It’s been a notably uncharacteristic year for the Wisconsin football team’s rushing attack. Numerous injuries to both the offensive line and running backs have led to weekly lineup shuffles and there has been little consistency throughout the season as a result.
But an important piece to UW’s offensive success — lead tailback Corey Clement — has returned and finally added some stability to UW’s ground game.
For the offensive linemen, it’s very encouraging for them to have their top running back on the field and producing at a high level, but that doesn’t change their mindset, redshirt freshman Michael Deiter said.
“It’s great having Corey back, bringing so much experience,” Deiter said. “He’s a great player. But as a lineman, you want to be able to run the ball no matter who is back there. You can’t just think, ‘We have Corey back, everything will be okay.'”
And in his first time on the field in nearly two months, Clement was encouraged with the play of his offensive line.
With all the doubt, criticism and change this line has faced this season, Clement said that he really respects the way they have handled all of their struggles thus far.
“This is a special line and they go through so much every damn practice,” Clement said. “They rotate. One could be a guard one day and could be a tackle the next. Those guys handle adversity very well.”
But between Corey’s triumphant return and the noticeable improvement in the line’s performance, Deiter said he and his fellow linemen are still not content.
“I think we’ve improved tremendously, but I still don’t think we can be satisfied at all,” Deiter said. “We can’t take the approach that we had a big win and we’ve arrived. We got to keep working and keep improving.”
The need for improvement is more important than ever this season, as redshirt junior center and leader of the offensive line Dan Voltz is out for the season with a knee injury, causing yet another shuffle on the line.
And while on the surface it may appear that the constant injuries and shifting of positions can stunt the growth of a young line like the Badgers have, it’s actually been the opposite, Deiter said.
“I think it’s actually made it easier to improve,” Deiter said. “Guys are forced to step up and improve right away or else you won’t look right. With all the line switching it’s forced guys to step in and forced the line as a whole to get better.”
Deiter in particular has had to step up in a big way despite being only a redshirt freshman.
With Voltz out for the year, Deiter was looked at to shift from guard to center with little advance notice. A player transitioning positions in the middle of a season is not an easy feat, but Deiter has prepared well and made the transition an easy one, UW offensive coordinator Joe Rudolph said.
“I think knowing you are going to [switch positions] from the beginning of the week on allows you to take more ownership of it,” Rudolph said. “I thought he did a really good job. A lot of areas he needs to improve, but I really like what he did.”
