six attempts between the two of them during the spring game, a 6-yard pass by Houston. I'm willing to give them a big benefit of the doubt factor because the Badgers' second-team offensive line is basically a patchwork quilt at this point in the spring. But the point remains that both O'Brien and Houston have a lot of work to do if they want to re-insert themselves into the competition during fall camp later this year.
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