2017 College Football - Wisconsin Gets Miami in Orange Bowl, pg 21

[Kerb Hohl]

Cichy is going pro.

[ReasonablySober]

Cichy is leaving for the draft. Good luck to the kid.

[humanrefutation]

I don't blame Cichy for going to the draft, but it would have been nice to have him back next year.

[MickeyDavis]

Damn. Not a surprise but would have loved him back.

[Turk Nowitzki]

Where the hell do you draft a guy like him? Fantastic player but he's spent a lot of time off the field in the past couple years.

[Kerb Hohl]

He's the type of guy I'd want the Packers to draft. Yeah, we have our injury bugaboo, but I want guys that could potentially be elite. Not a defense made of try-hard middle round guys and replacement-level guys.

[Bernman]

Next year's defense is going to get decimated and it was the calling card for the team. I'm disappointed selfishly when hearing there is going to be attrition of extra guys like Cichy, maybe Nelson, or Edwards. But at the same time, not only can you not blame them for going pro early after what we've learned about head trauma, I'd even advise it if I were around them. Get paid while you can.

It would be nice to hear positive things about prospective replacements on defense. I think we'll be in good shape at secondary between Dixon, Burrell, and Bondoc. But the other positions I'm not so sure about. The scheme can only take you so far.

The offense might have to switch over to being the calling card. Can be confident in the running game obviously, but can't be one-dimensional. If we have to lean on passing, can't exactly have a game manager (who turns the ball over) in there any more (not to beat a dead horse).

[Kerb Hohl]

Next year's defense is going to get decimated and it was the calling card for the team. I'm disappointed selfishly when hearing there is going to be attrition of extra guys like Cichy, maybe Nelson, or Edwards. But at the same time, not only can you not blame them for going pro early after what we've learned about head trauma, I'd even advise it if I were around them. Get paid while you can.

It would be nice to hear positive things about prospective replacements on defense. I think we'll be in good shape at secondary between Dixon, Burrell, and Bondoc. But the other positions I'm not so sure about. The scheme can only take you so far.

The offense might have to switch over to being the calling card. Can be confident in the running game obviously, but can't be one-dimensional. If we have to lean on passing, can't exactly have a game manager (who turns the ball over) in there any more (not to beat a dead horse).

The offense will be a strength, obviously, with basically nobody leaving other than Fum.

They will still be good at ILB with Connelly, Farrar, and Orr among others. At OLB there is Van Ginkel, Johnson, Baun, and probably others. They had a lot of highly rated recruits like Grady and Burks at LB as well.

They do need to pray that Sagapolu stays one more year. He's the straw that stirs the drink. I have some worries about DE but assuming Sagapolu stays, Loudermilk and Rand is a good start at the DEs and again, they have some new guys that I'm sure will step up. The DEs were rock solid with James, Sheehy, and Obisah to go along with Loudermilk. That will be interesting. If Sagapolu does leave (I have no idea if he's close to it), then Rand may have to go to NT and they won't be as good as they could be.

Remember that this year's defense, while it was supposed to be good, lost Watt, Biegel, Cichy, Shelton, Musso and arguably got better. Edwards is huge and I'm assuming he's gone, but I think of the 8 or so slots they need to fill, I bet 5 or 6 of them barely skip a beat. That's how things have been the last few years and we have been operating with an embarrassment of riches in at least solid depth at most positions.

[Bernman]

Offense will be a strength....until we play the tougher teams on the schedule. And there will be more difficult conference games because PSU is added and the toughest games are on the road. I'd give Coan every chance to win that job in spring and in the early part of the preseason. That part is even weaker than last year. No sense in playing your starting qb until the last drive of the 4th quarter.

There are some defensive playmakers there like Loudermilk Dixon, and AVG (presumably, although he could go too with a strong bowl performance). And I know some of those guys looked good as recruits. But we haven't seen or heard much about them yet. So otherwise we're in the dark. And hard to envision there not being any holes considering all the declarations.

[Kerb Hohl]

Offense will be a strength....until we play the tougher teams on the schedule. And there will be more difficult conference games because PSU is added and the toughest games are on the road. I'd give Coan every chance to win that job in spring and in the early part of the preseason. That part is even weaker than last year. No sense in playing your starting qb until the last drive of the 4th quarter.

There are some defensive playmakers there like Loudermilk Dixon, and AVG (presumably, although he could go too with a strong bowl performance). And I know some of those guys looked good as recruits. But we haven't seen or heard much about them yet. So otherwise we're in the dark. And hard to envision there not being any holes considering all the declarations.

There may be holes, but even though we knew we had Van Ginkel as a solid transfer waiting in the wings, we lost literally 3 NFL caliber OLBs if you consider Cichy an OLB before the season and OLB was fine. Johnson was already playing well at OLB in his limited time this year. Baun got a lot of play 2 years ago before this year's season ending injury. I don't think Van Ginkel goes pro, he was supposedly only a part-time pass rusher until late in the year because I don't think he's big enough to hold up.

DE and CB are the question marks for me. If Nelson leaves, then in both position cases, the starters will likely consist of guys that did not really see much time on the field. The LB positions and safety all have an experienced returning player or two that I trust. Corner they may have to go to Carrier-Williams as their #1. DE I'm a bit less concerned about but it was just such a luxury to have 3 very solid seniors in the rotation.

[dietac]

I've heard that "some of the O-Line are considering declaring" from a former player that still has some connections. I can't say for certain how accurate that is but I wouldn't be shocked when you look at the success of recent players. I get why they would but it would be a bummer.