Wisconsin Loses Star LB Jack Cichy to ACL Tear

Wisconsin Football loses star LB Jack Cichy for the 2017 season to an ACL tear

New Wisconsin Defensive Coordinator Jim Leonhard faces a significant adversity before a single snap of the 2017 season.  Leonhard and the defensive coaching staff will have to figure out how to replace the energy and production from LB Jack Cichy.

Star ILB Jack Cichy tore his ACL in practice on Tuesday and is lost for the season.  A UW Athletic Department news release indicates that Cichy will have surgery on Friday.

Cichy was injured with a torn pectoral muscle during the Iowa game last season but finished the game.  However the injury ended his season after just seven games.

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Wisconsin was counting on Cichy to lead the team and the defense in 2017.

"The Somerset, Wisconsin, native earned All-Big Ten honorable mention last season despite missing the Badgers’ final seven games due to injury. In his seven starts, Cichy recorded 60 tackles, 7.0 TFLs and 1.5 sacks.A former walk-on, Cichy was voted a team captain for the 2017 season. He also was placed on watch lists for the Bednarik Award, Butkus Award, Nagurski Trophy and Lott IMPACT Trophy this preseason."

Sports Illustrated created a list of the Top 100 players in college football.  Cichy was the only Badger on the list.  He was #60 in Sports Illustrated’s rankings judging his start to the 2016 campaign was “one of the best seasons of any linebacker in the country.”

So what does this mean for Wisconsin Football?  Well removing a captain and perhaps best overall player is a negative (hot take alert).   There’s no positive spin or silver lining to this.

This will put more pressure on junior TJ Edwards and sophomore Chris Orr to lead the linebackers.  Orr was lost to an ACL injury of his own on the first snap of the 2016 season.   Edwards led the Badgers with 89 tackles last season.  Junior ILB Ryan Connelly finished 6th in total tackles in 2016 getting more snaps following Orr and Cichy’s injuries.  He’ll be another name to watch at the ILB position.

The injury occurred in practice three weeks before the season starts.  That does give the Wisconsin defense some time to prepare and reshuffled the depth chart without Cichy.  This is a tough blow for Cichy and Wisconsin.  But the Badgers do have depth at LB to try and make up for Cichy’s absence.