Most of the attention this offseason was paid to the gapping hole left in the middle of the Badgers defense with the departures of both starting inside linebackers. With a lot of young and inexperienced options left on the roster, it was only logical that it would be a main point of concentration for the Badgers and the media.
However, it also overshadowed a pair of talented and underrated outside linebackers in senior Joe Schobert and junior Vince Biegel. The duo combined for 18 tackles, 5.0 tackles for loss and 2.0 sacks last season.
Most of those combined stats? Yes, you guessed it — they came from Joe Schobert. The senior linebacker put up a monster game in the losing effort against Alabama, as he was credited for a team-best 13 tackles, 4.0 tackles for loss and 2.0 sacks.
While giving up over 500 yards of total offense and 35 points as a team wasn’t pretty, imagine what it would’ve been had Schobert or Biegel not been there?
The outside linebacking duo’s performance didn’t escape the notice of head coach Paul Chryst either.
“I thought that defensively, Joe Schobert stood out to me, and made a lot of plays,” Chryst said at his Monday news conference. “I thought Vince (Biegel) impacted the game and created some problems.”
No player on the Badgers defense played better or gave more than Schobert, who came in to the game as the least talked about and least heralded of the two outside linebackers.
Yet, on Saturday night he was one of the few defensive players that consistently showed up and made you take notice that he was on the field — and in a good way. It was equally impressive considering the man that allows Schobert and Biegel to be much more free on the outside, safety Michael Caputo, only saw the field for three plays before suffering a concussion on a knee to the temple.
To those who follow Badger football closely, Schobert is a known and respected quantity. After all, he did finish fourth on the team in tackles (69), third in tackles for loss (13.0) and fourth on the team in sacks (3.0).
In just one week against a top 5 team in the country, Schobert has already nearly hit his mark for sacks from last season and is 18 percent of the way to his season tackle total last year as well.
While the diehard fan knew Schobert before Saturday, perhaps now the rest of the Big Ten and casual fans will be paying attention to the less flashy side of the Badgers’ outside linebacking duo.
If he continues to play at that kind of level, statistically or effort wise, look for him to make the rest of the country take notice of him in his final season at Camp Randall.
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