Despite the win on Friday night, the Wisconsin Badgers took a bit hit during the opening week of the season. The Badgers are going to be without a huge part of their defensive line. Defensive lineman James Thompson Jr. is likely to miss the entire 2024 season due to injury.
Wisconsin called the injury as “upper body”, and Thompson already underwent surgery for recovery. Head coach Luke Fickell spoke Monday about the loss of Thompson.
“Now he’ll be in a little bit of a different role for us this year. I don’t know that we’ll have a chance to get him back…It doesn’t look like James is probably going to make it. I don’t know that we’ll have him for the year. There’s a lot of things that are still, we’ve got to wait and see. I don’t know if it’s a four- to five-month thing.”
Thompson made 11 starts for the Badgers last season and recorded 29 tackles. That led the team. He was going to come into the 2024 season as the most experienced lineman on the squad.
The Badgers have gone through back to back 7 win seasons. In a bit of an oddity, the Badgers were not in the Associated Press top 25 to start the season.
The Badgers beat Western Michigan 28-14 in the opener. The road will not get easier for the Badgers as they will first host South Dakota, before back-to-back games against Alabama and USC.