With Wisconsin's roster all but finalized and the season right around the corner, the Badgers have their sights set on fall camp. Once again, the team will travel to UW-Platteville for the first portion of practice up until Aug. 11.
As the dog days of summer heat up, so will position battles and the intense competition for snaps once the season rolls around. Up until fall camp, BadgerBlitz.com will preview each position on the roster. We'll kick things off with the quarterbacks, where there should still be plenty of competition.
Who's in, and who's out?
For the second straight year, the Badgers reeled in a highly experienced quarterback via the transfer portal. Former Miami Hurricane Tyler Van Dyke was locked in an extremely tight battle with redshirt sophomore Braedyn Locke, but the ex-Hurricane appeared to pull away every so slightly towards the end of spring practice. The expectation as of now is that Van Dyke will be the Badgers' starter.
Wisconsin entered spring camp with five scholarship quarterbacks and emerged with four after the former Oklahoma transfer Nick Evers elected to hit the portal for the second time. It was clear Evers was an extremely gifted quarterback physically, but his continued lack of reps during his second spring with the program implied that he still couldn't master the quarterback classroom aspect of the offense, which is a non-negotiable for coordinator Phil Longo.
Evers' departure in the middle of spring ball opened the door for the true freshman early enrollee Mabrey Mettauer to gobble up most of the third-team reps. He appeared to be at least a year away developmentally from seeing the field, but even before Evers took off, Mettauer was getting more reps. That's a promising sign for the young gunslinger currently touted as the future of the position in Madison.
STORYLINE: How interesting can Locke make fall camp?
Again, Van Dyke seemingly put some separation, however slight, between him and Locke towards the end of spring practice. Still, Locke didn't go quietly into the night. He battled valiantly and was the author of some of the offense's most impressive plays all spring. The question now becomes: can he do it again?
If Longo and Luke Fickell had to sit down and determine a starting quarterback after spring ball, it would be a close call. How difficult can Locke make that decision in August? His command of the playbook is impressive. He's a cerebral player who himself has admitted that he doesn't win with his physical attributes, he wins with his football mind. His pocket presence and touch, particularly on layered passes, is beyond his years.
Van Dyke, meanwhile, is your prototypical pro-style quarterback. At 6-foot-4 and with an arm strong enough to make every throw on the field, he's an imposing presence at signal-caller. His vast experience — three years as a starter in Coral Gables — is an extremely valuable intangible.
“He can make any throw. He’s also tall, he’s long and he’s got great vision because of his body type and stature. And he sees the field well. And he’s also been through three offensive coordinators already, three different offenses. Learning a new offense is old hat for him because he’s so used to doing it," Longo said of Van Dyke this spring.
With Van Dyke in his final year of eligibility, and considering he's one of the biggest fish the Badgers landed through the portal this winter, it's hard to envision anyone besides him as the Week 1 starter. Still, Wisconsin maintains that this is an open competition, and if that's the case, the quarterback battle should be even more entertaining in the fall.
"You have no idea who’s gonna come in and be the best guy," Longo said. "Other than one year at North Carolina, I can’t remember another in recent history where I’ve had to actually make a decision with the head coach about who the starting quarterback is. That should take care of itself, that should happen on its own.”
Two things to watch going forward
1. How are reps divided? That should tell us a lot about how the staff evaluates the quarterback battle. Fickell has placed an emphasis on competition up and down the roster this offseason, more so than in his debut year. That's part of the reason why Van Dyke and Locke nearly split reps this spring, whereas Tanner Mordecai took virtually every rep with the starters last offseason.
Still, the starting quarterback will need as much time to gel with the other starters as possible. Do we begin to see the staff lean towards one of either Van Dyke or Locke, giving them more reps with the starters in order to better prepare them for the season? Or does the staff let the race for the starting job go to the 11th hour?
2. How quickly is Mettauer developing? As mentioned, the true freshman took most of the reps with the third team, especially in the wake of Evers' departure. That means that come fall, the Badgers could be an injury away from having Mettauer as their primary backup. If that's the case and Mettauer is indeed the QB3, he'll need to get up to speed extremely quickly. Keep an eye on his development this fall.
Buzz on the backups
Mettauer has been shown preferential treatment by the staff, taking reps from Evers' and redshirt freshman Cole LaCrue. That's not to say he doesn't deserve said reps, but Wisconsin is clearly very committed to his development.
LaCrue has done next to nothing on the field since his arrival in Madison. He has been injured for portions of the offseason, but its an uphill climb for him to even get on the practice field at this point in his career.
Milos Spasojevic, meanwhile, is a true freshman walk-on who will practice with the Badgers for the first time this fall.
Projected Depth Chart
_________________________________________________
*Chat about this article in The Badgers' Den
*Check out our videos, interviews, and Q&As on our YouTube channel
*Subscribe and listen to the BadgerBlitz.com podcast (as seen on Apple, Google, Spotify and wherever you listen to podcasts)
*Follow us on Twitter: @McNamaraRivals, @TheBadgerNation, @RaulV45, @seamus_rohrer, @DonnieSlusher_
*Like us on Facebook
