Michigan State does not try to hide the secret of their offensive success. The Spartans have big, talented skill position players — the sort of players Barry Alvarez said Monday that Wisconsin needs to get to be successful in the Big Ten.

MSU’s wideout tandem of Charles Rogers and Herb Haygood proved too much for the Badgers’ undersized defenders to handle, piling up 259 receiving yards against UW cornerbacks Mike Echols and Scott Starks.

When asked if he was going to reevaluate the sort of player he would try to recruit to combat a recent insurgence of bigger, faster offensive threats in the conference, the 54-year-old Badger coach declined to single out the cornerbacks.

“We’re taking a look at everything,” Alvarez said.

Alvarez meant that the problems in the secondary were not specific to the cover men.

He pointed out that the Badgers were lacking a true safety, meaning UW is limited in the schemes it can run defensively.

Currently, Wisconsin lacks a safety suited to a wide range of responsibilities. A free safety needs to be able to support the run but also be adept at covering the deep third of the field in passing situations. With the personnel UW features now, Starks and Echols have been left with much of the deep-third responsibility.

Picture left and right fielders in baseball trying to display enough range to cover centerfield as well.

According to Alvarez, the problem stems from a recruiting philosophy designed to maximize the talent at cornerback.

“At one point we thought we shouldn’t recruit safeties,” Alvarez said. “We thought we’d just recruit cornerbacks and move a corner back to safety, because good corners are hard to find.

“We have to rethink that and really have to rethink size in general with the size of the receivers now. I think we have to take a good long look at that in recruiting.”

Size is certainly an issue for the Badger defensive backs: the starting four average 176.7 pounds and the tallest, free safety Joey Boese, is 5-foot-11.

Wisconsin has long gotten by with undersized DBs like 5-foot-11 Jamar Fletcher and 6-0 Jason Doering, each of whom is now in the NFL. But as the Big Ten becomes more pass-oriented, bigger and more athletic receivers like Rogers and Michigan’s Marquise Walker are entering the league, and a need for larger defenders has increased.

Alvarez said the trend has always been toward bigger players, and its something teams have been dealing with for years.

“You’re always evaluating and making those decisions,” he said.

“I remember a few years ago, probably the first year Penn State came into the league, we beat them up so bad physically they changed their whole recruiting philosophy to play in the Big Ten.”

To stay competitive, teams are forced to keep up, so the super-sizing of players goes on.

“Instead of having 250-pound defensive linemen [PSU] felt they had to go get bigger ones — felt they needed bigger offensive linemen to hold up in the league, to play week in and week out and not get beat up,” Alvarez said.

“So that’s something that we had to take a look at, and I would definitely prefer bigger ones. Bigger is always better, as long as they can run just as fast.”