Wisconsin football 2020 returnee profile: Semar Melvin

During the summer doldrums of sports news, many college football fans are starved for news and information regarding their favorite teams.

With that in mind, we at B5Q have decided to take a more detailed look at each walk-on contributor and scholarship player on the Wisconsin Badgers football roster for 2020 in a running feature, our 2020 returnee profiles.

Each weekday we will breakdown one player on the football roster to look back at their recruiting process, their career as a Badger to this juncture and lastly preview their potential contribution to the team in 2020 and beyond.

In our rolling profile series, today we focus on Semar Melvin.

Name: Semar Melvin

Position: cornerback

2020 eligibility: redshirt freshman

Recruiting info out of HS: 247 composite 3-star, No. 66 cornerback, Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

2019 recruitment: A highly regarded cornerback prospect out of Saint Thomas Aquinas High school in the Fort Lauderdale area, Semar Melvin was a big pickup for the Badgers in the 2019 group. Rated as a four-star prospect by Rivals, Melvin was one of three cornerbacks brought in by Jim Leonhard in the class.

Melvin earned an offer from Wisconsin in late January of his junior year, and committed to the Badgers a couple weeks after a June official visit to Madison. He also took an official visit to Virginia, and chose the Badgers over offers from Louisville, Mississippi State, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Virginia Tech and others.

Career statistics: Four games played, two starts, four tackles, one pass break-up.

2019 statistics: Four games played, two starts, four tackles, one pass break-up.

Player overview: After not seeing action in the beginning of the season, Melvin saw extended playing time toward the latter half of the year with Rachad Wildgoose injured.

The true freshman cornerback played well in his four appearances outside of an opening drive touchdown against Minnesota where he stumbled.

A very gifted athlete with speed and fairly good size for the college level, Melvin is definitely a player to keep an eye on moving forward regardless of how crowded the secondary is. After earning playing time right away as a freshman, and still being able to preserve his redshirt, the staff is very high on the Florida product.

Best case scenario for 2020: Melvin is able to build on his freshman season, and earns the backup nickel spot and is fighting for a spot in the two-deep at cornerback. Melvin proves that he can play both inside at the nickel, and also along the boundary, giving him flexibility to help the defense out, and he improves his chances for a starting spot in 2021 after Caesar Williams graduates.

Likely role on team in 2020: Melvin earning reps as a freshman is huge for the cornerback room. Not only did it highlight how talented he is, but it also pushed the competition level of the entire group.

Assuming Wildgoose is healthy entering the season, I still expect him to lock down the nickel spot, but Melvin is a player that could find his way into the two-deep of the depth chart. I would expect Melvin to play in all of the games on the schedule this season in special teams and see his role in the secondary also increase. How much exactly is tougher to determine though, given the copious options that Jim Leonhard has to choose from.