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Few power five programs have had more success turning walk-on’s into on field contributors than the Wisconsin Badgers.
That’s why it should come as little to no surprise that walk-on running back Brady Schipper found a way to provide meaningful snaps in the Badgers backfield this season.
The program saw the dismissals of Jalen Berger, Antwan Roberts, and Loyal Crawford all in the same season – along with season ending injuries to both Chez Mellusi and Isaac Guerendo.
This put a serious dent in the depth of the running back room, and questions as to who would see snaps behind true freshman Braelon Allen.
In typical Wisconsin fashion, the running back room kept a next man up mantra – and that man happened to be walk-on Brady Schipper who had played just 32 snaps the previous two seasons.
The Stoughton native essentially slid into a lesser Garret Groshek role – logging 128 total snaps, 72 of which were on passing downs.
Schipper has proven to be a good receiving option out of the badgers backfield, and a solid pass-blocker on third down. Which is exactly what Wisconsin needed, somebody dependable that could handle work on passing downs.
While the numbers might not be eye popping, Brady Schipper has carried the ball 28 times for 128 yards (4.6 YPC), and caught 7 passes for 70 yards – hard to ask for more than that from a lightly used walk-on.
Paul Chryst found a niche role for the walk-on, and Schipper responded by doing everything that’s been asked of him.
Brady Schipper stepped up when his number was called, and provided much needed depth in a season with so much uncertainty surrounding the position.
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