MADISON, Wis. — With Camp Randall Stadium under construction, Wisconsin’s football team did not hold a public scrimmage this spring as the Badgers did for fans a year ago. However, Wisconsin took the field Saturday on the outdoor practice field next to the stadium for its 13th of 15 practices and held what amounted to its annual spring scrimmage in front of reporters.
Here are six takeaways from a noteworthy session:
1. Spring games and scrimmages are never perfect predictors of what will happen on the field the ensuing season, but sometimes there are tells that indicate the direction things could be headed. Last spring, for example, Wisconsin held its only public practice of the spring in what was dubbed as The Launch. Quarterback Tanner Mordecai threw interceptions on each of his first three drives with the first-team offense and ended with four picks total.
It seemed clear then that Year 1 of Wisconsin’s system under offensive coordinator Phil Longo might be a slog. The Badgers subsequently scored their fewest points per game in 19 seasons. Wisconsin’s performance on Saturday, then, counts as important because it signaled that the offense is moving in the right direction.
Unofficially, there were seven touchdown drives, including six from the first- and second-team offenses. That doesn’t mean the defense didn’t have plenty of big moments. But it did demonstrate how much more comfortable players and coaches seem to be with the offense this spring.
“I’m being transparent: This just feels more what I’m used to,” Longo said after practice. “It was a job to do to transition last year. Not just O and D but just the whole staff. Middle of spring ball last year, we’re still trying to figure out where the restroom is, how to get to certain rooms in the building. We’re still getting to know people personally. Coaches are coaching coaches. And you’ll never have that here again. …
“Right now, I think we’re reaping the benefits of sticking with the plan and building the foundation this first year. We’re able to do more obviously because we have veterans coming back.”
GO DEEPER
The ‘old way of Wisconsin football’? Badgers O-line hoping for breakthrough
2. Has Tyler Van Dyke or Braedyn Locke emerged this spring as a clear-cut starter at quarterback? Though Longo said after practice it was too early to make any definitive determinations, Van Dyke has exhibited significant progress over the past week.
Van Dyke simply looks much more at ease running the offense than during initial practices. He finished one drive with the second-team offense by completing four consecutive passes, including a 16-yard gain over the middle to slot receiver Trech Kekahuna and a 14-yard touchdown pass to receiver Tyrell Henry. On the TD, Van Dyke perfectly floated the pass down the right sideline over cornerback Amare Snowden.
On another drive, working with the first-team offense, Van Dyke threw an absolute dime to receiver Bryson Green down the right sideline for a 26-yard gain down to the 3-yard line. He put the ball over a defensive back and right to Green just before safety Hunter Wohler knocked Green out of bounds. Van Dyke then threw a 3-yard touchdown pass to tight end Riley Nowakowski on the next play, with Nowakowski leaping to grab the pass off one foot in the back of the end zone with the wind swirling. Van Dyke would have had an even bigger day if not for three dropped passes by his receivers.
Van Dyke led two more touchdown drives that culminated with 1-yard runs from running back Tawee Walker and then from Van Dyke. Van Dyke completed four passes to four different players on the Walker touchdown drive for 57 yards, including an 8-yarder to Nowakowski down to the 1-yard line.
On Van Dyke’s touchdown run, he pulled the ball on a fake handoff to running back Cade Yacamelli and had open space around the right side. It was a play that Longo said highlighted just how advanced Van Dyke already has become within the offense.
“The fact that he was locked in and focused in that scenario, that decision made my day,” Longo said.
Locke had some good moments as well and led a touchdown drive on his initial snaps with the first-team offense. He completed an 18-yard pass to receiver CJ Williams, who made a one-handed diving catch down to the 22-yard line. Locke did well to escape pressure from outside linebacker Darryl Peterson, step up and deliver a 9-yard touchdown pass to receiver Vinny Anthony II in the back of the end zone to cap a six-play drive.
3. Walker, an Oklahoma transfer, continues to show why he and Chez Mellusi have the potential to be a dynamic 1-2 combination. Walker is difficult to bring down because of his low center of gravity at 5 feet 9. But he has tremendous power at 222 pounds and more burst than meets the eye.
On Locke’s lone touchdown drive Saturday, Walker gained two first downs. He displayed shiftiness by making a defensive back miss and then picked up 13 yards down to the 9-yard line when he ran hard up the middle. Walker’s best sequence came inside the red zone with the first-team offense behind Van Dyke.
With the ball at the 18-yard line, he moved the pile forward with help from right tackle Riley Mahlman, churning his legs for a 9-yard gain. He then lowed ahead past the goal line where linebacker John Pius was waiting for a 1-yard touchdown run. Longo praised Walker’s physicality, maturity and composure.
“There really was never a learning curve with him,” Longo said. “He just came in, and it seems like he’s been here the whole time. He fits in with the guys in the locker room, and he definitely helps us offensively.”
Mellusi, meanwhile, showed his shiftiness on multiple occasions, including when he slipped past a would-be tackler for a 14-yard gain. He capped practice with a 17-yard touchdown run around the left sideline. Freshman early enrollee running back Gideon Ituka provided the only touchdown for the third-team offense when he broke free for a 41-yard touchdown run. He also fumbled a speed option pitch that the defense recovered when inside linebacker Garrison Solliday delivered a punishing hit to him.
4. Much of the conversation about outside linebacker this spring has focused on transfers Pius and Leon Lowery. But Darryl Peterson, who led the team with 4.5 sacks last season, owned the day on Saturday.
He recorded sacks on consecutive plays against the first-team offense, the second of which came when his pressure made Van Dyke fall to the ground. Later, he burst off the edge for a strip sack of Van Dyke. During a drive against Locke with the first-team offense, he recorded a sack for a loss of 5 yards and on the next play forced a pressure that led to an incomplete pass for slot receiver Will Pauling.
Peterson has been tasked with many responsibilities in Mike Tressel’s defense, which includes occasionally putting his hand in the ground as a second defensive tackle in an alignment that features five linebackers.
“We really put some competition in the room, and he’s a very competitive person, so that really forced him to step up his game,” Tressel said. “Any time you do that, as long as the culture is right, it just makes everybody better. So I was really pleased to see him today and all spring because he’s taken huge strides. And that’s really hard to do as you get later in your career.”
5. It’s going to be difficult to top Kekahuna on a pure catch-to-highlight-reel ratio. With the second-team offense, he hauled in a long pass and put a spin move on a defender past midfield. He broke away from a tackle attempt by a safety on another catch and gained 23 yards down to the defense’s 15-yard line. That helped to set up a 26-yard field goal by Nathanial Vakos.
Longo compared Kekahuna’s potential path to that of former North Carolina receiver Josh Downs, citing that both had their breakout game as freshmen in a bowl game. Longo said he thought Kekahuna was “headed towards being able to be a major contributor this year.”
6. LSU transfer Jackson McGohan has emerged as a third option at tight end, alongside returners Nowakowski and Tucker Ashcraft. McGohan caught a pass on the left sideline from Van Dyke that went for about 30 yards and held on despite a good stick from safety Braedyn Moore. On another drive with the second-team offense, Van Dyke threw behind McGohan on a pass over the middle, but McGohan managed to hang on with one hand for a 9-yard gain.
Longo described Nowakowski as the big, physical, dependable bruiser inside, Ashcraft as having a balance of physicality and skill outside and McGohan as the skill player still working on “inside box physical stuff.”
“It really reminds me right now of the three tight ends that we had at North Carolina that we used so much,” Longo said. “And three tight ends might seem like a lot. It’s not. It’s a luxury, but it’s really what we want in the offense. So all those guys are going to work on their weak links. But I think we can do some things with all three of them.”
(Photo of Chez Mellusi: Robert Goddin / USA Today)
