After losing their star player and head coach from last season’s Outback Bowl champion squad, the Badgers will trot out a different looking team to open the 2015 season when they take on Alabama Sept. 5. But before that, there figures to be plenty of intrigue entering Paul Chryst’s first spring game as Wisconsin’s head coach.
John Settle’s deep, clear voice cut through the pounding music projecting from Camp Randall Stadium’s sound system and the cacophony of whistles and smacking shoulder pads during individual position drills at a recent spring practice.
When Gary Andersen shocked the college football world by darting for Corvallis last December, it set the wheels in motion for yet another coaching staff shuffle for the Wisconsin Badgers.
It’s no secret that teams live and die by their quarterbacks, both at the collegiate and professional level. As Wisconsin fans have endured for years, a team can only go so far on the shoulders of its running backs. When it gets to those crucial third-down situations late in games, teams have to throw the ball, and the ones with the better quarterback usually finish on top.
Ketchup has its mustard, Han Solo has his Chewbacca and, more relevantly, John Clay had his Montee Ball and James White.
After an offseason punctuated by coaching changes, a scramble to repair a recruiting class in peril and the departure of perhaps the best running back in program history, the Badgers can now focus on what’s important: playing football.
Brian Urlacher, Patrick Willis and Ray Lewis. When you think of the great middle linebackers of our era, those three come to mind. They were game-changing players who are headed to the hall of fame.
Former Wisconsin linebacker Chris Borland told “Outside the Lines” Monday that he is retiring from the NFL after just one season with the San Francisco 49ers, citing unease about the potential long-term health effects of brain trauma as the reason for his departure.Borland, who was primed to start at inside linebacker for the 49ers after a strong rookie campaign and the retirement of veteran linebacker Patrick Willis last week, told “Outside the Lines” that he’s currently in good health. His primary concerns centered on living a normal life after football, without being hampered by neurological diseases that have struck former NFL players."I'm concerned that if you wait till you have symptoms, it's too late ... There are a lot of unknowns. I can't claim that X will happen. I just want to live a long healthy life, and I don't want to have any neurological diseases or die younger than I would otherwise,” Borland told “Outside the Lines.”The 24-year-old Borland’s announcement comes as a shock to both 49er and Badger fans alike, but the implications for the NFL’s handling of brain-related injuries could be enormous.The NFL recently scuffled in its plan to reach a class action settlement with former players who have filed suit with the league seeking compensation for neurological diseases that have developed as a result of playing football. Borland’s decision could be one more step in young players deciding to never have to be on the bad end of that negotiating table.
Just as one item was checked off his offseason to-do list, head coach Paul Chryst will have to pencil in another before he can begin his first season leading the Badgers.
In a partly horrifying, partly impressive discovery Wednesday afternoon, Wisconsin Athletic Director Barry Alvarez walked in on newly hired head football coach Paul Chryst in the middle of his office constructing a vast fort out of chewing tobacco tins and personal spitters.
Wisconsin head coach Paul Chryst sat down with the media on National Signing Day to discuss the Badgers 2015 recruiting class, one that came with serious drama after the departure of Gary Andersen.
James White is no stranger to big football games. The former Wisconsin running back, now a rookie with the New England Patriots, arrived in Arizona Monday for one of the most anticipated games of his life: Super Bowl XLIX.
With the college football season finally complete, it’s time for the final installment of my Heisman Watch series—an early preview of 2015’s potential candidates.
TAMPA - Melvin Gordon has left his final mark on Wisconsin football. In a season defined by broken records, national accolades and dominant performances, Gordon can add one last highlight to his repertoire: a victory in his final game as a Badger.
It seems simple enough. Pound the ball with Melvin Gordon, force defenses to stack the box, then take advantage of soft coverage in the secondary with a devastating play action pass.
Discussing Wisconsin’s offensive productivity feels inherently wrong with the memory of its nightmarish 59-0 embarrassment at the hands of Ohio State still fresh. Yet, prior to that forgettable night in Indianapolis, the Badgers ranked 20th in total offense and were the 14th-best scoring team in the nation. They had put up at least 34 points in six of their prior seven games, and by all measures appeared to be a nearly unstoppable offensive force.
It has been a tumultuous past few weeks for No. 17 Wisconsin. From the euphoria of a Big Ten West title to the demoralizing loss to Ohio State in the Big Ten Championship and the shocking departure of head coach Gary Andersen, there are few emotions the Badgers haven’t experienced lately.
It’s amazing what one week can do for a program.
When Paul Chryst arrived in Madison to become the next head football coach at Wisconsin, he looked out at Camp Randall from his window at HotelRED and recalled memories of a program that has been an integral part of his life since childhood.
Read on Issuu
Solutions by The State News
