Wisconsin's flexing wide receiver depth in Air Raid offense: 'What more can you ask for?' (2024)

MADISON, Wis. — Wisconsin wide receiver CJ Williams listened to the interview his position coach, Mike Brown, gave to reporters before spring practices began about hoping he could find six players to rotate in games and raised his eyebrows.

Six might sound like a lot for a Wisconsin program that hasn’t traditionally utilized more than three in a meaningful way. But that wasn’t why Williams reacted the way he did. Based on what Williams had seen during offseason workouts, it felt to him as though Brown actually was underselling what the group had to offer.

“I was like, ‘We’ve got eight or 10 guys that can get out here and play football at a high level, in my opinion,’” said Williams, who transferred from USC to Wisconsin in January. “I played with a lot of very good receivers. I’ve trained with a lot of very good receivers. And these guys are up there with those names. … I think we may need to change that whole six receiver statement. It may need to be like eight or 10 because we’ve got guys that can roll through for sure.”

While it’s unlikely Wisconsin will regularly utilize more than six receivers in a game, it says a lot about how far the Badgers have come that so many players are capable of contributing based on what they demonstrated this spring. It is not a stretch to say this is the deepest and most talented wide receiver room Wisconsin has ever had.

The caveat is that the Badgers have never run the up-tempo Air Raid offense and demanded so much in the passing game from their receivers — or given them as many opportunities to showcase their skills. Still, Wisconsin’s coaches exited the spring with five wide receivers they consider to be starters and five who are not far off from finding a role in the near future.

“I feel like that’s one of the things that people don’t understand about Wisconsin,” Cincinnati transfer receiver Will Pauling said. “We have so much. The receivers are really good. Even before I got here, everybody was telling me the guys are talented. They just maybe haven’t had the opportunities of other schools.

“But I feel like the receivers we have, if we go six deep, seven deep, eight deep, however many it is, it’s going to be good. Because you see how fast we move. Guys are going to need breathers. Guys are going to have to rotate. If you’ve got depth in that room, it’s going to help us out a lot.”

Outside of quarterback, where Wisconsin added three transfers to a group that now features five scholarship players, no position required bolstering depth more than wide receiver. Wisconsin signed four transfers out of the portal: Williams, Pauling, Oklahoma State’s Bryson Green and Cincinnati’s Quincy Burroughs. The Badgers also inked speedy Trech Kekahuna in their 2023 recruiting class with the expectation of carrying 12 scholarship receivers this season Wisconsin had nine last season in its pro-style offense.

And while the transfers, particularly Williams and Pauling, earned their share of praise during the spring, it’s the way the group has blended its talents, which includes three returning starters, that has coaches excited. Wisconsin’s top three wideouts from last season — Chimere Dike, Keontez Lewis and Skyler Bell — continued to perform well in a new offense and will be focal points in the passing game. Even Wisconsin coach Luke Fickell acknowledged that “there’s a lot more skill maybe than anybody knew” because the new staff couldn’t see it until those three players were utilized in more space.

When spring ended, Williams and Dike worked on the outside with Pauling in the slot. Lewis rotated with the first-team group on the outside, while Bell took reps in the slot. The expectation among Wisconsin’s offensive coaches next season is that the top five, which separated themselves this spring, will rotate fairly equally throughout a game and that any of them are capable of producing a 100-yard receiving day.

“We felt like we could do way more than we did last year,” Lewis said. “So when we heard about the Air Raid, we automatically thought like, ‘Yeah, people are going to be able to see what we can really do, our real talent.’ We flashed it a little bit last year, but now they can really see it.”

Dike was the team’s No. 1 receiver last season when he caught 47 passes for 689 yards and six touchdowns. His leadership, route running and pass-catching skills stood out to coaches this spring. Lewis and Bell were highly productive during spring practices, even as Bell learned to play in the slot after lining up primarily outside last season. The fact Williams and Pauling ascended merely highlights the unprecedented talent and competition for snaps at Wisconsin.

“We go out here and compete every day,” Bell said. “That’s the culture, that’s part of the program. If you don’t like that, then this ain’t the place for you.”

Green remains a wild card because he did not participate in live reps this spring while recovering from shoulder surgery. But what he has accomplished in his college career indicates that, when healthy, he should be among the top six. Green ranked second at Oklahoma State last season in receptions (36) and receiving yards (584) and first in touchdown catches (five).

Wisconsin’s staff equates what it has with two left wideouts, two slots and two right wideouts to utilizing hockey shifts and plugging in three new players into the rotation on a given snap or series. The idea is that the Badgers should be able to rotate six receivers without fear of any performance drop-off.

“There’s a lot of guys and a lot of balls to be spread around,” Brown said. “A lot of it will be dictated off of what the defense is giving us, too. So you like to think that we’ll be able to integrate everybody. That’s the hope. That’s always the hope going in. Time will tell.”

Four other young wide receivers showcased their abilities during stretches of the spring, giving Brown even more options to evaluate. Sophomore Vinny Anthony, a Kentucky state track champion in the 300-meter hurdles as a high school senior, can play in the slot or on the outside and caught a 75-yard touchdown pass during a practice in which he outran a pair of defensive backs. Redshirt freshman Chris Brooks Jr. had two fantastic catches down the sideline during the first week of spring practices before he suffered a left leg injury.

Burroughs, a redshirt freshman, established himself as a deep ball threat while earning snaps with the second- and third-team offense. And redshirt freshman Tommy McIntosh, whose 6-foot-5 frame makes him the tallest receiver on the team, consistently used his length to defeat smaller defensive backs during an impressive string of practices to close the spring.

This is a drastic departure from what Wisconsin has done in the past. Last season, Dike was targeted a team-high 75 times, followed by Bell with 54 targets and Lewis with 45 targets. Those three players combined to catch 97 passes for 1,446 yards and 14 touchdowns. The next-highest targeted receiver was Dean Engram with 17, followed by Markus Allen with 14. There wasn’t even a sixth wide receiver who earned a target.

The sheer volume of skill next season is expected to give first-year Wisconsin offensive coordinator Phil Longo an opportunity to utilize 10 personnel — four wide receivers and one running back —more than he has in the past and certainly far more than what the Badgers have shown in previous seasons. That could mean Bell and Pauling lined up together as slot receivers on each side or any number of potential combinations.

According to Pro Football Focus, Longo’s North Carolina offenses from 2019-22 played in 10 personnel for a total of 63 snaps, or just 1.7 percent of its plays. During the same timeframe, Wisconsin played in 10 personnel for a total of 20 snaps, or 0.6 percent of its plays. But the primary package will be 11 personnel — three wide receivers, one tight end, one running back — which the Tar Heels used on 85.7 percent of their snaps over the past four seasons (the third-highest rate in the FBS). The Badgers, meanwhile, used 11 personnel on 40 percent of their snaps, which ranked 112th nationally.

Times are changing at Wisconsin. And for the Badgers’ receivers, that means depth, talent and excitement like they haven’t seen before.

“In the Air Raid, you’re going to have way more opportunities,” Lewis said. “What more can you ask for?”

(Top photo of Skyler Bell: Mark Hoffman / USA Today)

Jesse Temple is a staff writer for The Athletic covering the Wisconsin Badgers. He has covered the Badgers beat since 2011 and previously worked for FOX Sports Wisconsin, ESPN.com and Land of 10. Follow Jesse on Twitter @jessetemple