Many draft pundits thought Travis Frederick was the best center in the 2013 NFL Draft class, but most had him going in the early-to-mid 2nd round. Instead it took the Dallas Cowboys attempting to fill a need at the 31st spot to make Travis Frederick yet another Badger offensive lineman picked in the 1st round. 

It's the 3rd straight year that's happened with Frederick joining Kevin Zeitler (Cincinnati, 2012) and Gabe Carimi (Chicago, 2011) on the list of back-to-back-to-back 1st round picks from Wisconsin. 

Frederick will graduate this spring, but gave up his final year of eligibility to enter the NFL Draft, a move some were surprised by, but obviously paid off for him in the end. 

He also saved the Big Ten from being embarrassed as he was the only player for a conference school selected in the 1st round - keeping a streak alive that's been around since 1953.

So, why did the Cowboys pull the trigger on Frederick? Well, you can hear the team make the phone call to tell him of the pick right here.

UPDATE: Hear Frederick in an interview with 105.3 The Fan down in Dallas. It's a good listen.

Wisconsin hockey had it's annual awards banquet earlier tonight and don't worry, we'll get to the team awards in a bit, but first the biggest piece of news coming out of the ceremony was head coach Mike Eaves announcing his captain and assistant captains for the upcoming season. 

Leading the Badgers into a new era of Big Ten hockey will be upcoming senior defenseman Frankie Simonelli. He'll be assisted by a pair of Eau Claire, Wisc. natives in upcoming senior forward Jefferson Dahl and junior defenseman Jake McCabe. Simonelli isn't a stranger to leadership on this team, serving as an assistant captain this past season. 

However, that wasn't what the night was about, it was a chance to wrap up a season, their final in the WCHA, that saw them make it back to the NCAA tournament thanks to winning the WCHA playoffs and thus the Broadmoor Trophy. Wisconsin dolled out a number of team awards and they went like this: 

- Michael Mersch won the Spike Carlson Most Valuable Player award from his teammates. He led the team in goals (23) and points (36). 

Wisconsin has produced countless champions, whether they've won McNaughton Cups, Broadmoor Trophies, NCAA Championships, or at the highest of levels in the NHL - it's safe to say Wisconsin hockey just knows how to win. In that vein their will be two former Badgers, Jamie McBain and Craig Smith representing Team USA in May at the IIHF World Championships.

They'll be competing at the World Championships in Helsinki, Finland and Stockholm, Sweden from May 3-19. 

McBain, a former WCHA Defensive Player of the Year and Hobey Baker award finalist (also a two-time world junior championship participant) got the call for his first World Championship team at the senior level. He earned it by playing in 38 games (so far) for the Carolina Hurricanes, with the defenseman scoring one goal and adding six assists. 

With our focus on the Badgers spring game, we haven't been able to give you a good update on the Badgers recruiting board for 2014 in a bit. Well, here it is in all it's glory. 

The Badgers added one commitment, from Craig Evans, which we covered extensively already. More importantly though things are really heating up on the offer front as 29 new offers have gone out since we last updated our list. 

Enjoy and you'll want to get to know quite a few of these names - names we are hoping to help get you familiar with over the next few weeks ourselves. 

*reminders: BLACK = committed to Wisconsin, GREEN = new offer since last recruiting board update

Quarterbacks:

- In a less than surprising move, Chance Stewart decommitted and made it abundantly clear UW isn't really an option anymore, so off the board he comes.

Name	Stars	247composite	Pos. Ranking	State Ranking	Hometown/High School
Kyle Allen		86	5	5	Scottsdale, AZ (Desert Mountain)
Will Ulmer		239	5	3	Washington, DC (St. John's College HS)

About eight months ago, then, UW linebacker Derek Watt elected to switch to fullback in an effort to help support his team by adding depth in a position of need. Come this fall, we could see Watt and yet another new position: running back.

The sophomore was one of two primary tailbacks during Saturday’s spring game, racking up 20 yards on five rushes to go along with three receptions for 22 yards and a touchdown. As it turns out, the absence of James White wasn’t the only reason Watt saw reps in the backfield.

“We’ve been kind of using some variation,” Watt said. I was out there today playing a little tailback. I’m kind of working both tailback and fullback in certain situations.”

If you know us here at MadTownBadgers we pride ourselves on bringing you quality content, whether it's original stories and different takes on things or being the only fan based radio show available anywhere - it's about being quality first. To that end I'm sure you've listened to Badgers Power Hour over the past few weeks and noticed some major audio issues, issues that weren't known to us until after listening back. 

Well, because of that and because of a major issue we had again tonight, we're proud to debut our very first Badgers Power Hour - the VIDEO version!! That's right we are bringing you another first - the first ever LIVE video show dedicated to Wisconsin athletics. 

You'll experience the same quality content as you've heard on the radio version of Badgers Power Hour, but you'll just now be getting to see our ugly mugs while giving you the best in Badgers talk. So here is our first ever video version of Badgers Power Hour:

In the future you can expect us to have a lot more interactive features as we come to you every Tuesday at 8:30pm CT on YouTube and right here on MadTownBadgers!! You can chat along with the show, tweet with us, and even join in the Hangout in a segment or two we'll be working on this summer! 

So, please feel free to leave your feedback and remember this was our trial run - things will be cleaned up as we move forward with this exciting new phase in the history of Badgers Power Hour! 

When the Wisconsin football team took the field on Saturday for its annual spring game many of the regulars were turned into spectators- some due to injuries, others simply as a precaution.  The absence of some of the big-name players meant that there was even less to be taken from an already pedestrian affair.

But there was one exception. The battle for the starting quarterback position was on full display at Camp Randall. It’s a competition that has been brewing since last season.

At the dawn of the 2012 campaign, Wisconsin seemed to be dealing with a bumper crop of quarterbacks. Six, in total, participated in fall camp, each with his own unique skillset.  A trio of young men separated themselves from the pack: then, fifth-year senior Curt Phillips, Danny O’Brien; an exiled transfer from Maryland, and Joel Stave, a redshirt freshman and Wisconsin native who seemed to be all but an afterthought given the hype surrounding O’Brien’s arrival in Madison.

Before the season was over, each of the three men had started under center for the Badgers. O’Brien won the job when camp broke but, three starts and a handful of ball security issues later, he found himself on the bench in favor of Stave.

While the 2014 class is barely taking it's full shape and more offers are sure to come out as the evaluation period begins anew in relatively short order, one of the biggest names in attendance at this past weekend's annual spring game was a 2015 prospect named Austin Kafentzis. 

Kafentzis, one of the top 2015 QB prospects in the country, has been on the radar of head coach Gary Andersen since well before his announcement as the next head coach at Wisconsin and it appears that following Kafentzis' last minute trip to Madison this past weekend the Badgers are out in front for the time being. 

"We took pictures everywhere," Kafentzis told MadTown Badgers on Monday night. "It was just sweet, we got to take pictures with the past Heisman's at the school. I mean, just everything about that school just makes me want to go to the school even more. After this weekend they are definitely on top of the list."

That offer list includes BYU, Utah and Utah State as well as the Badgers and is expected to grow big time over the summer.

Coming into the spring game one of the biggest question marks for this team had to be the secondary. Not only are they replacing long-time starters and three of the four starters, but there wasn't a lot of experience or depth ready to take over... at least that was the narrative. 

In the annual Badgers spring game that's not what those in attendance witnessed. Instead what was seen was a group of young players more than capable of stepping up and making plays for this team come the fall. 

"The corners as a whole have really progressed, worked hard," head coach Gary Andersen said following the game. "It's a work in progress."

"The list is not real long with those kids, but I think they have competed day in and day out, and techniques, moving to man coverage, moving to playing dog coverage, blitzing sometimes doesn't sound like a lot, but it's a lot to put on a kid's plate. They've got better every single day, I believe."

(Ed note: Welcome back to my weekly football feature called "Sunday Morning Hangover," where I take a fresh look at the game that was and give you reasons for what went down the day before.)

If you were in search of major answers as to how the new look Badgers are going to look this upcoming season than the 2013 Wisconsin Spring Game was the wrong place for you to be in attendance on Saturday. Thanks to a ton of missing starters on both sides of the ball and a QB battle that won't be over till well into fall camp there wasn't going to be a lot of answers provided. 

However, that doesn't mean the 61-47 win by the defense (Cardinal) over the offense (White) didn't provide entertainment. In fact, what it did provide was a lot of intrigue as to what will happen between now and August 31st when the Badgers take on UMass to open the 2013 season. 

What was so intriguing about a game lacking definitive answers? For one we saw youth step up in big ways on the defensive side of the ball and that means a lot for the coaching staff to think about come the fall. Secondly, could we have seen one QB step up ahead of another in the battle that will wage on into the fall? We also saw some very interesting uses of Derek Watt from the fullback position.