The Wisconsin Badgers are midway through Fall camp, as they prepare for their Week 1 matchup against the Notre Dame Fighting Irish next month.
There’s been a ton of changes to the roster, with new starters at nearly every single position group. Among the most promising parts of the team is a young-and-improving offensive line. The Badgers brought in Ole Miss transfer P.J. Wilkins, who is projected to start at left guard, Oklahoma State transfer Austin Kawecki, the projected center, Arkansas transfer Blake Cherry, Augustana transfer Stylz Blackmon, and Florida State transfer Lucas Simmons-Johannson.
The two projected starters join Colin Cubberly, Emerson Mandell, and Kevin Heywood as the team’s projected starters. However, injuries have hurt the position a bit this offseason. Heywood, who missed all of the 2025 season with a torn ACL, suffered a lower-body injury early in camp, and has been sidelined since.
Mandell, on the other hand, has been banged up since the spring. A four-star recruit in the Class of 2025, Mandell was bugged by injuries at times last season, and that unfortunately didn’t go away, as he had a foot procedure in the spring after suffering another injury.
Now, he’s yet to play in the fall, which head coach Luke Fickell acknowledged would be a slower process back during the Big Ten Media Days. Mandell has yet to see the field, though, through the first half of camp. What’s the latest on his progress?
“I’m hoping that we start to see him in there a little bit more,” head coach Luke Fickell said at the end of last week. “It was kind of the same thing. We knew he was going to be a little bit slower. We didn’t know how early or when we would get him in camp. And I think we’re still in the same spot. But those are things that, you know, we’re gonna have to challenge ourselves. We’re gonna have to figure out here in the next 10 days.”
Mandell’s injury has opened the door for others to earn first-team reps and compete at guard, specifically Cherry and Blackmon, who had been the primary backups at guard during the spring. Those are some valuable reps for the duo.
“That’s really big,” Fickell said about the other guards stepping into bigger reps. “And I think that’s where, you know, there’s nothing greater than really a competitive spirit and a challenge inside each room. And I’m not saying we haven’t had that, but in the past, the first year we were here, I think all 5 started the entire time and great.
“But what that does is doesn’t develop some of the younger guys. And then, by nature, we’ve got really thin in that position. So not that you want guys out, but there’s no better time than to give some of these guys opportunities. And it’s not like they’re not going against anybody, right? And we got some new guys on the defensive front. The thing that’s unique about camp, and I’m not giving an excuse for the offensive line guys. I tell them this all the time, if there’s 70 plays in a game, they’re going to play 70 plays if they can. If there’s 70 plays in a game, the 325-pound guys on the inside [at defensive line], they’re going to play 30 plays, I hope. And we do that in practice too. And so on days 7, 8, 9, and 10, don’t tell them I said this, but I understand that there’s a wear and tear, and there’s some things that maybe don’t look quite as well, that maybe looks a little bit better on the interior of the defensive line. But as you still see them out there right now, if we’re going to create an identity, it’s going to be created right there.”