As Luke Fickell‘s second act in Madison draws closer, BadgerBlitz.com will break down Wisconsin’s roster position by position ahead of spring camp, which is slated to take place from March 22 to May 2.
BadgerBlitz.com is once again expected to watch any open practices available for reporters to attend. Thus, our position previews continue Sunday with the wide receivers, a group that needs to replace a significant amount of production.
PREVIEWS: QUARTERBACKS | RUNNING BACKS | TIGHT ENDS |
At the onset of the 2023 season, the Badgers’ receiver room appeared to be as stacked as it had ever been. That may still be true talent-wise, but Wisconsin’s wide receivers vastly underperformed along with the entire passing game last fall.
The brightest spot at the receiver position for the Badgers was Cincinnati transfer Will Pauling. He had a breakout season, reeling in 74 catches for 837 yards and six touchdowns. He was by far Wisconsin’s most-targeted pass-catcher â his 109 targets were 41 more than the next closest player.
Pauling, a slot receiver, won with his excellent hands, quick hips and shiftiness in the open field. He’s incredibly adept at getting open, and he understands how to manipulate a defensive back’s leverage to beat man coverage or find soft spots in zone. Phil Longo‘s offense loves slot receivers, and Pauling should be a heavy favorite to once again lead the Badgers in every receiving category. Despite his role as almost exclusively a slot threat, Pauling gives Wisconsin a legit top option at receiver.
The Badgers’ next-most productive receiver last season was also a transfer, Bryson Green. The former Oklahoma State Cowboy tallied 32 catches for 480 yards and two scores, and is set to run it back as a senior. Green is a strong, physical player but there’s no question he underperformed last season. With his physicality and stature, Green was supposed to be the Badgers’ jump-ball threat. But after reeling in just three contested catches in 15 tries, according to Pro Football Focus, Green has some work to do to return to the form that made him so attractive to Wisconsin in the portal.
The next two most productive players, Chimere Dike and Skyler Bell, hit the portal this offseason. That leaves plenty of snaps up for grabs, and there’s a litany of names who could potentially grab them.
The staff brought in Michigan State transfer Tyrell Henry via the portal this offseason. The receiver was third on the Spartans in catches with 24, and put up 195 yards and three touchdowns on the year. He lined up almost exclusively in the slot, and figures to compete with redshirt freshman Trech Kekahuna, who flashed some explosive potential in the ReliaQuest Bowl, for Bell’s slot snaps.
Vinny Anthony started to emerge late in the 2023 campaign, with nine catches for 84 yards over the final four games of the season. He’s got track-level speed and in his rather limited late-season reps he displayed good hands. His speed makes him the kind of player you draw up plays for, and it’ll be fascinating to see where he is in his development.
Where the Badgers need to find more production is on the perimeter. They appear loaded in the slot, with Pauling as a proven star, Henry as a transfer with experience and plenty of young talent with Kekahuna and true freshman Kyan Berry-Johnson. Wisconsin needs to find boundary receivers it can rely on.
Green will be given every shot to be that player. CJ Williams is uber talented, but hasn’t gotten much of a shot yet. That should change this fall. Quincy Burroughs, Tommy McIntosh and Chris Brooks Jr. all have good size to be perimeter threats as well. Outside receiver will be the position of emphasis in spring and fall camp.
Wisconsin’s Projected Wide Receivers on 2024 Spring Roster
*Indicates Walk-On
Departing Players at Position Group
It’s safe to assume Pauling is the starting slot receiver. It’s also safe to assume Green will open camp as a starting outside receiver. But who will take that third spot initially, and can they hold onto it?
The main candidates are Anthony and Williams. In fact, the third starting receiver spot will likely go to one of those two to open camp. With the way that Anthony began to heat up at the end of the season, and Williams’ production actually tapered off, Anthony would likely be the favorite in that department.
There’s some sleepers as well; not necessarily threats to immediately steal a starting spot on the outside, but players who could play their way into a starting role with a good camp, like Pauling did a season ago. Burroughs would likely headline that list. He’s got the size at 6-foot-3, and like Anthony, notched some catches late in the season.
Brooks (6-foot-2) and McIntosh (6-foot-5) are also candidates to challenge for playing time on the perimeter. Brooks in particular looked dynamic early last spring before sustaining a foot injury that cost him his entire season.
It’s likely now or never for Williams. When he transferred to Wisconsin, the ex-USC Trojan became the highest-rated wide receiver to ever sign with the Badgers. Thus, it’s fair to say that last season was a disappointment. His 15 catches for 148 yards were an afterthought in the Badgers’ receiver room.
In spring and fall camp last season, Williams displayed the talent that had him rated as highly as he was. He has great hands, contested-catch ability and an innate feel for the game. That didn’t translate to much success during the season, however. If Williams once again struggles to get consistent playing time in 2024, there’s little reason to think he would stick around and hope that the third time is the charm in Madison.
Potential Depth Chart at Wide Receiver
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Wisconsin coach Kelly Sheffield shares his biggest spring takeaway
Wisconsin coach Kelly Sheffield shared his biggest takeaway from the spring following the Badgers’ four-set win over Northern Illinois.
MADISON – Kelly Sheffield has coached All-Americans, national players of the year, national champions and future Olympians in his 13 years as Wisconsin volleyball coach.
So Sheffield’s unique praise of Decelise Champion – a star pin-hitter from Puerto Rico who committed to the Badgers last fall – carries a lot of weight.
“Her highest-end potential is certainly as high as about anybody we’ve ever brought in,” Sheffield said. “She’s got a lot of work to get to where she’s capable of, and that’s on us as coaches and on her to help reach those dreams and goals. But when you’re watching people around her age, she’s different.”
That work is beginning earlier than initially expected after Wisconsin announced that Champion will reclassify from the 2027 recruiting class and join the Badgers as a freshman for the 2026 season.
Champion – currently 16 years old and turning 17 in September – will arrive with a resume that includes experience on Puerto Rico’s senior national team and the elite Italian club Volleyro Casal de Pazzi. That’s all while being strong enough academically to earn a GED degree and the necessary NCAA waiver for a few missing core classes.
“What made it really a lot better is that all of her grades at the different schools she’s been at have been fantastic,” Sheffield said. “She’s an excellent student. Was crushing it at a really, really good academic school in Italy in her third language.”
The timing of the June 12 announcement accounted for the second-last open roster spot for the 2026 season, but Champion and UW’s efforts to make the reclassification possible go back much earlier than that.
“We’ve known she’s wanted to do this since February,” Sheffield said. “We told our team in February that was the plan. And then we didn’t let anybody know publicly until she was done with her season. She just didn’t want to be a distraction for her team.”
Wisconsin already had plenty of competition at the pin-hitting positions before Champion’s move to the 2026 class.
Grace Egan had a major role on the 2025 Final Four team, and Eva Travis had an impressive spring after transferring from UC-Santa Barbara. Others include Grace Lopez, Madison Quest and the highly-touted freshman duo of Halle Thompson and Audrey Flanagan.
Even with the upcoming addition of one more pin-hitter – and one with such a high potential – UW did not lose any players in the spring transfer portal cycle. Even the idea of someone leaving seemed outlandish to Sheffield.
“If they’re just going to get up and leave because somebody came, I would say that that person is probably chicken s—,” Sheffield said.
Sheffield’s praise of Champion’s proposal obviously does not come with a guarantee of playing time either at the crowded pin-hitting positions.
“I would say, yeah, she does have a chance of being out on the court for us this year,” Sheffield said. “But we’ve also got some other really talented people that play the pins.”
The outside and right-side hitters already on UW’s spring roster will have at least one key advantage over Champion in her freshman season – time.
Egan, Lopez and Quest are returning players (although Egan and Lopez spent their spring recovering from injuries). Travis, Thompson and Flanagan all enrolled in time to spend the spring with the Badgers and impressed in UW’s spring matches.
Champion’s arrival, on the other hand, will follow her participation in an Olympic-qualifying event for Puerto Rico. Sheffield expects that to be Sept. 2, which is the day before fall classes begin and already after UW’s first four matches of the season.
“She’ll be drinking out of a fire hose early on, no doubt about it,” Sheffield said. “Even though she’s been playing with her senior national team this summer, it will be a lot of things coming at her in her secondary language at 16, so there’ll need to be some patience along the way.”
His advice to Champion when she was on campus earlier in June was to “be where your feet are.”
“When she’s with her national team – even though we will have started our preseason, playing matches – don’t worry about us here,” Sheffield said. “Be where your feet are. Be the best you can be for your team there. … Then when you get here, you’re not thinking about your national team.”
Champion’s reclassification comes with the drawback of beginning her NCAA eligibility one year earlier in her volleyball career.
Had she stayed in the 2027 recruiting class, she theoretically would have begun her college career shortly before her 18th birthday and exhausted her eligibility at age 22. Instead, she will begin her college career shortly before her 17th birthday and likely exhaust her eligibility at age 21.
Those scenarios take into account the NCAA Division I Cabinet’s unanimous approval on June 23 of a new eligibility model that will give players five seasons of eligibility in five years. (That replaces the current system with four seasons, redshirts and other waivers.) The NCAA noted that its decision is not final, however, until the meeting concludes on June 24.
“We’re certainly excited to have her this year, but if you kind of think over the course of five years, it’s probably worse for us that she comes a year early,” Sheffield said. “You expect her to be better at 20 and 21 than what she is at 16 or 17. … It really wasn’t something that we were pushing for, but she was ready.”
Of course, volleyball at age 16 or 17 looks different for someone like Champion who has been competing against much older players as a senior national team member and studying halfway across the world from her hometown of Dorado, Puerto Rico.
“When you talk to her, she doesn’t come across as somebody who’s 16,” Sheffield said. “She’s very mature, very easy to talk to, very driven. She’s independent. … She’s had a lot more life experience than most people her age, and that certainly comes across when you’re around her.”
STEVENS POINT, Wis. (WSAW) – A giant spider isn’t actually invading central Wisconsin this weekend.
But an enhanced, big-screen version of the cult-classic 1975 film The Giant Spider Invasion is crawling back into local theaters — and it’s bringing some central Wisconsin nostalgia with it.
The movie was famously filmed in Merrill and Stevens Point, and the updated 2026 release adds enhancements designed for a modern theatrical experience.
Executive Producer J.B. Thompson says the team took the original 1975 film and enhanced it for the big screen in 2026, giving audiences a refreshed way to experience a movie that’s long been a Wisconsin oddity — and a point of pride.
Actor and Producer Dan Davies is featured in newly filmed scenes created specifically for this updated release.
While much of the film is associated with Merrill, Stevens Point Mayor Mike Wiza says Point also played a major role in the production — another reason the film’s return matters to local history buffs and movie fans alike.
Whether it’s the over-the-top creature feature story, the uniquely Wisconsin filming locations, or the nostalgia of seeing familiar places on screen, the group says the film’s staying power is real — even five decades later.
The enhanced version of The Giant Spider Invasion is set for local screenings this weekend in Central and North Central Wisconsin. To purchase tickets for showings in Stevens Point, Marshfield or Waupaca, click here.
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Copyright 2026 WSAW. All rights reserved.
A Wisconsin man has been arrested in Colorado in connection with a fatal north suburban hit-and-run earlier this year that left a 50-year-old woman killed.
According to the Winthrop Harbor Police Department, Travis Kern, 35, of Pleasant Prairie, turned himself into police in Lakewood Colorado on an arrest warrant. Kern was charged with two felonies, police said, and remains in custody in Colorado pending extradition proceedings.
About 11:10 p.m. on February 26, a pedestrian was struck in the 1400 block of Sheridan Road in Winthrop Harbor by a driver of a vehicle heading northbound. The vehicle then fled the scene, police said.
The pedestrian, later identified as Shanna White, 50, of Waukegan, was transported to a nearby hospital where she was pronounced dead.
According to court documents, Kern’s next scheduled court date is set for July 22.
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