MADISON, Wis. – The Badgers got some more tough injury news at the end of fall camp when it became clear that sophomore linebacker Zack Baun would need to miss the entire 2017 season with a foot injury he suffered in fall camp. Baun was expected to be a second-team outside linebacker for UW this year, and his injury thins out a group that needs to replace both T.J. Watt and Vince Biegel from last year’s team.

But defensive coordinator Jim Leonhard said after practice on Tuesday that he feels good about the team’s depth at outside linebacker, even if they would prefer to have Baun healthy and available for the season. Leonhard said as of right now the Badgers will use a three-man rotation at outside linebacker, with Garret Dooley and Leon Jacobs as the starters and JUCO transfer Andrew Van Ginkel as the next man in, with sophomore Tyler Johnson as the next man up to take reps if necessary.

“Garret Dooley did a great job for us a year ago, Leon we think can do some really good things out there, and Andrew Van Ginkel has had a great spring, great fall camp, and we feel very confident about them,” Leonhard said Tuesday. “And Tyler Johnson traveled (last year), played a little bit of snaps, and helped us on special teams. Unfortunate to lose a guy like Zack but we do feel confident in the guys we’re going to play on Saturday.”