Ask most Wisconsin football fans for their thoughts on last year’s offense, and all but the most cynical will tell you they were pleasantly surprised. Scott Tolzien emerged from spring competition to lead the Badgers to their third-highest passing yardage total in school history, and UW boosted its total yardage average upwards of 400 yards per game.
Next, ask David Gilreath for the same, and note the difference.
“It was mediocre, I’ll say,” Gilreath contested. “That’s just going off of the film we watched and how great we can be. So I think we were average, at best, last year.”
This year, Gilreath expects the Badgers to score even more through the air — 22 times more, to be exact.
“We looked at film, and all the passes we think could have been touchdowns, we could have easily had 38 touchdowns,” Gilreath said. “I know that sounds kind of outrageous, but we could have had 38 touchdowns in the red zone, whether it was drops, or someone being deked out on a route; it might have been overthrown, but someone being deked out on a route, that’s the thing that we got to work on, we can improve, we can do a lot better.”
For Wisconsin, improving on the offensive end this season will prove more daunting than usual, as starting tight end Garrett Graham has graduated and moved on to brighter pastures as a NFL prospect. The 6-foot-3, 243 lb. Brick, NJ native was the Badgers’ second-leading receiver with 624 yards, but proved his worth in the red zone by hauling in a team-high seven touchdown receptions.
Despite the void Graham leaves in Wisconsin’s offense, head coach Bret Bielema’s squad returns the rest of its skill players. Fifth-year senior Lance Kendricks will take reign of the tight end position, having enjoyed a breakout season last year behind Graham. The 6-foot-4, 239 lb. Kendricks is nearly as big as Graham, but possesses even greater athletic potential, lending credence to the magnified expectations the Badger offense is facing heading into this season.
“Garrett brought a lot to the table,” Kendricks said. “I think leadership, definitely. Garrett and Mickey [Turner], they were both definitely leaders. I remember the Iowa game, when Garrett went down, it was hard to play without him because I was so used to him being there. Definitely leadership.”
Although Kendricks was well known among Badger fans as the athletic complement to Graham, the Milwaukee native gained national prominence with his performance in Wisconsin’s Champs Sports Bowl upset of Miami.
Having been embarrassed the previous year by Florida State in the very same bowl by a score of 42-13, the Badgers were carried by Kendricks’ career-high seven receptions and 128 yards receiving en route to a 20-14 victory. Clearly, the big game performance has paid big dividends for Wisconsin’s new starting tight end.
“Definitely good,” Kendricks said of his confidence level heading into the season. “I’m more comfortable out there on the field, especially on third downs I notice. I’m out there and making more plays than I was before and that’s always good.”
Kendricks will get much of the attention as Wisconsin attempts to stay atop the Big Ten in scoring offense and total yardage, but the Badger wideouts will be just as, if not more, crucial. The familiar quartet of Gilreath, Nick Toon, Isaac Anderson and Kyle Jefferson returns for UW, and each has a solid year with Tolzien under their belt. As a redshirt junior, Toon is the youngest of the four, a solid testament to the experience of the Badgers’ receiving corps.
“Just details, we’re just working on details,” Jefferson said. “I mean, we know all the plays, we know the different positions, it’s just the detail of the route against different coverages and that’s the basic, main focus of what we’ll be doing for the whole spring; just working on the little details, the little things, the breaking point of a route, ways you should sit in the hole, your man-to-man breaks and different things like that.”
Not having to worry about their confidence or familiarity with offensive coordinator Paul Chryst’s system, Wisconsin’s receivers have made “detail” the buzzword of their preseason preparations. Echoing Jefferson’s emphasis on fine-tuning, Gilreath displayed no hesitation in pointing out some of his own mistakes, such as executing corner routes too flat or high and misreading certain defensive schemes.
As a result of their detail-oriented attitude, the Badgers have enjoyed a focused spring that will surely pay dividends later on in the regular season.
“[We’re] looking really good,” Jefferson said. “We moved people around, we did different things and obviously [last year] we did some great things. We’re still learning as a group, but from my opinion, this is probably the best spring that I’ve seen since I’ve been here as a receiver, as an offensive player because we’re all complete.”
