The Badgers had a short, but effective practice on Tuesday involving a number of scrimmage periods.
The Wisconsin Badgers concluded their 14th practice of the spring on Tuesday during the shortest practice of the spring, as the team had a scrimmage-heavy day.
Here are three quick takeaways from Wisconsin’s spring practice No. 14.
Difference in practice
The Badgers had one of their shortest practices of the offseason on a day that lasted less than 1 hour and 45 minutes, but was still filled with a ton of action as the team had a scrimmage-heavy day.
That followed Wisconsin’s spring game on Saturday, and represented a bit of a difference in practice.
As the Badgers are nearing the end of their spring ball schedule, they aren’t installing anymore, but rather looking to be consistent and fix mistakes, while going heavy with live situations, which head coach Luke Fickell emphasized as a key for the spring.
So, while Thursday’s practice wasn’t as long as usual, the amount of live action remained relatively similar, as there weren’t as many individual periods focusing on drills.
Additionally, it seemed that the day had a different feel to it, as the usual aggressiveness from the offense necessarily wasn’t there, as pressure got to the backfield fairly often, while both signal-callers emphasized shorter throws.
As a result, there were essentially just two major mistakes on the day: an interception from Tyler Van Dyke after he got sacked on an underthrown cross-body ball while rolling to his left, and a near interception on a checkdown over the middle from Braedyn Locke.
Last year, Wisconsin’s final practice of the spring involved more special teams action, which we saw a good amount of on Tuesday as well. The Badgers are practicing inside the McClain Center, which makes repping special teams a little harder, but we’ll see how they approach the last practice on Thursday.
Cornerbacks getting more opportunities
Wisconsin’s deep cornerback room saw a couple of transfer portal entries over the past week, with redshirt freshman A.J. Tisdell and redshirt senior Michael Mack both electing to move on.
As a result, there were more snaps opening up for the cornerbacks still here, which was especially seen on Tuesday as R.J. Delancy was seen on the side with an injury for the majority of practice.
With Delancy not in the fold, Jonas Duclona earned more first-team opportunities, which bumped up Jace Arnold and Amare Snowden to get more chances overall, as they got significant reps with both the second and third-team defenses.
The Badgers have looked to rotate their top players exclusively with the top defense at certain positions, which has allowed some of the younger guys to earn more opportunities, both in terms of overall reps and place.
Outside linebacker has been another spot where we’ve seen a similar strategy, which has allowed true freshmen Anelu Lafaele and Thomas Heiberger to earn a significant amount of first-team reps as of late.
Standouts
I thought the defense was the winner, once again, on Tuesday, which makes it sensible that a majority of the standouts came from that side of the ball.
Austin Brown was a clear standout on the day, as he broke up a near interception by breaking well on a checkdown. But, he made up for it with an interception on an underthrown cross-body ball from Tyler Van Dyke later in practice.
Elsewhere, I thought Elijah Hills had a sneaky good practice from start to finish. He began the day with two nice plays near the line of scrimmage in the run game, shedding his blocks quickly while with the second-team defense for a pair of stops.
Later, Hills broke up a pass at the line of scrimmage from Braedyn Locke, while making a third run stop in the middle of practice. Finally, Hills had an impressive pressure, beating a double-team to force Tyler Van Dyke out of the pocket, although the quarterback made a nice throw to Kyan Berry-Johnson for a completion.
The defensive line group is still figuring out its rotation, but Hills has been on my radar through the second half of spring ball as he’s emerged with more reps. Seen more as a pass rusher with his quick burst and movement at his size, if Hills can become consistent as a run defender as well, Wisconsin could have a sneaky good piece along their front seven.
I thought Darryl Peterson had another good day of work with a pair of back-to-back plays in the red zone, stopping a run by flowing well as the backside linebacker before beating Jack Nelson inside for what looked like a sack on Braedyn Locke.
Peterson has really shined over the last three practices and has looked improved in 2024 as he deals with good competition at outside linebacker.
Ernest Willor was another defensive player who caught my eye on Tuesday. I’ve reported on Willor in the past, citing how he might be the most explosive defensive lineman on the roster already.
On Tuesday, Willor’s violent hands stood out to me. The true freshman didn’t make much ground against double teams, which is to be expected for a player of his size on the interior, but he was able to disengage quickly off 1-on-1 blocks on multiple occasions with violence.
After practice, defensive line coach E.J. Whitlow preached the importance of being violent, and it appears Willor has quickly picked up on that concept.
Offensively, I liked what I saw from another true freshman: wideout Kyan Berry-Johnson.
With the Badgers primarily using Trech Kekahuna and Will Pauling with the top offense, Berry-Johnson got a ton of run on Tuesday, which led to a number of passes thrown his way.
It’s unclear if Berry-Johnson will see the field much in 2024, given the talent ahead of him at the position, but the early returns have been positive for the slot receiver, who has a knack for getting open over the middle of the field.
Additionally, I thought Tucker Ashcraft stood out in the tight end with a number of catches as well on Tuesday. Now, a number of them were shorter in distance, but Ashcraft has shown good hands throughout the spring, being the most consistent receiving threat in the position group alongside transfer Jackson McGohan.
If the Badgers can get a reliable threat at tight end, it should open up the offense even more for coordinator Phil Longo.