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Lucas: Freshman trio quickly fitting in, getting a head start with Badgers

Mike Lucas  —  4/09/2008 11:53 am

Tuesday, 10:11 p.m.

University of Wisconsin coach Bret Bielema blows his whistle and calls up his team, signaling the end of practice and a long day for a couple of Jakes; offensive guard Jake Current and tight end Jake Byrne. Both are mid-term high school graduates, and first-semester college freshmen. Both are 18, and still trying to get their bearings on campus. Both are wide-eyed and eager, despite the late hour. "It's better than getting up at 4 in the morning, getting taped at 5 and being here (for practice at 6:30 a.m.)," Current opined of the alternative to practicing in the evening. He didn't get an argument from Byrne.

Both could sleep in.

Tuesday, 6:30 a.m.

Reveille for Current and Byrne. Breakfast is followed by an Athletes in Action seminar. "An anti-violence seminar," reported Current, who has a history class at 9:30 and an anthropology class at 11. Byrne spends much of the morning working on an eight-page paper for his communications/engineering course. Both meet with their position coaches and watch a little film in the afternoon before going to study table from 2:30 to 4. "Then I went back to the apartment,'' said Current, "grabbed a bit to eat, and came back here (Camp Randall Stadium)." Current is not complaining. Neither is Byrne.

After all, what else would they rather be doing?

"I still keep in contact with my (high school) buddies back at home," said Current, a native of Troy, Ohio, "and they're telling me about all the craziness that they're getting into. They'll say to me, "It's Friday night, what are you doing? We're going out to blah-blah-blah.' And I go, 'Well, I'm just sitting here, learning my plays because I've got to practice in the morning.' " He paused and later continued, "When I went home for spring break, I noticed that I felt different when I was around people, I felt a little bit more mature; more of a man, I guess."

The culture is changing in college football to the extent that it has been getting younger and younger each spring as more and more athletes are graduating from high school early and enrolling in college for the second semester. Along with Current and Byrne, freshman quarterback Curt Phillips is going through the same routine and apprenticeship at Wisconsin. Phillips is 17. He'll be 18 on April 20, the day after the intra-squad game at Camp Randall Stadium. "I don't know what it would be like if I was the only one doing this (here)," Byrne pondered.

So far, the results have been gratifying for Bielema. "If anything surprises me about the three freshmen is the way they've all worked -- I don't think they've been shell-shocked by anything," said Bielema, adding that he had gotten word on some other mid-term high school grads who had been overwhelmed by the overall college experience and transition to spring football at other schools. "I just don't think our three kids have backed down a bit."

Bielema cited Current's aggressive play in last Saturday's scrimmage. Twice, he played through the whistle and had to be pulled off a defender. "He got into a couple of skirmishes because if he gets a hold of you, he doesn't stop until the whistle blows," Bielema said. "I like the way he finishes. that's the one thing we noticed with him on (high school) film right away. He plays extremely hard. Because he doesn't have great size (277) or height (6-3), the more he plays with a motor, the better he will be."

Current comes by his aggressiveness the old-fashioned way. He inherited it from his dad, Max Current, who played football collegiately and helped coach his son in high school. "I've been around the game since before I could walk," related Jake Current. "I always tell people that when my mom was pregnant with me -- before anyone knew whether it was going to be a boy or a girl -- my dad went out and bought a football. He has always preached to me, 'You may not be the biggest, the fastest, the strongest, but you can be nasty and go to the whistle. If you don't know what you're doing, hit somebody and go to the whistle.' "

That's much easier to do now -- 10 practices into the spring -- than it was during a rough and ragged orientation period in early March. "Now, I'm starting to pick things up," Current said. "I'm starting to learn the offense pretty well and I can turn up the heat a little bit. At the beginning, I was kind of hesitant and I ended up going off the (snap of the) ball because I really wasn't sure what was going on. Now that I have an idea of what I'm supposed to do, I can really get after it and play some ball."

At the same time, though, he's still going through an understandable adjustment period to college life. "I had to learn how to ride a bus," Current volunteered. "I had never ridden on a city bus in my life. And I was scared that first day that I had to get on the bus with my route map." Sheepishly, he also conceded, "The first few days, I also got lost on State Street for a good half-hour. But now that I've been here for a while, I'm starting to figure out the terrain a little bit, at least on campus."

When he's feeling a little disoriented or lost, Current can always get directions from UW safety Shane Carter, who also hails from Troy, Ohio. Before enrolling here, in fact, Current talked with a few former Troy High School graduates who had earned college tenders, including Ohio State starting defensive tackle Todd Denlinger and Vanderbilt offensive guard Ryan Custer. They each passed along the same advice, too, about getting a head start on the competition. "They told me you learn a lot more in the spring," Current said, "and it's a better time to pick up things."

That's why Byrne is here. "It has been a change and a lot different for us (the three freshmen) but I'd do it again," he said. "I'm learning the plays, I'm learning the offense and I'm just getting the hang of college classes. The whole thing has been a big adjustment. But this is something I've always wanted to do -- playing Big Ten football has always been a dream for me. I still have a whole lot to learn but I'm feeling more comfortable."

Byrne is from Rogers, Ark., where the first Wal-Mart opened in 1962. His dad, Jeff Byrne, who worked for the mega-discount department store chain, was raised as a Cheesehead in Shullsburg and played collegiately at UW-La Crosse. "I've lived in Michigan, Wisconsin, New York, Indiana and Pennyslvania," Jake Byrne said. "Everybody gave me a hard time (in Rogers) for having a Northern accent. Then I come up here and everybody says I have a Southern accent. So I don't know where I fit in."

Tuesday, 10:35 p.m.

The post-practice media interviews are concluding and Byrne is asked what he misses the most about high school. "I would say doing nothing," he said, grinning. "My senior year was pretty easy and I didn't have to do too much. That's why I kind of wanted to get out of high school and try new things." Byrne will go back to Rogers and graduate with his classmates but prom falls on the same day as the spring game. He doesn't mind missing it, though, because his priorities have changed and he's learning how to fit in.

Mike Lucas  —  4/09/2008 11:53 am