• Wisconsin has added graduate transfer Austin Kawecki from Oklahoma State to play center.
• Coaches believe Kawecki’s intelligence and experience are crucial for leading the offensive line.
• The new center aims to help restore Wisconsin’s culture of being a tough, run-focused team.

MADISON – Wisconsin needed to sign Austin Kawecki.

“The most important thing we did was get him,” Badgers offensive line coach Eric Mateos said.

While UW fans might feel quarterback Colton Joseph or running back Abu Sama were at the top of the team’s needs from the transfer portal, there is no disputing that adding someone like Kawecki was a high priority, too.

The Badgers had a core of redshirt sophomores to build its 2026 line around but needed a veteran presence in the middle. UW puts a lot on the plate of its centers, and in Kawecki, the Badgers believed they had someone who could handle the role despite being new to the team.

It’s hard to argue with the results so far. The 6-foot-4, 310-pound graduate student from Oklahoma State has been a fixture with the No. 1 unit and is providing the impact that was expected of him.

“Highly intelligent,” offensive coordinator Jeff Grimes said. “In any offense, but in particular one like ours, I think we ask as much of the center position as anybody does in terms of making calls, checking protections and getting a lot of people on the same page.

“And then just from a physical standpoint he’s really strong. He’s quick. He’s athletic enough that he can pull, so I think he’s one of those guys that can kind of do everything that you’d like for somebody to do at that spot.”

Kawecki is providing stability as UW deals with injuries

Kawecki’s presence has been especially important during fall camp.

Right guard Emerson Mandell (foot) and right tackle Kevin Heywood (right leg) are out with uncertain timelines for a return. To compensate, the Badgers have shuffled their units. Tackle Lucas Simmons-Johansson has moved into Heywood’s spot. Blake Cherry and Stylz Blackmon are filling in for Mandell.

In each case, there is a transition to manage. Simmons-Johansson hasn’t played before on the right side. The limited experience Cherry gained at Arkansas last season was on the left side of the line at guard and tackle. Blackmon played mostly on the left side at the college level and is making the jump from Division II.

The relationship Mateos has with his center is akin to what an offensive coordinator has with the quarterback. Mateos believes that connection allows for a streamlining of communication that can help less experienced players.

“For example, if Blake Cherry or Kevin Heywood don’t quite understand something that I’m saying, it doesn’t mean that they’re dumb, it just means maybe it hasn’t come up in their careers before,” Mateos explained. “(If) I have a veteran center who’s been in a lot of wars and is smart, I can maybe just tell him, and I don’t have to tell everybody else, and then I don’t have other guys thinking about too many things.”

Kawecki, who was recruited by Grimes and Mateos when the two were at Baylor, comes to the Badgers after they experienced a revolving door at the position due to injuries and ineffective play.

UW started four players at the position in 2025. Jake Renfro, the 2024 starter, was limited to four games due to injury before having season-ending surgery after the eighth game. The Badgers never found anyone to fill his shoes, shuffling through Davis Heinzen (six starts), Kerry Kodanko (one) and redshirt freshman Ryan Cory (one).

The hope is that Kawecki is a fixture in the lineup and that there is another level to his game that can be brought out by experience. Last season was his first getting significant playing time. He started the season at right guard before playing center in Oklahoma State’s final 11 games.

EAU CLAIRE, Wis. (WEAU) – Republican candidate for Wisconsin Attorney General Eric Toney made a campaign stop in Eau Claire on Saturday, pitching a platform centered on boosting public safety and addressing delays in the state’s crime laboratories.

Toney, who serves as the Fond du Lac County District Attorney, is launching a rematch against incumbent Democratic Attorney General Josh Kaul. The visit comes as Toney completed a tour of all 72 Wisconsin counties, promoting a message of “putting public safety over politics.”

“I reached across the aisle working with the Democrat governor and a Republican legislature to get significant public safety resources that have helped all of Wisconsin,” Toney said during his stop at the Republican Party of Eau Claire County office, where he met with local volunteers. “And that’s the kind of leadership that we need at our Department of Justice—of someone that knows how to use the resources, has traveled around the state, heard from our law enforcement and our communities.”

Focus on State Crime Labs

If elected, Toney said his immediate priority will be reducing delays in the state’s forensic laboratories, which he argues have slowed down under Kaul’s leadership.

“The first thing we’re going to start to do is fix the crime labs and make sure that we are testing the forensic evidence that’s needed, that we’re getting it done faster and improving the efficiencies,” Toney said. “There are amazing analysts that work at our crime labs, but it’s the failed leadership from our attorney general that’s missing, causing the delays that’s taking longer, denying justice for victims, while some of these defendants are committing new crimes.”

Toney claimed that despite having more resources, analysts, and improved technology, the Department of Justice is testing less forensic evidence than under previous administrations. He specifically pointed to DNA testing, which he claimed takes on average twice as long as it did under Kaul’s predecessor.

Addressing the Fentanyl Epidemic

Toney also criticized the current administration’s handling of the fentanyl crisis, referencing a recent State of the Tribes address where tribal leaders raised concerns over the elimination of state drug investigators in northern Wisconsin.

“That has a direct impact on the Chippewa Valley, places like Eau Claire and northern Wisconsin,” Toney said. “And the tribal leaders said it’s unnecessarily costing lives. As a district attorney, I’ve sat across from too many parents that have buried a child from fentanyl overdose deaths. And I’ve personally prosecuted those cases in court.”

Rematch and Personal Reflection

In 2022, Toney narrowly lost to Kaul by just 1.4 percentage points. However, Toney expressed greater confidence in his current bid, citing stronger financial footing and broad endorsements.

“We were outspent 5-to-1 [in 2022], and now we’ve been on equal footing for fundraising since we’ve gotten into this race,” Toney said. He also highlighted endorsements from over half of Wisconsin’s county sheriffs, representing a bipartisan coalition of Democratic, Republican, and independent law enforcement officers.

Toney, who has served as Fond du Lac County District Attorney for 13 years, also shared a personal milestone that cemented his decision to seek the office again. In 2023, at age 39, he underwent open-heart surgery to repair a defective heart valve.

“Leading into that surgery, I was reflecting on my life, what I’ve gotten to do as a district attorney, where I was born and raised, where my dad was a police officer,” Toney recalled. “I knew I wanted to make sure that if that surgery went well, I was going to continue to make sure my life mattered.”

“We can take some of the great things we’ve done as a team in Fond du Lac County through our District Attorneys Association helping make Wisconsin safer to our Department of Justice,” he added.

Kaul has defended his record on public safety, highlighting efforts to secure law enforcement funding, address school safety, and tackle elder abuse and drug trafficking. Wisconsinites will head to the polls this November to decide the race.