W
isconsin slot receiver Kenzel Doe didn't have any problem saying that football is a game of inches even
though he has always come up a little bit short in that category. Not that you would know by the way the 5-foot-8 Doe can dunk a basketball with two hands or one from a standing start. "Most of my teammates when I first got here
said, 'You can't dunk,''' Doe remembered of the skeptical reception that he got in the spring of 2011. "Then we'd go to the SERF and play and I'd dunk with two hands, one hand, alley-oop or just come off the ground and dunk. They'd go, 'Unreal.''' Doe was reminded of Spud Webb, who played
for the late Jim Valvano at NC State and won the 1986 NBA Slam Dunk Contest over his Atlanta Hawks teammate, Dominque Wilkins, the de- fending champion. The 6-8 Wilkins was known as the "Human Highlight Film.''
That was all well before his time, of course. But the 20-year-old Doe has watched high-
lights of Webb on YouTube and pronounced, "That's me right there.'' Webb was listed at 5-7. Doe might be closer to 5-7 3/4 than 5-8. Not that it matters, not that it has ever mattered. Upon arriving on the UW campus, after an
early graduation from prep school, Doe ad- dressed his size. "It's really not a big deal,'' he said of the naysayers. "I let it go in one ear and out the other. I know my abilities and I know if I can do what a 6-3 or 6-4 guy can do, then size really doesn't matter.'' But there's no denying the impact that a few
inches can have in the success or the failure of a play. That point was confirmed to Doe after watching the video of Saturday night's 16-14 win over Utah State. Doe had the biggest play of the game, an 82-yard punt return for a touchdown. What got his attention, though, was the play
that he didn't make. On Wisconsin's first series of the fourth quarter, quarterback Joel Stave threw a perfect strike to Doe, who was running a slant pattern. Doe got his hands on the pass but cornerback Terrence Alston jarred the ball loose. That stopped a drive on third-and-4 and
26 ยป VARSITY SEPTEMBER 20, 2012
