The Wisconsin Badgers 2023-2024 football season is set to kick off on Saturday September 2nd versus the Buffalo Bulls. The team is mostly healthy with loads of new transfers coming in from Tanner Mordecai to Jason Maitre, this Badgers squad is more loaded than before.
However there is one transfer that is currently battling injury. That would be the new o-line transfer from Cinncinati, Jake Renfro. Today Badgers head football coach, Luke Fickell, took questions after the team’s practice session. One of these questions is relating to the question of when we’ll see Renfro back on the gridiron.
A week 3-4 return?:
As we all know, from watching higher level coaches do the same thing, coaches tend to play their cards close to the chest when it comes to giving the media inside information on a team’s operations.
However, luckily for us, Luke Fickell accidentally left his hand facing upwards, when going to get a drink during a game of cards. He outlined a clear and concise timeline for the return of Renfro, which isn’t all that usual in sports.
” Oh, Renfro? You know we’re hoping three to four weeks? “, he said in a questioning tone. ” We’ll see, it’s just a foot sprain “, he went on to say. ” If he does make it back to the rotation or even be the one, I wouldn’t sell it short “, the coach explained.
He went on to explain once again that we shouldn’t sell his return short. ” But I wouldn’t put it past him, we’ve seen enough from him to know that when healthy and he gets himself back into the shape he needs to play, he’ll be in there “, says Luke. This isn’t all of the offensive line juice Luke has to offer up for us today however, he gives another key update on this unit’s future going forward.
A little more movement?:
When asked if he has his five guys ready on the offensive line for week one, Luke plainly said no. ” I still think there’s still a little bit of movement “, he explains. ” I don’t know if you can walk out and say hey this is the five, it’s more like six (or) seven “, he continued.
One thing I love about Luke Fickell personally is how upfront he answers the media, it gives fans the transparency they so desperately want from their team and staff.
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Writers note: Don’t mind me saying the word ” question” twice in the same sentence thats my mistake. Also I know it sounds hypocritical to say he’s being clear and how great that is but also his tone was of uncertainty/questioning. Just to clear it up, that’s because while he gave the exact weeks we could see Jake return, his tone didn’t match the words of confidence he gave towards Jake. My praise of the coach’s straightforwardness is purely about what he said not how he says it, I hope that clears any potential confusion ahead of time. Happy reading!
Lastly, I know he didn’t literally say ” no ” but by ” plainly no ” I mean his answer clearly states that we don’t know who the Badgers five will be.