Availability reports released for Purdue vs. Wisconsin on Friday night
Ahead of a Friday night showdown in West Lafayette, availability reports are out for Wisconsin and Purdue, with both teams in relatively good health. All told, 13 players across both squads will be out for Friday’s game.
The biggest question for Wisconsin ahead of kickoff is the health of Jake Renfro, as the interior offensive lineman is questionable. Elsewhere for the Badgers, eight players are out: cornerback Michael Mack, cornerback Max Lofy, wide receiver Tommy McIntosh, running back Riley Nowakowski, linebacker Aaron Witt, wide receiver Chris Brooks, tight end Jack Pugh and defensive lineman Isaiah Mullens.
On the other side, Purdue has just five players out prior to kickoff. The Boilermakers will be down cornerback Salim Turner-Muhammad, wide receiver Andrew Sowinski, defensive lineman Damarjhe Lewis, kicker Ben Freehill and offensive lineman Daniel Johnson. Fellow offensive lineman Gus Hartwig is questionable.
The Boilermakers and Badgers are set to kick off at 7 p.m. EST with the game broadcast on FS1.
The Badger defense enters Friday’s game rolling
Georgia Southern quarterback Davis Brin had a statline last Saturday that might never have before been recorded in college football history, and you have the Wisconsin defense to thank for that.
Brin completed 33 of his 55 passes for 383 yards and one touchdown. But he also threw five interceptions, and the Badgers defense also forced another fumble.
It was a huge moment for Wisconsin to be able to force a turnover after failing to do so in the first two weeks of the season.
“They made the plays when they were thrown that way,” Badgers head coach Luke Fickell said in his post-game press conference. “Some people laugh, well, they were thrown right to a couple of them. They were. But they’ve also been thrown just before and ball hasn’t bounced. When the plays were there, they had an opportunity to make them.”
Hunter Wohler led the charge on defense with two interceptions on the day. Wohler also had a team-high 10 tackles and a sack in the game, leading to him earning Big Ten Defensive Player of the Week honors.
The six turnovers led to the Badgers having a positive turnover margin on the season, leading to a funny moment on the sideline between Fickell and strength coach Brady Collins
“Coach Brady said that with about two minutes and 13 seconds to go, ‘hey, we’re on the positive in the turnover — I said, ‘don’t you dare jinx this thing. Who knows what can happen in two minutes and 13 seconds,’” Fickell said. “But we talked about it. I wasn’t going to overemphasize. We got turnovers but I still think maybe the better what we did was we tackled better. We leveraged things. When you get some turnovers, I think you’re by nature, just see yourself being a little bit more aggressive. Some of them were, you know, pressure throws to us and then some of them were really really good plays.”