The University of Wisconsin football program has been made famous for its history of gifted rushers, highlighted by Heisman winners Alan Ameche and Ron Dayne, and also featuring recent players such as Anthony Davis and Brian Calhoun.
Coming into this year's football season, the single biggest question, however, is who will be the next Badger to start at running back.
The running back race has been wide open all throughout the spring workouts, and no one rusher has particularly distanced himself from the rest of the pack.
There are currently five players who could all be "the" guy in the fall, and none of those candidates boast extensive experience at the collegiate level.
The Badgers also have a brand new running back coach in John Settle, who had coached six Fresno State running backs to 1,000-yard seasons and was hired by head coach Bret Bielema earlier this year.
"They better be [ready]," Settle said with a chuckle. "I go with the philosophy that you're a Division I football player, and … you wouldn't have been recruited here if you weren't good enough to play."
With recently departed talent Calhoun out of the mix, senior Dywon Rowan and junior Jamil Walker have been waiting in the wings after gaining their first varsity letters in the fall of 2005. However, redshirt freshmen Jerry Butler, Dion Foster, and P.J. Hill have all pushed their way into the mix, complicating the situation further.
"We're trying to see who's going to fit in," fullback Chris Pressley said. "There's a lot of competition right now."
Settle has also noticed the amount of competition during the spring and says it is just what he wants to see.
"It's been real competitive, I kind of like competition," Settle said. "I believe that whoever rises to the top is going to be very good because he's going to have to beat out a lot of guys in trying to be the number one guy … so I'm excited."
"That running back's position has been wide open," Foster said. "We compete against each other every day and get better day by day trying to push each other to get better, [so] we're going to see who's going to be the starter."
Much more competition will be in store for the handful of potential starting running backs this spring, but there is a possibility that more than one runner will be carrying the load for the Badgers in the fall. Since there are so many qualified running backs, a scenario similar to that of the Reggie Bush/Lendale White tandem at the University of Southern California has been talked about by coaches and could be utilized by the Badger backfield.
"I've been in places where that's been the case," Settle said. "I've only had one requirement, whoever is the best guy is going to play. If it comes down to thunder-lightning situation, inside-outside, no matter who those guys are, it's going to be the best guy."
Hill, who appears to be the current frontrunner as the thunder part of that equation — making the next bruiser after Ameche, Dayne, and Davis — said he would welcome being part of such a tandem, because it would mean more playing time for him.
"I'm trying to just do whatever I can to contribute and to win, we're all there trying to win, so whatever I can do to help, I feel comfortable doing," Hill said.
Whether it is a thunder/lighting combination like USC, or if it is a more standard running game with a No. 1 running back — as the Badgers have had the last few years with Davis and Calhoun — the running game is expected to produce like it always has.
"I expect us to pick up where we left off," Settle said. "I think we have enough guys here that are talented enough to contribute to the offense, I don't think we have to try and win ball games in the running game, but we've got to be able to contribute."
Pressley, who is expected to be the starting fullback and main blocker for whoever wins the starting tailback spot, thinks that the running back race might help the running game rather than hurt it because each runner has to one-up the others.
"If you've got somebody on your tail, you're going to try to bring your game," Pressley said. "So I think someone's going to step up to the plate … they already know that people are wondering what's going on at running back, so they don't want to disappoint anybody, I'm pretty sure."