[media-credit name=’RAY PFEIFFER/Herald photo’ align=’alignnone’ width=’648′][/media-credit]The future is now for the Wisconsin receiving corps.
Right now, there are three up-and-coming freshman receivers beginning to get in the swing of things. Isaac Anderson, Niles Brinkley and Xavier Harris, all of whom are first-year wide receivers for the Badgers, have recently had their seasons pick up a little bit.
Anderson has seen the most action so far this season with three catches for 41 yards, whereas Harris came up with his first catch last weekend against Michigan. While Brinkley is taking a redshirt this year, he said he is fine with having a year to learn the system better.
All being true freshmen under longtime UW wide receivers coach Henry Mason, they've had an eye-opening experience, having to quickly learn a new offense and readily put it to use.
"Just adjusting to the speed of the game, being able to take in all that knowledge at once," St. Louis native Brinkley said when asked about the hardest part of the transition from high school to college football.
"Everything has to be right on target," said Harris, who comes to Madison all the way from Ft. Lauderdale, Fla. "For example, route-running; if it's 15 yards, it has to be 15 yards, whereas in high school you could run it out to be like 16-17 yards, but here it would just mess up the whole play."
Anderson agrees with fellow teammate Brinkley in that the hardest part is adjusting to the mental part of the game.
"Physically, I believe I can handle myself out there, but mentally just being able to get the playbook and reading the defense is difficult," Anderson said. "There are a lot of mental things about the game at this level."
Having a few older receivers to look up to has helped the entire core and has brought the younger players up to speed. The young wideouts have found junior starters Paul Hubbard and Luke Swan to be especially helpful.
"The older receivers are real helpful," Brinkley said of his elder colleagues. "Anything we ask, they are there to help us; it's never a problem. They want us to get better, to get them better and do what we can do to help the team win."
"When I'm down and messing up they try to keep encouraging me, and they just tell me what the best way is to correct it," Harris added.
Anderson's contributions have not been limited to the passing game. The Minneapolis native has been used on reverses as UW coaches try to find more ways to utilize his athleticism.
Anderson has also found the experience of learning from Hubbard and Swan to be helpful, just like Brinkley and Harris.
"Since the beginning of the summer, we've learned a lot from those guys, they kind of took me under their wing," Anderson said. "We've grown as a receiving core together, and we're all in this together."
As the season reaches the last game of September and ventures into October, the young receivers believe they will begin to play a greater role in the passing game.
"If my role is to block, then I'll block; if my role is to catch touchdowns, I'll catch touchdowns. Whatever my role is in the game plan, that's what I plan on doing," said Harris, who while only having one catch thus far this season has been on the field more often than any of the other freshman receivers.
"I believe we're finally getting our passing game down," Anderson said. "Our passing game will start to click a lot more."
Going into this week's game against the Indiana Hoosiers, the freshmen feel confident in their ability to make an impact on the game.
"This game should be a real good game for our receivers; we can do a lot of things offensively this game," Anderson said. "I think we'll be throwing the ball a lot more. It should be a good game for the receivers and everybody should get a lot of catches this game."
"We just need to keep working hard this week and prepare well," Harris said. "Indiana is a good team. We just need to work hard so we can have a good away game this week."
So far, the young Badgers have really enjoyed being part of a program rich in tradition, and hope to continue it in the years to come.
"It's been nice; I'm getting stronger, quicker and faster," Brinkley said. "It's a good program that develops good athletes."
"It's been pretty good; I don't have too many complaints," Harris added. "Since I've been here, I've learned a lot, especially from Coach Mason. Luke Swan, I've also learned a lot from him, and so being here is just great."
"The experience is good, I've been wanting to go here since junior year [high school]," Anderson said. "The experience is all that I hoped for; it's been a good deal."