This is the Trech Kekahuna everyone has been waiting for, including the receiver himself.
The Wisconsin Badgers redshirt freshman had a day to remember against Purdue on Saturday at Camp Randall Stadium, hauling in six catches for 134 yards, with two touchdowns, a celebratory call from his parents in Hawaii and a postgame trip to Sumo Steakhouse in Madison with his grandmother.
The flashy slot receiver had been limited to just four catches and 45 receiving yards on the season heading into the 52-6 victory over the Boilermakers , including back-to-back weeks without any catches at all. With Will Pauling hobbled and the Badgers needing a spark, Kekahuna found the end zone for the first time since he was part of the state-championship performance by Bishop Gorman High School (Nev.) in 2022.
"It's a marathon," Kekahuna said after the win. "You've just got to keep trusting and running. And today, I guess (God) left me some great opportunities, and I'm grateful for it."
Wisconsin scored late in the first half to take a 21-6 lead over the team picked to finish last in the Big Ten, then had a chance to double up with the opening kickoff of the second half. And Braedyn Locke found Kekahuna over the middle on a play that he transformed into a 69-yard touchdown.
"I saw a lot of green grass," he said. "But I saw one guy and C.J. (Williams) was enough to get in front of him, to decoy him off that way, and I just did my thing and scored."
Kekahuna flexed for the crowd, the first of two end-zone celebrations on the day.
"I think last week was probably a little bit hard on him," Badgers head coach Luke Fickell said. "He's still a young guy, but he is a competitor. He's what we want to continue to build our culture around. Guys like that who are fearless, competitive as all get-out. I didn't say they wouldn't make mistakes. … It was great to see him kind of step up and take that role and make some plays."
The Badgers weren't down just Pauling either, with Bryson Green and Tyrell Henry also leaving the receiving corps depleted with first-half injuries.
"Will and Trech are great complements of each other," said quarterback Braedyn Locke, whose 359 yards passing were the seventh-most in a game in Badgers history. "The lateral quickness and the overall playmaking ability that they have. That was kind of our plan for whoever was in. I don't know if we altered it for Trech or Will, but we want to take advantage of their skill set every week, and it was great to see today."
Kekahuna called the score "stress relief," and it also gave the Badgers a 28-6 lead that suddenly looked awfully comfortable. That left room for some additional fun on the next touchdown, a 25-yard snare in the end zone regardless of the pass interference on Purdue. This time, it was a different celebration in which he pretended the football was a beer can that he "shotgunned." It's very Wisconsin.
"I don't drink, I just did it as a cool celly," he said of the celebration. "All the wide receiver group and O-line said, 'You have to do it when you score.' The story was, I flexed, I was getting all (exicted) and I saw a beer on the front (of the stands), and I thought, 'I've gotta do the celly,' and I did it."
The familiar refrain after Kekakuna's promising camp performance has been for UW to figure out a way to get the ball into his hands, as was the case on a short shuffle pass at the line of scrimmage leading into a 21-yard run early in the game.
"Obviously Will Pauling and him play the same position," Fickell said. "We want to have tight ends on the field, we want to sometimes have two tight ends on the field, and when you do that, sometimes that means you can't have both of those explosive guys on the field or even one of them on the field. That's where you continue to figure out who you are and how you get the best players on the field.
"We know we have to establish the running game. We know we've got to get guys opportunities. … His (case) was a unique one, too; we were going to play him a lot, we had some things built in for him, but also when Will went down it gave him a lot more opportunities."
Though his parents weren't able to attend, they did give him a call afterward. His grandmother, who was in the stands, now gets to celebrate with a meal.
"First off it's a blessing, to just shine on a big stage," he said. "All the hard work I've put in day in and day out … and it all shows."
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Trech Kekahuna has long-awaited breakout game for Badgers
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