Wisconsin's star center, Jake Renfro, has been dealing with a lingering injury since fall camp that kept him out of practices. While he played in the opener against Miami (OH), he surprisingly appeared on the injury list before Middle Tennessee. The mystery deepens as no one really knows if it's the same injury that kept him out of fall camp practices or if it's something new.
Luke Fickell was pretty coy about the injury in the post-game press conference. He didn't seem willing to share a ton about it, but there is some optimism from him that it's small.
""I thought that was something that kind of came up on a Monday practice that was a little bit of a surprise to us. I don’t think anybody probably knew that until gametime. We were hoping by late in the week he’d be okay.""Luke Fickell
Wisconsin has optimism about starting center Jake Renfro's undisclosed injury
Related: One huge problem rears its ugly head again despite Badgers' blowout win
Fickell went on to say that he hopes that with the week off, he will be okay next week, but it's something to monitor. That he doesn't have definite answers, he also said, the same is true for Billy Edwards Jr. He doesn't know yet, and it will be something to figure out as the week goes along.
This is good news on both fronts, but also makes it seem like Saturday against Alabama may be more like a 50-50 shot for both of those star players. It's hard to know.
While Danny O'Neil did great in Billy Edwards Jr.'s absence, the offensive line clearly missed Renfro, especially in that center position. Kerry Kodanko a six-year depth piece struggled the whole game and ended up with the lowest PFF score along the line that clearly wasn't a strength of the team against Middle Tennessee.
More will be asked of Fickell during Monday's press conference as the team prepares for Saturday, and that may give a clearer window into the return of both players.