MADISON, Wis. – The Wisconsin Badgers got some good news on the injury front ahead of their road trip to Iowa City when the team announced that senior outside linebacker Vince Biegel would return to the field for UW after missing their last two games while recovering from foot surgery.
Biegel was upgraded from questionable to eligible to play on Wisconsin’s injury report on Thursday, and head coach Paul Chryst said that his best defensive player was ready to return to the field.
“He’s practiced all week, so we’re planning on him playing,” Chryst said of Biegel before practice on Thursday. “Vince is always ready to go. I’ve loved what he did to get himself to this point, and he gets an opportunity to play.”
Biegel was listed on the team’s preliminary depth chart at the start of the week, suggesting that he they were expecting to have him available for their game against the Hawkeyes. Senior linebacker Garret Dooley stepped up in place of Biegel and recorded 11 tackles in UW’s games against Ohio State and Michigan, but Chryst said that getting Biegel back on the field could be a big help for his team.
“He was emotionally invested in the team during the time that he was off,” Chryst said. “The impact is on the field, because he can now play on the field. He was the same guy, and that’s what was kind of neat is that he was the same guy when he wasn’t playing.”
The Badgers did rule out linebacker Zack Baun and nose tackle Olive Sagapolu for the game, along with cornerback Natrell Jamerson, after Baun and Sagapolu were listed as questionable on Monday.
Losing Sagapolu in the middle of Wisconsin’s base 3-4 defense means that younger nose tackles like Garrett Rand and Billy Hirschfeld will have to step up against the Hawkeyes, who will look to challenge the Badgers up front and establish the run game.
“Obviously we’ll miss Olive,” Chryst said. “(But) we’ve got guys on the d-line (that) have to … there’s opportunity for Garrett or Billy. You go with it. One thing about that group that is really cool is they’re a tough group and a prideful group. They know that they’ve got to step up their game to keep (up) the pride of that room.”
Offensive lineman Jon Dietzen, fullback Alec Ingold, and wide receiver Rob Wheelwright were also listed as questionable for this week’s game.
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John Veldhuis covers Wisconsin football, basketball and recruiting for BadgerBlitz.com on the Rivals.com network. Follow him on Twitter at @JohnVeldhuis.
