Wisconsin Football: Senior linebacker leaves program

Wisconsin Football has had another defensive player leave the program following the departure of cornerback Dontye Carriere-Williams last week.

Last week, sophomore cornerback Dontye Carriere-Williams decided to leave the Wisconsin Football program and transfer to a new school.

Evidently, he was not the only player to announce his departure in the days leading up to the Badgers’ matchup with Western Kentucky last Friday night.

According to Zach Heilprin of the Wisconsin Sports Zone Network, senior outside linebacker Arrington Farrar also made the decision to leave the team last week. A University of Wisconsin official told Heilprin that it was a mutual decision between Farrar and the team and that he would continue attending the university as he works to complete his degree.

Farrar’s departure looks to be the final chapter in what was a bit of a disappointing career for him in Madison.

According to the 247Sports rankings, he was a 4-star recruit coming out of Woodward Academy in Atlanta and the top-rated player in Wisconsin’s 2015 class. Farrar’s commitment on National Signing Day represented a major recruiting coup for the Wisconsin program, as he picked the Badgers over schools such as Notre Dame, Clemson, Stanford, and West Virginia, among others on what was an impressive offer list.

Unfortunately, Farrar struggled to find a true home at a position group throughout his three seasons as a Badger. He was recruited as a safety and spent his first two years there before making the switch to inside linebacker last year.

This season Farrar made yet another position switch, this time to outside linebacker. However, the senior was not included on the initial depth chart that was released for the Western Kentucky game last week, as the two backup spots behind Zack Baun and Andrew Van Ginkel were awarded to Tyler Johnson and Christian Bell.

According to Heilprin, Farrar had been working with the third-team defense in the last practice of fall camp that the media was given access to.

While Farrar had trouble securing a regular role for himself on defense, he had been one of Wisconsin’s most reliable special teams players over his career. In total, he played in 39 career games, contributing 29 tackles to go along with a forced fumble.