When Lee Evans returns to the field this fall, Wisconsin’s football team will feature two of the top nine players in the country, according to Mel Kiper, Jr., an ESPN college football analyst and NFL draft expert.

Kiper’s list, released July 26 in preview of the upcoming season, also included UW sophomore tailback Anthony Davis among the nation’s best 30 players. The list was not meant to catalogue potential as a professional, Kiper said. Rather, it included “the top 30 college football players heading into the 2002 season is based strictly on how they’ve performed in college.”

Evans was ranked sixth, two slots behind Michigan State receiver Charles Rogers, who was the top player at their position. Kiper did not place the 6-foot-4 junior ahead of 5-foot-11 Evans in December, but the Badgers standout has since had reconstructive knee surgery.

Kiper did not say whether questions about Evans’ ACL pushed him down the list, but he mentioned the spring injury in a brief. Davis was called another in “the line of excellent Badger backs,” and Kiper named the NFL’s Ron Dayne and Michael Bennett.

At No. 9, Davis was the third Big Ten player on the list, ahead 13th-ranked safety Mike Doss of Ohio State. Marshall quarterback Byron Leftwich was Kiper’s No. 1 overall, followed by Florida junior Rex Grossman. Dewayne White, a defensive end from Louisville, came in third.

Evans caught 75 passes for 1,545 yards last year, a Big Ten record. Davis set a freshman record with 1,466 rushing yards, fifth in the nation.

Another Badger received national recognition last week when Andy Katz named Wisconsin basketball shooting guard Kirk Penney as one of his 50 submissions to the Wooden Award “Watch List.” Penney, who averaged 15.1 points a game for the Big Ten champions last season, made the official list too.