MADISON, Wis. — The Wisconsin Badgers were back inside the McClain Center for their fourteenth and penultimate practice of the spring.

BadgerBlitz.com was on the scene. Here are my three biggest takeaways from Wednesday's action.

Wednesday was a Jayden Ballard day.

These were commonplace at the beginning of spring, but he’s mostly cooled down since. Early on, they took greater advantage of his speed and constantly sent him on go routes, which were often successful.

But it seemed like once they learned about Ballard’s ability to zoom past the defense with ease, they stashed this knowledge away and instead focused on other passing concepts.

Wednesday was evidence that this is a trick they can pull out of their sleeve whenever they please. Ballard finished the day with three long touchdown receptions, repeatedly leaving Wisconsin’s starting defensive backs in the dust.

The connection between Ballard and Billy Edwards Jr. is the big x-factor in this offense.

If the transfer receiver can consistently zoom past defensive backs, and Edwards can get it there, it’ll open things up for the rest of the offense in a way they’ll need, given the recent departures of Tanner Koziol and Mark Hamper.

Spring is a time when any receiver can pull off a few impressive catches and get written about. The hard part is trying to predict whose talent will actually translate to the season. I don’t know how productive Ballard will be, but I have a hard time believing he’s gonna slow down between now and August.