Wisconsin Football Receiver Room Post Spring Practice Outlook

Today, we are moving on to the Wisconsin football wide receivers in our look back at the Badgers spring and preview of the fall series. 

This group has to take a big step forward. Obviously, in the Air Raid offense, the wide receivers need to lead the way and help push the ball downfield. Let’s be clear: This is true of any offense, but in an offense built upon vertical and horizontal stresses, you need that top half to force the defense into conflicts of assignment.

With the exception of Will Pauling the group as a whole underachieved. 

So many factors can be attributed to this, from injuries to the inability to perform basic tasks that D1 receivers should perform. I don’t know what the previous Wisconsin football coaching staff taught the returning receivers, but they looked awful. On top of that, it was clear that Mike Brown and Phil Longo did not gel on what to do to bring these players up to speed. 

And yet, as a group, it was addition by subtraction in the Reliaquest Bowl as even after losing their WR coach and their top returning receiver (Chimere Dike), the group looked like they took a big step forward during bowl prep. Yes, it was against a statistically bad LSU defense, but it’s also one of the most athletic defenses they played all season. 

So, there are both sides of the spectrum. More importantly, there was a growth in both the fundamentals of playing the position and playing  within the offense.

So the question has been this spring: can the receivers continue that momentum, and are they going to take another step forward? The big question on a lot of people’s minds is whether they have horses in the room to get the job done. So many have been calling for Wisconsin football to be aggressive in the portal and go with the quick-fix strategy. 

The vaunted boundary wide receiver that so many people have been calling for yet doesn’t exist in the offense.

I want to address this real quick. “Boundary receiver” is becoming the new “RPO” or “reverse” for me as a term that people keep repeating to make themselves sound smart, and yet they don’t really know what they mean. A boundary receiver is a receiver who plays on the boundary side of the field…the short side of the field. In old school vernacular the split end. Since this type of receiver tends to have less space to work with, they are usually bigger, stronger, and more of a possession-style receiver.

In Longo’s offense, this does not exist, as his wide receivers just stay on one side. So, if you mean wide receiver, just say wide receiver.

Anyways, back to the task at hand. They brought in one transfer during the winter transfer window in Tyrell Henry, and that’s it. They stayed pat with the group that they had and decided they had the guys to go forward into the spring. Rumors are they are dipping into the portal again to see if they can bring in another wide receiver to replace Tommy McIntosh, but if it wasn’t for that late transfer, new receiver coach Kenny Guiton would have been ready to roll with the room, he has. 

So let’s take a look back at the spring, talk about who the Badgers have returned, and how we, as fans (now knowing what a boundary receiver is), can expect that group will be used this season.

We’ll start with the Wisconsin football wide receivers. No shocker to hear that Bryson Green took all the meaningful reps with the 1s at the right wide receiver spot. It’s where he was last year, and barring injury, I don’t see anybody pushing him to take that spot. 

The starting left wide receiver Chimere Dike transferred to Florida leaving a starting spot available. Who’s going to replace him? CJ Williams is obviously the first guy to come to mind. The vaunted transfer last season and would be the highest-rated receiver recruit the Badgers ever brought in, Williams underperformed big time. We can state the obvious that he was still young and young, and talent still lacks the experience to perform. Flashes of brilliance together with a lack of physicality and a poor ability to read leverage. He made some great catches, and when you allow him to get into space, he can do it. But once defenses realized they could rough him off and get his head out of the game, it was lights out. 

It’s been encouraging to hear him make strides this spring. Making catches in space and downfield which was an element the offense was sorely missing last year.

A name that you’ve been hearing a lot this spring, again, we keep talking about taking a step forward, is Quincy Burroughs. Burroughs does the things that Longo wants of a wide receiver. He’s got the speed to push upfield, and he can work well with leverage. A benefit of being a reserve down the depth chart is that your practices are focused way more on drills and technique, and it showed when he started getting more looks in the bowl game. He was very fundamentally sound. The good thing about him not getting a lot of reps last year is he rep drills over and over and over. Now that he is getting even more looks with the top unit’s he’s been making plays, the patience that he showed last year is going to pay off.

That’s why I think Burroughs could be your day-one starter at the left-side wide receiver for the Wisconsin football team. Of course, the next player we are about to talk about might have something to say about that.

Vinny Anthony has picked up right where he left off last year. As the season wore on last year, he worked himself more and more into the rotation and into a joker role by getting reps at all three receiver positions.

That versatility could make him a natural to be the #3 wide receiver, but as spring wore on, he was working more with the 1st team. Regardless of where he is on the field, he feels like a natural complimentary receiver. He has the speed to stretch the defense vertically, but his cross trained ability will give him a better understanding of spacing which in term will create better timing with the quarterbacks.

I almost forgot Chris Brooks Jr., but let’s see if he sticks around. He was a guy who always seems to be injured and made a couple of great circus catches last spring that caught everyone’s attention, but it’s kind of easy to forget about him because he’s never usually on the field. He has a lot of upside, he’s just got to stay healthy.

Moving inside to the Wisconsin football slot receivers, and here is where the fun begins. All spring, we have been hearing about amazing play after amazing play by Trech Kekahuna. 

There hasn’t quite been a playmaker like him at Wisconsin since…ever really. And yet I am still hold to the belief that he isn’t going to take playing time away from Pauling, and that opinion I have taken quite a bit of heat for. Why am I advocating for one of our best players to be on the bench? Just because Pauling is older, he should get reps. Not at all. I want to increase the overall ability of the offense and you don’t do that by taking Pauling off of the field. You do that by having BOTH of them on the field and finding someone else to take out.

If Kekahuna goes in and Pauling goes out, you gain the difference in the athletic/playmaking ability between them. But what does the offense lose when Pauling is out? Who is the better blocker? Who’s better at finding space over the middle? Does that offense gain more when Kekahuna goes in and Pauling goes out? What about when Kekahuna comes on the field,  and Riley Nowakowski goes out? What does the offense gain when they go two-back and we pop him on the outside? I think he’s is going to get a lot of playing time, but I honest don’t think it has to be at the expense of Pauling.

I think he’s going to take all those reps that Skyler Bell got as the number two slot last year. I think he’s going to take a lot of tight-end reps because I think they’re going to go a lot of 10 personnel. I think when they go empty personnel, he’s going to get in. He’s going to be a really great gadget guy in the offense that they’re going to find a lot of different ways to get the ball in his hands. And then on top of that, you have Pauling and the guys on the outside. So it’s not addition by subtraction; it’s addition by addition.

Pauling I firmly believe in the 11 personnel will be the Wisconsin football team’s starting slot receiver. Experience matters and the ability that comes with experience matters to an offense over. He’s a workman’s slot ala Wes Welker (another Air Raid product) and while he hasn’t been called out for making spectacular plays all spring like Trech he doesn’t need to.

Tyrell Henry is another intriguing prospect. He’s been working mostly with the twos, a little bit farther down the depth chart. He’s another guy, though, that they are looking at to bring some versatility. 

He played both inside and outside this spring. I think is going to be a core special teams guy and to be our first true kick returner since Aron Cruickshank. They might be positioning him to be kind of like Anthony was towards the middle of the season, that backs up at both spots and then he can build his way into a bigger role next season when Green and/or others move on. He’s young as well, with a lot of opportunities moving forward, so if he can build on the flash he has shown already, he is poised for a bright future.

And finally here’s the early enrollee Kyan Berry Johnson. Another player who’s taking advantage of getting on campus early and working his way into the system. He’s destined to redshirt, but he’s the heir apparent in the slot. We know Longo like’s his slot receivers and the plan really seems to solidify the inside and build the offense from the inside out.

All right, that’s the receivers. Next time, let’s talk about the Wisconsin football quarterbacks and where do the room stands heading into fall camp and exiting the spring. We’ll dive into the quarterback competition that wasn’t really a competition and what it means for the offense.

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