Mailbag: Wisconsin football WR spending, young talent, and staff evaluations
How serious should Wisconsin be about portal spending at WR, which young players could take a leap if retained, and which assistant coaches deserve more credit?
Another set of mailbag questions about the Wisconsin football program came in this week, and they speak to a fanbase trying to balance urgency and realism this offseason as the roster is once again set to turn over.
This mailbag touches on how aggressive Wisconsin should be when it comes to adding a stud receiver in the transfer portal. We also dive into some young players in the building that could take a big step forward if the Badgers can retain them this offseason. Then, the conversation turns to the coaching staff and which assistants deserve more credit than they’re getting.
Let’s get into it.
Q: With all the talk about increased spending and resources, do you think Wisconsin will actually go out and land a big-name wide receiver in the portal to pair with whoever starts at quarterback, and is that kind of investment worth it?
- CaliBadger72
I don’t think Wisconsin is suddenly going to land a household-name at wide receiver that everyone in the sport already knows. That feels like a tier or two above where they can realistically spend or attempt to sell right now, given where the program is at and the season it’s coming off of.
That said, the receiver room is essentially empty, and it has to be rebuilt in a way that actually makes sense for what this offense wants to be.
If the staff is serious about spending serious money to go out and get a quarterback, then turning around and not surrounding him with at least a couple of proven downfield options would feel like malpractice. Jeff Grimes wants to take shots off play-action. That only works if defenses have to respect the passing game. Wisconsin hasn’t been able to throw the football in any meaningful way, and until that changes, defenses are going to keep loading the box and daring them to beat single coverage.
And that’s the uphill battle they’re fighting here. Wisconsin is coming off a season in which it averaged just 136.4 passing yards per game, ranking 130th nationally. Regardless of context, injuries, or instability, that’s the reality on paper. Wide receivers want targets. They want film. They want a track record that tells them they can showcase their skill set and put themselves on a path to the NFL. Until the Badgers prove they can function as a legitimate passing offense, there will be portal options who hesitate unless the financial component is simply too significant to ignore.
Do I think wide receiver is one of the top priorities where you just throw all your chips in to get a stud? Probably not. There are far too many areas on this roster that need fixing to pretend one position group solves everything. But this is also a program that cannot function offensively if opponents don’t have to account for the passing game at all. That piece has to change, or nothing downstream will work the way it’s supposed to.
So I think the answer is kind of twofold.
No, I don’t expect some splashy, headline receiver commitment. But yes, I do think they’ll land one or two proven players with impressive physical traits. Size. Speed. Someone who’s got experience, maybe even from a recognizable program, and can help rebuild the room. They want bigger bodies who can block, but they also need guys who can stress defenses vertically. And with Vinny Anthony and Jayden Ballard graduating, plus Trech Kekahuna and Eugene Hilton Jr. heading to the portal, there aren’t many options left in Jordan Reid’s WR room you can feel confident about.
“You’ve got to have some realization,” Luke Fickell said. “We want to throw the ball down the field. We need to throw the ball downfield. We got into a situation where the offense had to manage what we could do. So our guys, whether they’re recruits or within our program, have to have an idea and understanding of that. I’m not saying it’s the easiest thing to sell, but it’s the truth. We’re not making excuses, but there is a reality to the things that we did and how we had to go about them. But we’ve got to fix that.
“That’s one of those things where I know seeing is believing, but there’s some blind faith in the things that some of these guys have to believe in.”
If they’re investing at quarterback, they have to invest at receiver too. The bigger question is whether the funds are actually there to do it at the level they need. We’re probably going to find that out pretty quickly.
Q: Which young players currently on the roster do you think could make a big leap if they’re retained and put in the right situations next season?
- Tom in Waunakee
