Wisconsin
‘He’s the next Megatron:’ USC’s Ja’Kobi Lane breaks out against Wisconsin
LOS ANGELES – It was just another Tuesday practice in the middle of Red Mountain’s season, and wide receivers coach Diego Hernandez had no possibility to prepare for the show Ja’Kobi Lane unfolded before his very eyes.
He ran a simple out route, Hernandez remembered, his spindly limbs arriving to his destination before his quarterback could deliver. The ball arrived late, as Lane was already creeping towards the sidelines. So the kid threw his hands behind his back, toe-tapped to stay inbounds, and pinned the toss in his mitts.
“I was like, ‘Dude, that’s – human beings shouldn’t be allowed to do that kind of stuff,’” Hernandez remembered.
They have seen it coming, from Lane’s earliest days in Mesa, Arizona, a community waiting for the greatness to bloom within his towering frame and beating heart. He was the center of attention, at all times, because there was no way to ignore a 6-foot-4 kid who’d walk around campus bumping music from his headphones and dancing with cheerleaders and asking teachers for candy. And his coaches, throughout time, have tried to figure out how to steer Lane straight, a special talent coming with a complex package.
And for two years at USC, flashes of greatness have come interspersed with growing pains, the program curating a delicate ecosystem for Lane to both feel prioritized and challenged in his maturity.
“He’s the next Megatron,” Lane’s high school coach Kyle Enders told the Southern California News Group earlier in the fall, comparing Lane to NFL star Calvin Johnson, “if he wants to be.”
He made that leap Saturday in USC’s win over Wisconsin, preparation and personality and potential fusing together in an emphatic explosion. In another concerningly slow start for USC’s offense, as seemingly everything that could go wrong did in every facet of the game, Lane strapped up his behemoth of a right-arm brace and went to work in a star-making third-quarter drive.
Down 21-10, with some momentum deep in Wisconsin territory after a muffed punt recovered by long snapper Hank Pepper, quarterback Miller Moss – who’s become both an off-field friend and on-field mentor – found Lane for a first down on a third-and-7. A few plays later, on a third-and-15, Moss rolled right and Lane drifted with him to the sideline, waving an outstretched left hand.
Moss fired, and with incredible mind-body awareness, Lane planted both his feet in a deep lunge inbounds before catching and toppling out-of-bounds with a first down.
“He stepped up,” head coach Lincoln Riley said postgame, “and made some big-time plays.”
He simply looked unguardable, stretching himself both horizontally and vertically, going up high for a go-get-it fade ball in the end zone on that same drive. He played with toughness, when USC desperately needed it, hauling in one second-quarter ball over the middle and immediately thumped so hard his helmet flew off.
Immediately, Lane pointed in a signal for a first-down, beaming from ear-to-ear.
“These things are always, there’s a little bit of a grind to it, obviously,” Riley said, earlier in the fall. “A lot of time, all that, involved. When you got people that are high-energy people that everybody enjoys being around, they affect the mood of the group, the energy level of the group so much.”
He gave USC a jolt, on each of his 10 catches Saturday, racking up the first 100-yard game of the season by any Trojan receiver. And even as a host of issues have plagued USC’s young receiving corps this season, and continued on Saturday – drops, missed blocks, poor clock awareness – they followed in Lane’s wake in much-needed second-half playmaking.
Fellow vertical target Duce Robinson caught just two of his five targets, but made them count, with a 32-yard grab late in the third quarter followed by a touchdown snag three plays later. Burner Zachariah Branch struggled mightily to start, muffing a punt and taking a poor route on a one-on-one ball that was intercepted, but made a couple big second-half plays in the flat and finished with 44 yards.
“We’ve made strides in being mature, becoming more football smart,” Lane said postgame. “Knowing where to be, when, why we’re in these spots.”
And USC, now, may have found it top target in a crowded room, their next Megatron finding his breakout moment when his program desperately needed it.
Originally Published:
In a bit of a surprise, Wisconsin Badgers starting center Jake Renfro is using a medical hardship year and entering the transfer portal for his final season of eligibility.
Renfro, a sixth-year senior in 2024, battled numerous injuries this season, limiting him to only four games after having season-ending surgery. He was a full-time starter for Wisconsin in 2024 after missing the entire 2023 season except for the team’s bowl game due to injury.
Prior to his time at Wisconsin, Renfro had played for head coach Luke Fickell at Cincinnati for three seasons. He played in seven games as a freshman in 2020, making six starts at center. He then was the full-time starter as a sophomore in 2021, earning All-AAC honors before missing the entire 2022 season due to injury.
Now, he’s set to come back to college football for a seventh year, rather than turn pro, and will look to do so at another school.
“I want to thank Coach Fickell, the entire coaching and training staff, my teammates, and the University of Wisconsin for everything over the past three seasons,” Renfro wrote. “I am grateful for the support, development, friendships, and memories I have made during my time in Madison. After much prayer and consideration, I have decided to enter the transfer portal and use a medical hardship year to continue my college football journey. I will always appreciate my time as a Badger.”
Renfro was one of the biggest supporters of Fickell publicly, being a vocal leader on the team as the starting center.
With his departure, Wisconsin could need a new starting left tackle, left guard, and center next season, depending on whether Joe Brunner heads to the NFL or returns for another season.
Wisconsin volleyball coach Kelly Sheffield discusses tournament win
Wisconsin volleyball coach Kelly Sheffield commented on the Badgers’ ‘huge’ win over North Carolina in the second round of the NCAA tournament.
MADISON — It did not take long for Alicia Andrew to text her younger sister after watching the NCAA volleyball selection show with her Wisconsin teammates in a lounge area in the south end zone of Camp Randall Stadium.
“I was like, ‘Girl!’” Andrew said. “She’s like, ‘I know! I’ll see you in Texas! And I was like, ‘I’m so excited!’”
Andrew will not see her younger sister in the Gregory Gym stands like any other family members, but rather on the court as an opposing player in the Badgers’ NCAA tournament regional semifinal match against Stanford.
Alicia Andrew is a 6-foot-3 redshirt senior middle blocker for Wisconsin. Lizzy Andrew is a 6-foot-5 sophomore middle blocker for Stanford. The sisters will play against each other for the first time with a spot in the NCAA regional finals on the line.
“Certainly when you’re having two high-level Division I starters on teams that are top five, top 10 in the country playing the same position, that’s pretty unique,” Wisconsin coach Kelly Sheffield said. “They’re both talented and competitive. But I also know that the players aren’t going to make it about themselves or the person that’s on the other side of the net. They’re parts of teams that are trying to move on and move forward and play great volley.”
Alicia has naturally fielded questions about the sibling rivalry, but she is “not reading too much into rivalry stuff and just playing this sport.”
“It’s another game,” she said after a recent UW practice. “Yes, it’s her across the net. But it’s a business. We both want to move on to the next round.”
Both players have played key parts in their respective teams’ path to this stage.
Alicia, after transferring from Baylor, is the only UW player to appear in all 98 sets this season and one of five to appear in all 30 matches. She is second on the team with 111 blocks, barely trailing fellow middle blocker Carter Booth’s 119.
“Really wants to be good for the people around her,” Sheffield said of Alicia. “Wants to do her job. Takes pride in her job. There’s a maturity, but yet there’s a playfulness that is a really good balance for her. Love coaching her. She’s wired the right way. She really is.”
Lizzy, meanwhile, ranks seventh in the country with a .441 hitting percentage in 2025 after earning a spot on the all-ACC freshman team in 2024. She also has experience playing with the U.S. U21 national team.
“I’m so proud of how hard she worked and her journey to Stanford,” Alicia said. “She puts in so much work, and she just loves the sport of volleyball. And I have loved watching her grow. It’s been fun to see her get better and better every year. And this past season, she’s been playing lights out.”
That pride has turned Alicia into a frequent viewer of ACC volleyball, of course whenever it has not conflicted with the Badgers’ own matches.
“We try to watch as many of each other’s games as we can, and I always just love watching her play,” she said. “I’m so proud of her. She’s just worked her tail off at Stanford, so to see her excel has been so fun.”
The Andrew sisters — Alicia, Lizzy and Natalie, who is on the rowing team at the U.S. Naval Academy — competed together in high school. (They also have a younger brother, William.) Competing against each other is a new concept for them, though.
“We’re not huge trash talkers, neither one of us,” Alicia said. “So I think that she’s going to play her game. I’m going to play my game. We’re going to have our heads down. There might be some looking across and smiling because we make the exact same expressions and quirky faces and reactions.”
The sisters don’t look the same – Lizzy has blonde hair and Alicia has brown hair. But Alicia quickly sees the resemblance with those on-court mannerisms.
“If there’s a silly play or if there is like a really unexpected dump or something, she’ll turn around and make the exact same face that I will,” Alicia said. “And it’s funny watching her on TV because I’m like, ‘Wow, that looks scary familiar.’”
They have some similarities off the court, too.
“We’re just goobers,” Alicia said. “We just like to have a good time together. Obviously she’s my little sister, but we have always been a close family — like all the siblings — so I feel like we’ve done all the things together growing up in all the sports.”
The Andrew parents are perhaps the biggest winners of the NCAA tournament bracket.
“My parents were super excited,” Alicia said. “They don’t have to split the travel plan, so they can save some frequent flyer miles there and both be in Texas. … They’re always trying to coordinate all the schedules.”
The Andrew family made T-shirts for the unique sisterly matchup. (Alicia thinks she is getting one considering they asked her and Lizzy for their shirt sizes in the family group chat.) The shirts are black, too, so there is no favoritism between Wisconsin and Stanford’s variations of cardinal red.
“They have a Stanford ‘S’ and a tree on it and then a Wisconsin ‘W’ and a little Badger on it, too,” Andrew said. “They’re really excited about these shirts. They’re being non-biased; they’re repping both daughters.”
RICHMOND TOWNSHIP, Wis. (FOX 9) – A crash in western Wisconsin killed an 8-year-old boy and seriously injured a 27-year-old Wednesday morning.
Fatal crash in Richmond Township, Wisconsin
What we know:
According to St. Croix County, just before 10 a.m., deputies responded to a crash on the 1500 block of County Road A.
Authorities say that a 27-year-old woman was driving a van southbound, and lost control on an icy curve and collided with another vehicle.
The woman suffered serious injuries from the crash and was taken to the hospital to be treated, law enforcement said. The boy was critically injured, and was also taken to the hospital, where he later died.
Both were wearing seat belts during the crash.
The driver of the other vehicle was treated for minor injuries at the scene and was released.
This is the 10th traffic fatality in St. Croix County.
What we don’t know:
The current condition of the woman is unknown.
The Source: A press release from St. Croix County Sheriff’s Office.
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