Wisconsin Football Running Back’s Post Spring Practice Outlook

Once the backbone of the Wisconsin football program, the Badgers running backs took a step back last season. 

An unfortunate mixture of injuries and poor hardware/software compatibility within the offense led to a huge underachievement in comparison to “Wisconsin football standards” and certainly compared to the pre-season hype. 

Yet despite losing Braelon Allen to the NFL draft, Devon Spalding’s room is poised to once again be the foundation of the offense.

Obviously, the big news out of spring has been that Chez Mellusi has participated a lot more than anyone could have anticipated this spring. 

Coach Fickell was pretty clear that they were going to take it slow with Mellusi and his recovery from a broken leg suffered against Purdue. Yet from Day 1, he was the lead back and is proving to be the spark that he was last season. Mellusi has put in the work to position himself as the 1A back in the Wisconsin football offense. 

He brings a versatility that was sorely missed most of last season. Everything you can ask a back to do in the Air Raid offense he excels at. He’s an inside-out threat with good hands and is a solid pass blocker. Watching the limited clips we have seen of him so far, he isn’t showing any indications of lingering effects from his injury despite by his own admission being only 80%

And yet I call Mellusi the 1A back because of the incoming Oklahoma transfer. Tawee Walker is going to push to get a lot of playing time. 

If Mellusi is the lightning Walker, he brings the thunder with his low-to-the-ground build and his willingness to seek contact. He’s not just a short yardage back, however. Walker is what a spread offense looks for in a thumper because he can set you up to run through you and then put a foot in the ground and burst around you. He He has also been impressing the media so far this spring with his ability to catch the ball as well, so we are getting an all-around compliment that will make the Mellusi/Walker combo a formidable 1-2 punch.

No offense to Braelon Allen. He would be the first to admit that he was not fit for the Wisconsin football offense last season. I give the coaching staff credit that out of respect for the face of their program they tried hard to fit the offense around him, but when you took into account his oft-injured playing style it just didn’t match up.

Having a lead-back combo like Mellusi and Walker is going to allow Phil Longo to play the hot hand. When you have two backs that can give you all the tools, even with slightly different playing styles, it allows you to either keep both fresh to maximize production or to play the player who is feeling it in the moment. 

Last season, when both Allen and Mellusi were healthy, you had two quality players but with contrasting playing styles, so when one came the game, the offense lost a dynamic piece of production. Mellusi and Walker are going to play off of each other. I think they’re going to push each other, and I think it’s going to be a dynamic group between those two, which leads us to everybody else in the running back room. So, who else made names for themselves this spring?

First, let’s look at the guys who are coming back from last year: Jackson Acker and Cade Yacamelli. Yacamelli has been getting a lot more run this spring. He’s a specimen grown in a lab if there was a lab that produced Air Raid running backs. 

Last spring, he was that dark horse that we were all talking about because of his athletic ability. Athletic ability can only get you so far, as when he was on the field during the season, you could tell he had a lot to work on. His reads were a bit hesitant, and he had issues with ball security. By all accounts, he’s taking a step, and you’re hearing his name making big plays at practice a lot during this spring. So, I expect to see his participation jump up quite a bit this season.

Acker was the number three back for Wisconsin football most of last season by default. He’s the type of player who, on the surface, doesn’t quite fit what the Dairy Raid offense is looking for in a running back. That may be a product of his development pre-Longo as former head coach Paul Chryst turned the former high school sprinter into a fullback. 

But we’re not going to dwell on that. So, where Acker can set himself apart and earn reps, he is going to be returning to his fullback role. His body was morphed into a fullback; his running style has become more of a fullback. He’s a fullback. So whether that means spelling Mellusi and being a dive back in a two-back set or taking H-back type reps in different personnel packages, if he is going to contribute on the field, it might not be as a traditional running back as such.

Next, I’ve raved about this kid all year, and it sounds like he’s exactly what has been advertised, and that’s Gideon Ituka. 

Taking advantage of enrolling early is going to be the way for him to come in as the lowest-rated in the three-headed monster, which is the 2024 recruiting class’ running back room. He’s running with the opportunity to get in and get work, and although it’s been mostly with the threes, we are hearing all of the words that you love about his type of player: he runs like a bowling ball hitting people. He is not shy of contact, yet he has a surprising burst in the open field, as evidenced by his big TD run in the recent “spring game.” 

So don’t discount that squat body and assume he’s only going to be a short yardage between the tackles type kid. If he can position himself to be a core special teams guy he could see the field early. He might still be in a position to redshirt for Wisconsin football as the season goes on, but he will gain valuable experience nonetheless.

Lastly, let’s talk about Nate White. It’s good that he put on weight. You heard his name a little bit early in the spring but haven’t heard much of it afterward. I think he’s destined for the transfer portal. 

He didn’t enter his name in the portal before the spring window closed, but let’s see how fall camp goes. If he’s not, I give him credit for sticking through it, but I don’t see playing time for him. Unfortunately, that seems to be a calling card with a lot of the guys that we had to kind of scramble to complete the 2023 recruiting class, and we kept those guys because it was too late to go get others. A lot of them aren’t a fit for what Wisconsin football is going forward, so unfortunately, he might be in that category.

And there you have a look at the Wisconsin football RB room post-spring. Of course, the room is going to get even stronger with the addition of Darrion Dupree and Dillin Jones this fall. The future is bright, albeit a bit crowded. 

Next time we’re going to talk about the receivers. Despite the fan outcry there hasn’t been many additions to the group, sans Tyrell Henry, that greatly fell below expectations last season. Yet, could we be seeing yet another addition-by-subtraction kind of growth?

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