34 // VARSITY April 10, 2014
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nowing that it can be a "hot topic" among
people obsessing over every position switch,
Wisconsin coach Gary Andersen still didn't
blink at moving an outside linebacker to inside line-
backer and then back again to outside linebacker. Or
a safety to linebacker. Or a linebacker to safety.
File it away as the rites of spring, spring football
practice.
"I have always been that way ― that has always
been my mindset," he said. "It's an educated experi-
ment, if you will, that we sit back and we say, 'This
kid has the potential opportunity to be able to help
us there' and there's no better time to do that (than
the spring).
"You can talk about it in the offseason and you can
train them (for a different role) but they've got to
get out on the football field and truly see if they can
do that. We are a developmental program and we
take great pride in being a developmental program.
That's never going to change.
"And, in turn, that's always going to put us in a po-
sition to experiment with the kids from the stand-
point of position. Maybe it's from one side of the ball
to the other; maybe it's from a tight end to a wide
receiver or a wide receiver to a tight end. I can go on
and on. But you have to be smart.
"You look at the quarterback position. I know Tan-
ner (McEvoy) can go back there and play safety but
the fact of the matter is, Joel (Stave) was hurt for the
first six practices and we needed competition at that
spot, and we've got competition at that spot.
"And now for the last few practices, Joel is not go-
ing to go ― his shoulder is not better yet. We need
to back off on him and get him right for the fall. If
you just go off the spring, it has been back and forth
between both guys (Stave and McEvoy)."
