Wisconsin Badgers 2023 Spring Position Preview: Cornerbacks

As Luke Fickell's first season in Madison draws closer, the Badgers will hit the field for spring practice starting in late March.

Following its Pro Day on March 23, UW will run spring ball between March 25 and April 27 this year, according to a recent social media post. With a completely revamped coaching staff, a few key incoming transfers and brand new schematics, Wisconsin football will look plenty different in 2023. Spring ball will be the first glimpse at this new era.

BadgerBlitz.com is once again expected to watch any open practices available for reporters to attend. On Thursday, we take a look at the cornerbacks, a room that will have to replace multiple seniors after UW turned to the transfer portal for veteran help last year.

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For the second consecutive year, Wisconsin's cornerbacks are set to go through a major turnover. After replacing Caesar Williams and Faion Hicks with senior transfers last offseason, the Badgers will have to make up for the snaps Jay Shaw, Cedrick Dort Jr. and Justin Clark racked up in 2022.

Of the 2,263 total snaps played by a cornerback, Shaw (573), Clark (229) and Dort Jr. (438) accounted for over half of them. Amongst the trio, Wisconsin is also losing its top slot corner in Dort Jr., who logged 373 reps at the position for the Badgers defense.

Luckily for new cornerbacks coach Paul Haynes and defensive coordinator Mike Tressel, the turnover didn't include Alexander Smith, the group's leader.

Smith suffered a hamstring injury shortly before fall camp before he returned to the lineup in Week 7 against Michigan State. He wasn't fully brought back to a complete workload until the next week against Purdue. Smith graded out the best (72.8) among the cornerbacks, according to Pro Football Focus. In seven games, the senior allowed just 14 catches on 22 targets for 163 yards and a touchdown.

“I think he’s a great leader. He’s kinda like my assistant coach, a little bit,” Haynes said. “There’s a lot of times where he’ll text the group and I sit there and I'm start reading it, and it’s just him getting those guys together. ‘We’re gonna do this on this day, we’re gonna do this on this day, I’m over here working out — anyone else wanna come over?’… He's an awesome leader to get the guys together because we’ve got some experience, but we’re still a young group, too. He’s done a great job with that.”

Behind Smith and transfer Jason Maitre, who is expected to work as a nickel option, the group features a blend of youth and inexperience.

Ricardo Hallman is the most likely option to line up alongside Smith. But redshirt freshman Avyonne Jones, and redshirt juniors Max Lofy, Amaun Williams and redshirt sophomore Al Ashford III are also in the mix.

This time last year, the two-deep was pretty much set with the trio of transfer cornerbacks joining Smith in the starting group. The questions were more centered on how they would look in Jim Leonhard's defense, not necessarily how the depth chart broke down. This time around, having Smith on the outside is just about the only player you can pencil into a starting role.

With that kind of shake up and inexperience, who can play consistent football and become someone Haynes trusts next to Smith? Does Lofy step up and challenge Maitre as the starting slot cornerback? Haynes mentioned he likes to keep players at one position in the secondary, whether that's on the outside or in the slot.

Of the young corners, Hallman is the easiest to envision making the jump to a starter. The Florida native struggled against Michigan State, giving up five receptions on eight targets for 85 yards and three touchdowns, according to Pro Football Focus. For the most part, though, the redshirt sophomore was in a good position but simply had a tough matchup against 6-foot-4 Keon Coleman and 6-foot Jayden Reed.

Up until that point, Hallman had been starting opposite Shaw and put together a solid season, allowing just 124 yards in six games and not giving up a touchdown in those contests. After the performance against the Spartans, Hallman saw just three snaps for the final five games of the regular season.

Behind the duo of Hallman and Smith, the cornerback room returns just 231 snaps of playing time from a season ago, most of which can be attributed to Lofy, who saw time backing up Dort Jr. in the slot.

Jones could very well join the rotation in the secondary this season after seeing 15 snaps in the Guaranteed Rate Bowl against Oklahoma State. The redshirt freshman played in just two games and saw 32 snaps in his first season in Madison.

Early enrollees Jonas Duclona and Jace Arnold are a pair of names to watch in the spring as well. Part of a recruiting class that included six defensive backs, four of which were cornerbacks, the two will have an early start on the college game.

As previously mentioned, Hallman and Jones project to join the two-deep with Smith on the outside. In their third and second years in the program, respectively, can they be consistent in the spring for Haynes and Tressel?

For Hallman, he'll most likely slot back in as a starter when spring starts. It would be the first time he'll be asked to be play those level of snaps since being in that role in the middle of October. How does he bounce back mentally and what strides has he made now in his third year in the program?

Jones could be another example of a player who makes a leap after impressing during practices in bowl prep. Former Wisconsin safety John Torchio had mentioned the young cornerback as someone who was seeing more reps during preparation for the Cowboys. How will the former three-star recruit look after the extended practice time and snaps in the bowl game? If Jones isn't a starter, it's likely that he'll be part of the rotation at corner in 2023.

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