Kelly Sheffield blasts voter who snubbed Charlie Fuerbringer in All-Big Ten voting

The Wisconsin Badgers are set for a pivotal season that features a group of talent that is arguably as good as it's ever been. The talent is young, but the ceiling is high. The good news for Wisconsin and Kelly Sheffield is that the Badgers return one of the best setters in the nation, Charlie Fuerbringer. She's a part of a group of players listed on the watchlist for AVCA Player of the Year, and she's a preseason All-Big Ten player...but it wasn't unanimous, and Sheffield is ticked about it.

Karl Winter jokes that he baited Sheffield into answering a question about Fuerbringer not being unanimous, but it's clear Sheffield was already stewing about it. He gave one of the stronger answers that he has ever given, even blasting his own colleagues. "There's either fools for coaches in our conference, or there's some that have a message they are trying to send...There's a clown somewhere."

Kelly Sheffield is fed up with the fact that Badgers won't get unanimous votes

Related: Wisconsin volleyball is everywhere you look in the preseason polls

Sheffield went full rant mode about how each year it seems that there are players on his team who don't get unanimous selections. He brought up Mimi Colyer, Carter Booth, and even Fuerbringer from last season, and how none of them got the unanimous vote to be All-Big Ten. If you think that it doesn't bother him, he then pulled out Sarah Franklin as an example, saying, "Sarah Franklin was not a unanimous All-Big Ten after she won National Player of the Year. So, some clown in there said, 'Hey, we know you were National Player of the Year, but we don't believe you are one of the top 18 or 19 players in the conference.'"

Sheffield then claims he can rattle the stats off to prove they are the best, but then tells reporters it doesn't bother him (ha!). He simply recognizes there's a "clown" somewhere among the coaches who doesn't understand who the best players in the conference are.

For Fuerbringer, she's truly one of the best setters in the country. In many media members' minds, she's No. 2 behind Bergen Reilly of Nebraska. Which means that she could be the No. 2 setter in the conference but also the country.

Badger fans would rather have Feurbringer, who is a Badger through and through and has represented Wisconsin as well as any volleyball player over the years. Last season, she was busted up partway through the year but was pivotal in the run Wisconsin made throughout the Big Ten Tournament and NCAA Tournament to end the year.

Now, the Badgers are just days away from a big season in which the ceiling is as high as it's ever been, but many fans are bracing for the rollercoaster of having the majority of the roster be young freshmen. Feurbringer, helping set the table and get those young hitters and blockers in place, will go a long way, and she will prove that she should have been unanimous All-Big Ten.

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