Wisconsin

Wisconsin All-American cornerback Ricardo Hallman on waiting for the NFL, shoulder surgery and tough schedule

Published

1 year ago

July 31, 2024

Wisconsin All-American cornerback Ricardo Hallman on waiting for the NFL, shoulder surgery and tough schedule

MADISON − University of Wisconsin cornerback Ricardo Hallman often revisits his disheartening performance against Michigan State in October 2022.

Hallman, then a redshirt freshman, was benched as future Green Bay Packers receiver Jayden Reed lit him and the Badgers up for 117 yards and a touchdown on nine catches in a Spartans double-overtime victory.

The 2023 third-team All-American calls the experience “beneficial.”

“I was timid,” he said. “I was scared of the moment. I was in position to make plays several times, but I didn’t go for the ball. I was comfortable just trying to knock it out instead of trying to go get it.

“As you could see last year, I was a little more aggressive at the point of attack in trying to go get the ball.”

“A little more” aggression from Hallman resulted in seven interceptions, tied with Notre Dame’s Xavier Watts for the most in the country. He also finished second among the Badgers with five pass deflections, trailing Hunter Wohler’s six.

Shoulder injury may have kept Ricardo Hallman in Madison

More impressively, he did it all with a bum left shoulder.

“I remember hurting it initially sophomore year during spring,” he said. “That Indiana game, that was the worst pain I felt in it for a while.”

In Wisconsin’s Nov. 4 loss to Indiana, Hallman aggravated his nagging shoulder injury after making a tackle in the first quarter and colliding with teammate Jordan Turner before halftime.

The Florida native had surgery on his shoulder during the offseason. The injury was one of many reasons Hallman joined Wohler in returning to Madison instead of entering the NFL draft.

“Me and Hunter had a couple conversations about it,” Hallman said about turning pro. “He told me before I told him that he was coming back.

“Me and Hunter both haven’t been as successful as we wanted … I think my best season here was my freshman year. They were 9-4 and I didn’t play at all. So yeah, getting this team back on the right track and getting Wisconsin to the status it rightfully deserves is the most important goal. It’s one of the things I had in mind coming back.

“I wanted to give it one more shot. I knew we had the talent, we had the roster to do it.”

Ricardo Hallman knows what he need to improve to interest the NFL

Hallman also wanted the extra year to improve. Although he never declared for the draft, he received evaluations from NFL scouts.

As the Badgers head 70 miles southwest to Platteville this week for an intense, two-week training camp, Hallman can use that time to work on the holes in his game.

“A lot of (the evaluations) came back with being more aggressive in the run game and tackling,” he said. “I know that was something I struggled with last year and it’s no excuse for that. I know I should’ve been better. Especially as an undersized corner, knowing I have to be more aggressive and be better in tackling situations.”

Wisconsin defensive coordinator Mike Tressel is confident his star corner will add more to his game. He wants the defense to look to its leaders − Hallman, Wohler and linebacker Jake Chaney − for inspiration.

“Ricardo is, without question, a phenomenal leader,” Tressel said. “He’s constantly working. Even when it’s times with no coaches around. You might, on a Saturday, one of your few weekends off, roll through and walk by the indoor and he’s out there doing drills by himself or running drills with the defensive backs.

“It’s big time when your best players are the leaders. We can show stats saying, ‘Hey, he led the NCAA in picks last year, and look what he’s doing. Maybe there’s a correlation.’ You have some testimony there for the other guys.”

Ricardo Hallman, Badgers will be challenged by difficult schedule

Wisconsin will have to adopt Hallman’s work ethic to find success against its stacked schedule. After a couple of tune-up games against Western Michigan and South Dakota, the new-look Alabama Crimson Tide, led by head coach Kalen DeBoer, rolls into Madison on Sept. 14.

The following week, the Badgers travel to Los Angeles to take on USC, one of the new West Coast additions to the Big Ten. They’ll also have to play Penn State and Oregon this season.

“I think it’s really cool,” Hallman said of the rough schedule. “That’s the type of competition you want, bringing guys in like Oregon and USC, the powerhouses that were in the Pac-12. And then just the schedule that we’re playing in general, adding guys like ‘Bama and Penn State, all those teams.

“It’s going to challenge us to up the level at which we play at. It’s going to be a really good opportunity for us to get better and judge ourselves against the people that are highly respected in college football.”

With some added familiarity under Luke Fickell’s second year, Hallman and the Badgers are better prepared for the trials ahead.

“The first year with a new coaching staff is hard to get everybody acclimated,” he said. “You’ve got some guys who aren’t all the way in, all the way invested. But I think now with the team we all have the same goal … We’re just more focused as a team this year.

“I think we’re going to shock a lot of people.”

Source link

Click to comment

Wisconsin

Wisconsin loses starting offensive lineman to the transfer portal

Published

4 hours ago

December 11, 2025

Press Room

Wisconsin loses starting offensive lineman to the transfer portal

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.

Source link

Wisconsin

Wisconsin’s match vs Stanford puts Alicia Andrew across net from sister

Published

17 hours ago

December 11, 2025

Press Room

Wisconsin’s match vs Stanford puts Alicia Andrew across net from sister

Sisters Alicia and Lizzy Andrew will face each other in the NCAA volleyball tournament regional semifinals.
Alicia is a redshirt senior middle blocker for Wisconsin, while Lizzy is a sophomore middle blocker for Stanford.
Alicia and Lizzy Andrew have similarities on and off the court as they each contribute to college volleyball powerhouses.

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.”

Source link

Wisconsin

8-year-old dies in hospital after icy Wisconsin crash

Published

1 day ago

December 10, 2025

Press Room

8-year-old dies in hospital after icy Wisconsin crash

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.

Road incidentsWisconsin

Source link