Ryan Connelly is one of ten players left in the running for the Butkus Award.
Coming into this season, most Wisconsin fans would have assumed that if a Badger was going to be in the running for the Butkus Award at this point in the year it would be T.J. Edwards, who was a finalist for the award in 2017 and who, throughout his career, has received far more hype than fellow senior inside linebacker Ryan Connelly.
While Edwards has now begun to turn it up a notch after a relatively slow start to the season, Connelly has been Wisconsin’s best defensive player so far, and it is he who was named a Butkus semifinalist on Monday.
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.As you can imagine, there are some huge names on the list of semifinalists, such as Kentucky’s Josh Allen, Michigan’s Devin Bush, Alabama’s Mack Wilson, and LSU’s Devin White. However, Connelly is more than deserving of being mentioned alongside them with the year he has put together so far, and after flying under the radar over the last few seasons, he is finally starting to get his due.
Connelly has gradually established himself as one of the most underrated linebackers in college football ever since the 2016 season when he filled in for an injured Chris Orr during the LSU game at Lambeau Field, the first significant action of his career. The former walk-on stepped up to the occasion in that contest and has not looked back since.
Connelly has definitely saved his best for last in his senior season. He leads Wisconsin in solo, assisted, and total tackles, is second in tackles for loss and sacks, and also has a forced fumble.
While his numbers are impressive, they are not lofty enough to have him sitting high on any national leaderboards. However, the Butkus Award selection committee chose Connelly as a semifinalist because his impact on the game goes far beyond the box score. He is as reliable a linebacker as you will find in all of college football, rarely missing tackles and coming through for his team in big moments, such as his tipped pass last weekend against Northwestern that led to an Evan Bondoc interception and an ensuing touchdown for Wisconsin. If there is one thing that Paul Chryst can bank on each game, it’s that he is going to get, at a minimum, a solid game from Connelly.
That being said, I don’t think it’s likely that Connelly ultimately comes home with this award, mostly because many of his competitors play on more high-profile teams that are in the Playoff hunt and also are already being hyped as high draft picks in the spring.
Nonetheless, Connelly’s performance so far has been one of the few bright spots in what has otherwise been a grim season for Wisconsin. It has been a treat for Badger fans to watch him develop from a walk-on to a potential All-American and NFL draft pick over his career, and though we will all be rightfully disappointed in the final outcome for the team at the end of a season that began with so much promise, we should be sure to appreciate Connelly’s outstanding play while we still can. He will be missed greatly next season.
The finalists for the Butkus Award will be named on November 19, and the winner will be chosen or shortly before December 4. Last season’s recipient was Georgia’s Roquan Smith.
All stats courtesy of Sports-Reference.com