We’re now just a week away from the Badgers heading to Houston and taking on LSU, and college football in general is less than a week away from kicking off. However, for the Wisconsin football program things are still very fluid on and off the field.
Following Thursday’s session with the media, head coach Gary Andersen had plenty of news for Badger nation. Some of it of the good variety, some of it of the interesting variety and some of it of the sad variety.
We might as well start with the bad news, and that involves running back…then safety…then running back Vontae Jackson. Andersen announced that after a fourth knee injury Jackson has called his career at Wisconsin a day.
According to Jim Polzin of the Wisconsin State Journal, Jackson and the coaching staff came to the decision together:
“He’s in a good spot,” Andersen said. “We’ve discussed it; we’ve spent time together. His family is on board, everybody knows it’s the best thing, and he’s made pretty much that decision as we continue to move forward. I feel bad about it, but I feel good that he can move on in life now. He can close that chapter and let’s go onward.”
Jackson hasn’t played a down of football since the first game of his senior year at Kenosha Bradford, where he took over as starter following in Melvin Gordon’s path. However, he suffered a torn ACL in that first game, only to be followed up by two straight tears of his ACL in the right knee. He appeared to suffer another knee injury when returning back to running back from safety in fall camp.
Sad to see this happen to a kid with big dreams on the football field, but it sounds like he’s come to grips with the injury.
On to the more happy news….Wisconsin has an opening game opponent for the 2017 season. Andersen confirmed that Wisconsin will take on Utah State at Camp Randall.
For Andersen it was a chance to challenge his team, repay the school that made him a head coach and also give Utah State a game they may not otherwise get.
“We always look at it and make the best decision for the school,” Andersen said of the scheduling process, via Madison.com. “It’s been a great relationship, a situation I’m used to. But I do also realize that I’m lucky to be in this spot to where the athletic director gives you an opportunity to be involved because there’s a lot of places that is not the fact.
“I talked to him about the Utah State game. I felt like it was a great opportunity for Utah State. It’s hard for them to get those games, and those games are going away as we know. There are not nearly as many of them and (Alvarez) thought that’d be great to have them come back and play.”
The 2017 schedule is now filled out, as the Badgers will take on Utah State and Florida Atlantic at home (two schools with obvious ties to the Badger family as of today) and then will take on USF in Tampa Bay.
And now for the “we didn’t see this coming file,” Andersen also let the media know there is a position switch along the defensive line. Warren Herring will no longer be playing nose guard, as he’ll be flipping outside with Konrad Zagzebski.
Once again, Jim Polzin of the Wisconsin State Journal had the explanation for this move.
“I think it gives us a great opportunity for Warren to be a playmaker at the defensive end spot in certain situations,” Andersen said. “Zags moves inside, where he’s been very comfortable for the last two days. (Arthur) Goldberg backs him up, and it’s been a good move.”
Considering the need for athleticism on the edge and more of a pass rushing presence, this move isn’t all that surprising. After all, Herring had been practicing outside in certain packages. Apparently that was enough for the coaching staff to move him out there permanently.
Finally, the Badgers are getting some recognition in the preseason, with three players earning preseason All-Big Ten honors according to ESPN.com and six players were named part of the two-team deep All-Big Ten list at Big Ten OT.
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