Wisconsin football assistant coach profiles: wide receivers coach Alvis Whitted

An overview of Wisconsin assistant coach Alvis Whitted, who is back for a third season as the wide receivers coach.

The Wisconsin Badgers football coaching staff underwent an uncharacteristically high amount of change since the team beat Arizona State in the Las Vegas Bowl on December 30.

With several new coaches on the staff, and multiple retained coaches shifting responsibilities, All Badgers will spend the next week providing an overview of each position coach on head coach Paul Chryst's coaching staff.

Previously covered position coaches:

• Defensive coordinator Jim Leonhard
• Offensive coordinator Bobby Engram
• Cornerbacks coach Hank Poteat
• Offensive line coach Bob Bostad
• Defensive line coach Ross Kolodziej
• Tight ends coach Chris Haering

Up next, we profile Wisconsin assistant Alvis Whitted who is in charge of the wide receiver room in 2022. 

Wisconsin assistant coach Alvis Whitted throwing the football for a drill during spring practice. 

Matt Belz, All Badgers

Name: Alvis Whitted

Role: Wide receivers coach

Hometown: Durham, North Carolina

High School: Orange High School, in Hillsborough, North Carolina

Alma mater: NC State Wolfpack

Years at Wisconsin: Whitted is entering his third season at Wisconsin, all of which have come overseeing the wide receivers. 

Playing career: Alvis Whitted played college football and ran track at NC State from 1994 to 1997. A wide receiver and return man, Whitted accounted for almost 2,000 kick return yards during his time with the Wolfpack and ranks as one of the program's best in that category.

Whitted would go to play in the NFL for nine seasons, including stops with the Jacksonville Jaguars, Atlanta Falcons, and Oakland Raiders. He finished his career with just over 1,000 receiving yards and six touchdowns while also contributing on special teams. Whitted played in Super Bowl XXXVII in 2002 while with the Raiders.

Previous coaching experience: After a successful NFL career, Whitted turned to coaching. He began his coaching journey as a wide receivers coach at Millsaps College in Mississippi, which competes at the DIII level. Whitted then landed a job at UCLA in 2011 as an offensive quality-control coach before ultimately being hired full-time to coach the wide receivers at Colorado State in 2012. Whitted would develop a pair of NFL Draft picks and AP All-Americans in Michael Gallup and Rashard Higgins, both of which are still on NFL rosters.

After seven seasons in Fort Collins, Whitted would go on to coach the wide receivers for the Green Bay Packers in 2019 before taking a job on Paul Chryst's staff at Wisconsin in 2020.

As a recruiter: Alvis Whitted has aggressively altered the wide receiver room since joining the staff. Chimere Dike, Dean Engram, and Stephan Bracey are the only scholarship wide receivers who remain from Ted Gilmore's time at Wisconsin, and Whitted has loaded up at the position in the past two recruiting cycles.

The Badgers signed Skyler Bell and Markus Allen back in 2021, which was Whitted's first recruiting class on the staff. Both players are already expecting to contribute next season as redshirt freshmen. As part of the 2022 class, Whitted not only added three freshmen on scholarship (Tommy McIntosh, Chris Brooks Jr., and Vinny Anthony) but also brought in UCLA transfer wide receiver Keontez Lewis.

Whitted's recruiting activity is primarily related to recruiting the wide receiver position at a national level, which is highlighted by commitments in the 2024 cycle from Hawaii and Ohio. He also recruits the state of Missouri hard for Wisconsin, primarily focusing his efforts in Saint Louis and Kansas City. 

Coaching trends: Alvis Whitted and the Wisconsin offense will look to replace three senior wide receivers from a year ago. Given how quickly Whitted has restocked the position room, there is plenty of depth and talent, but most of it is still relatively unproven beyond Chimere Dike.

One noticeable shift that Whitted has made since taking over the wide receiver group is that he prioritizes bigger pass catchers. While Skyler Bell and Vinny Anthony are only six feet tall, and 2024 commit Trech Kekahuna is 5-foot-11, the rest of the players brought in by Whitted are at least 6-foot-1. Tommy McIntosh, Chris Brooks, and 2024 commit Collin Dixon are all at least 6-foot-3, while Keontez Lewis is 6-foot-2, and Markus Allen is 6-foot-1 and weighs 218 pounds as of the spring.

This uptick in player size for the position fits Wisconsin's run-first style nicely, and it should provide the quarterbacks with bigger targets to throw to. The Badgers need to have a better passing game in 2022, and development at the wide receiver position would go a long way in helping meet that goal. 

Four miscellaneous facts:

• Alvis Whitted was a historically good track athlete in college. He holds multiple NC State track records and finished sixth in the 1996 United States Olympic Trials, losing to stars such as Carl Lewis and Michael Johnson.
• He was a two-time All-American in track and field.
• Whitted coached All-Pro wide receiver, Davante Adams, in 2019, and helped the Packers win the NFC North in his lone season in Green Bay.
• Whitted was a seventh-round pick in the 1998 NFL Draft, going No. 192 to the Jacksonville Jaguars. 

Related links:

• Wisconsin freshmen expectations and introductions
• 10 players returning from injury for the Wisconsin Badgers
• Assistant coach profiles: tight ends coach Chris Haering

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