Questions from Duff Beach

Duff Beach, frequent commenter and blogger at Badger Sports Bar, recently emailed myself and several other bloggers some questions about the upcoming football season, to get us going. Trust me, it's tough getting motivated to blog during the summer. Duff's first round focused on the offense, my answers below.

What's your take on the WR's? Is Gilreath really the #1? Where does Jefferson fit in post multiple concussions?

Don't think Gilreath is the #1, not strong enough. Think it's gotta be Toon. Jefferson is the deep threat, can't see sending him over the middle any more. I have faith in Gilreath and Anderson to find openings in coverage, Brandon Williams types.

The Running Backs? Anyone else think Brown may take more than 1/3 of the snaps this season? Worried about depth?

Hadn't thought of it, but I agree Brown might take more than a third of the snaps, a combination of his being pretty good, Clay being in his first season as the main guy, and probably more third downs than we'd like.

Tight Ends? So Graham is a beast, how dangerous is Kendricks? Will Turner really just be a fullback already at the line? Will we ever even see a true fullback with this offense?

I can see fullbacks still playing a part of this offense, seems like we're still recruiting that type of kid. Turner's a blocker, not mucn more. With Graham and a solid good of wide receivers, I don't see Kendricks catching more than 35 or 40 passes, max, even if he's a lot better.

And the biggie . . . who's it going to be? Who should it be? And why?

It's going to be Sherer, at least at the start. It should be ... Budmayr is he's even close to being ready. A reach? Maybe. But my sense is he's the best passer of this group, he probably wouldn't be much worse than the other guys this year, and we could have him start for four years.

I guess on offense all that leaves is the line: How will it be with three new starters? Was Bielema serious that Konz could push Oglesby out of the starter's spot, or was he just making a point to Josh? How will Bscherer be at guard? Anyone else worried about a lack of depth at guard? Will anything stop the rash of false starts and holding penalties?

The line won't be as good as last year, but I'm not worried about it. Carimi is a stud, Moffitt's solid, and the other three starters have starting experience. I could see Konz beating out Oglesby, he struggled mightily at times last year. Bscherer I see being a Matt Lawrence type, someone who's not going to be a huge plus but isn't going to be a liability.

Spring game thoughts

Made it to the spring game today, and was glad I did. It was the first one I've been to in 11 years, if memory serves, and it's always great to watch live football in April.

Hard to tell too much, because a. It's the spring game, a glorified scrimmage, and b. I had Will with me, and if you've met him, he's a handful. We had a great time.

Overall, I was pleased with how efficiently the first team offense played. Granted, playing against third- and fourth-stringers they should put up good numbers, but for some reason it seems that the first string never looks that sharp in this contest. They looked as good as could be expected today.

No defensive players really stood out, although it's tough to judge the pass rush because plays were whistled dead before sacks could be finalized. In the secondary, Chris Maragos and Devin Smith both made nice plays on the ball, and Aaron Henry seemed to be moving around well.

At quarterback, Dustin Sherer was solid. It was clear his throwing motion has been improved (photos forthcoming), but he doesn't look entirely comfortable with it. Curt Phillips got in and made some plays, and while his arm wasn't as weak as I feared, it wasn't that bad. Scott Tolzien showed some shaky mechanics, throwing off his back foot. Jon Budmayr didn't look overwhelmed, but didn't create much; both he and Tolzien were probably held back by playing with the deep reserves.

As could be expected, the tight ends got themselves open and were a big part of the offense. Lance Kendricks had a nice touchdown catch, as did Garrett Graham. Mickey Turner did a lot of motioning into a fullback spot.

John Clay ran well, shedding tacklers left and right. Zach Brown ran hard inside. But Erik Smith was the biggest revelation. He showed nice lateral movement, in particular a nice jump cut, and some separation speed. He could play some this fall.

Notables seen in passing: Keaton Nankivil, Cecil Martin, UW band tuba legend Zack Dachel, and hockey/online video guru Todd Milewski.

Today did little to alleviate my main concerns heading into the 2009 season -- pass rush, defensive tackle, linebacker depth, offensive line newcomers -- but I didn't expect it to. It's fun to see all the new guys who get a shot to make a name for themselves as Badgers, and we'll be pulling for them all this fall.

Going to the spring game

After much deliberation, I've decided to take Will to the spring game. The deciding factors:

-Want to see Nick Toon
-Want to see Curt Phillips and Jon Budmayr
-Want to see J.J. Watt
-Want to see Aaron Henry
-Want Will to take part in the kids' day fun taking place before the game.

Looks like decent to nice weather, hopefully I'll get some good shots and info for a solid report.

Now departing

Just read Jim's story that Elijah Hodge, Xavier Harris, and James Stallons will be leaving the football program. None of these things are surprising nor necessarily damaging. Mildly disappointing.

I thought Hodge was going to be the second-best player in his recruiting class, after Beckum. After all, his brother was a stud at Iowa, so why wouldn't he be, too? He was an easy target for frustration as the defense struggled early in the 2007 season, although he did have that big play to end the win over Michigan State.

When he wasn't one of the top six linebackers this year you figured he was done playing from scrimmage. We'll never know how good he would have been had the injuries not caught up with him. Interesting that Bielema gave him a chance to move to fullback but he didn't take it. Nice thing is he's on pace to graduate in May.

Wasn't Harris's nickname "The Savior"? I remember watching him warm up before theh Bowling Green game in Cleveland and thinking that he lookd the part and would play as much as Swan and Hubbard at wideout that year. Guess not. Although a back injury ended his career, don't think it had that much to do with him not playing much before then.

Stallons, from what I understand, didn't put in as much prep time in the classroom or the meeting room to earn more playing time, but if he had he might have gotten on the field last year. With Phillips and Budmayr coming in, he was looking at being squeezed out himself.

Shelby Harris

While feeding Charlie at 3 a.m. Monday night, I had a chance to watch the Division 1 state champoinship game between Hartland Arrowhead and Homestead. The two teams were meeting for the third straight year ... yawn. Much better game than the last two, however, and Homestead pulled out the win.

I focused in on Wisconsin recruit Shelby Harris, same as I did with Big Foot's Travis Frederick last week. Let me tell you: watching one lineman for an entire game and not focusing on the ball is both difficult and tedious.

But it was revealing. As with Frederick, in Harris I saw an athletic big body who did not exactly dominate, but showed flashes of how he did dominate against lesser teams, and how he could be a contributor at the college level.

Harris looks like a defensive end. It seems like I've read in places that he's a defensive tackle prospect, but he's not built that way, and the pad level he plays at is better suited for end. He played off blocks well. Arrowhead often attempted to cut block him on runs to the opposite side, but he showed good footwork to avoid those type of blocks. He's quick.

At times he was overwhelmed by Arrowhead's linemen, especially by double teams. This is forgivable, as Arrowhead has some really big boys up front. If he ends up at end in college, he won't see double teams like that, but in high school he's one of the biggest kids and has to play inside. He pursued plays well, but didn't seem to have a thirst for contact like some kids have. Even so, he had some nice hits.

Another impressive player in the game was Arrowhead kicker Jeff Budzien. Apparently we're not recruiting him, and I'm not sure why. Philip Welch had a nice freshman season, but as Cal Poly would tell you, you can never have enough good kickers.

Two other notes of local interest to me:

Waupaca won the Division 3 title with an exciting win over Reedsburg. I'm told that Wisconsin is interested in Comets quarterback Brock Jensen as a walk-on. Brock did most of his damage in the title game running the option, and he's a nice athlete, but he also put up some great passing numbers this year and showed a decent arm in Madison. We've got Jon Budmayr coming in at that spot, and are happy with him, but it would be cool to see a local kid end up in Madison.

The player of the game for Waupaca against Reedsburg was Mike Solberg, a tough running back who also assisted on a big tackle on the Beavers' two-point conversion late. Solberg looked like every bit the prospect Bradie Ewing is. He and Jensen will probably have plenty of offers from Division II and III colleges, but the allure of suiting up for the Badgers has to be strong.

Owen Daniels

The Jon Budmayr commitment got me thinking about all the other high school quarterbacks we've gotten from Chicago, few of whom have worked out all that well. One who did was Owen Daniels, albeit at a different position.

You know what? He's quietly become one of the best tight ends in the NFL. Read this nice little write-up on Owen, part of a look at the AFC South at that position.

I laughed at his "limitations": not a deep threat. How many tight ends are?

Owen's a good example of a guy who realized his greatest potential to contribute and grow as a football player was at a different position, and wasn't too stubborn or proud to make the switch.

This Bud's for us: Jon Budmayr commits

Word leaked Tuesday that Bret Bielema landed a commitment from a pretty darn good high school quarterback by the name of Jon Budmayr of Marian Central Catholic in Woodstock, Ill. Seems like a good kid, and a good quarterback prospect. He also impressed at the Nike Football Training Camp in Ohio recently (thanks for the heads-up, Schwib).

Bud, as he will be known here from now on, chose UW over Notre Dame, Nebraska, Illinois, and Iowa, among others. Not bad.

Schwalbach emailed me excitedly Tuesday night, opining that top-tier quarterback recruits are starting to see that Madison isn't such a bad place to play. I'm not sure. Bud isn't exactly a Jimmy Clausen-type recruit -- Scout has him as the 55th-best QB prospect. And while Curt Phillips ended up being pretty highly rated, he wasn't at the time he committed.

But so what? All I care about is that they end up being effective players for Wisconsin. Think about our recent quarterbacks: Donovan, Stocco, Sorgi, Bollinger. None of those guys was the next coming of Ron Powlus coming out of high school, and all played well enough to win a bunch of games as college starters. Two guys even carved out nice little NFL careers for themselves.

Given the receiving talent we attract to Wisconsin and the coaching they receive; Paul Chryst's modern offense; and the relative success of the aforementioned Badger quarterbacks of the last decade, we should see a higher caliber of QB recruit matriculating to the alma mater. But if not, we'll probably be OK anyway.