Injuries have forced countless Badgers to step up this season. Dare Ogunbowale, Chris Orr and Bart Houston are some of the biggest names to succeed when coming off the bench, but of late the Badgers have also relied heavily on outside linebacker Jack Cichy to play a prominent role on defense.
The redshirt sophomore first slid inside as a replacement to Orr two weeks ago against Rutgers, and in the Badgers’ two games since, Cichy has 18 total tackles and two sacks.
Jack, the younger brother of Wisconsin women’s basketball player Tessa Cichy, admitted to being nervous when he made his first career start against Rutgers, but he has overcome any and all nerves and has been an integral part of the Badgers’ defense since then. After his 10-tackle, two-sack performance against Maryland two weeks ago, safety Tanner McEvoy praised Cichy for his play.
“Playing that spot in our defense, there’s a lot of moving parts,” McEvoy said. “He’s basically the guy. He’s got to make every tackle.”
This weekend, Cichy will likely be the guy again. Coming into the season, inside linebacker was one of the main question marks about the Wisconsin defense, but such concerns have been stifled as the season has progressed.
Sophomore Justin Jackson is the most important player on the Wildcats’ offense, averaging 122 rushing yards in Northwestern wins, so Cichy along with fellow linebackers Joe Schobert and Vince Biegel will be counted on to stuff the Wildcats’ running game this weekend.
UWBadgers.com contributed to this story.
