Spring football allows for head coach Paul Chryst to not have to worry about preparing for a game. Instead, it allows him to teach the game of football and continue to develop the players on Wisconsin’s roster as they prepare for the 2020 season. Chryst will have 15 practices beginning March 22 to help his team improve and build on what they accomplished during the 2019 season.
In this Badgers Wire feature, we will break down the fullback position for Wisconsin as it heads into spring practice.
Spring Fullback Roster
John Chenal (junior), Quan Easterling (redshirt freshman), and Mason Stokke (redshirt senior)
What we know going into spring practice
Wisconsin doesn’t lose anyone from the position group and with another spring football will help with the development of the group.
Entering this past season the Badgers were going to have to find a way to replace Alec Ingold. Although neither Mason Stokke or John Chenal stepped up and took ownership of the position the Badgers still received solid play out of the fullback position.
In particular, Stokke started to show he could be a playmaker out of the fullback position down the stretch as against Minnesota he had 14 yards rushing on two carries and caught three passes for 30 yards, in addition, he scored a rushing touchdown in the Rose Bowl.
With Stokke being a senior he’ll look to build off of the momentum he created for himself down the stretch and use it as a springboard as he goes through his final spring football practices.
Quan Easterling only played in one game, which came against Illinois he didn’t receive a carry in the game though. Stokke missed the game because of an injury but the fact that Easterling appeared in one game should bode well for his future.
Easterling may still be a year away from serious playing time at the fullback position but the fact that he earned playing time at Illinois shows that he has started to earn the trust of the coaches.
What we hope to find out following spring practice
When it comes to the fullbacks spring football will be about continuing to improve and build off of what they accomplished a season ago.
With a year under their belt, they should start to learn from their mistakes and become more consistent.
Stokke and Chenal lined up at times in the backfield together and that will likely continue heading into the 2020 season. The experience the two gained will be valuable for the running backs that they’ll be blocking for this coming season.
Blocking will be one key aspect the two will need to focus on as the two were solid in this area a year ago. But at times if they missed a block Jonathan Taylor was good enough to be able to still pick up positive yards as he managed to make the first defender miss.
Their consistency in blocking over spring football will lead to them receiving touches over the course of the 2020 season. As spring football will allow them to show the coaches they can be relied on to pick up the tough yards to keep a drive alive as they didn’t get many opportunities to do that at times a season ago.