Wisconsin came out of the first stretch of fall camp looking bigger, faster and more complete in a lot of places. The Badgers clearly spent the offseason trying to patch over the spots that were exposed during the 4-8 2025 season, especially at quarterback, cornerback and along the offensive line.
But even with that work, one spot still looks a little too fragile for comfort: center.
Offensive line coach Eric Mateos isn’t interested in hearing the usual hand-wringing about depth, and he made that much clear.
“The common theme in the offseason amongst every team in the country is o-line depth. All the fans complain about it, the writers write about it, it’s the same thing with everybody in the country," he said.
“All O-line coaches are grinding out to make number seven, number eight on the roster viable to go win football games.
That’s fair enough in the abstract. Every line has to survive injuries somehow. But Wisconsin’s center room is still the one place where the concern feels real.
Austin Kawecki gives the Badgers a legitimate answer at the starting spot. The fifth-year center arrives with the look of a dependable upgrade after a full season starting at Oklahoma State, and he fits the plug-and-play veteran mold Wisconsin needed.
Behind him, though, the margin gets thin fast.
Ryan Cory is the backup, and his story is still very much a work in progress. The third-year player got his chance at center last fall, even starting against Maryland, but that outing went badly and he was quickly pulled after the Terps hammered Wisconsin at home. He finished the season with only 100 offensive snaps and never got another crack.
There is still reason to think he can grow into the role. He’s entering his third year of college football, and Mateos says the improvement is showing.
“Ryan Cory is playing so much better than he’s ever played. His football IQ and his execution has really risen," Mateos said.
Even so, the same issue kept popping up during the three fall camp practices observed: snapping. The ball wasn’t sailing over anyone’s head like it did against Maryland, but the deliveries were still inconsistent, with some coming high and others low. Those little misses can turn into live bullets for a defense, especially in an offense that leans on motion and shifts the way Jeff Grimes’ unit does.
So Wisconsin has already tried to fix the mechanics.
“We changed his grip because he was flicking his wrist too much," Mateos said. "If you can throw a football, you can usually snap a football, and Ryan is not a very good thrower of the football. We changed the grip, and it allows him to stay in a more locked, vertical position with his wrist attached to his ulna bone, attached to his elbow and allow it to be more of a swing than a snap."
"That’s the purpose of changing the grip. It’s not perfect, but it’s certainly a lot better than where it was in the spring.”
Cory’s work has moved the needle some, and Mateos isn’t just talking him up for the sake of it. But the operation still doesn’t look fully settled, and that matters when the backup center has to be trusted in real game action.
Kawecki, for his part, likes what he’s seeing from the player behind him.
“Me and him have gotten a lot closer, just playing center. He’s worked his tail off, I think he’s been great.
He knows the offense, he wants to get better every day. He’s not getting complacent at all.
He’s keeping his head down," he said.
That’s the hope for Wisconsin: keep Cory developing, keep the snaps clean, and avoid ever having to lean on him before he’s ready. Because if Kawecki goes down, the Badgers could find themselves in a tough spot unless that center problem gets solved for good.
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Wisconsin Has A Fall Camp Battle Fans Should Feel Good About
Wisconsins fall camp has moved past its halfway point, and one of the more encouraging developments has been the battle at field cornerback between Jaimier Scott and Eric Fletcher. The two have been working almost neck and neck in practice, which has given the Badgers something they can usually never have enough of in August: a real position fight that looks like it is bringing out the best in both players.
Luke Fickell has made it clear the job is still open, and the expectation is that both Scott and Fletcher will have roles once the season starts. For Wisconsin, that kind of depth in the cornerback room matters almost as much as the winner of the competition itself, because it suggests the group has enough talent to keep pushing through camp instead of settling for a default answer. [Read more 🡒]