Back in the offseason, the Wisconsin Badgers went a different route in the transfer portal this year, using their increased pool of resources to target quantity, as they brought in over 30 transfers. That idealogy was best seen at wide receiver, where Wisconsin added Jaylon Domingeaux, Shamar Rigby, Malachi Coleman, and Zion Kearney to a room with only three returners.
Wisconsin elected to bet on unproven talent. Domingeaux had only produced at the FCS level, while Rigby, Coleman, and Kearney were largely unproven at the Power 4 level.
That led to a competition starting in spring ball and going into traveling through fall camp at receiver before Wisconsin settled in on their top players at the position. Then, in Week 1, the depth chart began to emerge, with Malachi Coleman earning national headlines for a couple of nasty routes, en route to a four-catch, 76-yard day with a touchdown.
Coleman felt like an afterthought when initially added, given his lack of production at both Nebraska and Minnesota. His 76 yards last weekend were just seven shy of his full-season total at Minnesota last season. He didn’t have any stats in 2024, while catching eight passes for 139 yards at Nebraska in 2023.
Head coach Luke Fickell doesn’t really know what happened to Coleman over the last two years, but there was one key influence in bringing him to Madison: running backs coach Jayden Everrett, who had formerly been at Minnesota.
“We had a little bit of history of watching him our first year against him,” Fickell said of Coleman. “So that’s probably where he played as much as anything his first year, I think at Nebraska. What happened in between there, I don’t know. I think the best thing for us is, you’re taking a lot of educated guesses in particular, which is why it’s so difficult to think you are going to fully really build around taking guys out of the portal. There’s things that you can enhance in what we want to do as a program, but if you think you’re going to build for the sport in the portal, I think it’s tough.
“But I think with having Jayden Everett here who had been with him, who gave us a greater insight of who he is and what he has the ability to do, we felt comfortable about taking that chance. And we love Malachi. I don’t know if I said it enough, he missed a bunch of fall camp. He missed a good amount of spring football for different reasons, injuries and different things like that, but he’s never missed a day. And I mean that in a way that he’s been out there every single day with the attitude, with an effort level, with an energy, whether he’s been practicing, whether there’s not been practicing. It’s been great to see him go out there, and get an opportunity to make some plays and continue to grow, which he did. When someone has been with a guy before or knows him, I’d say 85 percent of the guys, there was some type of relationship before the portal started. I like where he is and has the chance to get to.”
Coleman’s frame at 6’5, 205 pounds gives the Badgers a vertical threat on the outside with a strong size-speed profile. And he could very well turn out to be Wisconsin’s top receiver in an unpredictable room.
