Receiving little help

We've talked much lately about the Badgers' mediocre passing attack. In fairness to Allan Evridge, his best receiver, Travis Beckum, has played only 2-1/4 games because of injury this year, and his second-best receiver, Garrett Graham, has missed the first two Big Ten games.

The problem here is not just the injuries, but the fact that beyond our two superlative tight ends, we have little consistency at the wide receiver position. We have plenty of promising young players who have shown signs of becoming playmakers, but so far, none of them has progressed into a producer along the lines of Luke Swan, Brandon Williams, or any of them many other above-average wide receivers we've had.

Look at the depth chart. All five wide receivers listed on the two deep are sophomores (David Gilreath, Daven Jones, Kyle Jefferson, Isaac Anderson) or freshmen (Nick Toon). Maurice Moore also factors in, depending on his health. It's not a stretch to think that at least two of these guys will become 40-catch receivers at some point in their career, maybe even average 15 yards per catch. But right now they're either too small (Gilreath, Anderson, Moore), too skinny (Jefferson) or need to work on their hands (Toon, albeit only going on the TD drop at Michigan).

Plenty of recruiting misses, in addition to a lack of signees at the position, have led to this overreliance on youth.

In the class of 2004, which would be redshirt seniors this year, our only wide receiver recruits were Marcus Randle El and Jarvis Minton, and Randle El wasn't definitely going to play wideout. Obviously neither one of these guys panned out, although Randle El was great at running the fake end around.

In the otherwise very productive class of 2005, which would be true seniors or redshirt juniors this year, our wide receiver recruits were Jarmal Ruffin and Elijah Theus.

There's also the matter of the wide receivers' coach. For so long Henry Mason tutored the wideouts, and drew wide praise for his coaching and his recruiting. DelVaughn Alexander has replaced Mason during the latter's recuperation from injury, and while I don't know enough about coaching receivers to question Alexander's methods -- how many different drills can there be to help guys work on their hands? -- it makes you appreciate even more Mason's influence on the Badger passing game over the years.

So we have is a corps of receivers who would have been better served playing complementary roles this early in their careers, like Jefferson did so well early last year. Were Beckum and Graham healthy, that is where they would likely still be. Since the tight ends' health is going to be touch and go all year, our pups need to grow up in a hurry.

Spring football

OK, let's take a quick break from all the basketball talk and look at football spring practice for a bit. I went over to uwbadgers.com and popped open the depth chart and just about fell off my chair.

No Travis Beckum. No Garrett Graham. No Allen Langford. No Aaron Henry. No Jason Chapman. No Kirk DeCremer. No big deal, this depth chart is just for the completely healthy guys, and I've got no problem with these dudes taking a spring break.

A look at the current two-deep:

Offense
QB: Allan Evridge, Dustin Sherer. Part of me wants Curt Phillips to challenge for the backup job, part of me just wants him to redshirt.
RB: Zach Brown or P.J. Hill, Lance Smith or John Clay. Man, are we strong there.
FB: Chris Pressley, Bill Rentmeester
WR: Kyle Jefferson, Maurice Moore or Isaac Anderson. No Nick Toon? the State Journal did a nice story about how he's added 20 pounds of muscle. He's 6-3, 220 so he could be a beast.
WR: David Gilreath, Xavier Harris or Daven Jones. I really want Daven to make a move up the chart this spring.
TE: Mickey Turner, Lance Kendricks. Kendricks is my candidate for 2009's breakout player as Beckum reincarnate.
LT: Gabe Carimi, Jake Bscherer
LG: Andy Kemp, Jake Current. Look at the true freshman!
C: John Moffitt, Brad Thorson
RG: Kraig Urbik, Bill Nagy
RT: Eric Vanden Heuvel, Josh Oglesby. Hope this is a battle and JO either takes the starting spot from EVH or pushes him to a different spot.

Defense
LE: O'Brien Schofield, Louis Nzegwu or Ricky Garner. I feel oddly comfortable with Schofield here.
LT: Mike Newkirk, Jasper Grimes. Really wish Newkirk didn't have to start. Looks like he's going to need shoulder surgery. In addition, Dan Cascone (shoulder) and Brandon Hoey (back) are battling injuries, so we are paper thing at defensive tackle.
RT: Jeff Stehle, Patrick Butrym. Here's your chance, Jeff, make the most of it.
RE: Matt Shaughnessy, Dan Moore. Interesting, thought Moore was brought in to play tackle. Sit Shaughnessy for the spring, what does he have to prove?
SLB: DeAndre Levy, Blake Sorenson
MLB: Elijah Hodge or Culmer St. Jean, Kevin Rouse. Or? Guess it depends on if we're playing a spread team or a team that plays real football.
WLB: Jonathan Casillas, Jaevery McFadden. We're really solid on the outside.
LCB: Mario Goins, Josh Nettles or Prince Moody. Goins is bigger than I thought.
RCB: Niles Brinkley, Otis Merrill. Here's hoping none of these five corners have to start this season.
SS: Aubrey Pleasant or Jay Valai, Chris Maragos
FS: Shane Carter, Kim Royston. Same guys as last year, more or less, time for them to improve.

Special teams
K: Philip Welch, Matt Fischer. Yeesh.
P: Brad DeBauche, Philip Welch. I'm really going to miss Ken DeBauche and Taylor Mehlhaff. Hope this Brad Nortman kid is good.
PR: David Gilreath, Maurice Moore
KR: David Gilreath, Daven Jones, Niles Brinkley, Maurice Moore
LS: Dave Peck, Drew Woodward
H: Chris Maragos, Brad DeBauche

Good time for young guys to come in and make a name for themselves, time for guys like Maragos to learn a new position and contribute where our depth is shaky. Wish I could make the spring game, but I haven't for a long time, and with Crazylegs following shortly thereafter don't think it's worth the trip.

Football thoughts: Feeling hollow about '07, good about '08

OK, had about two days to digest the finality of the 2007 season. On Tuesday, I said if you feel like complaining about a 9-4 season, I feel sorry for you, but ...

This isn't a complaint, but this season does leave me feeling hollow, especially after blowing a shot at 10 wins. This feeling really set in for me the week of the Ohio State game, when I realized that everyone had picked us to finish ahead of the Buckeyes, and here they were in position to run away with the Big Ten. How often does Wisconsin enter the season as a consensus choice to play in a BCS game? Once every 6-8 years? That's why this season, without any major milestones, feels empty. I like that comparisons are being made to the aftermath of the 1998 Outback Bowl loss to Georgia, that is exactly what I was thinking of later Tuesday - we'll have a shot at something special next year, but after this year it won't be expected, we won't be ranked in the top 10 to start the season.

In a way, I felt the same way in March about the basketball season. Here we had our best team in modern times, our best player ever ... and a bunch of teenagers from Ohio State won the Big Ten regular season and tournament titles, and UNLV's gunnin' grad student beat us in the second round. So what did we actually win, other than some very memorable regular season games? At least we made it to #1 and won 30 games for the first time in school history.

I'm starting to sound like one of those spoiled kids who enrolled at UW in 1998 and complained when we missed a bowl after the 2001 season, so let's get back to talking football, mainly with an eye on the future.

Quarterback
When Tyler Donovan was a backup, he looked horrible, and I feared the day he might have to start. Then he became a starter and, despite his flaws, was one of our all-time tough guys and played pretty damn well. This is why I'm not too concerned yet with Allan Evridge. He looked overwhelmed when inserted into game action this season, but give him a full spring as the starter, all the reps with the first-string line and receivers, and I think he'll be fine. I am excited to see what Curt Phillips is all about, but hope Evridge is good enough that Phillips can redshirt, then start for four years. This position is more important than ever, and may be the difference between another 8- or 9-win season and a truly special one.

Running back
Feeling good here if everyone stays. Even if one guy leaves, we should be OK, but we need three solid guys back there. As should have become clear by now, I still think P.J. Hill is our best guy by far. Lance Smith is fast but dances too much at times. Zach Brown is tough but doesn't have P.J.'s burst. John Clay is an unknown going in.

You know another guy I'm happy is coming back? Chris Pressley. Not so much for his on-field play, although it's solid, but because he strikes me as the kind of thoughtful, charismatic locker room leader type that great teams need, like a Joe Panos or Chris McIntosh.

Receiver
Beckum's back, he's a known entity. It remains to be seen whether he puts on weight and works on blocking (and how that affects his receiving) or if he stay sat 225 or so and remains the same type of player - a dominant college player. Very excited about him and Garrett Graham in two-tight end sets next year. Kyle Jefferson had a nice rookie year but tailed off late, he can put on 20 good pounds without losing his athleticism. Who's the other starting wideout? My money is on Daven Jones. Something strikes me about this kid - he had to fight to get to Madison, then he worked his butt off on special teams this year. We really just need 25 catches or so out of that spot, and I think he can get them.

Offensive line
Marcus Coleman is the only loss, and while he was good and will be missed, we usually come up with a good center. Really liked Gabe Carimi's freshman year, and he can put a good 20 pounds on the 292 he played at this season. I think he could be the first four-year starter at left tackle since McIntosh. Unless Josh Oglseby is as good as advertised and pushes Carimi to right tackle, which I would not mind seeing. Figure Andy Kemp and John Moffit will play left guard and center. And Kraig Urbik might be the best of any of these guys, wherever he ends up. This should be a strong position.

Defensive line
Matt Shaughnessy is a nice player, but I would really like to see him dominate in his senior season - no more second team All-Big Ten, how about first team All-American? I think he's got it in him. Feel pretty good about Kirk DeCremer and/or O'Brien Schofield opposite/behind Shaughnessy, they showed good signs this year. Worried about defensive tackle - think Chapman will come back strong, but Brandon Hoey apparently has injury problems and if Jeff Stehle were capable, he would have played this year. Mike Newkirk reminds me of Ben Herbert from earlier this decade - a nice swing DL who is too small to be a regular DT. Hoping one or both of these junior college recruits can give some quality snaps - the coaches would not have brought them in if they didn't think it was necessary.

Linebacker
This position should be very strong next year. Jonathan Casillas is on the verge of an All-American performance for his senior year, he's so fast. DeAndre Levy is so versatile, and I rarely find myself fingering him for missed tackles. The key to this unit, and maybe the whole defense, is Elijah Hodge's knees. if he can stay healthy and practice regularly and play, our run defense gets a lot better. And though he's a liability in coverage, Jae McFadden is a pretty good nickel or dime LB, depending on whether or not Levy lines up at end.

Secondary
This all depends on whether or not Ike returns. If he does, we're average here. If he doesn't, we're well below average. Let's assume he's off to the NFL. Ordinarily I'd like the Langford-Henry pairing, but both are coming off knee injuries, and we saw what that did to corners like Brett Bell. Shane Carter has great ball skills, but missed so many tackles this year. Strong safety is a crapshoot. It looked like Aubrey Pleasant got benched in the Outback Bowl, and it's hard to argue with the move. Jay Valai was OK, but Kim Royston continued to miss tackles as well. As noted earlier, apparently Chris Maragos will get a shot here, hopefully he can bring some consistency. Bottom line: we need Ike's ability to neutralize top receivers.

Special teams
David Gilreath was clearly a shot in the arm for the return units, and let's give credit to the blocking as well - he wasn't making something out of nothing, he was making something out of the window of opportunity presented him. In the kicking game, no matter who replaces Taylor Mehlhaff and Ken DeBauche, there will be a drop-off. It just can't be as big as the drop-off in the post-Davenport/Pisetsky/Stemke years, when the kicking game was god-awful. Also: long snapper Steve Johnson graduates, but we usually find an NFL-caliber guy there.

Coaching
This year, there were two games where we didn't seem prepared to play: Penn State and Tennessee. That's curious, since you think we would have been fired up coming off the Illinois loss, and we had a month to prepare for the Outback Bowl. Only two games in my mind were well-played all the way around: Indiana and Michigan.

Other than that, the defense wasn't as good as expected, but my sense is that had more to do with injuries and things like the Jamal Cooper dismissal than coaching. Still, the tackling needs to improve, and the safety situation needs to improve. Offensively, the staff seemed to get along fine without Henry Mason, but it sure would be nice to have him back. Hopefully Paul Chryst won't leave, as seems to be a possibility this time each year.

Leaders
Don't laugh, this has been an important part of all our best teams. My nominees: Pressley, Beckum, Casillas, Langford. These guys need to set the tone for the offseason and keep things headed in the right direction come fall.

So, 2008 in a nutshell:

-Feel good about: running back, receiver, offensive line, linebacker, return game
-Could go either way on: quarterback, defensive line, secondary with Ike
-Worried about: secondary without Ike, kicking game
-Overall: Feeling pretty good. Depending on how things break, this team could win anywhere from seven to 11 games.

My fingers are sore, what do you think?

Beckum's back!

Just saw some great news on the Sporting News site that is confirmed on uwbadgers.com: Travis Beckum will return for his senior year at Wisconsin! I won't bother going over how incredible and uncoverable he was this year, or his numbers and accolades. Let's consider:

-How loaded with skill position players the offense will be. The Badgers should have the best 1-2 tight end combination in the country in Beckum and Garrett Graham. If everyone's eligible and healthy (no sure thing) we should have the best group of tailbacks in the country in P.J. Hill, Lance Smith, Zach Brown, and John Clay. Kyle Jefferson is ready to put up big numbers in his second year, and it's a good bet someone will emerge as a 25-catch guy opposite him (Daven Jones? Wes Kemp?).

The line, losing only unsung Marcus Coleman, should be good again - especially if Josh Oglesby forces his way into the lineup. That leaves just one big question mark: quarterback. Will Allan Evridge be at least adequate, as Tyler Donovan was this year?

-It will be interesting to see if Beckum puts on 15-20 pounds on the 224 he played at this season in an attempt to get more NFL-ready. And, if he does, will his ability to get open and make plays in the open field be diminished? If he can put on weight, improve his blocking, and still be a receiving terror, that would be tremendous. But given his importance as a security blanket for a first-year starter at QB, selfishly I would like him to stay around 230 and focus on receiving.

Whatever, I'm just happy he's back!

Wisconsin-Minnesota postgame thoughts

Yesterday was fairly draining, but all ended well. There's going to be two posts about the game, one focusing on the game, and one focusing on what a joke of a program Tim Brewster is cultivating here at Minnesota.

-What a tremendous game by Zach Brown. Let's do some clarification here. Last week I compared him to Eddie Faulkner, a career backup. Several of my friends challenged that Zach is much better than Eddie. I will agree, but still see him as a backup, mainly because of the guys who should be ahead of him. This just speaks to the depth of the program and how the overall talent level has been upgraded in the last decade.

-Even against a horrible defense like Minnesota's, give props the line for opening the holes for Zach. And it was another next-man-in scenario, when Bill Nagy replaced the injured John Moffitt. Once again, surprising that Danny Kaye and Jake Bscherer didn't get a call, but it worked out.

-David Gilreath has been an emotional roller coaster all year, and Saturday he went out on a high note in front of the program he originally committed to. Like the running game, credit the blocking, he had gaping holes to work with, but credit him for taking advantage.

-Been up and down all year about Tyler Donovan too, and he didn't have his best game yesterday, but he won, and won with two bruised hands. The kid's tougher than nails and a winner ... can we compare him to Mike Samuel, only a better passer ... and runner?

-Once again Travis Beckum was the best player on the field. Someone in our group said "I think Travis has gone to his last class," and I can't disagree. Looks like an injured shoulder, hopefully he's ready for the bowl game.

-Love that Ben Strickland once again made a huge play to seal a win here. Our program succeeds with classy kids like Ben, not jackasses like Eric Decker and Clint Brewster.

-Elijah Hodge was hurt, Culmer St. Jean played okay in his place. Jae McFadden seemed to be back as well, didn't notice him that much.

-Another mediocre game for Jack Ikegwuonu, although getting punched in the groin by Decker didn't help.

-Thought we may have figured out how to defend the spread after beating an Indiana team with superior playmakers to the Gophers, but they really moved the ball well at times, without any semblance of a Division I running back on the field. Not having Hodge, Jason Chapman and Allen Langford might have had something to do with it.

-All Shane Carter does is catch interceptions. In a way he's comparable to Jim Leonhard, although Jimmy may have been better in run support.

-Another excellent game by the unsung hero, Ken DeBauche.

-One of my other favorite unsung players this season has been Daven Jones, and he made some intangible plays yesterday. He's done some terrific work on special teams, and I hope he ends up contributing at wide receiver to the level he was projected at coming out of high school.

-Adam Weber has a bright future for Minnesota, even if they stay with the spread. He's not nearly as athletic as I thought he was, and his passing needs polish, but he racked up over 400 yards of total offense on us.

-I'm going to miss Minnesota punter Justin Kucek, he's given Badger fans so many good memories.

Overall, we're 9-3 and have a shot to go a January bowl game. Ohio State's in a BCS game for sure; crazy things might happen to allow Illinois to get in there as well. If we play in the Outback Bowl, I hope it's against a new opponent like Tennessee. The Alamo Bowl wouldn't be bad, either, and the Big 12 opponent might be more beatable than one from the SEC.

So the regular season is over and we're not staring at a BCS game or national title game berth, but you know what? Good season. Nine wins for the fourth straight year, another winning record in Big Ten play, beat Michigan, beat Minnesota, 1,000-yard rusher, All-American tight end, undefeated at home sold out Camp Randall. All this even with a ton of injuries and other adversity. Nice job by the coaching staff keeping it all together this year.

I'm a glass-half-full guy this morning.

Calling O-H-I-O

SATURDAY ADDITION: Jim wrote a nice story on the Glenville connection in today's Cap Times, read it here. It's sort of buried on madison.com, but it's very well done and worth a read.

Most of you know that I spent my first two years post-UW in a humble little state called Ohio. It was an interesting time. Basically, my buddy Mike Pidanick and I would work 90 hours a week and play Madden and NHL ’96 for the other 78 hours. In warm months we added daily golf, with one year on the links accounting for 95% of my lifetime rounds.

We also spent lots of time watching high school sports, and after returning to Wisconsin I couldn’t help but think: the level of play and athleticism is significantly higher in Ohio. The difference was most noticeable in basketball, where athleticism is easier to spot. But the football players were also better. My second year there, Ben Roethlisberger came into Fremont and threw eight touchdown passes against our hometown boys. Eight! I can’t even begin to imagine a kid doing that in Wisconsin.

This has been on my mind more than usual since we play Ohio State this week. Let’s face it, the Buckeyes are going to take just about anyone they want from the state, but there are still lots of good guys left over. Lots of them end up playing in the MAC. I’m not saying we should be competing with Toledo and Kent State for recruits every year, but would Roethlisberger, Charlie Frye (who we also covered), or any of those other MAC stars contributed at UW? Damn right they would have. But we can also get high-level talented kids that would excel at OSU.

Henry Mason’s efforts have been outstanding mining talent from that state. I may be off a year or two here (Jim can help me out), but in the years preceding Mason’s arrival in Madison, we didn’t get much from Ohio. Kevin Huntley – a Crimson Streak from Fremont St. Joseph Central Catholic – was a solid four-year contributor. But after Mason arrived came a line of real standouts: John Favret, Chris Chambers, Mike Echols, Chad Kuhns (a Bellevue Redman), Lee Evans. Russ Kuhns, Delante McGrew, and Dontez Sanders were starters. On today’s team, Jason Chapman and Kyle Jefferson and standouts, Lance Smith is good when he’s eligible, Shane Carter is making plays, and Otis Merrill, Prince Moody, Daven Jones, Brandon Kelly, and Bill Nagy are also on the roster, most with a chance to contribute some day. All except Moody are northern Ohio, most of them Northeast Ohio, guys.

The Ohio connection, in particular Bedford/Cleveland, is the best pipeline we have going right now. St. Louis was great for awhile – the Fletchers, Bryant, Starks, etc. – and we’ve got Wes Kemp coming next year. It is vital to the future of this program to keep these alive. We can only get so much out of Wisconsin, the Twin Cities should theoretically be more competitive with Brewster at the U, and Zook and Weis should take more of Chicago than we’re used to. New Jersey is another goldmine, but the rise of Big East football, Schiano at Rutgers in particular, and Penn State's return to relevance will make it tougher to get Ron Daynes out of that region.

I love how the Bedford kids talk about Chambers and Evans with such reverence, hopefully Jefferson can keep the tradition going.

As for tomorrow’s games, I have low hopes, but that’s okay. We ought to be a significant underdog, whether PJ plays or not, and have a chance to pull a stunner. My sense is that we will overachieve and play just well enough to lose by single digits. There’s nothing wrong with Ohio State, but the fact that they’re the clear-cut #1 nationally is more a reflection of college football’s dearth of elite teams than a reflection of their dominance. Last year’s OSU team would beat this year’s by 20.

Prediction: Ohio State 20, Wisconsin 16

Wisconsin-Penn State halftime thoughts

Great start.

Second straight ABC game where they showed Donovan's picture when introducing the opposing starting QB. Good thing for Morelli, he is pretty ugly.

PJ introduced Donovan as "Triceps," which reminded me of one of Burch's 16 nicknames, "The Quad." Nothing like making nicknames out of underrated body parts.

Looking at Ike, I notice he has one long sleeve, one short. Saw this on Wake Forest's DBs the other night and I think a couple others today - fluke or trend? Would have been a good look on Schwalbach in '93.

Really nice touchdown drive - Donovan, PJ, Jefferson, Graham, Beckum all chipped in. Beckum was split wide left on his big catch, have to do that today against Connor and Lee.

Have a thought on the defense giving up big plays: the guys are so eager to make big plays themselves that they are running themselves out of position. Kinlaw's first run of the game was a perfect example, as Casillas ran right into a block rather than waiting for the garbage to clear out.

Donovan's first pick - totally Gilreath's fault. Two weeks ago he had another INT when Jefferson dropped on near the goal line against MSU.

PSU's second pick - totally Langford's fault, bit on an inside move when he had safety help inside, then was slow to recover. I thought he was supposed to be our technically sound cornerback.

Bad holding call wipes out nice draw by Brown - this team can't afford penalties like that, and the false start on Urbik earlier.

I think Williams' fumble on the punt return was a legit fumble and no penalty was warranted. Our gunner (is that Daven Jones? Nice play) seemed to get there right after the ball did, clearly contrary to Maguire's knee-jerk analysis. No replays after the commercial, though, would have been nice to see it again.

Royster TD run - Ike runs himself out of the play as if he was covering a guy man-to-man on a pass, when Morelli never looked for a split second as if he were going to pass. Well executed play by PSU, but shouldn't have gone for six.

Why not try a field goal at the end of the half? That's in Mehlhaff's range?

Don't give up on the run in the second half. PJ's horrible fumble aside, we're running pretty well. Get Brown some reps. Unfortunately the game situation will probably dictate less running, more passing.

Jimmy's TCT in-game blog.

Badger wide receiver situation

Been doing some thinking on the Badgers' situation at wide receiver without Swan, and I'm not feeling as bad about it as I did at first. That is to take nothing away from Swanny, great player, great story, etc. Here's why:

As predicted before, I see Chryst using Beckum split wide more often, with Jefferson as the second wideout. If he wants to go two-tight end, he can go with Graham and Turner or Crooks. Becks might not be as precise a route runner as Swan (or he might be, haven't broken down the tape on this one ... or any other one), but he just finds ways to get open. And Jefferson has shown he can make plays.

Just don't see the other guys mentioned as possible "step up" candidates - Maurice Moore, Daven Jones, Marcus Randle-El, Gilreath, Xavier Harris - making an appreciable impact. Surely not right away against a good Penn State team. Maybe Gilreath, we have evidence of his quickness. Prove me wrong, guys.

This reminds me of the 2002 season, when Evans got hurt and Williams and Orr stepped in as starters as freshmen (anyone remember if they were true or redshirt?) and put up good numbers, but it was definitely not smooth sailing for that year's offense, or team.

BTW, read on the JS Badger blog that Williams had just signed with the Rams, didn't know he'd been cut by the Niners.

One other Badger note: the beat writers are making note of how much Donovan threw against Illinois, and for good reason, it was too much. That was dictated more by game situation - playing from two scores behind much of the game - rather than original intent, but it can't continue if this program is to have success.

Every time a Badger QB throws a ton of passes for a ton of yards, all I can think of is the loss to Minnesota in '93, when Bevell moved the team up and down the field but had five picks. That game cost UW a chance at a national championship, at least in Barry's mind. Just hope the day our QB threw 49 passes and two picks at Illinois doesn't cost us in the same way, although the way our D is playing we might lose again.