Four’s company

Badgers have rotated their receivers thus far

Throughout this season four receivers—juniors Brandon Williams, Jonathan Orr and Brandon White and senior Darrin Charles—have been listed on Wisconsin’s official depth chart as co-starters. Williams has started all three games, Orr one. The Badgers have opened two contests with a second tight end in the starting lineup.

The quartet, along with tight end Owen Daniels, who often lines up in the slot, have rotated regularly throughout the year, with Williams, Orr and Daniels earning a slight edge in playing time.

“There’s just certain situations where we need to have a certain guy in to accomplish what we need to get,” receivers coach Henry Mason said. “Some guys do some things better than others. But I have no problem playing those four (receivers) and I have no problem playing with (Marcus) Randle El being the fifth guy because I think one of the things we wanted to accomplish... in the non-conference games was to rotate those guys through and to see who steps up and who is going to be ready when we start in the league. All four of those guys have been getting close to the same amount of reps in the games and they are all making progress.”

In addition to playing time, receptions have been evenly divided.

Orr leads all wide receivers with 70 receiving yards and five catches. Williams has five catches for 61 yards, White four for 36 and Charles three for 27. Randle El has one catch for six yards.

Williams and Orr are two of only 16 players in Wisconsin history with more than 1,000 career receiving yards and Charles is just 154 off that mark. Yet, tailback Booker Stanley leads the team with eight catches and Daniels leads with 104 receiving yards.

Credit quarterback John Stocco for the spreading the ball around. The first-year signal caller has completed 34 passes to nine different receivers this season.

“I’m going to give the ball to everybody,” Stocco said. “I’m not necessarily looking for anyone in particular. I know all those guys can make big plays for us... I’m going to get the ball to whoever I need to get it to.”