4 observations from 1st practice

But an onlooker at the team’s spring practice Friday might take the Badgers’ chippiness as a sign that they are in mid-training camp form. Coach Luke Fickell said the intensity of practice was by design, and something the coaching staff has tried to instill the past three months.

“We’re going to continue to do the things we need to do,” Fickell said, “but we’re going to create some more competitive situations, competitive spirit to make everybody a little bit on edge.”

The first of Wisconsin’s 15 spring practices was unpadded save for helmets and spider pads, which offer a bit of shoulder protection, but it was as physical as rules allowed. It was also the first time reporters got to see quarterback Tyler Van Dyke on the field with Badgers receivers since his transfer from Miami (Fla.) in December.

Wisconsin will take next week off for spring break before returning to the practice field on April 2. Here are four observations from the spring practice opener.

Fickell likes to remind folks to exercise caution when reading too deep into how spring practice reps are divided, but it was noteworthy when Braedyn Locke led the first-team offense on the field for 11-on-11 work. Van Dyke was believed to be the frontrunner for the job, but he will have to beat out Locke, who started three games for the Badgers last season due to an injury to Tanner Mordecai.

Van Dyke also took reps with the top offense in other four-play sets of full-team drills. Locke handled the pressure of competition in the quarterback group well this offseason, Fickell said, but splitting the QB1 reps is in part to ensure opportunities for young quarterbacks.

“Sometimes by letting those guys roll with the (No.) 1s that gives the Nicks (Evers) and the rest of the crew some opportunity to roll with the 2s as well. We’ve got a young freshman kid (Mabrey Mettauer) who’s here who needs to get reps and Nick Evers who has been here for another year who needs to get reps. So we’ve got to be able to throw those guys not just with the 3 crew, because there is a different look to what you’re doing.”

Locke showed the quick decision-making and release that helped him be the backup last season. His best pass of the day went over the middle on a crossing route, hitting Will Pauling in stride in a tight window so the receiver could turn up field. Van Dyke’s best throws were the ones he zipped to the far sideline, particularly one to his left to Bryson Green on an out cut. He showed good ball speed and accuracy on those throws, but wasn’t dialed in with his deep ball.

One potential concern for Van Dyke is the number of injuries he’s sustained in his college career. He looked fluid on rollouts and threw well on the move, but it seems to take him an extra beat to get moving off his spot in the pocket than the other quarterbacks.

It usually takes a few weeks of practices before tensions boil over into a intra-team scuffle, but the Badgers checked that box in the first hour of the first day.

The biggest dust-up began after offensive linemen Joe Brunner and Jack Nelson took exception to a hit on running back Nate White from freshman linebacker Anelu Lafaele during an inside run drill. Nelson and Brunner let Lafaele know their displeasure and he reacted with a shove of a facemask, setting off a chain reaction of shoving that enveloped a good portion of the offensive linemen and linebackers participating in the drill.

That led to couple of other heated moments in the plays that followed, including running back Zach Gloudeman and safety Owen Arnett getting into it and outside linebacker John Pius and right tackle Riley Mahlman shoving one another after a play.

Fickell believes what happened was a byproduct of a strong competitive fire amongst teammates.

“The attention to detail, the tempo, the speed of what it was we were looking for was there,” Fickell said. “The competitive spirit is what you always really, really want to see as much as anything. For no pads, the competitive spirit was very, very good. So I think that’s a great reflection on leadership. I think we’ve got a unique crew of guys that (are) taking this leadership to a different level. Really want to set the tone and the tempo of things.”

Badgers cornerback Ricardo Hallman is recovering from an offseason shoulder procedure, so he worked out on the sideline during Wisconsin’s practice. That allowed for sophomore Jonas Duclona to get substantial reps with the No. 1 defense and moved some other defensive backs around on the second unit. Toledo transfer RJ Delancy III played outside cornerback, splitting boundary corner reps with Nyzier Fourqurean.

The most notable move was seeing safety Braedyn Moore play both deep safety and in the nickel positions at times. Moore got nickel reps last spring as an early enrollee and the staff sees him as a malleable piece of the secondary puzzle. Safety Preston Zachman also was limited Friday, so Moore got more reps with the No. 2 defense than he had in the past.

Safety Austin Brown played nickel almost exclusively, something he did in the ReliaQuest Bowl when the Badgers were in a pinch following the departure of Jason Maitre.

Hallman’s return later this spring may cause another shuffle, but it’s clear the Badgers are trying to improve their depth on the back end after having a group of four cornerbacks take the lion’s share of snaps last season.

Wisconsin fans can breathe easy — Jake Renfro looked just fine snapping the ball and is on track to be the Badgers’ center this season. However, the players behind him were inconsistent at best with their snaps and the team must spend the offseason developing backups in case Renfro were to be injured.

Kerry Kodanko, a fifth-year senior walk-on from Green Bay, manned the center spot with the second offense and freshman Colin Cubberly was the third center up. Redshirt freshman James Durand was being trained as a center last season, but that may not be the plan under new offensive line coach AJ Blazek.

Kodanko has played mostly guard with the reserve O-line units during his career and Cubberly was a tackle in high school, so their inexperience at the spot coupled with first-day-of-spring-ball jitters likely contributed to their struggles.