BY MIKE LUCAS
UWBadgers.com Senior Writer
MADISON, Wis. — Wisconsin tight end Jake Ferguson didn't have much time to think about his next move. After catching the pass, he was pinned against the Indiana sideline with defensive back Jaylin Williams bearing down.
His escape options were limited.
So, he reacted with what he called an "out of the box" instinct to the situation.
He hurdled the DB.
"I've got to pull my leg over, I was trying to dodge too fast — I've got to get over him, I've got to clear him," he said, critiquing his technique after Williams clipped his left leg and dropped him. "I knew he was going to go low. Everybody goes low on me. That's how it works even in practice."
Jake Ferguson (84)
After Ferguson crashed to the turf — landing hard on his shoulder and back — two more Hoosiers rolled over the top of him before the play was dead. His hurdling prompted an immediate reaction from his grandpa, "I was thinking, 'What the hell is he trying to do? He's going to get himself killed.'"
Barry Alvarez then conceded, "But that's just the way he plays."
Nobody appreciates such dogged competitiveness more than a Hall of Fame football coach. Maybe even more so because he's kin. But he was also painfully aware of the assorted injuries that his grandson has endured to stay on the field and play during this disjointed season.
Leading up to the 2020 opener against Illinois, Ferguson tore a ligament in his right thumb during practice. The year before in training camp, he had done the same thing. Only to his left thumb. Not to worry. He had been there and done that, so he understood what his pain threshold was.
Not only did Ferguson wind up playing 67 snaps in a 45-7 win over the Illini, but he caught a career-high seven passes for 72 yards and three touchdowns; only the third UW tight end in the last 50 years with a TD hat trick in one game (Owen Daniels and Garrett Graham were the others).
Ferguson didn't dwell on his performance. Didn't have time. At 3 a.m., he got up and drove to Chicago, where he had surgery on his right thumb that Saturday morning. As it turned out, he had more than enough time to heal before the Badgers played again because of back-to-back cancelations.
Since then, he has dealt with some upper-body injuries that have not kept him from playing, or from becoming a semifinalist for the John Mackey Award for the nation's top tight end.
"If I'm able to run," Ferguson pledged, "I'm able to play."
That has ingratiated him to gramps.
"He's had a high pain tolerance," Alvarez said, "and played with pain."
Ferguson hasn't missed a game, nor many snaps, a consequence of toughness and timing.
"He got a little banged up at Northwestern," said tight end coach Mickey Turner. "The next week was the week that Minnesota canceled, which was kind of a blessing in disguise because it allowed some of those older guys who had taken a lot of reps to back off a little bit.
"He was able to get his legs back underneath him. I feel like he's in a good spot right now."
How good has Ferguson been despite coverages dictated to take him away from the offense? He leads the Badgers in receiving (23 catches) and receiving yards (235). With four touchdowns, matching his personal best in 2018 as a redshirt freshman, he has half of the team's eight receiving scores.
Ferguson has caught at least four passes in each of Wisconsin's four games — all the more meaningful considering the periodic absences of senior wide receivers Danny Davis and Kendric Pryor. Without the personnel to stretch a defense vertically, it has made Ferguson's job all that more difficult.
"There's definitely nothing easy," Turner said. "Other teams are definitely studying him pretty hard and putting more athletic guys on him. If they're not, we're usually making them pay.
"His understanding of the game is just totally different than where it was when he was younger. He can tell you coverages. He knows how to work guy's leverage better than he ever has. Instead of just flying around, like a street game, he's playing it like it's a professional kind of deal now.
"It's pretty fun to watch that transition."
Especially so for Alvarez, who has closely monitored his physical development.
"He's had some things he wanted to work on, and he has improved — he has improved his speed and strength and improved as a blocker," Alvarez said. "I just like the fact that he wasn't complacent. He had a decent year last year and he wanted to get better.
"Football is important to him. This team is important to him. He has dedicated himself to it."
While catching passes from three different quarterbacks — Alex Hornibrook, Jack Coan and Graham Mertz — Ferguson has at least one reception in each of his 31 career games, the fourth longest active FBS streak. He's one shy of tying the school record for a tight end held by Travis Beckum.
"I honestly thought it ended when we canceled that first game," said Ferguson, who does have a working knowledge of Beckum, the fifth leading receiver in UW history. "We had him on a Zoom call before we started camp. I've seen a ton of film on him. We still have a couple of plays that he ran."
Beckum was a third-round pick of the New York Giants in the 2009 draft. The 21-year-old Ferguson too will get a chance to play at the next level. But what would Alvarez say if broached — "Grandpa, do you think I'm ready for the NFL?" — and what would be his criteria for passing along a judgement? Alvarez is adamant about one thing and he'd advise him, "Get your degree first."
To Alvarez's thinking, it's non-negotiable. At that, Ferguson has earnestly put himself in position where he may graduate in four years. And he admitted to not always being fully committed to doing so. School has not been easy, though he has slowly but surely made inroads and has enjoyed it a little more.
"It's been a true journey, that's honest, and probably the perfect word," said Ferguson, who redshirted as a true freshman in 2017. "It was tough on me my freshman year and that transition (academically) is hard for a lot of guys who come out of high school and you're not playing.
"But I think I've developed a little bit and kind of matured — I've gotten more organized than I was definitely as a younger student. School is super important to me now and I'm trying to stay on top of it as much as possible and hoping to graduate here soon."
If his grandson gets his degree, what then would Alvarez tell him? Is he ready for the NFL?
"I have my opinions," Alvarez said. "But I would go to the guys in the NFL and I know Paul (Chryst) is going to do that — he's going to talk to the general managers and the coaches that he trusts and ask what their evaluation is and what do they think."
(This is a service that Chryst provides to all players contemplating declaring early for the draft.)
"A lot depends on what Jake wants to do; I want what's best for him," Alvarez added. "The one thing I will tell him is don't listen to outside noise. Listen to the people who know. Get a true evaluation. Naturally, I'd love to see him stay here and play another year. But these are business decisions now.
"It just depends on whether the people at the next level think he's ready."
Since mid-March, Turner has respected how Ferguson has adapted to the ever-changing landscape, the uncertainty from day-to-day, the adherence to the COVID protocols, the cancelations of three games and the general disappearance of long-established norms because of the pandemic.
"With the mindset part, he has been locked in the whole time," Turner said, "which has been great because it can be hard on a lot of kids, especially the younger ones, to maintain focus. I've had zero days with him when he hasn't bought in and is in the right frame of mind."
Alvarez has witnessed that same conviction.
"Jake has been committed," he said. "He has really watched himself to the point where he has told his parents, 'Don't plan on seeing me after the game like you have in the past. I'm going right back to my place.' He's really tried to be extra careful so he could play."
The lack of sustained interaction with teammates and friends has been frustrating, though.
"You can't go to an offensive line dinner or go out and eat with the quarterback or just go out with the guys," Ferguson said. "It's tough just having a mask on all day — a mask or a helmet — you're masked up the whole time until you get home in your own space and you can finally take your mask off."
Turner, a former UW tight end, has observed the pandemic-related challenges to building unity.
"You have to have good leadership to keep everybody tight because when they're at practice and in the locker room — before and after practice — that is their only common time of the day to be all around each other and the only time that they're face-to-face," he said.
The position group meetings are all virtual.
"Getting the technology piece set up, figuring out what works best for the guys, we've all kind of got our groove now and we've rolled with it as best as we could," Turner noted. "But if you had them here in person, you might have said, 'We need to walk through this. Let's jump on the field.'
"But you can't do that. Once they're gone, they're gone. That's the piece we've missed."
Alvarez has empathy for everyone involved in trying to pull off this season.
"This has been hard for everybody," he stressed. "You're isolated. You're disappointed. You've got games canceled. The uncertainty of everything has made it a very difficult year. You're holding your breath after every testing on whether anybody is going to test positive. It has been brutal."
Nobody has been spared.
"It has impacted a lot of the young guys," said Ferguson, pointing out the cancelation of spring practice eliminated a stepping-stone in the development of inexperienced players. "There's learning but it's tough to do it all online. There's no hands-on learning and a lot of guys really benefit from that."
But the players and coaches have persevered. And they know what's on the line in Iowa.
"In my playing career here," Turner said, "it was always a dog fight."
This dog (the Hawkeyes) has some bite, too, winning five straight.
"If you don't bring your 'A' game, you're probably not going home with it," Ferguson said of the Heartland Trophy. "That has been a big emphasis this week. We've got to bring everything to our prep and then execute everything because we have such a small margin of error.
"We've got to be very detailed, not only physically but mentally for this one."
Ferguson's first Big Ten game was at Kinnick Stadium, also the site of his first touchdown catch.
"We're young," he said of a Wisconsin offense that lined up with a redshirt freshman at quarterback and a true freshman at wide receiver, center and tailback in the Indiana loss. "But in practice, I see guys who can be really good. We just have to execute better.
"I have to execute better. I've got to be better in spots. I know we can be better.
"It's really cool to watch these young guys get better every day."
It's all in keeping with what his gramps had to say about the process.
"You've got to go through growing pains sometimes," Alvarez said. "That's where we are.
"Sometimes, it gets frustrating. But you've got to work through it."
Iowa is just another hurdle in their path. One of many in 2020.
