break in the University of Wisconsin football team’s spring practices had coach Luke Fickell a bit anxious.
He wasn’t sure how the Badgers, especially the younger players who hadn’t experienced such a layoff, would respond after having 10 days between on-field work due to the team’s spring break last week. Wisconsin’s third-year coach was pleasantly surprised to see some of those players make notable plays Tuesday inside the McClain Center.
As they come back … what did they actually remember and more so what did they forget?” Fickell said. “But I think that there’s some maturity in this group, and that’s what we want to be able to challenge.
They came out here with the right attitude. They didn’t seem like they were nervous or afraid moving up in some of those situations. And I think that goes a lot further than anything else.”
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Freshmen safeties Grant Dean and Luke Emmerich each had an interception on deep passes down the middle of the field, and freshman outside linebacker Nick Clayton had two would-be sacks during 11-on-11 work. Running backs Darrion Dupree and Dilin Jones, both of whom are in their second seasons at Wisconsin, had chunk gains on a morning in which the offense was working on some of its longer-developing plays off play-action.
There’s been less of a delineation between first- and second-team for all positions outside of offensive line and quarterback, with Billy Edwards holding onto QB1 by a wide margin and the most of the offensive line appearing solidified beside the right guard spot. Fickell is hoping there’s a point in spring practices that he can take some snaps off of veteran linemen like right tackle Riley Mahlman and center Jake Renfro, but the Badgers aren’t quite there.
