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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.
Today we take a look at cornerback Travian Blaylock.
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Name: Travian Blaylock
Position: cornerback
2020 eligibility: redshirt sophomore
Recruiting info out of HS: 247 composite 3-star, No. 56 cornerback, Humble, Texas
2018 recruitment: Travian Blaylock’s recruitment started back in 2017 and he received a plethora of offers from all around the country. His first offers came from Arkansas State and Louisiana before some bigger schools came into play. Washington State was the first power five school to offer Blaylock, and Kansas State, Cincinnati and Wisconsin came shortly after. After that Blaylock’s biggest offer came from Stanford, but it appeared to be a little too late as the Badgers picked up a commitment from Blaylock in July of 2017.
Career statistics: five games played, one fumble recovery
2019 statistics: one game played
Player overview: Travian Blaylock is a player that looks like he could be a promising player for the Badgers in the future. We’ve seen a little of Blaylock in his career, including four games in his redshirt season. His biggest moment was a fumble recovery at Iowa in 2018. You may not recall it off the top of your head, but you probably will when you see it below as it was a big heads up play by the then true freshman in a critical game. Aside from that what you consistently see from Blaylock is on his high school tape.
As a cornerback ball skills are important, and Blaylock shows them often. His frame allows him to high point the football, but also come down on a receiver and make a play on the ball in coverage. If a catch is made, you’ll see that Blaylock doesn’t shy away from contact, which is important in a league like the Big Ten.
Best case scenario for 2020: Best case scenario for Blaylock is that he comes into camp and really wows Jim Leonhard in an effort to work into the rotation at cornerback. Right now Faion Hicks and Caesar Williams appear to be the starters, but there is a lot of depth behind them, Blaylock included. Being a guy that works into the two deep would be a successful season for Blaylock.
Likely role on team in 2020: With Hicks and Williams holding the two starter spots, I would expect Blaylock to be a backup corner for the Badgers in 2020. With the Badgers playing a lot of that combo, along with Rachad Wildgoose, I would expect Blaylock to be player put into the backup role for one of those three positions. His size plays more to replacing Williams than the other two. Blaylock has made some big plays on special teams in the past, and I would expect more of that in 2020 and a bigger role in 2021.