MADISON -- The summer conditioning months have passed for the Wisconsin Badgers, and the team can now concentrate on what's on the field heading into the 2019 season.
It appears, however, that many players made "gains" in the weight room. Redshirt senior outside linebacker Zack Baun - who bench pressed 380 pounds, squatted 550 pounds and power cleaned 340 pounds - noted on Wednesday that "everyone hit at least one or two PRs (personal records) on one of their core lifts."
Baun, a projected starter this fall, elaborated further with a compliment to the entire team.
"I think right now I'd say we're the strongest team we've been since we've been here, weight room-wise, and hopefully that translates," Baun said.
Initially, BadgerBlitz.com asked the three Wisconsin student-athlete representatives at Big Ten Media Days - Chris Orr, Jonathan Taylor and Tyler Biadasz - their picks for summer month standout. At Wisconsin media day on Wednesday, we asked the question to Baun and other Badgers who participated in those summer sessions.
*Baun: “Specifically, Isaac Guerendo’s doing a great job. He’s stronger than I ever thought he could be, and I hope he just continues to gain on that. Reggie Pearson is another one of those guys that you just don’t think of when you look at him - you don’t think he’s the strongest guy - but he can definitely move some weight in there, so those two guys.”
*Redshirt senior running back Bradrick Shaw: "The Chenal (John and Leo) brothers. They stood out a lot. Chris Orr, he stood out on squatting a lot of weight."
*Redshirt senior offensive lineman David Moorman: “‘Henny,’ ‘Hen Dog.' [Matt Henningsen] He’s an absolute freak. He works his butt off every single day and he really showed himself, tried to work this summer. Older guys, it’s great to see the guys I played with just continue to improve like Chris Orr and Zack Baun. Both those guys really got after it this past year.
“A young guy like Cormac Sampson. He’s a guy who was a tight end, now he’s an o-lineman and he’s really worked hard to put on weight and just seeing him grow is really exciting. [Michael] Furtney.
“This is the best freshman class I’ve seen as far as summer workouts since I’ve been here. They came in, they all worked really hard, put their nose down, just grinded and they’re really strong. It was really fun to see.”
*Redshirt junior wide receiver Kendric Pryor: "I'd say receiver-wise, A.J. Abbott kind of stood out a little bit. Just him, his numbers, just kind of skyrocketed a little bit. Just him lifting, getting his weight up, getting a lot stronger. I think he stood out in the summertime. I think he actually took this summer to kind of lock in, kind of get stronger where he has a chance to now, physically, he's ready."
*Junior quarterback Jack Coan: “I’m not really sure if I could pinpoint more person, but I’d just say as a team as whole l feel like really grew together and encouraged each other throughout the whole summer workouts. Everyone I felt improved and worked really hard.”
