College football depth charts can be slippery things, but Wisconsin has usually made life a little easier than most.
Under Luke Fickell, the Badgers have tended to put out a weekly two-deep that at least gives you a real sense of who’s starting, who’s backing them up, and where the questions still live. It’s not always a perfect map of the rotation, but it’s usually close enough to tell the story.
With Week 1 around the corner and Notre Dame week set to bring the official release, there are still a few spots where Wisconsin could surprise. Here are three that stand out.
At quarterback, the backup job behind Colton Joseph still feels like a true coin flip. Offensive coordinator Jeff Grimes used one word to describe the battle between true freshman Ryan Hopkins and Louisville transfer Deuce Adams the last time he spoke to the media: "ongoing."
Hopkins had the better spring and looked like he had the edge entering fall camp, but Adams answered in August and pushed the competition right back to level. The staff clearly expects a decision to get made at some point.
“It will be decided," quarterbacks coach Kenny Guiton said during fall camp. "I promise you we'll have enough film to know exactly which direction we wanna go.”
If Wisconsin wants to keep that answer quiet, or if Hopkins and Adams are still dead even, the depth chart could easily show an "OR" next to QB2.
One defensive name that could pop up in a bigger way is Nolan Vils. He wasn’t in the final two-deep projection, but he’s made a strong case to be more than just a depth piece.
The walk-on has climbed into legitimate rotational territory on the defensive front, spending plenty of time with the twos and even some with the starters during fall camp. He’s also been one of the more interesting stories up front.
“Big Red," as teammates call him, is listed at just over 300 pounds, and he’s shown enough disruption to matter. He’s worked into the backfield, gotten his hands in passing lanes, and generally played like someone trying to force the staff’s hand.
“Nolan Vils has really worked his ass off," defensive line coach EJ Whitlow said. "Coming from a guy that was a walk-on, he’s really put in the time.
He’s changed his body. He’s got himself over 300 pounds.
He’s worked in the offseason as far as increasing his foot speed. But he plays the game the right way, too.
He plays with a nastiness, he plays with an edge to him, which at the end of the day, that’s what it takes inside.”
That makes an "OR" spot on the two-deep feel very possible, with Vils potentially sharing a role with Dillan Johnson behind a top three of Hammond Russell IV, Charles Perkins and Junior Poyser.
The tight end room might be the place where the final depth chart feels most unsettled. Wisconsin used four tight ends on its two-deep last season, with "OR" designations at both starter and backup, and that setup could show up again.
There’s a clear reason for that. Jeff Grimes’ offense leans heavily on 12 and even 13 personnel, and the room hasn’t really separated itself from top to bottom.
Jacob Harris, Grant Stec and Ryan Schwendeman look like safe bets to be on the two-deep again. That leaves Emmett Bork and Jack Davis fighting for the last spot, and Davis made a stronger impression this fall in the practices I watched at Camp Randall.
Bork is the bigger, more imposing body, but Davis was the more physical blocker and flashed a pair of eye-catching pancake blocks. Fickell also pointed to the growth he’s seen.
“There’s a physicality and a toughness that quite honestly I don’t know that I had seen. Everybody’s on a toughness battle or journey, and when you walk in the door the whole objective is you have to grow in it. And he has grown," Fickell said.
With that, Wisconsin’s Week 1 depth chart may not be locked down in every spot just yet, and those are three places where the release could still catch people off guard.
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