MADISON – The third practice of Wisconsin Football’s spring practice featured shoulder pads for the first time. It also saw the first small skirmish between teammates after a play where transfer wide receiver C.J. Williams felt play went too far beyond the whistle.
Skirmishes happen in training camps every year with almost every team, and like most, this one was quashed in short order. But the pace of coach Luke Fickell’s workouts has not slowed.
“I thought they did a good job, another challenge in a lot of ways,” Fickell told reporters after the workout. “Mentally their emotional toughness is a big deal. We’ve got to be able to handle the situations and things. The competitive nature of what we’re doing, hopefully you got to see that today.”
Some observations of Thursday’s workouts include the feeling that Tanner Mordecai continues to put distance between himself and the rest of the team’s young quarterbacks. That figures to reason, as Mordecai has two years as a college football starting quarterback and the rest of the room features youngsters that will battle it out to be the Badgers’ No. 2.
Audible ooohs and ahhhs were heard in the cordoned off media area when one of those potential No. 2’s, Braeydon Locke found freshman wide receiver Chris Brooks for a contested 25-yard touchdown.
Some other Day 3 highlights included Boston College transfer cornerback Jason Maitre, a speedy defensive back with (5-10, 188) that hits like a safety, as well as fellow defensive back Preston Zachman’s interception and pass breakup on what otherwise would have been a scoring strike from Locke to Riley Nowakowski.
Running back Braelon Allen was limited in his work after an awkward collision during a drill on Tuesday. He was able to participate in stretch, but was held out of the bulk of the workout.