Wisconsin football: Tanner McEvoy jumps back to safety, defense dominates Tuesday's practice

Fifth-year senior Tanner McEvoy impressed during the first week-plus of practice at wide receiver, with some even speculating about a permanent return to the offense after flirting with safety during the spring.

During Tuesday's practice, McEvoy jumped back over to the defensive side of the ball and ran with the first-team defense for most of the practice, and they dominated (more on that in a bit). BadgerBlitz.com's John Veldhuis noted junior Leo Musso and sophomore D'Cota Dixon worked as the second-team safeties.

B5Q correspondents couldn't make it down to Camp Randall Stadium on Tuesday (both Curt Hogg and myself will be there Wednesday), but here are the news and notes from today's practice from those in attendance. As always, follow not just B5Q but all the Badgers beat writers/insiders:

• BadgerNation.com's Ben Worgull
• Wisconsin State Journal's Jason Galloway (a former B5Q writer), Tom Oates and Jim Polzin
• BadgerBlitz.com's (and another B5Q alum) John Veldhuis
• Milwaukee Journal Sentinel's Jeff Potrykus
• 247Sports' Evan Flood
• ESPN Wisconsin's Zach Heilprin
• The Big 1070's Phil Dawson

Defense steps up in practice

Wisconsin's first-team defense stepped up its game against the offense hemorrhaging offensive linemen, not allowing a score during the 11-on-11 drills.

Worgull caught up with junior outside linebacker Vince Biegel after practice, and the leader of the "Chevy Bad Boyz" seemed pretty happy with the results.

"Yesterday was sloppy for personally myself, our defense and especially the outside linebackers," said Biegel. "In our room we talked about taking every day to the fullest and turning the page to today. Defense was a big emphasis today to come out with some emotion and come out with some fire. I think we definitely brought that. Starting at the front seven, I really thought our defensive line brought a strong mentality, and I think it rubbed off the rest of the practice."

Heilprin noted redshirt freshman Ryan Connelly and true freshman Chris Orr ran with the first-team defense at inside linebacker, continuing the trend of mixing and matching while junior Leon Jacobs and redshirt freshman T.J. Edwards sit out with injuries.

Freshman ILB Chris Orr received first team reps on Monday. Former @DesotoFB standout continues to play well in #Badgers camp.

— Evan Flood (@Evan_Flood) August 18, 2015

#Badgers DL looks good. Chikwe Obasih, Billy Hirschfeld, Conor Sheehy were shutting down the run all day.

— Evan Flood (@Evan_Flood) August 18, 2015

Injury bug continues

The offensive line took more hits both on the injury front as redshirt freshman Jacob Maxwell was added to the list of players out on Tuesday. The already thin line is missing right tackles Hayden Biegel and Beau Benzschawel due to head and knee injuries, respectively. Those, and junior defensive end Arthur Goldberg sat out with a foot injury.

Another day, another injury on #Badgers OL. Joining Biegel, Benzschawel, Dietzen on the shelf was r-fr Jacob Maxwell, who started at RT Mon

— Benjamin Worgull (@TheBadgerNation) August 18, 2015

Hits keep on coming for #Badgers: DE Goldberg and OT Maxwell out with injuries. Wow. McEvoy worked at S, as planned.

— Jeff Potrykus (@jaypo1961) August 18, 2015

#Badgers injuries: Baun (head), Maxwell (shoulder), Goldberg (foot) and Ramesh (hammy).

— Jeff Potrykus (@jaypo1961) August 18, 2015

Talked to #Badgers DE Goldberg. Said they are just being cautious with him.

— Jeff Potrykus (@jaypo1961) August 18, 2015

With Goldberg out, Alec James took first-team reps at DE. First-team O-line was Marz, Ball, Voltz, Deiter, Williams. #Badgers

— Benjamin Worgull (@TheBadgerNation) August 18, 2015

Check out Heilprin's full list of the injured Badgers in his practice recap.

Some good news, please?

Still haven't seen Rafael Gaglianone miss a field goal this camp. Hit from 28, 35 and 51 yards today.

— Zach Heilprin (@ZachHeilprin) August 18, 2015