Phillips suffers setback with knee
MADISON - Sophomore quarterback Curt Phillips was in the midst of making a speedy recovery following a torn ACL suffered last spring when he suffered a devastating setback.
According to a source close to the Badger program, Phillips suffered an apparent knee injury during Tuesday's practice when he was running scout team drills.
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Much like he did when he originally injured his knee during spring camp, Phillips was scrambling for extra yardage when he planted and the knee gave out.
Following Thursday's practice, head coach Bret Bielema acknowledged an injury did occur during Tuesday's practice, but that any announcement wouldn't be made until later.
"Basically Curt was on the scout team just trying to get us a look and trying to get us some reps," Bielema said. "We got him in a situation now that we'll probably hold off from announcing anything until Saturday or Sunday."
Phillips seemed to take the mold of a quick healer as he was able to participate in certain drills during fall camp and into the season. As of recently, Phillips was cleared for full practice.
Redshirt freshman Jon Budmayr, true freshman Joe Brennan and Nate Tice are the three remaining quarterbacks on the roster behind senior Scott Tolzien.
No. 7 Wisconsin plays host to Indiana Saturday afternoon. Kickoff for that game is set for 11:00 a.m.
Other injury updates:
-Starting center Peter Konz will not play this Saturday as he recovers from an ankle injury he suffered at Purdue. Bill Nagy will start in his place.
-John Clay, who was scheduled to practice Wednesday, looks to be a game time decision. Luckily for the position, it seems as though freshman James White is full go entering the Indiana game.
-Lance Kendricks, who played at times at Purdue, is back to full strength.
-David Gilbert has also been cleared to play against Indiana.
-Josh Oglesby, who originally suffered a knee injury during the San Jose State game but returned to game action later in the season, underwent surgery to repair his damaged knee.
"When they got in there the ACL needed repair," Bielema said. "He's been there, done that. This is his second ACL repair. We don't know how much we'd have him involved in spring ball but they felt really good about the surgery and moving forward."
-Freshman defensive lineman Konrad Zagzebski also underwent surgery this week.
"He'd had some past shoulder issues," Bielema said. "So we
decided to have the surgery and move forward right now."
Changing of schemes?
Starting with the opening kickoff that went for naught, it was obvious Purdue was trying to keep the ball away from Badger kick returner David Gilreath.
It seemed every time the Boilermakers kicked the ball, they either kicked it short to Bradie Ewing or to whatever side opposite of Gilreath.
Knowing that Gilreath poses such a threat returning kicks, UW is aware teams may kick away from him throughout the remainder of the season. UW apparently has a plan in place to supplant that trend.
"We've kind of made some adjustments with our schemes as well," Bielema said. "David has done a nice job as well as the whole return unit. We knew it was probably going to be a matter of time. I was a little surprised it took until game nine for that to come out, but we've got to make an adjustment."
The following is the audio file from Bielema.