The Wisconsin Badgers football team will begin their regular season at Camp Randall Stadium against Western Michigan on Aug. 30. That date is moving closer and closer, as the team wrapped up its fall camp at UW-Platteville on Sunday.
Junior Nathanial Vakos is entering his second season as the team’s primary placekicker after he went 15-for-19 on field-goal attempts last season, going 14-15 from inside 50 yards. Additionally, he was a perfect 34-for-34 on extra-point tries.
Vakos took a few minutes to chat with us following the Badgers’ eighth practice at UW-Platteville, detailing how he’s geared up to make deep kicks in 2024.
“Something I’ve felt always confident in is my ability to make deep kicks. I’ve always been confident, it’s just been working those more. I feel like we’ve started to repitize more deep field goals, which is what I’ve been wanting to work on,” Vakos explained.
Yesterday, I had the chance to catch up with @BadgerFootball kicker Nathanial Vakos (@nathanial_vakos) following Wisconsin’s practice at fall camp
“I think coming into this year, we have a lot more talent. We picked up a lot of good transfers”#Badgers #Wisconsin pic.twitter.com/K12WHbSR9A
— Nick Bruesewitz (@NickBruesewitz) August 8, 2024
Vakos transferred to Wisconsin from Ohio prior to the 2023 campaign and the Badgers went 7-6 in his first year with the team. The kicker feels like this season will be even better.
“Coming into this year, I think we have a lot more talent. We picked up a lot of good transfers,” Vakos continued, “From last year they really tightened down on us, wanting more, always trying to push us more.”
The upcoming season is the team’s second under head coach Luke Fickell and the fans will be treated to a schedule full of marquee matchups with programs like Alabama, USC, Penn State and Oregon.