Wisconsin football redshirt report

A newish thing that fans have been tracking over the past few years is what freshmen are playing in games but still might plan on redshirting. The redshirt rule, enacted in 2018 by the Division I council, states that a player can participate in up to four games of a single season without burning his redshirt, thus saving a year of eligibility.

The Wisconsin Badgers have taken advantage of this rule, getting young players valuable experience playing in real games without using up a year of eligibility. It is the rare time that the NCAA did something smart and good for their athletes.

Here are the Wisconsin Badgers freshmen and the number of games they’ve played now that we are over halfway through the season:

• RB Jackson Acker: 0
• OLB Ayo Adebogun: 0
• RB Braelon Allen: six games played; 58 carries, 428 yards (7.4 ypc), five touchdowns; one catch, nine yards
• WR Markus Allen: 0
• S Owen Arnett: 0
• WR Skyler Bell: 0
• RB Grover Bortolotti: 0
• CB Ricardo Hallman: one game played
• QB Deacon Hill: 0
• WR Alex Moeller: 0
• OLB Darryl Peterson: 0
• ILB Jake Ratzlaff: 0
• OL Nolan Rucci: 0
• ILB Bryan Sanborn: 0
• ILB Garrison Solliday: 0
• K Nate Van Zelst: 0
• S Hunter Wohler: seven games played; two tackles, one fumble recovery
• LS Zach Zei: 0

I think we all knew that Braelon Allen was not going to be using his redshirt this year and it appears that 4-star S Hunter Wohler, who has been a special teams contributor, will also forgo redshirting.

While the Badgers are still in the thick of a division title race, it will be interesting to see if any other freshmen see the field as the season winds down. For instance, it would be fun to see QB Deacon Hill take a couple of snaps if there is an opportunity in the fourth quarter of a game coming up.