Each fall the Wisconsin Badgers football team has a handful of players without a full-ride scholarship in hand make significant inroads and become contributors for the football team. The Badgers have had supreme success with their walk-on tradition, with players like Jim Leonhard, J.J. Watt, Chris Maragos, Donnell Thompson, and Ryan Connelly — to simply name a few — going on to have a huge impact at Wisconsin.
With COVID-19 making the 2020 season even more unpredictable than before, walk-ons might be tasked with larger roles than previously assumed.
With fall camp opening up Monday, August 10 in anticipation of the home opener against the Indiana Hoosiers in early September, we at Bucky’s 5th Quarter wanted to take a detailed look at how some of the walk-ons on the 2020 roster might factor into the prospects of the team.