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As he watched Monday’s NFL game between the Philadelphia Eagles and Dallas Cowboys, one player in particular caught UW wide receiver David Gilreath’s interest.

“Anyone watching Monday Night Football might have seen DeSean Jackson do his thing,” Gilreath said of the 5-foot-10-inch Eagles receiver.

Listed at just 5-foot-11-inches, it’s no wonder Gilreath was drawn to one of the smallest players on the field. Whenever the Badgers play, that title usually falls on him.

But he’s heard the whole size thing one too many times before. It’s old news.

“I never think about it at all,” Gilreath said of his small stature. “It’s still football, it’s still a game, and I really don’t think size matters that much. It’s playing ball.”

As UW entered the 2008 season, Gilreath had no choice but to stand tall — figuratively, of course.

While perhaps the biggest question mark on offense for the UW football team was at quarterback, the wide receiving corps was a very young unit. Wisconsin lost a pair of senior wideouts in Luke Swan and Paul Hubbard, creating a bit of uncertainty as to whom the new signal caller would be throwing the ball.

That’s where Gilreath came in.

Entering his sophomore campaign, Gilreath was named one of the starting receivers by head coach Bret Bielema in the spring. It seemed a natural move, since Gilreath had seen action in all 13 games in 2007, mostly on special teams.

“Whether I was named the starter in the spring, you’ve got to just go out there and work as hard as you can every day, use those practices,” Gilreath said. “I just took it as working hard whether I was named the starter or not, just try to keep going.”

Gilreath hasn’t grown complacent in his new starting role, however. With plenty of young receivers behind him fighting for time on the field, he knew he had his work cut out for him to stay as one of the team’s top wideouts.

“Even now, being named the starter I always feel like there’s someone behind me waiting for the opportunity, so I’ve got to just keep working hard,” Gilreath said.

Having to mesh with the team’s quarterbacks in the spring practices was never really much of an issue, Gilreath said, even though he didn’t know which one would be getting the ball to him come August.

“They brought them all here for a reason. They’re all pretty good quarterbacks,” Gilreath said. “It just happened that Allan fell in there, but he earned the spot.”

Gilreath made a name for himself as a freshman last year returning kicks for the Badgers while seeing limited action on offense. It would have been understandable if his return duties were lessened when he began to see regular time on offense, but Gilreath said there were never discussions of cutting down his time on special teams.

“We never talked about anything like that,” Gilreath said. “That’s why in the offseason I trained my body. [The] weight training guys, they did a great job in the offseason to help me maintain myself. It’s working so far.”

As far as the mental strain of having to focus on two responsibilities, Gilreath said he took his experiences as a freshman to better prepare himself for 2008.

“It’s just playing ball,” Gilreath said. “I think last year, that was a little harder being out there as a receiver and not knowing much, but just kind of running around like, ‘What am I doing?’ But out there in the return game, I’m just doing my thing.”

Three wins into the season, Gilreath admits there’s not much that really surprises him anymore, which may itself sound surprising coming from a young player who’s played in just 15 games to date. There has been one experience this year, however, which caught him a bit off guard.

“I kind of went through a lot of things freshman year, a lot of adversity last year. Nothing’s popped up except Fresno,” Gilreath said. “I didn’t think it was going to be that loud. We have 80,000 people, and with 40,000 [at Fresno], I was like, ‘It’s not going to be that loud.’ It was loud. It was fun though.”

Whether it was the element of surprise from the atmosphere at Bulldog Stadium or the Fresno State defense, Gilreath’s production was limited. He caught just one pass for 10 yards, something UW offensive coordinator Paul Chryst wants to fix.

“It’s a group that’s getting some snaps,” Chryst said of the young receiving corps. “I like the energy they’ve been playing with. They’re doing some good things. Unfortunately, we didn’t get to them as much as we could have and should have the other night.”

Even with the lone catch Saturday, Gilreath is still second on the team in receptions with six, trailing only tight end Garrett Graham. He has yet to find the end zone through three games, however.

But he won’t blame that on his size.

“I try to use my quickness as an advantage to get around the bigger guys,” Gilreath said. “I would rather have a [6-foot-3-inch] Nick Toon body or someone like that, but God blessed me with this and I’m cool with that.”