When Gary Andersen talked running back this summer the one constant theme was making sure UW had a solid option as the third running back. Most thought that would be Jeff Lewis, however he made a transition to safety thanks to some craziness at that position and it meant that Wisconsin was left with one true option in true freshman Corey Clement.
The question was, could Clement handle the workload and become a reliable person in the backfield?
If one scrimmage was any indication the Badgers have a star in the making once again, as Clement rushed for 92 yards on 19 carries (unofficially from our partners over at Badger247). That workload was more than Melvin Gordon and James White combined and it was by design.
Andersen appears to have been impressed by the ability of Clement, not just as a runner, but also in his ability to pick up the mental aspect of the game.
"I think he's shown he's a physical runner, he's extremely tough," said Andersen following Monday’s scrimmage. "His ability to pick up protections and get on the right guy early in camp has been impressive. He's had a good camp running the football, but I'm most impressed with the way he's handled a division one football camp and how he's handled it mentally.”
The other big standout was the ability of the defense to disguise what they were doing and disrupt the timing of the offense. So much so that penalties became an issue that Andersen was not happy with offensively – mainly because they were pre-snap ones, ones you could easily avoid.
We could go on and on about the QB battle as well, but we figured it best to let you hear for yourself from the coach:
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