According to the Wisconsin State Journal starting defensive end David Gilbert will not be the starter on Saturday against Taylor Martinez and the rest of the Nebraska Cornhuskers. Why? Well, because he decided to call out the Huskers QB for amongst other things, being "soft" and "still looking like he's skipping rocks out there."
In making his announcement about Gilbert, head coach Bret Bielema made clear reference to that exact quote, saying, "(Gilbert) will be skipping rocks on the sideline with me, for the first play."
Bielema is once again sending a pretty strong message that Wisconsin players and coaches are held to a higher standard when it comes to how they handle themselves with the media and with opponents.
Gilbert won't start and Bielema also wasn't to forthcoming if the benching would be for a lengthy period, but clearly taking out your starting defensive end when the group as a whole isn't exactly a picture of health is sending a big time message to this team.
However, reading into Bielema's announcement about Gilbert it's pretty clear he won't be sitting out long beyond that first play.
The junior defensive end made statements not once, but twice about Martinez to two separate news outlets this week and that's why he likely earned the benching.
According to the article he told ESPNMadison.com that he didn't respect his throwing game at all and referenced who the Huskers have played and the loss to UCLA as proof that Martinez still isn't that good of a quarterback.
"It still looks like he's skipping rocks out there to me," Gilbert said in the ESPNMadison.com article. "But that's not my concern. That's probably more a concern of the defensive backs. My concern is hitting him. I don't care what he throws like. I'm not trying to let him throw at all.
"He still can't throw. I'm just going to say it. He still can't throw. He's not going to beat us with his arm."
Um, ya, I'm pretty sure Bielema is safe in this benching. It's one thing to be confident in your abilities and such, but to blatantly give the opposing team bulletin board material like that is well, rather Michigan State-esque and Wisconsin is better than that.
Lord knows we aren't the Spartans, wo can't control people not even in uniform for them on game day from bashing fellow Big Ten QB Denard Robinson, earning them a ban on Twitter.
This was a smart move by Bielema to nip this kind of crap in the bud, but had the statement above been the only incident with Gilbert I don't think he would've earned the benching, it was the accumulation of comments that did him in.
Gilbert will be a key component to stopping Martinez, so I understand being jacked up about playing against him and all of that, but you've got to be smarter than those comments, let's just hope this is the last time this season we're hearing about stuff like this from the Badgers, huh?
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